Finally, Yellowstone

We have now been at Yellowstone Park for four whole days. What full, wonderful days they’ve been. Even the drive down through southern Montana and the western side of Yellowstone was like driving through a postcard. We spent one expensive day in a full-service campground (okay, parking lot) right in West Yellowstone (the town’s actual name) before finding a space in a delightful and inexpensive park called Baker’s Hole. The only amenities offered are electricity and outhouses. Never mind, we’re shaded by beautiful pines with nice neighbors and surrounded by squirrels and yellow bellied marmots constantly at play. I first took the marmots to be prairie dogs. They look nearly identical but with very different habits. See for yourself!

Cute little buggers, and all over the place.

I’ve wanted to see Yellowstone since I can remember. I was apprehensive that the reality wouldn’t match the anticipation. No more. This is better than Disneyworld. Strange things happening all around, a beautiful lake with steaming vents right on the shore, bubbling pots of mud, picturebook rivers full of fisherman and presumably trout, mountains on every side, every few minutes a new wonder.

 

After getting established at Baker’s Hole on Saturday morning, we headed right into the park. God bless that Senior Pass! Free, free, free. Not to mention cutting our camping fee from 20 dollars to 14 dollars a day! Almost worth getting old for. I’ll have to try that someday and see.  We immediately ran into a traffic jam. It took 45 minutes for the line to start moving. Later we heard it was due to bison on the road. A lot of bison. Never did see them, more’s the pity. There was a lot more to see, though. The first ten or so miles was the Madison River on the right and alternating forest and mountains on the left. Trout fishermen all over, probably twenty or thirty to the mile. Yellowstone is catch and release, so the trout must be the most sophisticated in the world. I still haven’t seen a fisherman with a fish on the line.

Of course, we had to see Old Faithful right away. We did get sidetracked into Fountain Paint Pot. Hot boiling springs with colorful minerals and algae, bubbling mud pots, desolate looking gypsum flats with steaming vents, bleached dead trees covering hundreds of yards in any direction. Still, there was that famous geyser pulling us away. Walk fast, marvel, take pictures and vow to return. We drove past a lot of other stuff we’ll have to check out later.

Bubbling mud pot.

Some places have a desolate sort of charm.

Steam, get used to it. Also the quaint perfume of sulphur.

 

On to the main event. Old Faithful does not disappoint. There’s a lodge, a hotel, visitor’s center and lots of natural features besides Old Faithful itself. We had time to walk the half mile or so around the other thermal features in the area. These things never seem to occur one at a time, but in clusters. Maybe I’m wrong, be sure I’ll be investigating that. It’s obvious when Old Faithful is about to erupt. People begin streaming from the hotel, visitor’s center, parking lot, picnic areas etc. and start jostling for a good spot on the laughably few benches near the geyser. Meanwhile, it teases us with false starts for several minutes. There’s no question when it begins for real. A powerful roar and hot water shoots 150 feet in the air for 3 or 4 minutes. That’s it, show’s over for another hour and a half or so.  Now the long drive  -back to our campsite. By the way, Yellowstone is big, 40 miles east to west, 60 miles north to south. The speed limit is anywhere from 25 to 45 mph, so getting home took well over an hour. Stopping to see the occasional elk or bison didn’t speed us up any.  We also hit West Thumb, on the south shore of Yellowstone lake, a spot of more hydrothermal activity including Fisherman’s Hole. That’s a hot vent right in the lake, handy for paddling right up and cooking your catch without even leaving the boat. No longer legal, of course.

The crowd gathers

Anticipation in the air,
I never got a still of the eruption but a damn fine movie.
I'll come back for stills, I promise.

I don't know if this is algae or minerals

One of the West Thumb pools.

Fisherman's Hole

Hot, clear water

Next day, we decided to take the northern loop and see Mammoth Hot Springs and come back by way of Norris Geyser Basin. A mere 80 miles or so at 45 mph max. This is mountain driving at its best. Nice wide roads – mostly – twisting up and down some gorgeous scenery.  The first stop was the travertine cliffs somewhere between Norris and Mammoth Hot Springs. You’ll have to get used to my saying “gorgeous”, “breathtaking”, “beautiful”, “stunning” and other such words. Trust me, they all apply. Mammoth Hot Springs was mostly just a visitor’s center and the usual hotels and campground. Somewhere after that we saw a road sign for Blacktail Plateau Drive that promised to take us to a scenic spot. Just 6 miles of narrow unimproved road, one way no less, 4 miles up and 2 miles down. The scenery was great though I was too busy negotiating the road and Liz too busy with the grab bar to get any pictures. Strange thing was, there was too much traffic to stop for photo-ops. You’d have horns honking in no time. Just after that came the petrified tree. So far as I know, the only one in Yellowstone. There had been three but souvenir collectors had chipped the other two down to nothing before the 1940’s. Hence the solid steel fence.

Yes, I think the sky is always that blue here.

Travertine Cliffs

Petrified Tree. 50 million years old. We saw one in India that was 20 million.

The Norris Geyser Basin contains, among many other spectacular thermal shows, the world’s highest geyser, the Steamboat, at over 300 feet. Forget scheduling a visit during an eruption. Its period varies between 4 days and 50 years.  Whattheheck, all the other stuff was very cool, especially the Minute Geyser, a sad story indeed. Before the 1920’s this reliable little geyser erupted about 15 feet just about every minute. Visitors would toss in coins and rocks for luck. Finally it got so plugged that now it’s just a hot spring, pushing out a steady flow of hot water about a foot high.

Steamboat Geyser

Minute Geyser, victim of tourists

Yesterday, we decided to take it easy. We replenished a propane cylinder and took in the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, a very narrowly focused zoo with only grizzlies, wolves and  bald and golden eagles on display. The reason for refilling propane is that our furnace actually comes on at night with nighttime temperatures dropping to the low 50’s. Great sleeping weather. Days are between 60’s and 80’s with quick rainstorms common in the afternoon. Eat your hearts out!

The raven is stealing an orange quarter.

One of the staff had this cute little Kestrel (sparrow hawk)

Here I thought I knew a lot about Yellowstone. It never dawned on me that it has the most magnificent canyon this side of the Grand Canyon. We had seen the north and south canyon loops on the map but had no idea what that signified. The Yellowstone river cuts one hell of a swath through 20 or so miles of mountain and it makes one magnificent sight. We took the whole day on the north road and will return later for a day on the southern one.



Even a pretty nifty waterfall

Osprey's nest. Look close, there seem to be two chicks in it.

Not quite on the Grand Canyon's scale, but 'twill suffice.