Yellowstone

We had a wonderful time over our six days in Yellowstone. We arrived on Saturday into Jackson Hole, and drove through the Grand Teton's to the Old Faithful Inn. The rain was lightly falling as we checked out the thermal features on Geyser Hill around Old Faithful. Sunday and Monday were rainy and cold; I wore two pairs of pants, five shirts, and a rain coat. On Sunday we drove around the lower loop of the Park, seeing the West Thumb Geyser Basin, the Mud Volcano, and the geyser basis at Norris. We defrosted and had lunch at the (Yellowstone) Lake Hotel. We rode the Yellow Sightseeing Bus on Monday morning, with only our guide, Betty. The other two couples who were supposed to be on the tour cancelled because of the bad weather. The bus tour focused on photography, and the cloudy, rainy weather was not going to let them take good pictures. We took pictures of a creek, a geyser, falls, and wildlife [see the pictures of the Firehole, the bison calf and the trumpeter swan]. On Monday afternoon, I took a ranger guided tour of the Black Sand Basin and then checked the Old Faithful visitor center bulletin board for predictions of geyser eruptions. It was 2:30 PM and the Daisy Geyser was predicted to erupt at 3:15 PM, plus or minus 1/2 hour, with a half hour walk. I walked as fast as I could to get there to meet the window. When I got there, the wipe board had been revised to an hour later. Bob joined me as I waited for Daisy, which then erupted exactly as predicted. We then went over to Riverside, which erupted before its window, and we nearly missed it as we thought we could squeeze in a visit to Morning Glory pool. These geysers were all at the end of the main path, so we started walking back towards the Inn and Old Faithful. We sat down at Grand Geyser watching a marmot, and the geyser just happened to go off. That was pure luck, because that geyser can only be predicted within a four hour window, and we just happened to be there when it went off. There are pictures of all three geyser eruptions, and the Morning Glory pool in the link.

Tuesday marked the second half of our trip, when we switched from the Old Faithful Inn to Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel. We drove around to the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone" and saw the sights of the South and North Rims. We have many pictures from places like "Grand View," "Artist's Point," Inspiration Point," "The Brink of the Lower Falls," and the "Brink of the Upper Falls." It was nearly 3 PM by the time we had lunch, and then starting driving up towards Mammoth. The whole wildlife watching experience is bizarre: people stake out for hours, with binoculars and long lens cameras, waiting for pictures. At an elk carcass we saw two wolves and a coyote. While at the elk, the park ranger who was there on traffic control told us that he had seen a bear earlier at the Petrified Tree. With all of the stops, it was 9:30 PM by the time we reached Mammoth. Wednesday was wildlife watching from 8 AM to 8 PM. We started going south from Mammoth towards Swan Lake, where there had been reports of a grizzly bear with four cubs. We made a small detour to take a ranger tour of the upper part of the Mammoth Hot Springs terrace. Then we stopped at the long line of parked cars - if there were a bear, we didn't see it. The next group of parked cars was more productive. We stood at the top of valley, in the two feet between the guard rail and the drop-off, and watched the bear with the four cubs. Four cubs is apparently very rare, according to the bear expert (no kidding - he had a book in the bookstore) that we were talking with and looking through his scope. The cubs were climbing up trees, playing in the water, and being in general cute. They finally moved out of view, and we started driving east towards, and past Tower. We spent a long time at Slough Creek, where I was bored out of my mind, but Bob was having a good time. There were bears up on the hill, really far away, and the groupies were parked out there just waiting for the bears to come down. Eventually we headed west, where we luckily saw a moose. After the wildfires in 1989, many of the moose [see picture] moved south towards the Grand Tetons, so there are not very many left in the park. On the way back I only let Bob stop when there were seven cars or more, and even with that rule we did not have dinner until 8:30 PM.

Thursday was the last day of our trip, and we went hiking from the Yellowstone Picnic Area trail. On the drive to the trail we got the best picture of a black bear, and while on the trail we took pictures of five mountain goats. After our lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, we saw a bighorn sheep that was resting right across from the picnic area. We headed back towards Mammoth, and spent the rest of the day there, checking out the hot spring terraces. Many people are disappointed with the terraces, because the main terrace has been dry since the late 1950's, and has lost its color. However, this is a natural thing to happen, and there are new areas that are now active.
Friday was a long day of travel, but it was all worth it because we got to see our son Ryan. Ryan had spent the week at Camp Grandma and Grandpa. Part of the time the twins were there too, causing mayhem. The best story my mom told was that the kids were upstairs playing, and the home phone kept ringing and stopping. My mom finally picked up the phone, only to have to apologize to the police because the kids kept speed dialing 911, and saying "bye" and hanging up. Many thanks to my wonderful parents for taking care of Ryan.

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