Here is a chronicle of our trip this past week to Yellowstone. It was a good vacation-- nice way to round out the summer.
Saturday 8-13: somewhat stressful flight out west due to weather in Chicago-- for a while it looked as though we wouldn't even be able to take off at all from Logan, but then at the last minute the captain yelled "We're going!" and we zoomed out to the runway and took off. We had lost an hour plus sitting on the tarmac in Boston, so our connection in Chicago was very tight (10 min run from gate to gate). Our one checked bag didn't make it with us, so we had to fill out the forms and head for the hotel without it. Long day; we collapsed in bed around 2:30am eastern time and slept.
Sunday 8-14: after breakfast we packed up the car and set out on our drive to Yellowstone. We did our best to extract guarantees from the airlines that they would deliver our bag to the next hotel we were staying at, but this proved to be difficult, since the only humans we could get on the line were from somewhere in India, and had no idea what we were talking about. The people from the hotel, however, told us that lost bags were delivered fairly routinely from Billings, so we decided to go ahead. Our long drive took us southwest from Billings towards Yellowstone, then up over the Beartooth Highway pass: a spectacular drive over an amazingly steep and windy road. Even more amazing were the cyclists who were biking the same road-- it was astonishing to see people laboring up these incredibly steep grades and shoulderless roads. The highway was also very heavily used by campers/RVs and by enormous burly-looking bikers on Harleys, so it was an interesting mix. We stopped for lunch in Cook City, then drove our way on through the park, past Mammoth, then out through Gardiner and up north to the Chico Hot Springs resort in Pray, Montana. Here's the road leading up to the pass:
The gang (minus yours truly), stopped for a breather next to our rental car:
Another picture on the way up:
This is a plateau on the top of the pass (10k+ feet). Lovely cool weather up there, with wonderful fresh air.
Throughout the entire drive we listened to Harry Potter (Book Seven, "The Deathly Hallows", which occupies a staggering 17 compact discs). It was entertaining; the kids were rapt, and I think the adults enjoyed it as well (although maybe some more than others). The guy reading did a nice job with all of the British accents, although his female voices were a little weird. His interpretation of Hermione's voice was especially annoying; she came across as sort of whining / simpering for some reason. Still, it was a fun way to make the driving interesting.
Chico turned out to be a cool little resort-- they had a lovely and large swimming pool fed by hot springs, a substantial horseback riding operation, various hiking trails, etc. We had a nice swim and then ate dinner at the restaurant, which was really very good: fantastic service and very tasty food. Ethan ordered the signature "house" dessert: an orange that had been hollowed out, lined with chocolate, filled with ice cream, topped with a poofy merengue "peak", frozen, then brought to the table, doused with 151 proof rum, and set on fire (heh). All in all, very appropriate for Montana (being a place where things seem to be alternately frozen and then baked/blasted).
Mon 8-15: I got up early-ish (7am?) and went up into the hills for a run. I followed a trail up to a trout pond a couple hundred feet up above the resort, then levelled off and ran along the hillside for a mile or so. Lovely vistas of the Yellowstone river valley. Also very nice views of a thunderstorm approaching from the southwest, but I was able to get back in time before it really started to rain hard. After that: a most excellent breakfast (the food in Chico is really hard to beat), then it was off our drive to Gardiner. Amy had arranged for a day of river rafting on the Yellowstone, which turned out to be a lot of fun. The weather was overcast but not raining, however since it wasn't blazing hot, the rafting guides advised us to wear wetsuits (the kind that cover your torso and legs, but not your arms). Here is a picture of the river, shot from the rafting headquarters in Gardiner. Lots of water in the Yellowstone, more than usual this time of year (this past winter saw huge amounts of snow in the mountains); the river was still a chalky green, not as clear as it normally is in August, to the dismay of the fishermen:
The rafting place:
A shot of the kids next to our raft (the pink one, which had the slightly peculiar name "Shred Betty" painted on the back):
Rafters underway. This was shot by a photographer hired by the rafting company:
The rafts were for 8 people plus a guide; our particular boat had just 6 people-- Jan from Bozeman and and her daughter Sarah (a college junior) and our family, plus guide Mark. We put in just above Gardiner, right at the park boundary. We had a nice ride-- 18 miles total, with a stop at around 12 miles for lunch. In spite of the not-yet-ideal fishing conditions we saw numerous fishing boats, most of them with a single guide in the middle (manning the oars) and two clients on the bow and stern casting for trout (dry flies). Here we are partway through the ride-- looks like everyone is having a good time (thisis another photo that was taken by the rafting crew):
We didn't see any fish, but we did see birds: several ospreys and even a bald eagle sitting on a big tree by the side of the river looking regal. The water was fun but not too scary -- plenty of bumps but no life-threatening situations, and nobody fell overboard. Our guide it turned out had a nursing degree, but did not appear to be in any particular hurry to actually start work as a nurse (would rather be rafting guide, or so it would seem).
After getting disentangled from the rafting trip, we hopped in our car and drove up into the park to Mammoth. The hot springs next to the complex there look like an enormous salt cake, looking rather out of place. We checked into the inn; they had us in a small detached guest cabin, very basic (just barely big enough for the two double beds and an air mattress). We unpacked, then went for a short walk up around the hot springs (almost entirely on a set of wooden boardwalks). Pictures:
At times it was hard to believe that the rock formations were in fact entirely natural-- some of them looked as if they had been sculpted/constructed by people:
The gang:
View of the Mammoth hotel and visitor center from up by the hot springs:
Ethan:
After that it was dinner at the hotel restaurant. At 7pm we checked in with our group-- two other families, each with two kids. Brad, our guide, gave us a timetable/outline for the week, along with lots of other scheduling info.
Tues 8-16-: Today was "geology day": we met up with Brad, hopped into the bus, and drove south to the Norris Geyser Basic, around an hour and a half from Mammoth. Our first view of wildlife-- a small herd of Elk on the road just south of Mammoth:
Here's a picture of our mini-bus. We spent a lot of time in this thing...
On the way to Norris Geyser Basin we stopped at Roaring Mountain, a huge complex of steam vents set into a hillside.
Brad had cleverly brought along a PH testing kit to test the hot springs water flowing down off the hill. The kit was an inspired decision-- we were all surprised at how much variation there was in the acidity of the water, and the kids were interested to learn about PH and to take measurements. The little trickle of a hot springs stream that we tested had a PH of about 1.5 (yikes! basically battery acid). Brad had to warn a bunch of the other tourists there not to stick their fingers into it.
The Norris Geyser basin is essentially a big loop trail that runs around a small flat valley riddled with steam vents, geysers, pools, hot springs, etc. Nearly the entire thing is up on a wooden boardwalk: the ground itself is very unstable and it's very easy to stick a foot through the crust and find your foot immersed in boiling water if you wander around on your own off the trail.
A hot spring pool:
One of the various geysers/vents:
In addition to handing out paper materials of various sorts, Brad also gave each kid a small digital camera with which to take photos. He told them that at the end of the tour, he would ask for their 50 best photos, and then give them a USB drive with the pictures. This was a cool setup; the kids had fun running around deciding what they wanted to photograph:
Another vent:
Amy:
This hot spring was kind of cool-- the idea was that a "dragon" lives just inside the cave, out of sight:
The thermal features all have interesting names: Pork Chop, Steam Boat, Vixen etc. There was even one called "Puff N Stuff" (which Lydia immediately re-labeled "Hufflepuff", as in the Hogwarts house from Harry Potter). Very hot + dry conditions-- we brought along a lot of water and drank quite a bit. In addition to the PH testing kit, Brad also had a laser thermometer that he let the kids use-- you point it at a pool or at the ground and it tells you the temp from a distance: cool.
One of the interesting things about the thermal features at Yellowstone is how changeable they are. Old Faithful aside (which has been doing the same thing for many decades), many of the other geysers and springs will come and go and/or change their characteristics at more or less any time. While we were at Norris, we walked past a very boring looking set of steam vents that had a huge set of wooden benches and terraces set up overlooking them. It turned out that up until a couple of years ago, the vents had been very active geysers, but then suddenly they changed from being exciting to dull virtually overnight.
After the walk we found a picnic area and had lunch, then drove back to a small building near Mammoth that Brad had repurposed as his "classroom". From around 2:30 - 4pm it was "lecture time"; the adults were all sort of groggy and sleepy, but the kids seemed to enjoy everything that Brad talked about. Brad and the kids had a big session with model animal skulls trying to identify creatures only by their head-bones while Amy and I tried to stay awake.
Wed 8-17: today was wildlife/critter day. Up early for breakfast, then it into the the minibus to head off for the northeastern portion of the park. We began stopping almost immediately to see if we could see various animals; we saw a brief climpse of something that looked like a coyote (never did manage to find it), then stopped again to inspect a pack of prong-horned antelope. Our path took us all of the way through the Lamar valley, which is a nice wide, green valley with a small but lively river running through it. Lots of bison-- they were all over the place.
This time of year the males and females are hanging around together, which was very convenient for wildlife viewing.
Close to the end of the valley we lucked out and came across a young grizzly bear foraging/grazing in the tall grass around 25-30 yards from the road-- made for a very nice scene.
More close encounters with bison, then around 10:30 we parked the bus and went for a short amble/walk (maybe 2/3 of a mile total) up to the start of the woods at the edge of the valley. Lots of interesting things to see: bones from previously killed antelope, elk, and bison; bits of hair, scratch marks, etc. We ended up at an old abandoned wolf den, which was interesting to look at. The ground of the valley (away from the river) was incredibly dry-- lots of cracks in the earth, sagebrush and other hearty weeds barely hanging on.
Photographing the wolf den:
A hawk overhead:
Lydia and one of the other girls:
Elk antlers:
Brad found a huge grasshopper-- I've never seen one so big. The spike on its rear end is apparently for burying eggs. Here is a photo by Ethan (his shot was much better than mine):
All the the animal-watching today brought back a lot of memories of our 2007 trip to Tanzania, since we're basically doing the same sort of thing here that we were doing there, e.g. being driven around by a guide trying to find interesting animals. On the other hand, there are a lot of striking differences between the two trips. Here in Yellowstone, for every minibus + professional guide, there are a couple hundred cars with tourists, many of whom have virtually no common sense when it comes to wildlife. We heard all sorts of hair-raising stories about people doing things like trying to put their kids up on the back of bison, or creeping up to "pat" the side of an elk, with predictable consequences. As a result of this, you get the sense talking with the pros that their job is to protect the animals from the people, as opposed to helping the people find the animals. Another place where things seemed very different was with animals bones and old carcasses. In Tanzania, even a really large carcass on the Serengeti would be totally gone within less than a week (the hyenas ate everything), whereas in Yellowstone you can see bones that have been lying around for a year or two at least.
After our walk, we got in the bus again and headed back to Mammoth. The kids had fun playing around together on the triangular section of lawn enclosed by the cabins-- they played frisbee and bunch of other games. Martin was the oldest (college age); he tended to stick with the adults. From there it was Ethan, then Sarah (7th grader), then three kids entering 5th grade (Lydia, Andrew, Allison). Picture of the kids playing around together on the lawn outside our cabin:
Later that evening, after a very early dinner/snack we once again got loaded up on the bus to do more wildlife watching; the theory here was that the animals are more active in the early morning and early evening. We drove down to the "Tower" ranger station; along the way we ran into a woman by the side of the road who said that she had seen a bear and some wolves competing for a bison carcass in another part of the park. We decided to go look; long drive down to the Hayden valley (which involved driving up and over Mt Washburn); by the time we got there, the light was already fading, so it was difficult to see what was going on. My patience was wearing a little thin at this point; I can't say that this was my favorite portion of the trip. It seemed as though we had been basically sitting on our rear ends all day, not enough active time (ditto for the previous day).
Brad eventually managed to locate the bear with a spotting scope (quite far away), but it was difficult in the twilight to see what was going on. We eventually packed up and drove back, rolling in a little before 11 (whew). We did have a couple of nice moments on the way back: very beautiful moonrise off to the northeast while driving back up over the mountains, then another short stop for stargazing around 10:30. It's a good place for stargazing.
Thu 8-17: I decided that my grumpiness the previous night was due partly to lack of exercise, so I decided to get up early and go for a run. Pried myself out of bed at 6:15, got on my shorts, and headed for a nearby loop trail that started near the lodge. I had to sort of edge my way around a herd of elk (munching on the lawn) blocking the trailhead, but then things cleared out and I had a nice run. I encountered a group of bird-watchers partway up who were looking at an owl (Great Gray, they thought); that was kind of cool. After a very steep climb the trail leveled off and I was able to speed up a little. Watched the sun rise over
Mount Everts. With the altitude about the best I could do was a run/walk/run, so not the fastest jog I've ever been on. The trail was a little more than 5 miles; it led up to a series of small ponds (kind of surprising to see them, given how dry everything else was). Made it back around 7:50, so I didn't have to miss breakfast.
Today was "canyons and waterfalls" day, which suited me fine, although before we got started we drove back to Hayden Valley to have one more look at the bison carcass in hope of seeing bears/wolves. We found the carcass, but no animals had shown up to pay attention to it yet. Here is Brad using the spotting scope to pick out the bison carcass (which at this point was actually partially submerged in the river):
The river itself:
We drove back to the riverside area and stopped for a bit there; Brad had brought along a box of "bear stuff", including a grizzly bear skin and a couple of skulls. It was interesting to see the differences between the grizzly and black bear skull features.
There are two big waterfalls on the Yellowstone river in this area; we first went to the upper falls-- very impressive. The river in that area is very twisty and turny, so although you can see the river itself, there's not that much else to look at. We had lunch, then it was off to the lower falls, which are even more amazing (about twice the height of Niagara falls, although obviously not as wide). The canyon beyond the falls is stunning -- it's really an amazing view. Very light yellow, chalky stone, extremely steep canyon sides. From the lookout point we had fun watching an osprey nest that was around 100 yards down the side of the canyon.
Here is an astonishing photo that Ethan managed to take by putting his camera up against the eye piece of Brad's spotting scope; these are the the two osprey "babies" (nearly as big as their parents) eating a fish that had been collected by mom:
After taking in the views, we did something a little different: we walked away from the main viewing area for a couple of hundred yards, found an overlook not far from where Thomas Moran did his famous paintaing, then settled down with pads of paper and pens / pencils / watercolors and spent an hour of so sketching the canyon and the river. It was really nice-- everyone had a slightly different take on the scene. I did black and white, but most of the others used colors. We have a new appreciation for how tricky it is to do watercolor landscapes :-).
Canyon and waterfall pictures; here is a shot of the upper falls:
We hiked over to an overlook that was perched right next to the upper falls. Immense volumes of water zooming through this narrow little passage:
The gang:
Shots of the lower falls, and environs:
I liked these shots that Ethan took:
Another canyon perspective:
The story of Thomas Moran is actually kind of neat; back when they were mounting their "expedition" to map out and explore Yellowstone ('explore' for the European-Americans, of course-- the native Americans had been there for centuries), the leaders recruited a photographer, but they didn't think to include a painter. Moran at the time was basically a nobody, with no track record to speak of with either big painting projects or wilderness hikes. He had to wheedle his way in to be included, and he had to line up his own sponsorship and funding. The end result was pretty amazing, though: his paintings were much better and more evocative than the photos.
Fri 8-19: This morning we went over to the ranger station at Mammoth for the kids to take the tests for their "Junior Ranger" badges. This is a program in which you get a sort of newpaper-like form with questions, activities, places to draw pictures, fill in puzzles, etc. Over the course of your stay at the park, you fill in all of the details, and after you have about 6 large pages completed, you can take your test for the badge. It's not a pushover-- you definitely need a couple of days to do it. Some of the questions the rangers asked were tricky: "How do you tell the difference between a black bear and a grizzly? How did Yellowstone get its name?". Here is Lydia being grilled by the ranger:
Reciting the Junior Ranger pledge:
Anyhow, all of candidates passed with flying colors. After that we collected our debris and went for a short hike up the hill (actually following the first 1/2 mile of the 5-mile loop trail that I ran the other day). We stopped at an old abandoned native American teepee-like structure that was off the trail a bit, then sat and showed our paintings to each other and talked about our experiences during the program (slightly mushy: "Yellowstone means a lot to me because ..."). Still, it seemed as though people meant the things they said, especially Brad, who is extraordinarily devoted to the park and what it represents.
On the way back we found yet another carcass, this one an elk cow, a little more recent (maybe 6 months old). It was interesting to look at the bones and try to figure out what had happened to her and how she had died.
Friday lunch was a big common deal in the dining room-- we had a good time and all ate too much. Group photo:
Then it was off to Old Faithful. We once again had the odd experience of Yellowstone trees, mountains, and volcano stuff outside the car windows, and wizards, wands, muggles, and magic on the inside of the car. We listened to the section in which Harry, Ron, and Hermione make their daring raid on the Ministry of Magic to try to steal one of the horcruxes. Along the way to Old Faithful we stopped at the "Artists Paint Pots", which was nice but very hot.
A shot of the four of us overlooking the paint pots:
The main mud pots were difficult to photograph, but made lovely noises ("bloop! gloop!").
The Old Faithful area is huge-- it's gone way beyond "compound" and into the realm of "complex": there is an enormous visitor center, the old Inn itself (which dates to the 19th century), then a whole assortment of other large outbuildings with hotels, restaurants, gift shops, etc. Tons of people wandering around-- felt like we were in a train station at times.
The Inn itself is sort of dark and cavelike, but it has wonderful and interesting woodwork: whoever constructed it picked out all sorts of interesting trees with oddly curved branches to make up the various features. Our rooms were spacious and clean, but with very dim lightning-- both the rooms and the hallways seemed strangely cave-like. My advice if you decide to stay there-- bring a flashlight. After checking in we went for a brief look-see at the visitors center, then went for a short hike in the area from around 4-5:30, starting at the local hot springs and smaller geysers, then winding up at a rock block overlooking the hotel, where we got a chance to watch old Faithful erupt.
The interior of the Inn:
The Old Faithful area is ridiculously crowded, but the good news is that all you need to do is walk a couple of hundred yards into the woods and you've lost nearly all the people -- everyone stays around the built up areas. Out for a walk in the Old Faithful area:
This is a series of shots that I took from a bluff overlooking Old Faithful. We decided to hike up to the top to get a better view of the eruption:
Dinner at the Inn restaurant, which is enormous. Food was ok, but nothing to write home about. We had a lazy evening, just being couch potatoes and reading.
Sat 8-20: up early for showers @ 6:20; the Inn setup (bathrooms on the hall) brough back memories of college dorms, etc. Quick breakfast, last peek at Old Faithful, then we packed up and hit the road. We drove only a short ways (3-4 miles) north, then stopped at "Biscuit Basin" for a short hike. We picked a trail that led up to a nice waterfall, then out onto a bluff with a nice overlook of the valley:
As with our experience looking at Roaring Mountain, the steam vents were much more visible in the morning, so it was kind of a cool view.
The area that we hiked in had a lot of dead trees left over from the
big fire in 1988 ; because the area is so dry, a lot of the dead trees just stand there for decades before they fall down and decompose:
During the steepest sections of the hike we had a little grumbling, but it went away after mom and dad administered a few doses of chocolate. We also had fun by inventing a game in which Lydia put a bunch of ice chips on my bald spot to see how long they would to melt (underneath my hat) while we hiked along.
From there, we drove north until just past Rustic Falls, where we stopped to let the kids have a scramble on the rocks (there is one section that has especially cool-looking rocks).
From there, it was an extended Harry Potter fest, all the way through Gardiner to Livingston. We had a late lunch at Montana's Rib and Chop House (surprisingly good, considering that it is a chain) and then on to Billings. At the hotel we had a long swim, followed by a trip out to do some shopping at Cabela's, and outdoor equipment type place. The shopping was a bit of a disappointment; while Cabela's is great for internet orders, we couldn't really find much of what we wanted in the actual "bricks and mortar" store. Dinner at an Asian restaurant in downtown Billings.
Flight back home was unventful, although I have to say that the Billings airport was way more crowded at 6am on a Sunday morning than I had ever imagined it would be.
