Elk and Bison, Up Close and Personal

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River

2019-09-04 Wednesday

Another long day in Yellowstone National Park, and we have done a LOT of driving in that Jeep!  We got another very late start, plus we had a lot of errands to do in West Yellowstone—upload yesterday’s blog (with photos), call a pharmacy in Bozeman so we could get some prescriptions refilled on Saturday when we are there, make some other phone calls, post office, gas station, Ranger Station to pick up some maps, and go to a sandwich shop to get some sandwiches to go for our lunch. 

The first stop was the Ranger Station, right between us and the town. Of course, we arrived at 12:08, and they closed at noon for lunch! So we went to our WiFi hot spot in the middle of town, and did the phone calls and uploading. Then we went to get sandwiches for lunch. We got some for dinner, too, because I suspected we would not be back for dinner, and yesterday we didn’t have sufficient real food with us, only snack stuff. When we walked out with the sandwiches, Joey pointed out it was lunch time, so we sat at a picnic table outside the shop and ate our lunches! Then we went to the post office, and I saw a rack with cards and realized I had a few birthdays coming up and wanted to send cards. So I bought those, and some more stamps. At that point, Joey pointed out it was after 1:00, and the Ranger Station would be open. On the way back there, we stopped for gas for the Jeep, and then went for the maps.

I got very lucky with the maps—the young woman behind the desk was delightful and very helpful. I explained I wanted the “big white maps” which are called Motor Vehicle Use Maps, for National Forests, and which show dispersed camping sites inside the forests. The last time we stopped, the ranger explained that each station only has maps for their own region. That means we need to stop at every ranger station we see, in order to get as many maps as possible! This stop produced four or five, because she had several from other regions she could give me. Also she gave me good Montana and Idaho maps, and we discussed routes for Joey and I to take in the next few weeks. So it wasn’t a super-fast stop, but it was very fruitful. And THEN, we were ready to go back into the park.

My Favorite View—the Madison River

The ride from the park’s West Entrance runs along the Madison River, and is just gorgeous. I was still trying to get the definitive perfect photo, so Joey kept stopping at every turnout saying “This one? This one?” Suddenly we saw a bunch of people pulled over on the side of the road, and I looked into the meadow and saw a herd of elk, with a big daddy elk with HUGE antlers presiding over them. He was really something! I jumped out of the car, while Joey found someplace to pull over safely. Unfortunately, though, i wasn’t too thrilled with my photos... Big Daddy Elk was too far away. I did watch him, though— he went into the trees as soon as I got my camera out, but it was only for a minute— he was herding two of his ladies out of the woods and over to join the rest of the group. He did the same thing with another one a few minutes later, and then they all moved further away. It was clear he was in charge!

Just before we got back on the road after that, a Park Ranger car with sirens wailing tore past us, and we figured THAT didn’t sound good. Sure enough, about 20 or so minutes later, we encountered a dead stop on the highway. At first we thought it could be an animal, but it became clear that nothing short of mating grizzly bears could bring the traffic to not move at all. Then I remembered the ranger with the siren. We waited for about 15 or more minutes, and then I got out to reconnoiter. I heard another driver say that there had been an accident and they had to bring in a helicopter to carry someone out. It was very hot in the direct sun, and while we waited, Joey got out and put the roof back on the Jeep so he could run the AC. Just after that, we saw a helicopter take off over the trees, and then the traffic started coming from the other direction. The entire thing was about a 30 minute delay, I think, and when we passed the ranger directing traffic, it seemed that the accident happened on a side road just off the main road which we were on. 

Somewhat sobered, we continued to Canyon Junction, and found our way to the side road which runs along the north side of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. There were several scenic stops along the route, where you could park and get out and take a short trail to the rim. Unfortunately, Joey started feeling a bit sick from the altitude, and didn’t want to walk much. I couldn’t help taking photos, though— the river and canyon there are incredible.

Yellowstone Falls (background) 

By the time we got done there, we were back at Canyon again, and I left Joe in a shady spot in the parking lot while I ran into the General Store for a couple of things. I’m afraid I spent too much time, just like yesterday, but he was happy for the break. He also discovered a few bars on his phone, so he was able to phone his doctor for some medication for the elevation sickness—something he remembered having last year as well. So that prescription was added to the list for Bozeman.

When we left home this morning, I had had the bright idea that we should drive to the Lamar Valley to try to see wildlife. I totally forgot that the drive from Canyon to Lamar goes over a very high pass, and the road is VERY scary— lots of curves along the outside of the mountain, and about 25 miles per hour most of the way. I was driving, so Joey got the view of the incredible mountains, but if he’d been driving, I would have kept my eyes closed anyway! We came over this route in Mo back in 2007, and I remember being pretty scared then too, except then we were on the inside next to the mountain at least! (I should add that on the way out of the Canyon Junction, across the intersection from us, we saw a wrecker with a damaged car on its flat-bed— I think it must have been the car from the crash earlier in the afternoon! I sure hope the driver and passengers were not hurt too badly.)

By the time we got to Tower, where we would have to turn toward the Lamar Valley, we were worried about getting home on that road in the dark. So we decided against Lamar, and continued on the main Loop Road west again toward Mammoth Junction. Almost immediately, we were rewarded by a small herd of bison grazing right beside our road. So we got our wildlife after all! The road also was much easier to negotiate than the road from Canyon to Tower, and a lot less scary to drive.

The best was when we arrived in Mammoth— I had remembered from 2007 that there is a herd of elk which frequent the center “town” there— there are lots of lodgings for the park personnel, and a large hotel, a gas station, a restaurant, etc., and the elk just make themselves at home on the central “village green” among the buildings. There are always rangers there to make sure visitors don’t get too close—of course many folks are standing out there taking photos, and we joined the line of cars going into the area so we could see them. I immediately saw a parking place and pulled in, just as the ranger in charge started suddenly shooing people away. It seems that this herd, too, was a lot of females and their calves, ruled by one Big Daddy with glorious antlers, and he had decided it was time for the stragglers to join the others. He was herding them right toward the tourists. When he had them collected to his satisfaction, he stopped in the middle of the road and let out a loud bugle— we’d never heard something like that! They are very beautiful animals (and we are now sure that the one which ran across our road last night was also an elk.) 

Elk Herd in the Dusk 

We continued to watch as Big Daddy herded his harem through the cars and people (who gave way as he approached) and right down the street between the houses. He bugled several times along the way—wow! When it seemed they were gone, we turned our car around—only to catch a glimpse of the male running fast a few blocks away (we didn’t see the females.). We did, however, notice three female elk who were on their own in a different corner of the center of town, and they didn’t go with the others.

Joey and I wanted to eat our dinner sandwiches before we did the last part of our drive home, so we parked again, and sat down at a picnic table. We noted that there were two elk down at the end of the area where the table was, and were keeping an eye on them, when suddenly, the third female appeared from between the parked cars, almost next to our table! She was not looking at us, but we still were a little freaked out, and as she walked toward the other two, we decided we’d better choose a table someplace else. We finished our sandwiches quickly, and as we got back in the car, we saw the three ladies grazing right outside the windows of the restaurant next door.

We headed south again, along the main loop, as the sky was getting darker. I was using my high beams most of the time, and driving as carefully as i could. I kept pulling out to let others pass me, too. Just south of Mammoth, we hit a section of road where there is road work going on— no center line, and orange cones lining the highway. The pavement was very smooth, though, so we went fairly fast despite the fact that it was now dark. Suddenly I saw ahead of me a few car headlights, where one car seemed to be on the shoulder and the others passing. I dimmed my headlights as I got close to them, but something didn’t seem quite right... and then suddenly I hit the brakes HARD. There was a bison standing EXACTLY in the middle of my lane!! I stopped not 20 feet from him!  I would have seen him a little sooner if I hadn’t dimmed my bright lights for the cars I thought were coming toward me— but they were not really moving—they were stopped in the road! 

I turned on my bright lights as soon as I stopped, and this ENORMOUS face was looking RIGHT at me, drooling a little bit. I was really freaked out, I mean, these animals are HUGE. I dimmed back to regular headlights again (but the car in the oncoming lane, which was not moving either, had its high beams shining right on the beast, so I could see him clearly), and after maybe a minute or two, he started walking toward me. Joey said, “Close the window!” As I did that, I suddenly realized that there was a second bison walking along the very edge of the other, oncoming lane. I could hear the people in the car across from me talking— we couldn’t move because the animals were in our way. Luckily, they are not confrontational— the one in my lane walked past right next to the car, and I looked out at him, noting the massive fur on his forelegs and head and shoulders, and his horns. I could have  reached out and petted him as he walked past, he was that close. I am just so lucky I stopped in time! He was invisible until I was close enough for my car lights to illuminate his legs, which was what I saw first. 

After the bison was behind me (and the other one, which I’d only glimpsed in the darkness, was invisible), we continued, but with a LOT more care, looking for wildlife. Between the elk and the bison tonight, we feel we got our money’s worth out of Yellowstone’s fauna. Today we saw two herds of elk, one herd of bison, and of course our own little bison close encounter. Joey reminded me of the antelope which almost hit us when he was driving a week or so ago—so now we’ve both had our near misses with huge animals on this trip. And that is plenty!

We made it home at about 9:30, to a delirious dog who was simply desperate to get out of the RV and do her business. Then she was all over us—she acted like she thought we’d abandoned her in the wilds of Montana. She is now sleeping next to my bed, which is usually only her spot when there’s a storm and she is anxious. I guess she is not taking any chances!

Tomorrow we are heading for Yellowstone Valley Lodge, where we are being treated by Betsy and Sean to a meal they promise will be extraordinary, and a night of luxury in a real room with a real shower! This will be a first for us on an RV trip, and we are really looking forward to it.

Real Tourists in Newport, OR

Day 15: Sept 10, 2011

Today we acted like real tourists, and it was a wonderful day! We woke up in our parking lot of an RV “park” at the Newport Marina. We couldn’t fault the location, only the ambience. But I did have a nice view of the Yaquina Bay Bridge from my bedroom window, and that got me up and out, because I wanted to take a photo with the fog still hiding part of the bridge. Luckily, it was all clearing off, and the day was bright, sunny, and warm but not too hot. The cold and foggy weather of yesterday afternoon had lifted, thank goodness!

When we left the Marina, we went over the bridge again, back to the center of Newport, to go to a kite store we’d passed the night before. Joe loves kites, and I love the bright whirligigs that look so nice in gardens. We spent about 20 or so minutes there, picking out a few things, and Joe bought a simple triangle-shaped box kite which came all ready to fly. Right away, we drove down to the historic Nye Beach section of Newport. There is a small city park there, and a Vietnam Memorial to peace, but what drew us was the wide, mostly deserted, beach. Almost the only things to see besides us was the Yaquina Lighthouse a little way up the beach, which was invisible in the fog last night, and some guys on the beach nearby, setting up what looked like a chuppah made from long natural branches. When we saw them make an aisle lined with rocks from the beach, and set up a few plastic chairs, we were sure it was going to be a wedding.

But we didn’t spend much time watching them, because Joe went right to work putting the kite together. Then we had a great time on the beach, flying the kite and just feeling that great beachy breeze. On our way out, passing the aisle of rocks, I said to one of the men there, “It looks like you are having wedding!” and he said I was right. So I added, “That looks like a chuppah”, and he said, “That’s exactly what it is.” Then he added that they were having “a combination of a lot of different cultures” represented in their wedding ceremony; so I don’t even know if anyone involved is actually Jewish--a wedding in the middle of the day on Saturday already means it wasn’t exactly kosher . But it looked like it would be lovely, given the location.

After the beach, we drove Mo to the other side of Newport, to the historic bayfront area. We were dismayed at first because it was very crowded and parked up, and there were absolutely no places to park an RV--in fact we didn’t even see any parking lots per se, just a lot of street parking. But Joe said, “Let’s go around again”, so we repeated our loop, and we got SOOOO lucky--there was an empty space, and the car behind it was just getting out of HIS space, leaving a double curbside space. I jumped out and guided Joe to parallel park Mo’s 27 feet into the space just perfectly. Most amazing of all: there was a line of cars waiting behind us, and NO ONE HONKED! I don’t think I’ve heard a car honk in the entire time we’ve been in Oregon, come to think of it. People are a LOT more mellow here. I don’t think we’re in New Jersey anymore, Toto!

It was about 12:30 pm when we parked, and we moseyed along the wharf looking at everything. We were at the farthest end, next to the real fishing boats. We saw a lot of stacks of fishing traps and stuff like that. But it also turned out that the area was being used for a special “Wild Seafood Weekend”, with a tasting competition and tents set up selling various kinds of seafood. We did not pay $25 to partake in the tasting, but it was interesting. From there we kept moving along and got to the more touristy parts. First the boardwalk connecting the commercial area to the shops, which was lined with vendors--we got some thai basil almonds, and some pickled garlic cloves, and admired various other food and craft items.

Joe was hungry, so we stopped in the first seafood restaurant we came to. I had chowder in a sourdough bread bowl, and Joe had a cup of chowder and an oyster po’ boy sandwich. The food was really yummy, and most entertaining was the view right outside our window--the wharf with all the sea lions basking in the sun, barking at each other, and otherwise putting on a good show for the tourists. We were so happy to see them, especially since last night, we were SURE we heard sea lions, and walked way to the edge of the marina trying to find the source of the sound. We didn’t realize the barking was coming from across the bay. It turns out that besides the wharf, there is a rock just off the shore which is simply COVERED with sea lions. Anyway, we thought they were adorable and really enjoyed them.
After lunch, we continued our stroll like “real tourists”. I had my camera and sunglasses slung around my neck, and I am sure I looked the part. We found some little things to buy (mostly gifts), and treated ourselves to something in the candy store before finally heading back to Mo. It was so relaxing and distracting for me, I didn’t spend one second worrying about our timetable, or where we’d be sleeping tonight. It was really just what I needed. Lots of interesting little shops, and lots of peoplewatching.

We finally got back to Mo and started driving south at around 4pm. Joe almost immediately got too tired to drive--it seems that browsing in shops tires him out faster than almost anything else! So I took the wheel for the 40 or so miles we drove along Highway 101. That included a number of pullouts to stop and admire the view and take photos--after all, that’s why we came here! It’s too bad that my photos are not great--that is because it was late afternoon, and the glare from the sun in the west made it hard to get any fantastic shots. At our last stop, Joe looked down and pointed out two seals (or sea lions, maybe) swimming along near the beach. We saw lighthouses and gorgeous rocks and it was all like I expected it to be. Beautiful, and not really like east coast beaches at all. On the other hand, you don’t have to be insane to actually swim in east coast water--the water here is freezing.
Since Joe was so exhausted, and since we had no camping reservations, we decided to start looking for a campground. It being Saturday night, we were probably taking a risk, but it turned out fine. The first state park we came to was full, but we had a list of several US Forest Service campgrounds before we would quite reach Florence, which was my goal for the night. So we are now camped in Alden Campground, run by the USFS. It is woodsy and the sites are set up very well, so no one is next to us. A huge difference from the campground last night, for sure! (And half the price, too.) There aren’t any services like the state parks, but we don’t need much--we have our own electricity and bathroom. It’s not even 9:30 as I finish this, and Joe’s already sound asleep. I guess a guy can only take so much shopping!

It’s hard to believe, but today was the midway point of our vacation. It seems like we’ve been gone a very long time, and we still have two whole weeks to go! On the other hand, it is never as much fun driving east as it is driving west. At some point tomorrow, we will have to take a left turn and head home. But we’ll go south a little farther first, and stretch it out as long as we can.

Maps and Mileage

Day 12, Sept. 7, 2011

After a really good (long!) night’s sleep, Roxy and I started our day with a walk in the park along the Snake River. We saw some deer, and had a wonderful view of the state of Washington across the river, with houses perched up high on yellow hills overlooking the river and the park (and I presume, the city of Lewiston.) It was a very nice place to start the day.

Once we packed up, we stopped off at the Visitor’s Center and looked at their exhibits about the Lewish & Clark Corps of Discovery expedition. We watched a 30-minute movie which taught us a lot about the excursion, especially focusing on the trip through the Idaho Rocky Mountains, over the Lolo Pass which we’d taken yesterday. It took them months to get over the mountains, and they would have never managed without their Indian guides, Sacajewea from the Shoshoni tribe, and others later from the Nez Perce nation. It’s impossible to imagine how they made it through the snow. One thing the exhibit mentioned was that no matter how difficult the day had been or how tired they were, they wrote an entry in their journals, which were kept in a waterproof tin box. So I have no excuse not to write in MY “journal”, even though it sometimes feels like homework. I just know how much I enjoy rereading about our trips long after they are over.

We left the park at about 10:45 and immediately crossed the Snake River, heading west--which meant we drove into Washington and could officially add a sticker for the state. We followed the road about five miles along the river to the town of Asotin, a tiny little place which would not be worth mentioning except for one thing: we took the photo that starts this blog! We bought gas, then pulled off the main highway through town and poked through the back streets for about a mile, until all those zeroes came up on the odometer. How could we resist taking a photo of that? I think when we bought Mo, the odometer read something like 44,000, and I know it read 47,113 on Sept 1, 2007. It is amazing to think we have put that much mileage on.

After that we hit the road again, following it away from the river, switchbacking up the same yellow hills Roxy and I had seen on our walk. We drove through beautiful farmland (and a very small town or two).
Then we started switchbacking down again toward the Oregon border. I wish we had a dollar for every switchback we’ve taken on this trip! What I have figured out is, when you are climbing moutains via switchbacks, if you drive, fx, 100 miles, you actually have moved westward only about 50 of those miles! The rest of the time you are backtracking--no wonder it takes so long to get anyplace out here! We crossed into Oregon somewhere in the mountains, thus collecting our final sticker for the northwest corner of the United States.
The views were beautiful (and scary) until we came down near Enterprise, OR, which is on the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway Loop. Ironically, this doesn’t take you terribly near Hells Canyon. In fact, after studying the maps and talking to people for the past few days, it becomes apparent that to get to Hells Canyon is quite a feat, and basically a full day no matter which approach you take (there are only a couple of ways to get to the canyon, or even within sight of it, other than with jet boat excursions. Sadly, there were no excursions from Lewiston today, thwarting our plan for a boat ride this morning. As soon as Labor Day is over, options become limited.) After considering our options, it became obvious that we simply would not make it to the scenic overlook or road to the dam. The roads to the former are unimproved (read: unpaved) Forest Service roads, and the road to the dam requires a major detour which takes you there, but that’s the only place it DOES take you, requiring considerable back-tracking on the Idaho side.
So instead, we enjoyed our afternoon on the scenic byway loop. By the time we got to Enterprise, it was well past lunchtime. We stopped near the city park for lunch, then drove through the town. I took a photo of the historic city hall, but we were two days too early for the annual Hells Canyon Mule Days, which is this weekend.


From there we drove to the town of Joseph. The town is named for Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, who is famous for leading his people in their final years before they were forced to live on a reservation. The modern town of Joseph is a lovely little art community, with flowers and bronze statues on the corners, and funky stores and restaurants.

We stopped first at Mad Mary’s Soda Shop for ice cream and free wifi, and I uploaded yesterday’s blog. Then we walked around the town a little bit, looking in some of the shops and just enjoying the flowers and art. We picked up a few staples at the grocery store and then drove a few miles outside of town to Wallowa Lake State Park, which is where we are spending the night.

We walked down to the lake after we checked in, finding another group of deer grazing. So our day was bracketed by deer in state parks--but in two different states.
Tomorrow, we plan to head west toward the Oregon Coast.

Wild Kingdom

Day 9: Sept 4, 2011

Last night in the private campground, we made the most of the facilities. We charged every electronic device we have, as well as our giant auxiliary batteries. We enjoyed the very upscale shower facilities--the nicest I’ve seen in ANY campground EVER. And of course, I uploaded 3 blogs and a heck of a lot of photos. I didn’t get to sleep until 3 a.m. That was the downside, and I am incredibly tired tonight.

This morning we packed up, later than desired (as usual), and headed back into the park for one last day. My first priority was to find a campsite for tonight, otherwise I would have to call the private campground back and reserve our slot again. But I REALLY did not want to spend that much money, wifi or not! Luckily, however, as we came back into the park, we saw that all the campgrounds were open. We made a beeline for the Mammoth Campground in Mammoth Hot Springs, and snagged a fantastic site with an unbelievable view, for the ludicrously low price of $14 for the night. I said to Joe, I feel like I hit the jackpot this morning!

As soon as we had the campground issue settled, we headed into Mammoth Hot Springs to explore the Mammoth Terraces. These are geologic forms with springs much like the ones we’ve already seen, but they deposit a mineral called travertine in a unique terrace-like formation. We found them more interesting than we expected. We went on the lower walkway around the base of the huge structure first.

Then we drove up and around to the top, to see the upper level.

From Mammoth, we drove south toward the Norris Geyyser Basin. The road through this part of the park is pretty distinctive in many places. In 1988, there were huge fires in Yellowstone which destroyed many trees. The predominant tree in the park is the Lodgepole Pine. This tree has seed cones which stay sealed up for years in a waxy cover, until there is a forest fire. Then the heat causes the was to melt, cones to open and the seeds to drop into newly burnt area. The seeds have plenty of nutrients from the burnt trees, and of course all the sun in the world. So new Lodgepole Pines are born. All along the road, we saw tall white “poles” of the dead trees, with a thick new forest of green pines about 20 feet tall. They are all competing for sun and space, and eventually will be a mature forest. But right now, you would hardly be able to walk through them, they are so thick. It is so amazing how nature destroys one forest and reseeds another.
We stopped at a pullout for lunch before reaching Norris, with a view out our door of trees and a lake. I had the idea to take a walk down to the lake after we ate. But just as we finished, I realized that cars were pulling over maybe 50 feet further down the road ahead of us. It had all the hallmarks of an “animal jam”--cars stopped in both directions. So of course Joey and I got out of Mo and walked along the edge of the road to see what they were looking at. Suddenly I saw it--a bison was walking along the roadway, just inside the tree line, and was heading right toward us! We ran back to Mo and jumped in and latched the door, and only moments later this humungous animal walked right past our door, perhaps 10 feet away. He was totally oblivious to us, and kept going while I took a photo through our screen door.
We did take a walk down to the lake after that, but we were much more cautious, making sure we didn’t see anymore lone bison! The lake was beautiful and serene, and It would have been nice just to sit on a log and meditate for a while, but we felt like we should keep moving.
So we continued to the Norris Geyser Basin. Unfortunately, this was the one thing we saw or did at Yellowstone which turned out to be disappointing. I guess it’s partly because we’d seen all the other “hot spots”, and those geysers and pools were either more active or more beautiful. We went on a 1.5 mile walk around the “back basin”, and with the exception of Steamboat Geyser, none of the others did anything more than a slight bubbling here and there.

In addition, the wooden walkway was taken down so much of the trail was on uneven ground, and it was 90% in the hot sun. So we were sunburned, exhausted and disappointed when we finished--we could have used that hour to better use just chilling next to the lake, like I said!

From Norris, we cut across the center of the park’s figure-8 double loop, back to Canyon Junction. We decided to look at the Yellowstone Falls from the south rim views, which we skipped a couple of days ago. This was a great decision, because the one thing the Falls are NOT is “disappointing.” We first took the path down to the brink of the upper falls, and as soon as I caught a glimpse of the Yellowstone River roaring around the curves toward the drop, I started the “wow, wow, WOW!” thing all over again. It was simply spectacular--and that was the part BEFORE the water “fell” over the brink. You can stand right at the top there, and it is just mindboggling. So absolutely gorgeous.
Then we drove to Artist’s Point, and again the views were stunning. We were just sorry we’d skipped them two days earlier, because we’d have been there about mid-day. This time, in the late afternoon, the view was stunning but the camera simply couldn’t do it justice. The view of the canyon with the waterfall at the end is just completely amazing.
Cheered up by that, we decided to take a slight detour on the way back to Mammoth, and go back to the Lamar Valley to see if we could see any animals. It being 7pm by the time we got up to the turnoff to the valley, we were hopeful. What we had was another very intense encounter of the bison kind--we found people watching three separate herds (or maybe it was all one, all spread out). One group was right by the road, and just starting to cross, thus stopping traffic.
The second group was down in the valley crossing the river, and working its way up to the same point to cross the road.
And the third group was up on a hill nearby. As you can see from these few photos, they got VERY close to us.


We spent at least 30 minutes watching and listening to them. They were so cute--some rubbed their heads on the fenceposts nearby to scratch itches; I saw one mother nursing its baby after they crossed the road; the big bulls took turns standing in the road so no one could go past them. The best part is listening--they grunted and made these low mooing type noises that are very hard to describe, but are somehow so adorable. They are obviously talking to each other--all the single bison we’ve seen have never been talking or mooing. They are HUGE.
Then we drove back to Mammoth Campground. I drove the last part of the road when it got too dark for Joe to see well (see tomorrow’s blog) and it was dark by the time we got to the campsite. I was disappointed to have missed the sunset view from our site. But I did have one last treat: from our site, we could see the road leading up into the park, and the cars were all stopped. As I said, that means only one thing. It was virtually dark, but I could see large light animal shapes walking across the road in single file below us. I grabbed my binoculars and could see them clearly--they were elk, and were parading across the road and up into the brush nearby. They took their time, and there were a lot of them! I was amazed how clearly I could see them despite the darkness, but the car lights were shining on them so that’s probably why. It was a great end to the day’s wildlife encounters.

Water Water Everywhere

Day 8: Sept. 3, 2011

Today was all about water. We got a later start this morning, leaving Madison Campground after dumping and filling our water tanks. We headed south, planning to stop at all the places between Madison and Old Faithful which we'd had to pass up the night before.

Our first stop was the Firehole Canyon Drive, a one-way road along the canyon formed by the Firehole River. We spent most of the day by this river, which is warmed by the many hot springs which empty into it along its length. But at the north end, it forms a canyon and cascaded through below us.


We left the canyon drive and the road opened up again into that beautiful combination of blue blue water and green grasslands. There we found a mother elk and her calf resting along the river.
We took a short side road which led to a hot spring right at the edge of the river. Joe tested the water and said it was a nice temperature for a swim--not too cold. This was just the first of dozens of springs we saw today, spilling into the Firehole River and warming it up.
We continued down the road, and as we approached the Lower Geyser Basin, we saw the incredible, unworldly sight of steamy plumes rising into the blue sky.
We couldn't stop and explore them, however, because the parking lot was jammed! It was our first experience so far with lots of tourists, but I suppose only to be expected on Labor Day Weekend. We left the basin for later, and continued on to the next stop: Midway Basin. Again we had problems parking but we managed. We were determined not to miss Grand Prismatic, the largest of Yellowstone's thermal springs.

The pool is really too large to appreciate from ground level--I understand the thing to do is hike to the top of a nearby "hill". But of course we did not have time for that. So we did our best to appreciate the blue of the pool and the orange and yellow runoffs.
Nearby is the Excelsior Geyser, which is huge. It sends 4,000 gallons of boiling water cascading down into the river every minute! The vision of this runoff was incredible and I took a short movie as well as still shots of the steaming water rushing into the deep blue river.
I especially liked the patterns the water made as it ran out of the geyser--little terraces with bands of colors.
The view from Midway Basin is also wonderful, if you can tear your eyes away from the springs and geysers. If you look up, you can see the meadows which surround the hot springs, and the mountains in the distance. So beautiful!
When we left Midway, we were hungry, so we stopped in a pull-out along the river for lunch. This was our view out our door--dozens of hot springs steaming and spilling into the river.
After lunch we visited Biscuit Basin. What can I say--more delightful springs, these much smaller but very active. We saw several small springs which bubbled up and over, subsided and sank down into their "holes", and then bubbled up again--all within a 5-10 minute time span.
Finally we came to the Upper Geyser Basin, home of Old Faithful. The parking lot was mobbed when we arrived around 3:30, but we found Mo a place in the back of the Visitors Center area and trekked on over there. We picked up a guide to the basin, found out that Old Faithful was not due to erupt for another 80 minutes, and so we went to see the other geysers. The vista is completely other-worldly.
We saw lots of geysers, including Aurea, which erupted for us while we were still close to it.
Then it was time for Old Faithful itself--and we had a wonderful show. I had to take my iconic photo just like everyone else.
After the eruption, as we were walking to the Old Faithful Inn, we saw in the distance that Lion Geyser, which we'd seen a little while earlier, was erupting. Thanks to my zoom lens, I was able to capture a good shot.
We looked into the Old Faithful Inn to admire the architecture (and get ice cream!)
Finally we started back north again--we were hoping to get to our campsite tonight in Gardiner before dark, and it was already 6 pm. But of course we stopped along the way for Gibbon Falls
and for Roaring Mountain (there was no traffic, so Joe turned off Mo's engine and I could hear the mountain roar!)
and for a herd of elk on the lawn in the middle of Mammoth Hot Springs.
After that, we went as fast as we could for the last 6 miles to Gardiner. Despite the dusk, we could see that once again, the scenery was fantastic. We also passed a pair of mountain goats who were grazing right at the edge of the road--but not only was it too dark, my camera's batteries had run out. So with no more photos, we made it to the campground around 8:30, just as the last light was fading.