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.

Jeeping Through the Geothermal World

Firehole Falls

2019-09-04 Tuesday

We had a lovely start to our day with fresh biscuits and cream of wheat for dessert. Then we filled the rest of the morning with chores—I can never figure out WHAT takes so long with us in the morning. I walked Cassie, we collected our big list of things to take with us for a “day trip” in the Jeep (food to eat, long sleeves to add in the evening, and miscellaneous electronics such as chargers, iPad, camera, etc.) That and the usual morning get-up-and-go meant we left the campsite at about 11:30 or something like that.

Our first stop was in West Yellowstone, where we finally had bars on our phones. That allowed me to upload yesterday’s blog (I took a quick photo of Joe at the wheel of the Jeep sans roof to illustrate it), apply more sunscreen, and to make some phone calls. Then at last we headed back into the park, with the sun shining brightly and fluffy clouds in the sky.

Yesterday at Madison Junction we’d driven north, so today we drove south, into the midst of the most geothermal activity in Yellowstone. This route included several roads that do not allow RVs, and I kept saying, “THIS is why we brought the Jeep!!”  We drove along the Firehole River and saw the Firehole Falls and Firehole Cascades— it was just a beautiful road. We saw people swimming down in the river (it is allowed there in one place) and decided we would do that tomorrow, although I’m having my doubts now— I have other plans in the entire opposite direction. But anyway....

From there we continued to the Lower Geyser Basin, and walked the

trail there. That was something we’d done last year as well. After that, we were heading for lunch, but suddenly off to the side, we saw cars parked, and when we looked, there was a small herd of buffalo. The exciting part was, some of them were RUNNING to catch up to the others! Just there was a loop I hadn’t noticed on the map, so we pulled in and saw that in the center, just beyond the bison, was a geyser shaped exactly like an upside-down cone, and it was erupting! Sadly, we missed getting a better view than that, because of trees, and it didn’t erupt again (it had a 2-minute eruption, my guidebook said.) So we drove around that loop, which had some hot pools and small (quiet) geysers), and noticed the bison again as we left. Then, we pulled into a lovely picnic area (“No RVs Allowed”) and ate our picnic lunch at a table under the trees.

After lunch, we went a mile or so further, to Midway Geyser Basin, which was my “goal” for today— Midway is the site of Grand Prismatic Pool, which is one of my very favorite features in the park. The parking lot was so crowded that there were cars parked along the road in both directions at the turnoff, but we knew that it was a long path just to see the pools, so we waited in line for a space. That was a good choice, because we ended up very close to the river and beginning of the “hike” around the pools, and that part was 1/2 mile. 

This spot is just amazing to see, with the runoff from the pools above cascading rapidly (and steamily) into the river below. It would be delicious to be able to swim in that river, it must be WARM! I will try to upload some photos when I post this—I took most of my photos on my iPad today so that I could upload them more easily when we get our brief connectivity.) Anyway, I just love the sight of the blue river, the yellow/green grasses, and the bright orange thermophillic bacteria (Joe told me that!) which line the cascading, steaming water as it plunges down the slope into the river.

Then we joined the large number of people and climbed up to the top of the slope, where we looped around the one-way boardwalk to see Grand Prismatic an the other pools and geyser which are nearby (I left my guidebook in the car, so can’t remember the names of all the pools.) We were up there for at least an hour, between sitting to watch the pool, chatting with people (Joe was explaining what caused the colors along the pools), and staring in awe at Grand Prismatic. She is just lovely. I also took a couple of photos which are identical, I think, to photos I took years ago, one of which is currently framed and hanging in the RV. It is just THAT photogenic a spot, it’s hard to tear your eyes away.

We made a brief stop at another small turnout to get a photo of the river, but better than that was a single bison who decided to meander right through the parking lot as he headed for the water. There was no place to park, so we didn’t stay—I just jumped out of the Jeep and took a photo of the bison while Joe drove loops around the parking lot.

Overflow from Hot Pool cascading into River

By now it was getting a little late, and we had not packed enough cold drinks or water, I thought. So since the next stop along the route was the Upper Geyser Basin (better known as Old Faithful), we drove there and pulled in in front of the General Store. Joey stayed in the car while I went inside, bought some cold drinks and nosh, and brought it out to him. Then he fell asleep and I went back into the store and wasted a lot of time browsing for postcards and other small items. At about 6:00, we finally left, having not seen one single geyser, including Old Faithful. (This was no hardship, since we’d seen Old Faithful last year, and walked the fantastic Upper Geyser Loop in the past.) We could have done the geysers, but we were hoping to see some animals in the evening hours on our way home. Therefore, we decided to continue the long way around the lower loop of the park roads, so we could pass through Hayden Valley.

Grand Prismatic Spring

I’m still not sure we made the best decision, even in retrospect. By this time, it was getting cooler, and I put on my long sleeved shirt. A while later, Joe put on my sweatshirt (he’d insisted he didn’t need anything in the morning, so hadn’t brought his.) We stopped to switch so I could drive, and just then a large deer-like animal— we think it was a female elk—ran across the road in front of us. So that was exciting. The park is just HUGE, and we probably drove an hour just to get to Hayden Valley (we did get beautiful views of Yellowstone Lake as we headed around the southeast corner of the park.) It was getting quite dusky by the time we got to Hayden (the sun disappears at 8pm) but we did, eventually, see that telltale line of stopped cars. Sure enough, there was a herd of bison grazing right by the road, with lots of calves included. We lingered there for a bit, but then noticed that in the distance we could see rain clouds, and we did not have the Jeep’s roof panels with us. So we headed home—another hour’s drive in the dark. It was pretty cold without the roof, but we had the idea of turning on the car’s heater, and that kept us very comfortable for the rest of the drive. After seeing one herd of bison and the young female elk dashing in front of us, we got home a bit after 9:00. Dinner was soup, and I collapsed before writing the blog—Joe had to wake me up (the lights were all on) to get undressed and actually get into bed.

So now we’ve driven around the entire lower loop, some of it quite rapidly, and we have one day left. And we haven’t even enjoyed any of the rivers yet! We did notice the road to the upper falls trail is closed this year—luckily we saw it last year! So tomorrow we will go to the Yosemite Falls overlooks which were too crowded for us last year. It seems that something is always closed somewhere in this park!

Arrival at Yellowstone National Park

No Roof!

2019-09-02 Monday (Labor Day)

We left Jefferson Lake this morning promptly at 10:30, and headed north on US 20 toward West Yellowstone. My thinking was, I couldn’t really expect to get reservations in Yellowstone National Park (I’d done a lot of research a few months back, and with the Jeep, there were limited sites available that we would fit into). But I figured that a lot of folks would be checking out of their campsites on Labor Day morning, because of the end of the long holiday weekend. My destination was Baker’s Hole, a National Forest Service campground only 3 miles from the west entrance to Yellowstone; and the west entrance is the closest entrance in the park to the main two scenic  loops which make up the park’s interior (only 14 miles, if I remember correctly.) Last year, we were 3 miles outside the east entrance; but it took an hour just to get to the main loop. This should be much quicker.

Despite stopping on the road when we saw an RV dump sign (the Jefferson Lake campground had no dump) and handling that little chore, we arrived at Baker’s Hole Campground at 1:00 pm. I was right; there were plenty of empty campsites, and we were lucky enough to get a pull-through site, meaning that when we are ready to leave, we can just hook up the Jeep and drive out of the site. We get half off with our senior national park card, but we are paying $8 extra/night to have an electric hookup. But for a campsite in the pine woods, with no close-by neighbors (the sites are very spacious), and electricity, and only 3 miles from our daily goal, we are very pleased indeed.

After unhooking the Jeep and settling in, we had some lunch and gave Cassie a good long walk around the campground. Then, at about 3:00ish, we threw some drinks and snacks into the Jeep, along with “shower bags”, and we headed for Yellowstone. The shower bags were because YNP has public pay showers in a number of different locations, and we figured if we were in the right place at the right time, we’d take showers. Oh—and the BEST thing we did—my idea, was we took the roof off the Jeep! So as we drove into the park, the glorious air was all around us, and we could see the mountains by looking up, instead of having to peer sideways through the windows! 

It was loads of fun driving along the Madison River with the breeze blowing and the sun shining on the river running through meadows and pine woods. We felt on top of the world! We stopped at a cascading pool, Beryl Pool, Gibbon Falls, and then decided to walk on a path to some paint pots and geysers. While there, we heard someone talking about Steamboat Geyser, which was due to erupt any day now, about 400 feet into the air. She said it makes small eruptions every 12 minutes or so, but that everyone is waiting for the big one! Steamboat was only a few more miles down the road, and we did walk the path to get to it, but it was a little disappointing. It wasn’t being very eruptive, and the most interesting things were the people who were sitting in their camp chairs, just waiting for the big eruption. There were at least a dozen of these folks, taking up most of the viewing platform. But we got tired of waiting, and walked back to the car.

By this time, it was almost 7:00 pm, and we were getting hungry (pretzels and ritz crackers with cheese were no longer helping stave off the desire for a meal.) We gave up the idea of making it all the way around to Hayden Valley at dusk to see the animals (it would have been hours to get home if we did), and instead we just retraced our tracks. But we weren’t entirely disappointed in the animals— we passed a buffalo determinedly walking down the side of the road, and we saw a herd of elk in one of the meadows along the Madison River. We got back to the RV at 8pm, put the roof back onto the Jeep, and came in for some dinner.

A couple of fun tidbits: We met a couple at the first cascading pool we stopped at, and chatted for a few minutes. We then ran into them at 3 other stops along our route! Also, when we got to the Norris Geyser Basin (where Steamboat Geyser is), we had to wait for a parking space because a car was being loaded onto a flatbed truck to be towed away. Needless to say, this can cause a mess in the small parking lot areas in Yellowstone. We ended up taking the space after the car was out of it, and then the owner came up to us to say he’d lived in Flemington, NJ for a while! We exchanged a few comments and then went to see Steamboat. We stopped briefly to sit and rest during that walk, and were joined on the bench by a nice couple who, seeing Joe’s t-shirt, asked when he had been to the Galapagos? He hadn’t, of course, but this started a whole conversation about “doing it all while you still can,” to quote this other woman. They seemed very lovely, and later I said to Joey, maybe we should vacation with THEM for a while!  Finally, as we left Norris Basin, we ran into that first couple again, and they asked us where we were heading next. When we said the Olympic Peninsula, the young people near us said, “You’re heading for our back yard!” So Joey asked, “Can we give you a call? What’s for dinner?” We had fun shmoozing with all these people— not our usual style, really. Back in the Norris Geyser Basin parking lot, I noticed a number of cars completely covered with protective covers, and realized these must belong to the folks waiting for the big eruption! This was because signs at the gate said “Caution—Steam from Steamboat Geyser can contain chemicals which can damage your car’s paint.” I guess these people were just truly optimists, that the fallout from the geyser would get that far!

Tomorrow our plan is to head in the opposite direction, toward Old Faithful and all of the geothermal places where we couldn’t visit last year. We’ve already noted that there are far fewer people in the park than last August, when we could hardly move. I’m playing the license-plate game, too— I’m going to see if I can get all the states JUST in Yellowstone. So far, I think I have almost half of them! (Including Alaska—they are parked across from us!) 

One last note: there is no cell reception in our campsite, and none throughout Yellowstone. We are passing through West Yellowstone every day, and the phone is able to work better, so I will try to upload from there. But pictures are probably a lost cause for now!

Cranky Monday

Bison on the road to Fishing Bridge

Monday, Aug. 13, 2018

We had another quiet night at Three Mile Campground, with the sound of the river behind us during the night. And we even got going by 9:30, which counts as early for us these days. But after driving for an hour to the Fishing Bridge intersection, and another hour or more around the lower loop of Yellowstone’s Grand Loop, we realized we might not be able to accomplish our goal for the day, which was simple-- to visit the Midway Geyser Basin. On our previous visit, driving through the Firehole Canyon Drive was one of the highlights of our trip-- and we’d already seen yesterday that the route is now marked “No RVs.”  We had, however, managed to get into a crowded parking lot for the Midway Basin.

This morning, as with yesterday afternoon, the cars were in a line out to the main road, and parked on the shoulder of the road on both sides for about a quarter-mile in either direction. It was obvious that we would never get into the parking lot, and even if we did, we would not find a space to fit our RV. Unfortunately, our strength these days is not yet up to walking a half-mile or more just to the parking lot, plus a long loop through the basin. So we sadly drove past it.

We’d already passed Biscuit Basin (although in fairness, we MIGHT have had a chance to wedge ourselves in) and even Old Faithful and the lower geyser basin, in hopes of getting into Midway. Now we had to decide what to do-- backtrack and hope to get into those places, or move on elsewhere. We’d already driven more than 3 hours by that time, only to be turned back by the mobs. At that point, I was feeling decidedly “unwelcome” in the park-- between the lack of significant parking for RVs in the first place, and the numerous “No RV” signs on many of the sweetest one-way alternative routes, I kind of lost my patience and my fondness for Yellowstone. I expected crowds, but this was something almost upsetting, as well as inconvenient.

Firehole River

Given that it was lunch time, we found a pullout along the Firehole River and had something to eat. I felt a bit soothed by being right next to the river, and Cassie loved it. She sniffed not just the ground, but the air, pounced on bugs, and rolled in the grass. The river was very soothing also, and fish were jumping out of the water. It was delightful. The only downside was the traffic noise-- it was as if we were sitting beside a highway. The vehicles simply did not STOP, it was constant all during lunch. We decided that we’d just had enough, and, giving up the idea of any more sightseeing in the park, headed toward Madison Junction so we could leave via the West Gate. We’d never driven down that road, and at least it would be something new.

I have to say that it’s been 7 years since we last visited Yellowstone, and I’ve been hearing about the increasing crowds in the National Parks for a number of years. I anticipate that there will have to be more changes in crowd management in the future, and not all of them will be encouraging to visitors. We passed a bit of road work next to Fishing Bridge, and the access on the North Rim road was difficult because of road work (it looked like they were expanding the parking lot at Uncle Tom’s View, or whatever it’s called.) They also seem to be building new lakeside access to Yellowstone Lake on the road to the East Gate. But I will not be at all surprised if someday, instead of seeing “campground full” signs at the gates, the park will post “Park Full” signs, and stop admitting more cars after a certain point.

Cassie enjoying the river

Another difficulty is the fact that the park is really not even open for much of the year. The campgrounds, for example, with the exception of Mammoth, don’t open until May and June (at a staggered schedule). So even though we are more than willing to come at a different time of year,         our choices are limited. We came last time in early September... we will have to push it later next time. In addition, we’d already been talking about towing our Jeep behind us, and it’s obvious that this is now a necessity in YNP, if we expect to see all the attractions. Some of the best ones are no longer accessible to anyone in an RV (or, for that matter, in a tour bus--those too are prohibited from the same roads.) It’s already impossible to get a reserved campsite unless you plan pretty much a year in advance, so all in all, I predict it will be harder and harder to enjoy the park, and certainly harder to stay in it, in the coming years.

So that was my morose state of mind as we drove out of the park at around 2:00 pm. The road to the West Gate is really pretty, running right along the Madison River. We stopped once along the way when we saw a group of people standing and looking at something across the river. It turned out to be a very large bird-- someone said they thought it was a golden eagle. I left my good camera in the car when we got out, though, and missed getting its photo. Other than that, it was an uneventful trip out the gate and arrived at the little town of West Yellowstone, Montana.

Painted Fish

The main excuse for this town seems to be a location for RV parks, motels, and accompanying souvenir shops and the like for tourists heading for the park. In fact, if someone is staying outside the park, they’d be better off in this town than in Cody on the east side, or even in the NFS campground we were in, right outside the East Gate. The trip into the park is notably shorter from West Yellowstone. However, there were only a few attractions, and they did not attract us!

So we continued for about 15 more minutes, passing the Welcome to Idaho sign in the process, until we came to Henry Lake State Park, and that is where we are spending the night. The park is expensive by our current standards ($33.62 for the night, where our average nightly cost has been $17.58 for the 12 nights of our vacation thus far.) But we wanted access to the showers, the dumpsite, and the electric hookup. AND we are thrilled that we once again have good cell service and can reach the internet. Otherwise-- we would have boondocked again in the national forest which is right near by. Maybe tomorrow night we’ll do that again... I like paying nothing for a campsite in the forest!

Selfie of Debbie and Cassie, before I got cranky

Yellowstone National Park "Taster's Menu"

Sunday, Aug. 12, 2018

I described this morning’s dilemma at the end of yesterday’s blog-- I simply did NOT know what to do today! Plus I felt a little cranky/anxious, because I had no idea where we’d spend the night. I did not have any fantasies that we would find a campsite inside the park if we went there-- they sell out months in advance, and for the “walk in” sites, we are much too late risers to get there ahead of anyone else wanting one of the few that might be available. I browsed through one of the Cody visitor guides I’d picked up the day before, and found one or two things I hadn’t known about which sounded interesting. So going back to Cody was one possibility. Joey, however, voted for going into the park, so that is what we did.

At Yellowstone Lake

I did have the idea, however, that perhaps this campground was not sold out for tonight. So I walked Cassie around the loop (there are only 20 sites) to see. I was thrilled to find a choice of three or four sites which were not reserved for tonight (ours was, so we couldn’t keep this one.) I talked to the campground host, and he told me that one of the sites I thought was NOT empty, was going to BE empty, and it is one of the nicest, RIGHT on the river! So I paid in advance for the site, and at his suggestion, we left a lawn chair in the site to prove we’d really been there. Then I felt much more secure leaving for the day, knowing we had a place to come “home” to.

View at Rim of Upper Falls

Yellowstone! We’d been here 7 years ago in 2011, and thanks in no small part to my own blogging, we remember it in great detail. We were here in September then, and it was much less crowded than today, so it’s a good thing we didn’t feel any pressure to “do” all the major attractions-- some of them were literally impossible to drive into because the parking lots was so packed. A few other roads we passed had signs saying “No RVs or Buses.” Although I can guess why they have done this, I certainly do not remember these signs from 7 years ago! So we simply played it all by ear, and had a

lovely day.

The drive from the East Gate to the first “junction” of the park took a full hour-- We stopped when we got to Yellowstone Lake to admire it and take a couple of photos, and there was also some road work which forced us to drive slowly. But the scenery was beautiful and we were happy just to be there. We turned north at Fishing Bridge and drove toward Yellowstone Falls. But the tightly packed parking lot kept us from the view at Artist’s Point. We did stop, however, at the brink of the upper falls, and it was just as mesmerizing as ever. From there we skipped the drive along the North Rim of the “Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone"-- I can’t remember if it said No RVs or not, but we’d done it last time and have the osprey photos to prove it! When we got to Canyon Village, it was already about 2pm (we’d stopped for some lunch along the way.) (Here is the link to my 2011 blog, with photos of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, and the waterfall. )

This guy was so close, I could have put my Spartans cap on his head!

OH! I forgot the main thing that “delayed” us on that segment of road-- Bison!!! The first one was quite unexpected, we drove past a couple of stopped cars and suddenly were passing a lone bull, who was browsing on the edge of the road. We pulled over a little way up, and waited for him to mosey on right past us. Cassie was VERY interested! A few miles further down the road, we encountered another loner coming toward us. Traffic was stopped on both sides of the road, because he was in the middle. He ended up walked right between the front of our truck and the car ahead of us, and then next to us-- i could literally have reached out the window and touched him! He was NOT that interested in us, however, because he immediately found a tree right next to the road and started rubbing his head along it. He did look kind of shaggy, for sure! But he was just SO close, it was fantastic.

My window was OPEN when he went past!

Then a few more miles up, we pulled over to see some mud pots. On the other side of the road was part of the Hayden Valley, and there were quite a few bison down there. I took some good photos with my good camera (which has a great zoom), because they were grazing in an area with steam rising out of the ground around them. It seemed like such an iconic Bison photo! And then there turned out to be one curled up right near the boardwalk as we walked up to see the mudpots. There were a lot of people, but we felt very happy to be with bison and mudpots.

By 2:00 we figured we’d better just loop around the southern part of the Great Loop, because it would be hours before we’d be back to our campsite. This route took us past a lot of hot springs and geyser basins. We stopped at the Upper Geyser Basin and enjoyed walking that loop, which included bubbling mud, clear hot springs, and an erupting geyser. I was annoyed that several of my favorite roads said “No RVs.” We are certainly returning here as soon as we start towing a car behind us, which should be SOON. Obviously it would make this part 100 times easier to navigate and enjoy.

Ultimately, we just had to keep driving, because it got later and later. We stopped at a pull-out near Old Faithful to try to make use of the 3 bars of phone service which suddenly appeared, and the wifi which also was supposed to be there. But our phone calls would not go through, and my Facebook update didn’t upload. So we just kept going-- past Grant Village, past more geothermal features, along the western shore of Yellowstone Lake, and finally back toward the East Gate. By this time it was after 6:00. And then we came upon a crowd of cars parked along the road, and lots of people, and figured it was another animal jam. Sure enough, there was an elk grazing not far from the road. I pulled over (I was driving) and jumped out with my good camera, and zoomed in for some photos. This guy was BIG-- he had a rack of antlers which was quite astonishing-- 12 or 14 points, I’m not sure, but I counted at least 6 on one side. That took up another 10 minutes, and then we kept going. We did encounter some folks watching and photographing a mountain goat, too-- but I didn’t get out and Joey couldn’t get the camera fast enough before he (the goat)

disappeared behind some trees.

And so we drove for what seemed like a VERY long time, and finally got back to the East Gate, and to our campground 5 minutes later. Essentially, today we had a "taster's menu" of Yellowstone-- a little bit of everything, but not a full meal of anything! A little bit of river, a little bit of waterfalls, a little hot springs and mud pots and other "thermal activity," an erupting geyser, and of course, some excellent wildlife encounters with bison and even an elk. If you like to hike, and want to see everything, you really need an entire week here. I feel we had a superlative visit in 2011, so at least I don't think we actually MISSED anything, but we didn't really immerse ourselves in any one thing in particular either.

Elk

 

And now we are ensconced all cozy with the river RIGHT behind our bedroom. Tomorrow we will head back into the park again and try to see some of the geyser basins (hoping that they will be less crowded earlier in the day) and whatever else looks interesting to us, before heading out of the West Gate into Idaho. And then we’ll see what we’ll do next. I would like to have some wifi and/or a telephone connection, that’s for sure, but it will depend on where we spend the night, I guess. We’ve never been to West Yellowstone, either, so that may be interesting. It’s amazing how unscheduled this vacation is turning out to be!

Oh--one other cute thing we saw. We'd seen a lot of info (including a video in the Cody Museum) about not leaving food anywhere because of the bears. But they also mentioned how ravens are very good at finding food and stealing it, and that some even have learned to unzip zippers! Well, at one stop, we saw this sight-- some folks had some things on their car roof, and there was a visible chips-type plastic bag. And there were three ravens on top, cawing and making a very concerted effort to get through the netting and into the food! I took this photo before Joe chased them away! (They were annoyed, and cawed at him, "Didn't you read the instructions about not annoying the wildlife??)

Ravens on a car roof, scavenging for food

Big Sky and Big Box Stores

Day 10 Sept. 5, 2011

Today was a very strange day for our usual vacation. We woke up in a gorgeous campsite on the side of a mountain in Yellowstone National Park, overlooking the road entering the park and the mountains beyond. Our campsite was on the outermost “ring” of the campground, which meant there was nothing between us and our view. We ate breakfast at our picnic table, looking out at the gorgeous vista.

At last at around 10am, we finally realized we’d better hit the road. We reluctantly tidied up and left Yellowstone. Just as we passed the ranger booth at exit, we saw this last group of pronghorns, gathered to wish us a farewell.

The road from Gardiner MT up to I-90 at the town of Livingston was beautiful--a lot of fishing goes on up there, because the river runs along State Highway 89 through the valley. We did stop for gas at a General Store in a small town, and it was a true general store--they had everything from fishing tackle to groceries to the latest People Magazine. The cover struck me as completely incongruous in that setting.

Once we got to the interstate, however, the most important “errand” of our day began. We headed for Bozeman, 30-some miles west, and the Walmart Supercenter there. I didn’t mention, but Joe lost his eyeglasses back up on top of the world in the rocky glacier field on the Beartooth Highway. He discovered this when we were stopped for lunch in Cooke City, and although I suggested tongue-in-cheek that we go back and look for them, we both decided against that. Luckily he has prescription sunglasses, which he has been wearing all day anyway. He takes his glasses off entirely to read something like a book, but he can’t drive at night, or see too well inside buildings, without the other glasses. We couldn’t do a thing about it for the time we were in Yellowstone, so we just let it go until we left the park.

We had several ideas as to how to deal with the glasses. Idea One did not pan out, because when Joe called the Pearl Vision Center at home to ask them for his prescription, they refused to give it to him--they said it had been more than a year since he’d had an exam and they couldn’t tell him the Rx. This meant we couldn’t simply take the Rx to someplace for new glasses, he needed an exam first. Plan Two: Go to the Vision Center in Walmart and get an exam. Then if they couldn’t make the glasses right then, have the glasses made at another center in another Walmart farther down the road, and we’d stop and pick them up when we got there. Plan Two didn’t work, because there was no one at the Walmart Vision Center who could do the exam. But the girl who worked there gave us Plan Three: try the local Lenscrafters.

By this time it was around 12:30, and the earliest appointment they could give Joe was 3:30. He told them he wasn’t sure we’d still be in Bozeman by that time. But as it turned out, we were. Our day was a veritable tour of Bozeman’s big box stores. We had a big shopping list of items. Walmart came first--groceries, and a few other odds and ends. It took us about an hour in the store, and it was lunch time when we finished up. Mo was parked out in the lot between two other “vintage” RVs. This was the funniest part of the day--everywhere in Bozeman that we went, we saw what we consider “old” RVs, i.e. as old or older than Mo. We were parked next to a Winnebago almost our exact color and size, and nearby was a small trailer which was even older. All day as we drove around, we saw 1970s-1980s vintage RVs of every kind.

Anyway, after lunch, we went to Home Depot. We needed a new latch for one of our cabinets, something to fix the seal on our refrigerator, and a couple of other things, including propane, which we forgot to buy at Walmart. While Joe shopped in Home Depot, I swept out Mo and then took Roxy for a walk. That led to a surprise: the shopping center (with Home Depot on one side, and an REI and some other stores on the other) was surrounded by a sidewalk with flowers, shrubs, grass, and even some benches to sit on! Understand this looked like a 6-lane “highway” when we drove down the road, but with these sidewalks. So Roxy had a VERY nice walk, rather than the expected parking-lot walk.

By the time Joe came out, it was 3:00, exactly time to start looking for Lenscrafters. This led us to the Gallatin Valley Mall, probably the last place Joe would ever choose to spend even 2 minutes during a vacation. But no choice--we wanted him to be able to see again! He had his eyes examined, and then they made the glasses then and there (the lenses were even on sale, half-price with a purchase of frames, which of course he also needed .) While Joe got his eyes checked, I did a little bit of gift shopping. Then we both had a drink while we waited for the new glasses to be finished. At last, around 5pm, Joe could see, and we left the mall.

However this was not the end of it. We’d remembered our plan from a few nights ago to get rid of our old grill--it is broken. I’m not sure why we remembered, we were discussing our plan to buy one at Walmart, which of course we’d forgotten while there. But as we were driving past the Home Depot again, Joe looked over and saw something called Sporting Warehouse, and decided we should look there for an inexpensive grill. This store was literally right next to the REI. Apparently everyone in Bozeman (and the rest of Montana) is so into outdoor sports, hunting, fishing, hiking, and everything else imaginable, that two enormous big-box type sporting good stores can literally be built side by side and both stay in business! As you can see from this sign, to paraphrase Dorothy, we are not in New Jersey anymore. The sign was posted inside the door of the Sporting Warehouse.

Alas, however, neither of these stores had an inexpensive grill--I didn’t want to pay almost $100, especially since we had spent a fortune already today. We certainly did our part for the Bozeman economy, which may be a good thing. We passed at least 3 pawn shops between the Home Depot and the mall!

At that point we jumped back on I-90, and I am actually typing this while we drive along. It is the most ironic thing that our day in Bozeman turned out to be shopping instead of some kind of outside sporty thing (not that we are such sporty people, of course--my original plan was to visit the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, on the Montana State University campus. But Joe would not have been able to see inside the building anyway until we got the glasses, and by then the day was over!) The interstate went through absolutely beautiful wheat fields and then rangeland, always with mountains in the background.


Bozeman, btw, is surrounded by mountains and that was amazing, driving down a road filled with stores like Home Depot and Walmart, but looking right at these huge mountains which seemed as if they were right at the end of the road (and in some cases, they are!)

So now we are about 30 minutes away from our campground in Missoula, MT. The only thing we forgot to do when we left Bozeman was stop at the Flying J and dump our waste tanks. This means we needed a place to dump them tonight/tomorrow, and our only good bet is a private campground. So too bad, because I’d hoped to stay at a Montana State Park tonight. OTOH, I’ll be able to upload this blog, and the one from yesterday.

Our plan tomorrow has us driving through Idaho on the Lolo Pass road, US 12, which is on a lot of “Most Beautiful Roads” list. We will most likely be in a National Forest Service campground someplace in eastern Oregon for the night, not too far from Hell’s Canyon National Recreation Area, which seems by the map to be pretty much inaccessible! So we are looking forward to a real adventure, and also to adding at least two more states to our map.

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.