Leaving Yellowstone

Road elk

So it was with some measure of sadness that we left Yellowstone. One of its surprising features, to me, had been the variety of it all. Every area had a distinct and different look about it. The Lake Hotel was elegant. The small thermal basins of West Thumb and Mud Volcano were entirely different. The Canyon area had a very camper-like feel, despite the seventies chic design of the lodge and cabins. Mammoth and Old Faithful areas were tourist choked. Hayden Valley was full of buffalo. Roosevelt was very cowboy western, and rustic to a fault. Norris was a valley laid to waste whereas the Old Faithful geyser basins were flat plains. In the quiet morning, the entire landscape around Old Faithful smokes and steams. There were beautiful vistas driving along Blacktail Deer Plateau and around Mount Washburn. One was hemmed in by regrown pine across the Central Plateau. The landscape was all tumbled boulders around Golden Gate.

Our little cabin in the Tetons

But that was behind us now. It was time to enter a different park with its own, different look and feel.

We were headed to Signal Mountain in Grand Teton National Park.

On our way out of the park, an elk did her best to mimic a road buffalo. We had only seen a couple elk in Yellowstone, but would see more in the Tetons. They are more skittish than they were before wolves were reintroduced to the parks. Now that they are hunted, they run at the slightest disturbance.

Signal Mountain Marina

Mountains. A small set of mountains rising almost straight up, without benefit of foothills. When a child thinks of mountains, this is what they picture. Sudden peaks, without reason, a bit of snow on them even in the middle of a hot summer. Gorgeous.

Our little cabin was near the water, across from which loomed Mount Moran.

We opted for an evening float trip down the Snake River. It wasn't a well-received plan by all. My daughter had grown tired of looking at things, hearing about things, etc. She just wanted some quiet, family time. So we hemmed and hawed. But hearing that only we were interested, we decided to go ahead. A private tour for just us.

View from the Snake River

Kids oaring the raft

Stephen enjoys being the guide

Mount Moran

The famous Ansel Adams photograph of the Tetons and the Snake River was taken over a section of river that we rode, so we had a somewhat different vantage of the same spot. Since we were alone, my kids got a chance to oar the raft. Along the way we saw several elk, a bald eagle, and a couple beavers. It was a relaxing way to end the day.

I Shall Make This

I saw these tables at the Snow Lodge. I will make us one. Maybe out of oak instead of pine, though. The design is really simple, actually. Gives me an excuse to buy a chisel, too.

Geysers All Day

Old Faithful

Waking at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge, we dedicated the day to a geyser hike. I was developing blisters on the toes of both feet, but I bandaged myself up with mole skin and made the most of it. I'll be damned if I was going to let something as trivial as pain keep me from seeing this. Besides, my family was fighting off a cold so they were being troopers, too.

So, one last push before taking it easy the rest of the way.

After breakfast, we watched Old Faithful, again, then pressed on to see the thermal features of the Upper Basin.

Roughly following the Firehole, we made our way to Morning Glory Pool, then back a slightly different route to see what we had bypassed on the way out there.

By the time we got back, I was hurting and everyone was ready for lunch. I ended up cutting holes in the bottoms of my toes to drain them, then I bandaged myself up as good as I could to let me continue for the afternoon. We took a scenic drive along past Firehole Lake and Canyon, then stopped at the Midway Geyser Basin.

There we saw Excelsior Geyser, Turquoise Pool and the Grand Prismatic Spring. I, also, counted nine lost hats.

By day's end, we had seen enough of the thermal features of Yellowstone. Surely, we did not even attempt to see them all, but after awhile every hot, bubbling pool looks like the previous hot bubbling pool. Just like your first bison is magical, the twentieth one nice, the fiftieth one an irritation if it's blocking the road.

Still, upon leaving the next morning Hope wished to see Old Faithful just one more time. The rest of us thought she was nuts.

Old Faithful Inn and the Upper Basin

Old Faithful from a distance

Steve and Jim at Giant Geyser

Morning Glory

Shield Spring

Us in front of Castle Geyser

A hot spring pool

Firehole Lake

Grand Prismatic Spring

Geysers!

Leaving our Western Cabin in the Canyon area, we spent the day exploring geyser territory.

Norris Basin

Our first stop was the Norris Geyser Basin - the hottest part in the park. Pools as caustic as battery acid, heated to boiling, turned entire valleys into wastelands. The juxtaposition of such alien features nestled in high range pine forest made this all the more interesting and bizarre. This was evidence of earth's magma core finding a thin spot in the crust.

A hot spring at Norris

A geyser in the forest

After Norris, we had a quiet lunch at a wooded stop. Then we drove along the Firehole River to the geyser basins that contain Old Faithful and several other major geysers. We got to witness an Old Faithful eruption before dinner before settling in for the evening.

Although one typically associates Iceland and Scandinavia with geysers and hot springs, more than half the world's geysers are located right here, in Yellowstone.

There is another major thermal area under Lake Yellowstone, completely hidden from view by several hundred feet of water.

Old Faithful

Old Faithful Inn is one of the more interesting buildings I've seen. Several stories of open rafters support it's steep roof. An open staircase provides access to a parapet on its peak. Since it is closed to the public, I can only imagine the view from up there.

Interior of the Old Faithful Inn

Baby Buffalo, Horses, Lava and Travertine

Baby bison

We checked out of the Lake Hotel and drove to the Mammoth Terraces. Along the way, we stopped at Sheepeater Cliffs. Those exposed columns of hexagonal rock was a lava flow from the super volcano that is Yellowstone Park. A marmot lives among those stones, which we got to see.

Further up the road we visited the travertine terraces that are Mammoth Hot Springs. Here, unlike the other thermal areas of Yellowstone, the waters bring up dissolved limestone which precipitates out as travertine. The hot water actually comes from the Norris Geyser Basin, some twenty miles to the south. Mammoth can be thought of as a limestone cavern turned inside out.

Continuing around the upper loop, we stopped at Roosevelt to go on a horseback ride on the range to a steak dinner, and back. As we rode through Pleasant Valley, a thunderstorm passed to our south. The steak dinner was great, complete with cowboy coffee (brewed over an open fire), soda, coleslaw and potato salad, cowboy beans, peach cobbler, NY strip steak, and the like.


Here is the recipe for the beans.


8 oz. ground beef or sausage
8 oz. bacon, dice ¼-in
1 onion, dice ¼-in
1 can pork & beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can lima beans
1 can butter beans
½ cup brown sugar
2 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tbsp spicy brown mustand
½ cup ketchup
1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

Brown meats in a skillet and drain.
Saute onions with meat.
Stir in remaining ingredients (beans drained and rinsed).
Bake @ 325 F for 45 minutes or simmer for 1 hour.

Once the day was over, we went to Canyon Lodge where we had a Western Cabin reserved. This was, for a family of four, the very best place we stayed. I was figuring the opposite, quite frankly, but we had a quiet cabin (no one in the adjoining unit) with a nice view and a very large room.

Road buffalo

Sheepeater Cliffs

Mammoth Hot Springs

Stop for a drink at Lamar Valley

Jim on Dually

Dinner on the High Plains