Elk and Bison and Bears, Oh My!

Oh boy . . . where do I start?  You may want to put your feet up – this post may take a while.  Yellowstone is so large.  It is really three separate areas that are vastly different.  We entered the park today at 7:30 in the morning and got back to our RV at 7 in the evening and did not see everything.  Good thing we have two more days!

Many of you have been to Yellowstone so I hope the pictures recall great memories.  I also hope my descriptions do it justice.  I feel a little pressure to “get it right” as this national park is probably the most famous and most visited.

I mentioned in the last post that Old Faithful was over 50 miles into the park.  You have to double that time-wise because the maximum speed limit within the park is 45 mph and often you are going slower than that because of the curves or approaching busy viewpoints and the scenery.  So just getting from place to place is a lot of driving.

The first area we went to was the hydrothermal.  This includes Old Faithful, but encompasses so much more.  Old Faithful isn’t even the largest or most regular geyser in the park, just the most well known as it erupts more frequently than any of the other big geysers.  The largest concentration of geysers in the world is at Yellowstone in the Upper Geyser Basin, where Old Faithful is located.  You don’t have to look hard to find it.  When you walk into the Old Faithful Visitor’s Center, the back wall is solid glass windows facing the geyser.  And a large sign in the middle tells the next expected eruption time.  (the rangers also post predicted eruption times for 4 other geysers).  We saw it erupting when we drove in the parking lot, so had to wait about 70 minutes to see it go again.  This gave us time to see the excellent displays and a 13-minute film.  The displays did a great job explaining the different hydrothermal features: hot springs, mudpots, fumaroles, travertine terraces and geysers.  By the end of the day, we had seen examples of all 5.

Back to Old Faithful – we had a front row seat, literally, as they have several rows of bench seating in a semi-circle around the geyser.  The crowd was very large, so I was glad to be in front and not be stuck behind taller people that would hinder my view.  Everyone was anxiously waiting, looking at their watches for the 11:18 anticipated eruption time.  I was sure it would be like Fourth of July fireworks, with oohs and aahs and a round of applause at the end of the spouting.  Nope.  She erupted, everyone snapped a bazillion pictures and when it was over they walked away.  Old Faithful didn’t disappoint me.  The crowd did!  The spouting lasts anywhere from

1 ½ to 5 minutes.  I took pictures and Mike did a video.  I would say the main, large spout was a minute and a half, but it does take several minutes to wind down to just steam coming out of the opening.

There are several trails behind Old Faithful from which you can see many other smaller geysers.

Driving along we were constantly on the lookout for wildlife.  I felt like the girl in  “The Exorcist” as my head was spinning in all directions, not wanting to miss anything.  Mike actually spots things more often than I do, and he’s driving!  Elk and bison are the easiest to see, as you could tell from the pictures on the last post.  Almost every bison we saw was by itself, most often lying down.  They obviously don’t grasp the buddy system concept! (at Old Faithful, a family with 2 small boys was right next to us.  The youngest boy was getting impatient waiting for it to spout and kept saying, “I just want to see buffalo!)

From Old Faithful, it was 39 miles to the South Entrance of the park.  We headed that way, in hopes of seeing the Tetons.  With having to get our wiper blade replaced, we had to take a day off our schedule and going down to Jackson Hole, Wyoming was the destination that got scratched.  We thought if we could just get a glimpse of the range we would be happy.  Once at the South Entrance, a sign said Grand Teton National Park was only 29 miles further.  We decided to go for it (how can you be 29 miles away and not?), mainly because we were out of Yellowstone and back to a regular speed limit.

We were so glad we did!  The Grand Teton National Park is one of those drive through parks like the Redwoods.  Just after passing the entrance sign, we saw traffic from both directions stopped and people on the road.  This is always a sure sign that SOMETHING has been spotted.  Sure enough, cameras were all pointed up the hill and there was a grizzly bear!  All the visitor guides tell you NOT to stop in the middle of the road if you see something, but proceed to the next pullover area.  We had no choice because the cars in front of us were stopped (you have to be thankful for the little things. . . ).  We might not have ever seen the bear, as there was a lake on the other side of the road that we were looking at.

About a mile farther down was a good spot to pull over and we got a great view of the Grand Tetons.  A display there showed a map of the park and the range is not that big, so what we could see was about it.  We know there would have been lots more cool stuff to do and see in Jackson, but we were satisfied with seeing the Tetons tower over the lake.  It really was pretty.  And a bear!  Doubly blessed!

Now all Mike is talking about is seeing a black bear.

We headed back north into Yellowstone and explored the second area – Yellowstone Lake.  Actually before we got to that lake, we drove along the shore of Lewis Lake.  I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that a few miles away the ground is spouting hot water and hot steam and you can’t walk on it.  Yet in the lake area, the quiet waves are lapping the shore right next to the road.

Yellowstone Lake is the largest lake above 7,000 ft. in North America.  It has 141 miles of shoreline, if that helps you picture how big it is.  Adding to the beauty are the Absaroka Mountains as a backdrop.  The park allows boating (even renting boats) and fishing on Yellowstone Lake.

While driving around the lake, we came across more cars pulled over and people out pointing in the woods.  By the time we could pull over and walk back to the crowd, it was too late.  They all saw a large gray owl perched on a tree in a small clearing.  It flew away just as I was approaching.

Our last destination for Monday was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  Here we saw several waterfalls and topography that was so totally different from the lake area and the geyser basin areas.  For 19 miles we drove along the canyon rim, stopping many times along the way to look WAY down and see the Yellowstone River running along the canyon floor.  At one viewpoint, there was an osprey eagle’s nest with the bird roosting.  I’m not that smart –a ranger came to take pictures of the nest and I asked him what kind of bird it was.

The last stretch of road that took us back to Mammoth Springs, where we started, was just opened in the last few days.  We could see why.  Snow was piled 3 feet high on the sides.  Several trails off this road were still closed.

It was a long, but really interesting day.  And thanks to Uncle John, who filled our freezer with homemade stew before we left, I didn't have to cook! We went through several seasons – on our way to Old Faithful it was 38 degrees and spitting snow.  My souvenir from Yellowstone is a jacket and knitted gloves.  I had to buy a large enough size jacket to fit over the t-shirt, long-sleeved t-shirt, fleece shirt and hoodie that I was wearing. 

And just when I thought I needed to break out my sunglasses, it started to slightly rain as the temp had risen to 51.  By the time we got back to the RV, it was in the low 60’s!

The pictures today are a hodge podge.  I'm sorry they are not in order.  They download to my laptop in the order I take them on my phone camera.  Today, Mike took some with his camera and I had to email them to me and put on the laptop.  That got them all out of whack.  I'm sure someone who knew what they were doing would know how to rearrange them, but I don't!  So, in no particular order:  Roaring Mountain; Old Faithful sign; Mike took this picture of me trying to walk on fallen logs at Lewis Falls.  My destination was a large rock that I thought would be a Kodak spot.  I didn’t make it that far!;  a hot spring;  Fountain Paint Pots (a mudpot); Mike taking a video of the mudpots; Spasm Geyser; bison on the side of the road; a neat quote in the Old Faithful Visitor Center; Old Faithful!; Entrance to Grand Teton National Park; THE BEAR!; the Tetons overlooking Jackson Lake; we passed over the Continental Divide 3 times in our drive around Yellowstone.  This sign was the lowest elevation of the 3; me at Yellowstone Lake; Mike at the Yellowstone Grand Canyon; the osprey nest (I hope you can see it); another canyon view; us at Inspiration Point!; a good explanation of the geology of Yellowstone; a view of the valley, the canyon and the mountains; entrance sign; me walking on a boardwalk through a hydrothermal area.  I told Mike to hurry and snap the picture because the air has a strong sulfur smell!