Yellowstone 2008 Day 3

Jul 2, 2008

From The Archives

Current mood:awake

Day 3 in my opinion was uneventful. We looked desperately for creatures and found nothing more than Bison and Elk. Over this end of the park it became obvious why Dunraven was closed as the snow was quite high. We did run across this poor coyote

Who after the fact made me feel bad. After viewing my images I see he is soaking wet. My thoughts were the poor guy was running through the snow and runoff and just wanted to cross at a dry spot, only to be chased by crazy humans snapping pictures. But, look how cute he is.

This was on our way back from The Grand Canyon Of The Yellowstone. Whew what a mouthful. Hehe. Anyway, he is a good pic of the lower falls

and here are the upper falls.

 

Random early springtime scenery this is somewhere in the Hayden Valley near the falls.

We then hit fishing bridge, nothing new here, but the ice chunks coming off the lake. Here is a good pic I took of me folks and amazingly I got my dad to pose long enough to get a cute couple photo of me folks. I like it.

We stopped by lake hotel I failed to take images last time, so here they are.

I even grabbed some images of the creepy interior. I learned this is the oldest standing structure in Yellowstone. Is it just me, or does this scream the shining? Creepy, but cool anyway.

Beyond the creepy old hotel was Lake Yellowstone, still frozen, but it does look cool with all the ice on it.

Not much else happened today, other than we ran across a coyote hunting and hopping, and I unfortunately snapped at Landis to give me my telephoto lens... drama ensued, my fault, but not really, that was just the topper. My parents back seat is to small for his gangly ass, My parents both drive.. well, scary, particularly my mom. He mentioned a place he wanted to stop and no one listened, this vacation was out of his hands. Unacceptable in my eyes. So the next day we bought a pass and went in on our own.

There's more, you just wait! Day 4 and Day 5, and seriously this year I will make my guide. hehe. Stay Tuned.

Yellowstone 2008 Days 1 and 2

Jun 26, 2008

From The Archives

Current mood:accomplished

Day 1:

Day One consisted of us scrambling to pack everything, turning around 3 times (before we got on the freeway at least,) Still managing to forget half the food and snacks we bought, and the long drive out to West Yellowstone.
We only had to fill up once, and as Landis went to pay and pee I washed the windshield. I seriously had to remove a solid Monarch Butterfly that was wedged in the wipers… ew.

Arrive at the hotel, actually really really nice. Hang out with the family, and proceed to try to sleep. Failed. At least the beds were better than the cabin we got last year, hehe.

Day 2:

Day two was our first day inside the park. We all jumped into the car and headed in. Saw lots of bison and cute baby calf's.

Lots of elk. upon viewing a herd of elk, as we tried to get back into the car my dad drove off. At first we thought he was being a dick. Nope. He spotted a wolf. My first actual real live wolf that was not in the confines on a cage. Yes dear readers, this is what was in image 1 of the teaser blog.

Do you see it?

 
How bout now?

Some scenery along the way…

 
Keplar Cascades. Look how swollen they are.

My moms entire mission this trip was to see wild animals, and well, mission accomplished. More to come on that. Unfortunately the best place to see animals was closed due to heavy snow (Dunraven pass) So we had to do the long way around and back on all of our excursions. oi. So we head towards the Lamar Valley, by way of Mammoth. Have a quick stop at Artists Paint Pots. Somewhere I have never been before. And I know why. There is a 1/3rd mile walk just to get to the trail of the geothermal activity. So okay, cool trail lots of interesting things to see, plenty of color, can see why it was named so.

While on the trail we arrive to a part that has 2 large mud pots hat are a splurtin. There is a small walk up to get a better view behind the hill still definitely on the trail. We are looking at the pots, and it has been raining when I notice a puddle in the trail is bubbling. I didn't take the time to check the temperature but it looked to me a new hotspot opened up in the trail. I just knew enough to keep my distance from this puddle.

here is the image I took. I wanted to inform a ranger but never really ran across one. Upon our return I found this news article.

and Yellowstone's article on it:

after some digging I determined she fell into the precise opening I observed. Now two things here. 1) not to be disrespectful, but uhm, I donno how many visitors before and after me, and me, may or may not have noticed this and kept their distance. She comes in, mistakes it for rain water and steps in it... it was BUBBLING. 2) How come no ranger ever noticed this? It was a very unfortunate accident and even though she didn't notice what I did and take precautions, my heart goes out to her and I hope she makes a speedy recovery. Interesting and heart-wrenching side-note I learned that she had to walk down this huge hill, and back the 1/3rd mile trail to the parking lot to get medical attention. Sad. But strong woman.

Moving on we continued on to Mammoth. Passed Roaring Mountain:

 
We got to Mammoth My parents did not intend to stop but we all needed different and combined things. Bathroom, food, stretch. My brother Ed had never been to Mammoth before... due to my parents huge dis-interest. We were just going to drive through but I recommended we hit the drive through portion of Mammoth. Edward starting getting all excited so I said to stop at the trail head to Canary Springs, which to my knowledge is the most active part, and is not a long trail. Ed loved it. The new born spring I mentioned last year, is bigger, taller. It grew at least an inch.

Here is last years image...

 
And this years.

Again I will state it Give it 30 years and this will be the thing to observe at Mammoth.

After that we hit a bathroom break and saw this lone buffalo chilling in the grass.

 

meh. Due to the pass ahead being closed, we decided we would scope out the food, expecting it to be really expensive. In fact the year before when we were here we were hungry but we skipped Mammoth and went to Canyon instead thinking it would be cheaper to eat there. Well, surprise surprise. Mammoth Grill, is decidedly the cheapest place to eat in the park. Most other places it is 7 plus per person to eat. One person can eat here for 5 bucks or less. Learn something new every trip. And readers, I tell you, this was not the last new thing I learned. I also noticed some new artwork I have to desperately find, I am completely obsessed with the portraits they had in this restaurant, and IF I find them, I will proudly display them in my home. They were old 1800's black and white images, taken of people in their 1800's garb, posing ON the terraces. (quite illegal these days) I don't know, something about the black and white, the old dress, and the fact they are posing where no one can pose today, and it is very cool photography. I want it. I will have it one day. I will.

Moving on. We went down toward Dunraven as far as we could, which was to Tower Falls. On the way we saw plenty of elk:

New enough Antelope: And a huge jam near Petrified tree proved there was a grizzly: (too far to see its one of those dots up there, Not even bothering to upload the image. I did see it in the binoculars and wow it climbed that mountain fast. Also in the area we found this moose:

After some time here, hoping the grizzly would come down, we went on down the road and found this huge jam... amazingly enough a good jam.

We found this (yes readers, image 2 of the teaser but there’s more!)

Black Bear and her cubs. LOOK HOW CUTE THEY IS!!!!! For your viewing pleasure I have created the following animated images of the baby cubs...

awwwww. We continued to the road closure at Tower. The water is so fast the rock that normally splits the falls, was not doing so.

On the way back (had to go back the same way due to road closures) we saw plenty more elk, deer, and buffalo.

Look how silly it looks when you capture a still of it running, LOL

We had a very fulfilling day of animal viewing today. How better to end it, then spend an hour in a warm hot tub, and then a nice game of poker.

Odie and Dad playing poker.

Stay Tuned for oh, probably 2 or maybe 3 more posts.

Random Conversations In The Car v2

While listening to a new CD I picked up at the Dark Arts Festival of one of the cool bands we saw perform.

This sounds kind of familiar

Yea, it kind of sounds like Abba.

Yea, not the words but the tone and notes

Maybe he listens to Abba and used it.

Well the lead singer did kind of look like a homo to me

Not only homos listen to Abba

Yea, pretty much.

nu uh.

Okay Homos and fat chicks

Nu Uh whatever.

I'd say drama students too, but I think Homos and Fat chicks covers that too.

......You are such a dick.

hehe. Good song though, I really like it. See upcoming blogs about the jam packed weekend.

Yellowstone 2007: A Photographic Adventure - Additional Pics and Stories

Apr 21, 2008

From the Archives

Current mood:satisfied

Almost a year has passed, and we are actually planning another trip to Yellowstone in May. We're hoping to see more animals this time, less with the geothermal features.

I will start with the additional pictures.

In day 1 and 2 I mentioned the forest fires of Yellowstone which burned thousands of acres of land. My previous post mentioned an upcoming photo. including original text for reference.

Thursday morning we woke up and headed towards the lower loop of Yellowstone. Passed through the newly growing forest of Madison. In 1988 there was a huge fire that devastated much of Yellowstone. Last time I was there, there were solid hills, mountain sides, and fields of nothing but black earth. 5 years later all the new trees have started coming in, and yes, it is actually very fascinating to see the re-growth of the forest. Some places the trees are 2 feet tall, some they have gotten as high as 10 feet. I have no explanation for the difference of height. Yellowstone being the great experiment of determining how best to let nature do it's thing, while letting humans roam about as well, decided in 1970 to let fires put themselves out. Well, the great fire of 88 they had to step in because it was out of control. Anyway, long story short, it really is fascinating to see such a large portion of forests start from scratch. My mom is really upsetthey let this fire go as long as it did, I feel they did the right thing of letting mother nature do what it does best. The fire was naturally caused, and actually one of the species of trees cannot reproduce without fire. (really cool useless fact) I think it is a perfectly natural process of a forest to burn, recycle the materials and start over.

 
As you can see this forest is rapidly... well it seems that way, really slowly, recovering from the fire. Here the trees are about 6 feet tall, and you can make out a few of the trees that remain standing after the original fire. Not black earth anymore, in fact a vibrant beautiful landscape of young lodgepole pines.

Also in the day 1 and 2 blog, for the life of me I could not get my darn photo of Fishing Bridge to post, I don't know what the deal was so here is the original picture I tempted...

 
and, one from my dads camera.

 
Really cool bridge isn't it?

The infamous Moose story (with better pictures)

We we're mostly through Dunraven pass when we got stuck in one of the all too common animal jams along Yellowstones roads. Due to the area, and the size of the jam we all thought it was a bear of some sort. So we pulled over, I hopped out with my camera, and walked down the road quite a ways to find this moose.

 
I snapped a few pictures and went back towards the car. Almost there My mom is ambling down the hill with my dads camera. She hollers down the road (we are about 50-100 feet apart at this point)

"WAS IT A BEAR???" (She’s shouting so the caps is appropriate.)
"NO, MOOSE!" I shout back
"TWO?"
"NO MOM, MOOSE, MOOSE!!!!"
"TWO BEAR?!?!?"
"NO! MOOSE!!!" I put my thumbs against my head fingers up to represent the antlers of a moose "MOOSE!!! MOOSE!!!!"
"THERES TWO OF EM!???!?!?!" At this point we're about 10-15 feet apart, I shake my head and keep walking.
"Moose mom. Its a moose. Big rack though"
"OOOOH,” she exclaims. “I thought you said two of em. Big rack you say?" Handing me the camera "Dad wants a picture of a Moose with a rack, last moose we saw didn't have one." Great. So I grab the camera and head back DOWN the hill to snap more pictures of a moose chewing its cud. This is where I managed to get the rangers ear for a minute to ask about Fossil Ridge so that at least was good. Upon returning to the car I look at my mom, put my thumbs against my head and say:
"Mom. MOOOOOOOOOSEEEEE" while waiving my fingers wildly back and forth.
"Well I can't see you that far away!" We have a good laugh the rest of the way down Dunraven Pass. My mom has since had the at the time unknown cataracts fixed and can see quite clearly now. In fact no longer requires the glasses. All the better to give her grief about the (thumbs against head, fingers in the air) MOOOOOSEEE story. hehe. I love my Mom.

And here are a few pictures of us infront of some of the sites.

 
Landis, Mom, Myself, and some random kid in front of Dragons Cauldron

Landis and I at Mammoth Hot Springs

 
Mom, Myself and Landis again at Mammoth Hot Springs.

Large Buffalo on the road.

Towards the end of my vacation I was starting to think this was the same buffalo every time. This is where we passed the First buffalo ambling down the road, like it is his own personal path. Then there was the one we almost hit, heading strait down the road. Then there was one crossing fishing bridge, and of course the one in mammoth. All 4 instances the buffalo was heading down the road, not across it. The above picture my dad leaned out the window and snapped as he idled by. Seriously I don't think the car stopped moving, luckily neither had traffic.

While in West Yellowstone, I did a lot of gift shopping. I picked up several unique shot glasses.

these are the ones I picked up during my trip.

I also got some beer steins I picked up one for me, and a few for friends. Apparently a berry named Huckleberry only grows in this area so after trying the huckleberry ice cream (awesome try it) I picked up some Huckleberry Honey/Jam and Huckleberry Vinaigrette. The honey/jam is awesome on an English muffin. The vinaigrette... not so much on a salad.

Lastly to summarize the vacation it probably rates the highest on my list for several reasons. The nostalgia, and finding those spots I so vaguely, or so strongly remember as a child. The reconnecting with my parents, and my parents connecting with Landis. The awesome luck we had with the geysers, and the all around relaxing good vacation. I'll say it again, everyone should see Yellowstone during their lifetime. There is so much to see and do, you can go several times and still not see everything. I bet there are people who have lived there for years and have not seen everything.

Coming Up: Andrews Guide to the Yellowstone vacation and... Do You Really need to spend 6 hours in the car to view geothermal features?