All Good Things Must Come to an End…

Our vacation is winding down and our time at Yellowstone has come to an end. Our long trip home has now begun. It’s hard to believe that we spent ten days here (although one of those was spent at Grand Teton National Park).

I’ve always told people that I’ve been to Yellowstone when I was a child. And while it may be true that I have been to Yellowstone before… I had never SEEN Yellowstone. All I remember from that trip was seeing Old Faithful and some black bears that had lined the road looking for handouts. This trip however I can honestly say I SAW Yellowstone. Yet it feels like we barely scratched the surface.

Hydrothermal Features
We did see Old Faithful this time and actually watched it erupt three times from different locations in the area. But we also walked miles of boardwalks and saw not only geysers, large and small, but also brilliant hot springs, smelly fumaroles (steam vents) and spurting mud pots. We walked with rangers to learn more about these fascinating geological features… how did they form? Why are they here? And how have they changed?

One of our ranger walks even took us on a 3-mile hike into the backcountry to view more of these intriguing marvels of nature. It was on this hike that we got to see the “Mother of all Mud pots”. It was huge! Only 300 people a year go on this hike out of the millions that visit the park… and we were 5 of those.


Hiking
We hiked Yellowstone! Sometimes those hikes were with a ranger and sometimes we were on our own. We did easy, short hikes that barely changed elevation and we did longer, more strenuous hikes where we climbed 500, 600 and 1300 feet. One of our ranger hikes led us back to Mystic Falls and then up to Observation Point – a climb of 500 ft in less than a mile (although the total distance for the hike was 3 miles). From the top we could look down upon the entire Old Faithful valley and see the multiple areas of steaming geysers.


We also did another ranger hike on the Beaver Ponds trail (5 miles… 600 ft elevation gain…4.5 hours). This hike led us back to hidden ponds created by beavers damming up a tiny creek. Ranger Debbie taught us so much about the local wildflowers and how to tell which animals had visited the area. She had spotted some bird tracks and had the kids help decipher which bird had left them. The general consensus was that a sand hill crane had recently been in the area. We were proven correct in less than 100 feet when two very large sand hill cranes took to the air and flew right over our heads. Ranger Debbie also found some interesting scat just off the trail. From them we were able to determine that a bear and a coyote had recently been in the area. (A momma bear and her two cubs were known to reside in this section of forest and we most definitely did not want to run into her).

We also did some hiking on our own. One of our first days in the park we hiked Storm Point Trail… a 2 mile loop that started in a meadow, led us back to Yellowstone Lake and thru a wooded area back to the meadow. We ran into a small problem on this hike… a herd of buffies were occupying the meadow and one big Daddy Buffy was standing not far from the trail (definitely less than the required 25 yards). We halted and waited and waited some more… finally Big Daddy plopped himself down and made himself comfortable. We decided to take advantage of that and went on our merry way… I never was sure if it was safer with him lying down or if we were just stupid.


On one of our more impressive hikes, we climbed to the top of Bunsen’s Peak. This was a 5-mile roundtrip hike that had us climbing 1300 ft in 2 miles. Whew! Talk about a workout! We went thru quite a bit of water on that hike. When we made it to the top we had a 360-degree view of the surrounding area. We were able to see Mammoth hot Springs and valleys and mountain peaks. It was an incredible sight! At the top we ate a snack of granola bars and beef jerky. The kids had a blast watching a couple of golden-mantled ground squirrels (bigger, fatter chipmunks). They tried begging for food but we were good and didn’t even leave them a crumb. It was hard for the kids to do since they were so cute. After our snack, we headed the quicker, easier, faster way down.



Wildlife
While there was some wildlife that we never saw… grizzly, big horn sheep, moose… we still saw so much more. We had barely been in the park 30 minutes before we were seeing pronghorns, buffies and a big bull elk. Over the course of our visit we saw more buffies and elk, coyotes (3), black bears (2), sand hill cranes (a few but 2 extremely close), a bald eagle, wolves (though distant in Hayden Valley) and an osprey that dove into the river and actually came up with a fish.


The Food
I have to admit that we ate so much better on our CA vacation. However, I am rather proud of us for the fact that we didn’t eat out all the time. Breakfasts were generally eaten at the hotel (nothing fabulous…your standard cereals, juices, bagels, waffles and frozen pancakes). Once we ate at a local restaurant for breakfast… the day we climbed Bunsen’s Peak we wanted to be sure we had a full hearty breakfast. Then 3 times we had to endure egg mcmuffins at McDonald’s (hotel breakfast didn’t start til 7:00 and those days we were on the road before then).

Most of our lunches were eaten as picnics in the park. These consisted of sandwiches, cheese and crackers, carrots, pudding, sausage sticks, beef jerky, Pringles (occasionally) and apples (at 65 cents a piece!). There were two days when we ate lunch at restaurants in the park. Once at a Soda Fountain/50’s Diner at Canyon Village and once at the Old Faithful Inn. The food at the Inn does not even compare to the Awahnee of Yosemite (though the Inn is cheaper!) but it was still quite an experience. The Inn is a grand old building with such a great history.


As for dinner we only ate at restaurants three times… once at a local bar-b-que place and twice at a local pizza place. If you are ever in West Yellowstone, MT you have to eat at Pete’s Rocky Mountain Pizza Co. It is fantastic! However, we recommend carryout or delivery unless you don’t mind the wait for a table (well worth it). We just wished we had discovered it sooner.

As for dinners the other nights of our stay, we ate in our hotel room… have electric fry pan and you can do a lot. We made chicken fajitas, tacos, sloppy joes, hamburgers, brats and chilidogs and chicken fettuccini. As for dessert there was always ice cream. Our favorite stop was ordering our ice cream in Mammoth (3 times) and sitting on the front steps… relaxing, enjoying each other’s company and people watching.

As for beverages, sometimes we drank a little Propel… sometimes we drank a little soda… but for the most part we LIVED on water. We filled 4 liter bottles each day and went thru them and more on most days.

Wildfires

An experience that we knew was a possibility but were hoping to avoid was fire. During our stay there have been a few fires burning in or near Yellowstone. During our horseback ride we saw heavy smoke to the north from one. Then during our drive on the western edges of Yellowstone Lake we could see the smoke from another smaller fire (Promontory) but that one seemed to be contained within a small peninsula. There was another smaller fire burning in the southeastern part of the park (Beaver Dam) and then there was the Columbine fire… which at last counts has burned 18,500 acres. This fire hasn’t threatened any populated areas of the park although the east entrance was closed for safety reasons. The biggest effect we suffered from it was hazy views and heavier, smokier air. Hopefully, with the rain and cooler temps forecasted, the firefighters will get this one contained soon.

As I sit in a hotel room in Gillette, MT writing this, it is all too apparent that our vacation is winding down and coming to an end. We had a great time in Yellowstone… but this is not good-bye for us… it is “til we meet again”. We know that we will be back someday… maybe not all together but we will be back. I just hope that someday our kids will come back with their kids and sit on the steps at Mammoth eating ice cream and tell stories of their first visit to Yellowstone.
And they will have stories to tell… because we made sure that they SAW Yellowstone.

And the Rain Came Down…

The rain gods looked down on Yellowstone yesterday and smiled. A storm blew in last night… and I mean BLEW in. We had just left the hotel after eating pizza – Hey! I needed some area related scrapbook supplies! It was an emergency. The clouds were black and sinister. We were right under the front line and knew what was coming. If I had been home, I would’ve been seeking shelter in the basement. Instead we were in Montana surrounded by mountains and J, K2 and I were going shopping while the other two were snug in the hotel entranced by Animal Planet.

The wind arrived first… And because it had been so dry for so long, when the wind blew, we had a virtual dust storm blowing down Main Street. Shielding of the eyes was necessary as we sprinted. We were still uncertain if rain would accompany it and if it did would it be enough? Well, rain it did… the heavens opened up and we were drenched within seconds. Now we could only hope that not only would it be enough but that it would also rain over the fire drenched areas… 50 miles east of us.

We watched the weather radars last night and again this morning and could tell that the rains did indeed make it over the fire areas. However, when we checked on-line and called the road closure number, we received the same standard message… The East Entrance remains closed.

We left our hotel this morning and made our way to the West Entrance. Yep, the pink sign was still up alerting us to the East closure. At the last minute, I asked if the East entrance was opened. “Oh, yes. We need to take that sign down.” We were thrilled with the news! Although, the Northeast Entrance would have been a sight for sure… it also meant adding an additional 2 hours to our already long drive time.

As we drove the East Entrance road, we could smell the remains of the fire but the fog laid heavily in the air and we weren’t able to see more than a quarter mile from the road. The fire crews were still in the area as we drove past but they didn’t seem to be hurried.

We were glad not only that the rain had come a much-needed time but it also came down at the end of our vacation and didn’t interfere with any of our plans. I guess the rain gods were smiling down on us too.

Fire in Yellowstone

There are a few fires burning in Yellowstone but all had been in the backcountry areas. On our trailride we could see smoke to the northwest. And during our drive back to our hotel we could see smoke to the east. Today when we entered the park we were warned that the road to the east entrance (the very one we entered thru a week ago and the one we are hoping to leave thru later this week) was closed due to fire.

Apparently the Columbine fire as gotten dangerously close to the road that leads to the east entrance. As of tonight's news, this fire has burned 13,000 acres and isn't close to being contained. During our drive of activities today, we drove on the first part of that road (they have the road block set up at 8 miles in). I tried to take pics of the fire but the smoke and haze didn't make for a very clear picture so I copied this one from online.


This road leads past a stone beach on the shores of Lake Yellowstone and once again the kids had a great time skipping rocks. We spent some time there just decompressing and relaxing since there were so few people in this area.

On the way back we had fun stopping and watching the "buffys" again as it had been a few days since we had seen them. We were all looking at a herd off to the left when all of a sudden J slammed on the brakes... this big guy came off from the right and stepped into the path of our van!

The Girls' Dream Comes True

Sunday the girls got their biggest wish of all... we went horseback riding. They had been asking to do this for years and quite honestly, I never thought J would agree to it. But whatever the reason, he did this time. Well, it would actually be more accurate to say that he didn't say no. J does not like to say yes to much of anything... if he really doesn't want to do it, he has no problem saying "no". However, if he doesn't mind doing it, he rarely says yes, instead he leaves the decision making up to me.

When we were planning this trip the girls were trying to get us to agree to either horseback riding, whitewater rafting or both. I really didn't want to do the rafting so we opted for the horses. But crazy me, told the girls we could do the 2 hour ride instead of the one hour... it would still be cheaper than doing both. HA! What was I thinking????

(This isn't us... it's the group that went before us.)

Everyday that we have been in Yellowstone, we have done some sort of hiking. Somedays it has been lots of little trips, one day we did a 4 mile hike up to the top of a peak (1300 elevation climb in 2 miles). I have never been as sore from any of the hiking as I was from one 2 hour horse ride. My legs were numb... my backside sore... I was worried that I wasn't even going to get myself off the horse at the end. But I managed it... with some help.

However, the pain was so worth it just to see the smiles on the girls faces. They were in 7th Heaven. I know this is one thing that they will always remember.

K3 had to ride up front 2nd in line behind the lead wrangler because of her age... they wanted the kids under 12 up front. She was on Ringo, a pretty brown w/brown main. K2 was just ahead of me on Wayne, a tall brown w/black mane. She laughed at me because then they brought me my horse, Bull, which was shorter than hers! Ummm... how did I get a smaller horse than K2?? Although I have to admit that Bull was a true work horse with pretty palomino coloring... he knew what to do and when to do it... except that he continuously tried to snatch up some greens as we walked the trail. K1 was behind me on Zach, another tall horse. J was next on Travis, an extremely large dark brown (almost black) horse that doubles as a Mack truck.

The wranglers took us on an 8 mile trip that started us up a switchback trail to the top of a plateau and a pretty meadow. Then we were led into a forrested area along the poison cliffs ("one drop will kill ya"). We slowly made our way down hill to cross Lost Creek and eventually came out at a beautiful meadow where Lost Lake sat. We then came around a hill and could see the location of the Petrified tree. As we were riding closer, people were pointing and looking our way. We waved to them until K2 said, "Look, an elk!" HA! They weren't pointing at us... they were watching the elk. Our ride continued on across a road and thru a dry sage brush meadow. Eventually, we did another switchback trail and a few more loping hills and returned to the corral.

I was never so happy to see anyplace in all my life!

Despite being parched (we weren't allowed to bring anything on the trail ride... no water, no camera) and sore, we were also filthy. It has been extremely dry in Yellowstone this summer... 5 days of rain since mid-June. So the trails were DUSTY! and we were near the head of the line... I can't imagine what the people near the end of the trail ride looked like.

After our trial ride, (which in total took 3 hours!), we drove the northern border road between Roosevelt Lodge and Mammoth Hot Springs. This road is under construction and we have been avoiding it as we didn't want to wait up to 30 minutes to drive it. However, the road is nearly completed and they didn't have any crews working it on a Sunday so we were able to drive it with no problems whatsoever.

After a quick stop in Mammoth for ice cream, we headed for home. We were tired, sore and dirty and didn't really want to stop on our way back. So when we saw cars pulled over for elk... we kept on driving. However, we came to one spot where we saw lots of cars and didn't see any obvious elk so we slowed... there running parallel with the road was a coyote (our third one this trip but our first that we could get a picture of).


We were too tired to cook so we stopped at Pete's Pizza (fantastic!)... went back to the hotel and had showers.

It was a great day!

The Scariest Beast in the National Park System...

Saturday we woke up early and drove south to Grand Teton National Park. They were having a grand opening of a new visitor center that we wanted to attend and we wanted to see what made the Tetons different fromYellowstone when they are so close together. We also were hoping to see more wildlife especially moose as they are listed as abundant in the Teton park.



While these parks have some similiarities... lodgepole pines, meadows of scrub brush... they are also remarkably different. The majestic Teton mountain range are the backdrop of this park.. they truly live up "purple mountains majesty". Also, GTNP has some magnificent lakes especially Jenny Lake and Jackson Lake. The kids spent nearly an hour skipping rocks and having fun just wading in Jenny Lake. However, we didn't see any wildlife other than birds, squirrels and chipmunks.




Where were all the animals?

Quite simply we think they were frightened into hiding for the day... you see, that day the fiercest most terrifying beast to these animals showed up at GTNP... we were able to get a picture of...



Dick Cheney!

Today in Yellowstone

We had a great day today!

I think I will send out emails more often whining about what we haven't seen or done so far... because apparently the gods of Yellowstone heard me and wanted to make sure that we weren't disappointed.

Our day started early... we needed to be on the road no later than 8:00 a.m. but preferably earlier... which, of course, meant that we were leaving the hotel at 8:00. We were headed to Canyon Village which is a magnificent part of Yellowstone where the Yellowstone River carves its way to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone dropping in two beautiful waterfalls. Now you have to understand (for those of you who have never been to Yellowstone), that it is a very common occurence to drive past many spots where cars are pulled off to the side, people standing about with cameras or binoculars, pointing and gesturing. We have come to realize that many times the wildlife being viewed is either elk or bison... both of which we find amazing but when we are short on time we tend to drive right past. This morning however, elk and bison were clearly NOT visible so K2 and I were scanning for what was getting all this attention. At first I thought maybe moose because I saw a distant brown object in this small meadow... All of a sudden, I am yelling, "BEAR! It's a BEAR! Pull over!! Pull over, it's a bear!!" J is trying to find a spot safe enough to pull over which when he barely does the girls and I are out of the van before it is shut off and running across the street (I do not recommend letting your kids do this under normal situations.) Sure enough there in the middle of this small meadow was a huge, and I am talking HUGE! black bear. (The black bears that I have seen in WI have been small, cute almost cuddly critters.) He was just ambling his way across the meadow and into the woods... I missed a picture and 30 seconds later would've completely missed the bear... but I have to tell you all... it was FREAKIN' AMAZING! His coat was so like liquid coal... black, black, black. And did I mention he was BIG??? I think K2 snapped a pic I will try to find it on her camera and post it.

So after our excitement of the bear, we sped off to our Ranger walk barely making it on time. Our Ranger walk was titled "Life Beyond the Rim"basically taking us on a 3 mile hike near the Canyon explaining about the wildlife that inhabits the area and some history into the wildlife of Yellowstone. We were only 15 minutes into our walk when we came upon a heard of bison grazing in the distance, not really a problem for us since we were more than the alloted distance from them. However, they became something of a problem as we continued along the trail thru a forest and circled back to the meadow where our trail no goes directly thru the middle of the herd. Our ranger had to lead us off trail and further around the herd but we were definitely noticed. This big guy with his "female" and baby watched us intently the whole time we passed by.


Our walk then led us back to the upper falls of the Yellowstone River, which were amazing.

Following our walk, we spent a few hours in Canyon Village at the Visitor Center and had lunch at a diner. It was then time to attend a second Ranger Walk titled Walking the Rim. It was on this walk that we were able to see the Upper and Lower Falls and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. I took pictures but they don't even begin to show the incredible beauty of this place. Up to today, most of the natural attractions we had been seeing were the variety of hydrothermal features of the park... geysers, hot springs, fumeroles. Today was a day of magnificent beauty... although honestly the entire park is beauty magnified.


It was still relatively early (only 5:00) and while we didn't want to make a late night of it, we weren't quite ready to go home yet. On both of our walks, the rangers had mentioned that the bears were primarily centered right now in two locations... Hayden Valley (which we had driven thru a couple of times and had seen bison, elk and even distant wolves) and Mt. Washburn (which we hadn't driven by yet). So off we headed...

We were still climbing in elevation when an oncoming driver flashed us (his headlights! Get your mind out of the gutter!!) J began to slow which was a good thing because two cars in our lane were completely stopped... we all looked and once again I am yelling, "BEAR! It's a BEAR!!" Only this time, he is right on the opposite side of the road! This time we all grabbed our cameras and are trying to take pics from the van. Here he is... smaller than our morning bear but still glorious all the same. Two bears in one day... the gods of Yellowstone were smiling down on us today.


After our bear sighting, we took a dirt road up Mt. Washburn and walked a bit towards the peak but the winds were so strong that we soon headed back to the van and headed for our temporary home. We were almost to the West entrance when we came across this pretty thing on the side of the road... her friend had just crossed a few cars ahead of us. I had to snap her picture to show you how large the elk are... this is a female... you should see the "daddies"!


Since we ate out for lunch, we made chicken tacos in our room and I got some laundry done. The alarm is set for 5:30 because we are headed south to the Tetons for the day. So night all!

Having a Great Time - Wish you Were Here!

The family and I finally managed to escape from home for two weeks... the only 2 weeks in our summer when we had nothing else scheduled! We are in our first week and having a fantastic time!! We left last Friday around 6:00 p.m. (later than I wanted but we still did okay). We drove til 1:30 a.m which put us at the South Dakota Welcome Center on I-90. It started raining around 1:00 a.m. - HARD! - and continued throughout the night. However, we were so tired that we had no problem sleeping despite the rain, lightning and the fact that we were sleeping in our van. We started stirring around 6:00 a.m. and were on our way by 7:00.

Our first sightseeing activity was the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. Could we possibly do a drive thru this state and not stop here?? The general reaction from the kids... "CORNY!" (hmmm, sounds appropriate)... one said "Cheesy" but you'd think being from WI that would count as a compliment. But hey, now we can say that we've been there... and don't really need to go back again. :)



After the Corn Palace our next stop was the Badlands. It didn't take long til it felt like we had stepped off our spaceship onto some other planet. The landscape here was so incredible. We did a couple of stops including one at the Visitor Center where we had a picnic lunch and did some minor exploring of some of the stops. One of our favorites was a spot near the entrance where we were able to leave the walkway and explore among the crevices. Incredible! And the silence just added to the feeling that you were the only one left on this strange planet. It would've been nice to have a little more time to explore here but the day was ticking away and we still had at least an hour left to drive thru the park plus another 30 minutes to our hotel. It was during our drive thru the park that we came upon a prairie dog town. Holey moley... if you could've heard the screams and squeals coming from our van at the point... even my big, tough 14 yo was entranced by the cuteness of these little guys. They however were rather skittish and refused to co-operate with me and my camera. As I reviewed the map, I noted that there was a part off the beaten path (Hello! Can you say rough dirt road??) that was labeled as Roberts Prairie Dog Town. Hmmm... we could just stay on the main road and head back to the interstate or we could extend our visit in the Badlands by paying a visit to the prairie dogs. After the kids reaction to these little rodents, we knew we had to do this visit. The pups at Roberts were not skittish at all... in fact, they were extremely curious and definitely looking for hand-outs. We didn't even get out of the van. They came right up to it. One little guy we named Oliver because with his paws outstretched he seemed to be saying "Please, sir, may I have some more?" The kids would've been content to stay here the rest of the day but we desperately needed our hotel. Tempers were becoming short and crankiness was setting in... for some of us more than others... (although I will not mention any names, he is 6'2" and is graying heavily).



We made it to our hotel in Rapid City, SD around 6:30 that evening and were relieved to have a pool and bed to sleep in that night. Not too mention, 2 rooms... oh yeah, didn't I mention that I screwed up when I made my resevations online and somehow managed 2 rooms. Although by this point I was very tempted to make it a girls room and a boys room... someone's crankiness was getting harder to deal with (and the fact that I made a two hundred dollar error, didn't help any!)

Now let me give you a piece of advice... if you ever think about visiting South Dakota and in particular the Black Hills area... Do Not... I repeat, DO NOT go the first week (hell, be safe and do not go the first two weeks) of August. If you are asking why, then I know one of two things... either 1) you are not an American or 2) you are not a BIKER. Does the word Sturgis mean anything to you?? Well, yeah, I had heard of it and seen pictures and such but as to when it was I had no idea until I was clued in right before we left. Now I have nothing against bikers, some of my family members own Harleys and a few have even been to Sturgis. But you can pretty much kiss peace and quiet good-bye. There is no where you can go in the entire Black Hills area and not hear the rumble of several (by several I mean at least 50) Harleys. Every parking lot (from our hotel to Mount Rushmore) was taken over by them. And those nice pull-outs along the Black Hills drives... forget about trying to get in there.... not possible unless you plan on knocking a bike or two down. Although aside from a few rude riders (let's ride down the middle of the road during slow traffic and squeeze in front of this van because we can), we did have fun looking at some of the custom paint jobs on some of the bikes. K1 even had me taking pictures of some of them. And J even spent $20 for a raffle ticket to win a cutom painted Crazy Horse Harley (I told him if he wins, he will have to get his license as we would be keeping that one).

Sunday was spent touring the Black Hills. We went to Mount Rushmore which J and I hadn't been to since we were kids. Here we did two Ranger talks, one along the Presidential trail and one at the Sculptor's building. We learned things about the men in rock that we had never known and it was interesting to hear how the monument had been carved.

From Mount Rusmore, we headed to Crazy Horse. When you look at this huge monument (so much larger than Mount Rushmore), it doesn't look as if much has been done. The face is the only recognizable feature. However, after viewing the orientation film on the monument, you are made to realize just how much has been done... the amounts of rock from the face of the mountain that have been blown and carved away. However, for a mostly unfinished monument, there were quite a few visitors... at least as many if not more than Mount Rushmore. Really quite amazing if you think about it.

From Crazy Horse we set out to drive through the Black Hills, first by travelling Needles highway, then onto the Wildlife loop, where we saw our first Bison! Then along the Iron Ridge highway. The Black Hills are beautiful. I would love to go back someday and explore them more fully. There is so much to do that we hadn't even touched upon... definitely a return trip is going to have to be scheduled (just not during August!).

Monday we hit the road again, right after a stop at Starbucks (hey! It will be a week and a half before I see another one! I had to go.) At first we thought we would stop at Devil's Tower on our way but then decided that we would hit it on our return home. It's a good thing we did... because what should've been a 10.5 hour trip turned into a 12.5 hour trip. Now we did stop in Cody, WY for dinner and a Walmart trip and we were actually making good time up to that point. However, it wasn't until we hit the East gates of Yellowstone (Finally!) that our troubles began. The East entrance is under construction and we were held up about 20 minutes before we were able to travel the following miles at a snail's pace. Finally, we were able to cruise on only to be stopped 3 times because of wildlife in the road. We had bison and elk! It didn't take long for our first spottings. What I didn't realize is how all traffic stops in both directions when there is wildlife about and definitely when they are standing in the middle of the road. It killed us to drive past these sightings and some of the other roadside viewings however it was getting late and we needed to get to our hotel.

We have been extremely busy trying to do as much as we can since arriving. Somedays it just doesn't feel as if we are doing enough. However, we return to our room each night exhausted and ready to fall asleep because tomorrow is another day in paradise. I will try to add more but being on the computer vs. going to sleep??? Have to be honest and admit that sleep wins out most nights. Stay tuned for more updates.