Travelblog episode 12: Goodby Yellowstone, Hello I-90!

A pair of Pronghorn Antilope

Monday evening we got out the maps, assessed everyone's interest in further sightseeing, and made the executive decision to jam for home. Since we didn't have the wonderous Internets to help us plan, we busted out the ol' AAA maps and tried to guestimate how far we thought we could get the next day. We planned to head out the West entrance of the park, then take US 191 north to Bozeman, Montana where we'd pick up I-90 and race west as far as we could. We figured we could make it to Spokane for the evening, where we would again treat ourselves to a motel room at whatever inn had rooms available (and, naturally, cable TV and free internets).

On the way out of the park we got a final, highly appropriate, Yellowstone send-off: a lone bison walking down the road. Fortunately he wasn't on our side...he was walking serenely down the center of the lane, leading a looooong parade of cars entering the park. And he showed no interest in getting out of the way. Paige slowed down and told various drivers farther back in the line why they were going so slow, and reported that the farther she got from the offending bison the hotter the tempers got. Nor surprising, really.

The offending bison, ambling along

The drive from West Yellowstone up to Bozeman was lovely. We were skirting through the foothills of the rockies, rolling through non-controlled parts of the Park and various National Forest areas, with occasional ranches and farms and a couple small villages (most notably Big Sky, an island of rich ski resort in the sea of rural America). After lunch at Taco Time in Bozeman and a stop at a gas station to fill up it was on to I-90 and back up to our average cruising speed of 80 mph (have to love states with a 75 mph freeway speed limit!). We hit a couple more thunder storms as we rolled through the Rockies, slowing us down significantly thanks to the extra-heavy rain, but they were short lived and didn't affect our overall pace too much.

After a brief coffee and gas stop in Missoula we headed straight for Spokane, and with only one more brief stop to relieve some of the coffee-induced pressure we rolled in to town around 7:00 PM (thanks to gaining an hour as we crossed the Idaho border). The Super 8 was our motel of choice, being conveniently located just off the freeway and offering two rooms on the same floor at a AAA discounted rate. And not a moment too soon, as about a half hour after we were settled in and watching TV another thunderstorm blew through, this one with huge rain, strong wind, and some sweet lightning. It was quite an event for Spokane, with the local stations breaking in to Jeopardy or whatever to tell us to stay the heck indoors so we didn't blow away or drown. The highlight in our room was watching a guy pull in to the parking lot in his dump truck, maneuver it in to a parking space, then open the gate and tip up the bed to empty out a great volume of rain. Although it would have been fun to see how much water would have accumulated if he'd left it closed and down, I'm sure the Super 8 people appreciated not having a dumptruck-load of water dumped on their parking lot all at once...

Travelblog episode 11: Yellowstone day 2

We woke up Monday morning raring to go and ready to see some geysers. The plan for the day was to take the south loop road out to Artist's Point to see the upper and lower falls of the Yellowstone (the north loop was closed), then continue down along Lake Yellowstone to the Grant Village visitor's center so we could see the movie about the big fire of 1988. We'd then continue on to Old Faithful, watch it go up, see the other geysers around there, then work our way to the Madison campground for the night.

The morning was bright and sunny, and the trip to the falls was great. When we were in Yellowstone back in 2006 I was fighting a stomach virus and didn't want to walk anywhere, so we skipped the "Uncle Tom's Trail" walk. This time, with five energetic kids in tow, we didn't. The hike down to the Uncle Tom viewpoint near the base of the falls was gorgeous. The hike back up? Strenuous. I didn't count the stairs, but there were many of them. And the fact that the falls are around 8,000 feet of altitude made the climb even harder. But the benefit of having to walk slowly was that it gave you time to take more pictures...

The upper and lower falls of the Yellowstone


A rainbow in the mist of the lower falls


A chipmunk (photo by Logan)


A small rivulette named "Kitty Falls" by Logan,
and Logan drinking from the Lower Falls


The gang with the Lower Falls

As we drove down the lake we started to see dark clouds in the distance. This didn't bode well for the rest of our day, since we were planning on being out of the cars for quite a bit. And sleeping in tents. The clouds continued to gather as we checked out the Grant Village visitor's center and, on this 20th anniversary of the big fires, watched the "Yellowstone: 10 Years After" movie (which we're hoping they update with footage from 2008). And by the time we got to Old Faithful it was clear that a storm was in the offing.

We timed our visit to Old Faithful completely wrong, arriving about 5 minutes after an eruption ended. So we killed some time by getting ice cream cones and heading over to the Old Faithful Inn to check out the insanely cool architecture (which I, for some reason, didn't photograph this trip). The wind was picking up, and there were a few drops falling from the sky, so I agreed to go back to the car to get coats for those who wanted them (Maya and Logan...Paige, Matt and I already had ours on, and Megan and Molly apparently didn't care). The rain continued to increase, but never more than a mild Seattle drizzle.

I headed for the Old Faithful lodge, mainly 'cause it was closer to the car, and there I met the family. They'd wandered over and were, mostly, dry. We still had 20 to 30 minutes to wait before the geyser was supposed to go off (or rather to the beginning of the window of expected eruption...). We hung out under the awning of the lodge, watching the wind blow the flags and the rain sputter, then decided to head down to the benches around the geyser. Which, of course, is when the storm decided to get more interesting. While there wasn't any lightning in the immediate area, we could see bolts on the hills and hear thunder. The wind also picked up, the temperature dropped, and the rain increased. All of which led to some cold folk standing around waiting for a geyser to blow.

And, eventually, blow it did. One thing to know about Old Faithful, should you chose to go, is that it's got a good 15-minute "juke" period where it bubbles up, looks like it's going to erupt, then settles down. I think it did it around 4 or 5 times before it finally blew. Of course, by then I was so cold and wet that I only snapped one shot, and not a good one.

Once the show was over we, and everyone else standing around, retreated to the lodge to dry out and warm up. And while we were there, we went in to sample the wonders of the caffeteria, figuring it was way easier to pay for a hot dinner we could eat at a dry table in a warm building than to go to our campsite and potentially eat cold food in the rain. Because really, what's the point of having a credit card if you don't use it to eat in a warm, dry room?

After dinner we hopped back in the cars and headed for Madison. Our plan was to set up camp, then either drive to the Artist's Paint Pots that night or in the morning on the way out. Well, as we were checking in to the Madison camp ground I saw a sign saying "Artists Paint Pots Closed". "Hey, why are the paint pots closed?" I asked the reservation lady. "I'm not sure, but I heard some thermals shifted and someone got burned." We later confirmed this from a Ranger. Ouch! So instead we set up camp, played some games, and hit the sack.

Travelblog episode 10: Yellowstone at last!

Sunday morning we got up, broke down the tents, packed up and headed in to Cody for breakfast. The plan was to eat a big brunch, then just snack for lunch and have a "real" dinner (Spaghetti, salad and bread) at our camp site in Yellowstone. Based on the ads in the map the KOA people gave us we headed for a place called "Granny's." Our hopes were high as we pulled in, but we'd forgotten one crucial detail: It was Sunday morning. Which means, in addition to travelers we'd be fighting the post-church crowd. And fight them we did. The restaurant was the standard diner setup with booths and tables, but they also had an outdoor seating area. So, we said, "we'd be willing to sit outside..." to which they replied "that's fine, but we don't serve out there so you'll have to order to go." Which we did. And I must say, for not serving the outside tables, they provided pretty darn good service, carrying out our food for us and offering to pick up the garbage. Very nice, but it would have been nicer if we could have had real plates and silverware instead of eating off of styrofoam with plastic forks and knives.

Once breakfast was done it was off to Albertson to pick up food for the next couple days, then west in to Yellowstone. The drive in was beautiful, driving up into the Rockies and across Sylvan Pass where there were small snowfields down at the level of the road (and numerous tourists stopping to walk on the dirty, dirty snow). Our first stop in the park was an overlook of Lake Yellowstone at Steamboat Point. There were a couple thermals there - enough to cause some stink, but nothing exciting to look at. The view of the lake, on the other hand, was worth looking at!

The girls reading abou the
underwater thermals in the lake


Looking across the lake at
snowcapped mountains

After a brief stop at the Fishing Bridge visitor's center it was on along the Yellowstone river toward the Canyon Campground. We stopped along the road to check out the Mud Volcano and it's mud-spweing sulpher smell. Maya and I didn't walk up to the top to see the other thermals (or the bison sitting by the path), but what the heck.

Farther down the road and around a few corners we came across a herd of bison grazing, napping and drinking. So naturally we had to stop and take pictures:

Logan with the camera

A close-up shot of the adult and
baby bison relaxing by the stream

And that wasn't the end of our wildlife shooting for the day, 'cause a mile or two farther up the road we ran across this guy (well, not really across him...he was 40 yards off the road, but still...)

A black bear doing what bears do

We finally got to the Canyon campground, set up the tents, loaded all the bags in to the Sebring, and headed for Mammoth Hot Springs, by way of Tower Falls. Mammoth, if you've never been there, is weird. No geysers, just hot pools bubbling out mineral-laden water and creating these bizarre terraced hills, and the occasional tree that has been overcome by the mineral flow

Tower Falls and a dead tree


More dead trees on the hillside

Close-up of the edge of the Canary Spring

Dead tree being encrusted by the Canary Spring