Heading into this area of the country was what I had really been looking forward to, after all I had heard about its beauty and wonder. The weather cleared slightly, so we decided we would take a chance and set up a camp at Yellowstone for two nights. First, however, important things: buying a rain suit for me (clear plastic does go with everything...) and stopping at Bubba's BBQ for breakfast (weak coffee, but good food). From there, we drove up to the Grand Teton National Park, which was not too far from Jackson.
As I said, the weather was clearing, but this is an extremely relative and loose usage of that term. We had been hitting rain showers and thunder storms from somewhere around our first stop in Fallon, NV all the way through to Jackson. So clearing here means no actual precipitation, mostly. It was pretty foggy, but we caught a few great views of the Grand Tetons. As you can see, however, there was still a good deal of cloud cover. But note the blue sky! That has been a rare sight, thus far.
Still, the Tetons were quite majestic. I kept waiting for moose to creep out of the woods, but saw none. We continued through Grand Teton National Park and then out of it a ways, north to Yellowstone National Park.
Almost immediately upon entering, we saw them: Bison! (This would become much less novel as our stay in Yellowstone wore on, though seeing these huge creatures continues to be exciting. It was far more fascinating than seeing the herds of bison in Golden Gate Park.) Bison, yay! Lots of bison, all through Yellowstone. The best was that the calves had just been born, so all through the herds of cows (the bulls are more solitary), were these tiny (again, relatively), furry animals, nuzzling their mothers and at times leaping and jumping through the fields. They were adorable!Also, snow! You can certainly see snow up on the mountaintops in the Tetons and around Yellowstone, but it was much more up close and personal than that. We could have had a snowball fight if we were so inclined, because parts of the road and surrounding woods were still layered with nearly two feet of snow in places. Driving past more and more bison, we drove to the Old Faithful area. There are actually small villages throughout Yellowstone, small areas including lodges, some campgrounds, the general store and ranger station and cafes. The area around Old Faithful has one of these (and perhaps the only cell phone service in the whole park, at least as far as we could find). We stopped by a ranger station and peeked in the cafeteria. Eventually we decided to take a short walk around the Old Faithful geyser area there until she was scheduled for her next eruption.
The thermal activity in Yellowstone is just incredible. I knew about the geysers and such of course, but I did not expect to be as amazed and fascinated as I was. I dragged Dad to as many hot springs and geysers as I could. First, I found that what I thought were campfires in the distance were actually plumes of steam from the various springs and geysers. In some places, looking around the park, you could see them in every direction. Yellowstone is over an active volcano, causing all this thermal activity. (Apparently there are also many earthquakes there, though none were perceptible during our visit.)
As you can see from the album of the day, I took a lot of photos of Old Faithful. You could probably make a little flip book out of them or something. I also videotaped another eruption, which hopefully I can post later. It was definitely one of the more interesting things I've seen. As the crowd around Old Faithful grows, there's a certain anticipation you can feel and hear around you. It's kind of funny to think of waiting for something like this, that we have so little control over. I don't think patience is high on the list of modern American virtues when everything else is so instantaneous and at our fingertips, what with fast food, overnight delivery, DVR and the Internet.
Waiting for and watching Old Faithful and the other geysers is well worth it, however. The other springs in the area are beautiful, too, in all different colors and each with a funny little feature and name. (For example, one was called Scallop Spring, and, sure enough, featured scalloped edges. Another, Spiteful Spring was fuming and blowing hot steam toward us like no other spring in the vicinity.) One downside: The expulsion of all the sulfur and carbon dioxide can make you feel not-so-great, so after a while, I definitely needed to get away for some fresh air and a cool drink of water. Easy to do in a place like Yellowstone, though. It's huge, and probably does Wide Open Spaces better than anyone else (even the Dixie Chicks' version...).At any rate, the thermal activity makes for a very interesting contrast to the not so thermal areas of Yellowstone. In our case, this was most of it as it was extremely cold. The coral pink long underwear came in handy and I ended up buying a second pair of wool socks to keep warm at night. (The heavy throw blanket Kevin gave me at Christmas also helped, as did the fuzzy pink hoodie. Such a thoughtful boyfriend, knowing how cold I get!) Actually, there was a prediction of possible snow showers over the night, and we did get some ice/sleet at some point. However, I think the gorgeous campground made up for the chill by far! (And the lack of showers for two days...) Here's the view a few yards from our campsite:
Though this part doesn't look too great - there must have been a forest fire a few years prior - at least we now know that the fires are just part of Mother Nature's mysterious ways. The rangers at Yellowstone now let most fires burn so as to regenerate the forests. The new growth at these former forest fire sites is actually somewhat inspiring to see.
And here's an elk stopping across the stream for dinner that evening:
So despite the cold and intermittent rain, camping in Yellowstone was fantastic. We saw the nightly ranger presentation - the Drama of Yellowstone (she preferred to call it Yellowstone National Paradise), featuring its fauna (the bison, elk, bears, wolves, etc.) - which was very informative and interesting. The ranger presenting had a wonderful perspective on nature and the environment, and was also very interesting. Back at the campsite, a nearly full moon peeked through the clouds and soon after I bundled up in my tent and sleeping bag.
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