Amazed In 4 Days

*Critters we’ve seen on our 2012 trip so far: prairie dog, bison, bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, mule deer, llama, white tail deer, elk, grizzly, coyote, badger, Uinta ground squirrel, black bear, yellow-bellied marmot, wolf, bullsnake, moose
*Birds we’ve seen on our 2012 trip so far: Western meadowlark, magpie, wild turkey, killdeer, osprey, red-naped sapsucker, sandhill crane, bald eagle, mountain bluebird
*National Parks/Monuments visited on 2012 trip so far: 2

As mentioned before, this was Terri’s first visit to Yellowstone. She arrived Thurs. afternoon and left Tues. morning, and we crammed a lot into those 4 days in between. Since we were working Thurs., I manned the office while Russ drove the 1-1/2 hours to Bozeman airport to pick her up. Early evening he drove her up into town so she could get her first glimpse of the elk.

The next day we were up early to begin her preliminary tour of Yellowstone. We drove nearly 150 miles roundtrip in about 7 hours making many stops along the way.





There was the Obsidian Cliff historic roadside exhibit, Roaring Mountain, and the Lower Geyser Basin all on the way to the one place everyone has to go when visiting Yellowstone…Old Faithful. Since we had a little wait until the next eruption, we stopped at the Old Faithful Visitor Center and then the historic Old Faithful Inn. 
Wildlife can be seen pretty much anywhere in the park and that includes near the boardwalks at Old Faithful. It is the visitor’s responsibility to stay at least 25 yards from all wildlife (100 yards from bears and wolves), and obviously the 3 youngsters getting their photo taken by mom are way too close!

We continued our drive over the Continental Divide and on to West Thumb, another active hydrothermal area that overlooks Yellowstone Lake. West Thumb is known as a caldera within a caldera that was created about 180,000 years ago from a powerful volcanic explosion. Though many of the pools seem like they’d be cool and inviting with their brilliant blue color, don’t be fooled…this water is super heated and can scald!

After walking the boardwalks at West Thumb, we drove along the western shore of Yellowstone Lake and on up through Hayden Valley where she got to see lots of bison...some up close and personal!  We passed Mud Volcano


    and the Canyon Village area deciding to save those stops for another day since we still had quite a ways to go. We drove up over Dunraven Pass at 8,859 feet where several cars were parked with people looking through spotting scopes. Turns out there were a black bear and her cubs eating nuts in a tree across the valley, and with Terri’s telephoto lens on her camera she got her first glimpse at black bears. We made several more stops along the way, and she was continually amazed at the beauty that surrounded her.

Sat. morning I took Terri up into Mammoth Hot Springs to see the Terraces, the map room in the hotel, and the Visitor Center. We spent a couple of hours just tooling around including a stop at the General Store looking for souvenirs. That afternoon we headed over to Indian Creek Campground for a potluck celebrating Christmas in August and the National Park Service’s birthday. According to local legend, Christmas in August was created after some visitors
to Yellowstone were stranded at the Old Faithful Inn in a freak snow storm some time in the 1900s, and instead of lamenting about being snowbound, the guests decided to celebrate Christmas complete with decorations, carols, and a festive dinner. At our potluck, the hosts had decorated

    the cabin and golf cart, and there was plenty of food (Donna cooked a whole turkey again this year) plus some special treats. Pat made a 7-layer dip with a national park logo created on top with veggies, and we brought a cake that celebrated both occasions. It had green grass, trees, blue sky, and animals representing the park, red and green piping for Christmas, and we had placed 5 of our Junior Ranger badges on top to celebrate the NPS birthday.

One place we knew we wanted to take Terri during her visit was a drive along the Beartooth Highway. You may remember that we took that drive a couple of years ago, which was dubbed by the late Charles Kuralt (the On the Road TV correspondent) as “the most beautiful drive in America”. 

With its alpine meadows, amazing glaciers, and crystal clear lakes,
we couldn’t agree more. After a late morning breakfast at the Town Café, we loaded Abby in the car for this all day trip planning to go past the summit all the way to the town of Red Lodge since we’d never been there before. The views as we climbed higher
    along the switchbacks were incredible, and we even spotted a couple of guys walking on one of the glaciers! The temperatures definitely drop the higher you go especially at the nearly 11,000 ft. summit.

 

 

Red Lodge was nothing special, just a small tourist town, but they did have one funny piece of "décor" on the main street. Looks like that skiing can be dangerous business! We stopped in Lamar Valley on the way back hoping to see some wolves, and though there were plenty of folks with spotting scopes including Rick from the Wolf Project team, we had no luck that night.

On Terri’s last day, the elk were kind enough to visit our campsite while she was outside drinking her coffee. She got some great photos, but once they got closer and this bull decided to join the group, it was time to view them from inside the safety of the RV.

That afternoon we headed over to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, once again driving over Dunraven Pass. Though we didn’t see any bears this time, we could see the smoke from a couple of the wild fires burning within the park. At the Canyon area, we went to the Visitor Center, viewed the Upper Falls from a distance and from the brink, saw the Lower Falls from several viewpoints, and made the obligatory photo stop at the Glacial Boulder. Instead of heading straight home, our plan was to go the opposite direction to Hayden Valley and hopefully see some

wolves. There was quite a gathering at the Grizzly Overlook with their scopes, and we were just about ready to leave when at precisely 8:05 p.m. from the tree line across the valley emerged the alpha male and female. Terri finally got to see wolves!

We had a great visit, and she was completely bowled over and amazed at all that she had seen.  Though only here 4 full days, she got to see a lot of Yellowstone (though not all) and nearly every critter except a grizzly. Well, there’s always next year!

Yellowstone Tidbits:

*In North America, the American Bison are referred to as bison or more informally as buffalo.

*Old Faithful erupts about every 90 min. expelling 3,700 – 8,400 gallons of water 106 – 180 ft. with a temperature of 203 degrees F lasting 1-1/2 – 5 min.

*Unlike few other mammals, wolf families (packs) are territorial establishing firm boundaries that they defend against other wolves.

*There are more than 300 miles of paved roads in YNP.