Yellowstone

Yellowstone National Park

Sunday Sept 2007

Driving through Montana

Breakfasted in the Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park RV camp, then drove the 3-miles up to the Caverns and went through the Visitor Centre, watching their video and reading the historical info. We passed on the ‘2-hour tour’, neither of us being ‘cavern loving creatures’.

I don’t know why they call them the Lewis & Clark Caverns, other than that they were apparently famous, since the info centre blurb said that L&C didn’t actually go there, passing by despite having been told about the caverns by the local Indians. They were ‘found’ by a couple of the early ranchers (Pannin [?] & Williams) whils’t hunting in the area, and actually developed by a guy named Morrison, and were originally known as Morrison’s Caverns. The early 1900’s ‘cavern trip’ consisted of somehow getting to the ‘Lime Spur’ section of railroad, a considerable feat in it’s own right, then hiking 2 hours up to the cavern entrance, where you literally climbed down 250’ of rope, wandered around in candlelight, then hauled yourself back up 25’ of rope! There is a photo of a group of nuns that did the trip in 1910! After the site was declared a National Site in 1908, the gov’t kept locking Morrison out, since he was deemed by the courts to be trespassing on land granted to the railroad, despite his having filed land claims and operating a Lime & Flux plant adjacent to the rail spur. Morrison apparently waited till the federal officials (from Yellowstone) had departed, removed their locks, replacing them with his own, and carried on with his tours. A guy after my own heart!!

Drove on toward Bozeman, leaving the I90 at Gallatin, heading South to Yellowstone. Very beautiful scenery. We are driving next to the river just about all the time, with a disconcerting optical illusion that the van is going down hill, but the river is continually flowing towards us! I eventually get the Streets & Trips GPS set up and monitor the altitude, which is sure enough climbing, although the road ahead looks like a continual downgrade? Must be the channelling effect of the side-slopes of the canyon?

Have now reached the ‘summit’ and definitely going DOWN toward Yellowstone! The Alt reading is dropping like a stone and the van is definitely running against compression together with the judicious use of brakes! Still next to the river, but it is running ‘with us’ now.

West Yellowstone

We get into West Yellowstone about 13H00 and check out the shops. This is most certainly a ‘tourist trap’. Nevertheless, we buy a few odds & ends and then head over to the IMAX Theatre complex to watch the Yellowstone film. Not particularly good compared to others we have seen (IMAX films that is, not Yellowstones).

Yellowstone National Park Entrance

The gates are literally on the outskirts of West Yellowstone, so we buy a 1-year National Parks pass (US$80) and head on through Madison toward ‘Old Faithful’ and our intended campsite at Grant Village.

I take a few ‘side roads’ as we go, and we see Firehole Canyon, Fountain Flats and Fountain Paint Pot before deciding to head for Old Faithful, which apparently fires off about every 90 minutes, but can take up to 3 hours. We park and walk to the viewsite, grab a bench seat and wait. About 5 minutes later, the geyser spurts off and the show is over! We head for the campsite as it is getting late, book in and make our supper (bread, cheese, chunky soup).

Monday 10 Sept 2007

We decide to visit Grand Teton National Park (just South of Yellowstone, since we have the multiple-entry pass anyway, and drive South past Lewis Lake (I wonder if he went there either??), crossing the Continental Divide (@ approx 8000ft).

Totally different scenery. Very attractive area. Lots of lakes and water. Then, all of a sudden, these huge mountains just sticking up out of the plateau! We stop at the Visitor Centre at Jenny Lake, which is brand new and very well laid out with great exhibits. Then we head round the big loop via Moose & Moran Junction, lunching at Signal Mountain Lodge. (Not a memorable meal, but we did clean the plates).

Back up the road to Yellowstone, where it is getting late afternoon again, so we book into our overnight camp at Bay Bridge, which looks to be ‘small’ from the road, but turns out to be the biggest campground in the park. Very nice little cove with a fair sized marina.
Most of the camp is already closed for the winter, but there are still a few hundred sites open. Supper will again be bread, cheese & chunky!

While eating at our picnic table, we hear a solid ‘thunk, boing’ sound, and I comment that nothing good has happened! Within a short space of time we learn via the bush telegraph that some idiot has backed his truck over a stump and ripped a hole in his gas tank. The ‘authorities’ begin to arrive in droves! Two Ranger vehicles, 1 ambulance, 2 fire trucks and 1 tow truck, which finally drags the miscreant from the field of battle. The actual gas/petrol spillage was minor, and was contained and mopped up with 2 buckets of sand by the ‘campground host’ well before the rest of the disaster response team arrived!

Tuesday 11 Sept 2007

After rising and breakfasting, we retraced our steps to Old Faithful, and hung around for a few minutes at the viewsite. We then decided to go have breakfast at the Lodge first, on the assumption that the next waterworks show was still about ½ hour away. We have barely bought our stuff (cafeteria style) and are walking to find a table when the show begins! We quickly find a window table and watch the fun from inside.
After that, Denise takes a long walk around the Old Faithful site, which has a lot more volcanic activity than just 1 geyser! Meanwhile, I find a gas station and provision the vehicle.

When we meet again, it is shortly before the next predicted eruption, and we take a bench and wait. A few minutes and off it goes again. Quite a long one this time. Certainly longer than the other two times that we have seen.

We head back along the road to Madison, and take in some of the ‘loop drives’ that we missed the previous afternoon. The variety of different scenery and pools, springs, cones and geysers is quite amazing. While some of the sites have a sulphur-tinged smell, I find it much less pervasive than I have experienced at other hot-spring places. Nevertheless, the info boards tell me that some of the springs are very highly acidic (sulphuric acid) due to the action of sulphur-dioxide eating bacteria, which produce the acid as a byproduct of their metabolism.

After passing through Madison (for the second time), we take the road heading for the North entrance/exit gate, via Mammoth Springs. At one of the roadside viewsites, Denise catches her finger in the door while closing it, which is an unhappy experience for all. While I am pouring cold water on a cloth wrapped around her finger, the guy from the truck in front comes back with bandaids and antiseptic cream, so the wound is quickly attended to. Then I search my own bag for a T3, as the finger is already starting to throb!

Despite the discomfort, Denise climbs out for the next view area, which is ‘Norris’. About a 2-mile circular walk, but again, worth the effort in ters of the different sights. The Steamboat Geyser obligingly gushes a few times while we are there, but they are very ‘small’ compared to what it can do when it really goes off! Last recorded ‘major event’ was about 350’ in May, 2005. Supposedly, it can go as high as 400’ when it really lets go, and the steam vents for days after the event.

On to Mammoth Springs! We are now outside the ‘caldera’ (crater) formed by the volcanic eruption that formed Yellowstone about 250,000 years ago, but there are still plenty of signs of volcanic activity. Unfortunately, you can’t reserve a spot at the MS campsite (because it is run by the Park Rangers, not Xanterra, the company that manages everything else in the park), and it is ‘Full’ when we get there.

We head out of the park into Gardiner, and again find the local, private campsite ‘Full’, but manage to find a beautiful site backing onto the river at another park a few miles out of Gardiner. That’s where we are now. It has a WiFi hotspot, but it is at the other end of the camp, and I can’t get connected from our site. Once I have finished this log, I will try walking nearer the transmitter to connect and post this ‘blog’.