A Yellowstone Tradition

Our favorite Yellowstone treat is huckleberry ice cream made locally in Montana.  They sell it inside the park, at the campground, in grocery stores, and in ice cream shops in West Yellowstone.  Ruth remembered that we had ice cream at the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel on our last visit and asked that we make it a family tradition.  We all got huckleberry ice cream except for Henry, who opted for vanilla.

We didn't see any elk in the area while we were there, but it looks like they do come through, because there were numerous "Don't approach elk" signs and near our car and on a sidewalk near the Terrace Grill, there were elk droppings.  Must be a sight to see, walking through the village and having elk pass you by. 

The Mammoth Hot Springs are in the northwest corner of the park.  There is a geothermal feature there unlike any other one in Yellowstone.  As water and steam bubble up from below the earth's surface, it springs up calcium with it, and as the water flows from the upper features down, the calcium creates white terraces stacked on top of each other.  In some places, there's some red mixed in with the white, and at the top, you can see some colorful pools of water bubbling.

As we drove south of Mammoth Hot Springs, we drove through a short patch of boulders strewn about in a random pattern.  The boulders were white with gray in them - not matching other rocks in this area of the park.  

We were on the lookout for bears but didn't see any.  It goes to show how lucky we were the last time we were in Yellowstone and saw them.  You have to appreciate what you have when you have it, I guess.

Bison, Bison and More Bison (But No Bears)

Last night was our coldest night on the trip so far.  I turned off the fan before I went to bed and left a few windows cracked open for air circulation.  Around midnight when I went to bed, it was already pretty cold, and when I woke up, it was freezing.  It must have gone down into the 30's overnight.  Getting out of a warm bed in cold weather is not fun, so our plan of getting an early start fell apart.

Jeff motivated the kids by suggesting we pick up breakfast at McDonald's on the way into the park.  Usually on road trips I try to avoid fast food restaurants, but in this case, the motivation was working and I was not going to mess with it.  

In order to get to the Lamar Valley as quickly as possible, we decided that unless we saw a bear or a moose, we were not going to stop until we got to Lamar Valley.  We had seen enough female elk at this point, so there was no reason to stop on the road into the park if we saw them again.  Once we got to Lamar Valley, Henry and Jeff wanted to look for wolves and any other animals they could find.  After we spent some time in the Lamar Valley, we would make our way back to the campground taking the same route, and stop for anything that interested us.

The plan worked.  As soon as we got to the intersection of the upper loop of the park and the road to the Lamar Valley and the Northeast Entrance of the park, we saw a herd of bison grazing.  This was a good sign - there must be animals in this part of the park.  We continued down the road, and came across more herds of bison.  It's almost time for "the rut," aka mating season.   We're no animal husbandry experts, but we did notice that the herds in Grand Teton were all hanging out together nicely, but in Yellowstone, it appeared that some males and females were courting.  We stayed and watched one herd for awhile, and saw some of the males rolling around in the dirt, hanging out with a lady they were interested in, and shooing away other males trying to check out their lady friend.  A few bison farther out were pushing each other around, and Jeff saw two butt heads and one get knocked to the ground.  

We saw bison all along the drive through the Lamar Valley.  We saw a few pronghorn there too, but no wolves.  There are a couple hundred of them in the park, but they're pretty reclusive.  Henry was disappointed, but I reminded him that he did get to see some at the Grizzly and Wolf Center up close.  In the wild, he'd only be able to see them with binoculars.

We had lunch at one of the pullouts in Lamar Valley while Jeff and Henry looked for wolves, elk or bears along the treeline in the valley.  It was sunny and in the 70's - near perfect weather.

We drove by some spots throughout the day that we thought would be excellent hangouts for bears, but we didn't see any.  We also didn't see any bull (male) elk in Yellowstone either.  They, too, are getting ready for mating season, so they must be deep in the woods fighting each other to see who gets the prettiest ladies.  

Only in Yellowstone

This morning, as we were driving into the park from our campground, we saw a back-up of cars ahead.    We figured it must be elk since they graze in the area, or Jeff thought it might be an eagle.  He hoped it was a bear.

It turned out to be a bison on the side of the road, and cars were slowing down to take its picture.  The bison kept going as if it didn't notice all the cars.

Then, the bison walked up onto the road and actually got into the line of cars, walking in the center of the right lane in line with the cars heading into the park.  It was like he thought he might join this herd of strange-looking animals with wheels and see where it took him.  Some drivers who were impatient passed the bison on the left when no cars were coming in the other direction.  Eventually, the bison got off the road, and then we saw there was one more ahead of him on the side of the road moving along with the traffic.

Interesting start to the day...

Dinner, Ice Cream and a Movie

We grilled burgers for dinner tonight.  It wasn't very windy, so we pulled out the grill.   Unfortunately, the campgrounds in and around Yellowstone don't have fire pits - my guess is that they're trying to avoid another fire in the park.  It would be great to sit outside around the fire, but that will have to wait till later in the trip.

Jeff had to work tonight, so I took turns amusing the kids.  Ruth wanted huckleberry ice cream, so I took her into town to shop for some souvenirs and get her ice cream fix.  Then I brought her back and took Henry to see the Yellowstone movie at the IMAX theater.  This way, they each got to do something and got a little time away from one another.  

It was a win-win for me, because both the ice cream and the movie were good.

Up Mount Washburn

We could have headed back to the campground as planned, but since it was still early in the afternoon and we hadn't seen much wildlife - namely a bear - we decided to head a little ways up the northeastern side of the park toward Tower Falls.  This part of the park is more mountainous than the other parts we had been to, and we climbed higher as we headed north. 

When you see a lot of cars pulled over on the road in Yellowstone, you can assume someone has spotted an animal.  It could be a "bear jam," a "bison jam" or an "elk jam."  We came upon people looking up the mountain on our right, and saw a group of bighorn sheep grazing and sitting on rocks.  Jeff steered the Jeep as far off the road as he could and Henry and I tried to get some good pictures.  Ruth had really wanted to see the sheep and got out her binoculars to see them up close.

We continued our ascent, and along the way, the damage from the 1988 fires was still evident.  The mountains are still scarred with burned out, white tree trunks.  In some areas, younger trees are growing in and will someday hide the evidence of the fire.  

We kept our eyes out for bears and elk at this elevation.  Grizzly bears occupy the northern areas of Yellowstone.  As we looked up on the mountains for bears, we saw a road going up toward the top of the mountain.   And when we came to the turnoff for it, Jeff turned the Jeep on the gravel road.  Ruth was a bit concerned for our safety, muttering something about all of us going to die.  She's an alarmist, but we love her anyway.

The drive wound up the mountain, past colorful wildflowers and felled trees.  We could see for miles in every direction.  We parked at the end of the road and Henry wanted to hike to the top of the mountain, like he did at Rocky Mountain National Park.  This time, I went with him to make sure he came back.  It wasn't too steep of a climb, and I thought the lack of steps going up made it easier than Rocky Mountain National Park.  It was a dirt and rock trail, and we made our way up to a very windy spot where the train continues for at least a mile along the ridge of the mountain.  We enjoyed the view, caught our breath, took some pictures, and headed back down.  A kid told us he saw a pica (small, cute mammal that lives in sub-alpine and alpine habitats) in the area.  That got Henry excited, but try as we might, we didn't see one.

It was time to turn back and head for home.  We saw the bighorn sheep on the way back.  This time, they were lower down, and two crossed the road in front of us, giving us a closer view of the beautiful animals.  We also saw more female elk as we headed south.  We're wondering where all the males are - we haven't seen a buck yet.

Lunch on Yellowstone Lake

One of the quieter spots in Yellowstone is the Lake Lodge on the shores of Yellowstone Lake.  Yellowstone is much more crowded than when we were here in early July 2009.  There are more cars on the road and the parking lots are almost always full.  It was nice to drive by the lodge and not see lots of people.  Jeff and I remembered sitting on the porch that overlooks the lake, and decided to pull in and sit for awhile.  

If you're ever in Yellowstone and the crowds get to be too much, head over to the Lake Lodge for some peace and quiet.  There's a trail down to the lake, or just enjoy a rocking chair on the porch.

We had packed our usual assortment of sandwich stuff for lunch, plus some leftover fried chicken, but when Ruth saw the restaurant in the lodge, she lobbied to go there instead.  The inside of the lodge is rustic with timber walls and ceilings.  We had a nice lunch and then finished our drinks on the porch.  

Waterfalls, Valleys and More Bubbly Stuff

Today's Yellowstone adventure displayed the vast different environments of the park.  We kicked off the morning by viewing some female elks grazing and laying down in the meadows by the West Entrance.  We then headed north to cross over to the other side of the park, with a goal of seeing wildlife in the Hayden Valley.  

The Steamboat Geyser woke up from an eight year nap and erupted yesterday, but we weren't nearby to watch it.  It's a powerful geyser and it must have put on quite a show to the people who happened to be there when it went off.  We drove by to see if there was any residual effects, but didn't see anything.

Our drive took us along the Gibbon River and Gibbon Falls.  We pulled over into a parking lot to get a better view of the falls, and as luck would have it, Jeff spotted an eagle flying above the river.  It was an amazing spot, because I couldn't see it until he pointed it out.  The eagle made its way to the top of a lodgepole pine tree, and after he sat there for awhile, the eagle swooped down to the river and plucked out a fish.  Jeff was thrilled to have seen it.  Henry and I tried to take pictures, and I'm not yet sure we captured any of it yet.  It was pretty far away, but hopefully we'll be able to look at the pictures and crop them to get something good.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

After our exciting eagle viewing, we stopped to look at the Artist Paintpots.  It involved a hike up and around a small geyser basin with various geothermal features.  Jeff hung back while Henry, Ruth and I made our way up the hill to get a good look at the entire area and the Gallatin Mountains in the distance.  

Our next stop was the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  The Grand Canyon is known for the yellow canyon walks (some say the area was named for the river of the yellow stone) and the Upper and Lower Falls.  We looked out from the North and South Rims and got great views of both falls.  The lower falls are one of the most famous images of the park.  

The Hayden Valley was a bit of a disappointment after our experience there in 2009.  Four years ago, we saw hundreds of bison; this year, we saw about 15 of them.  They must have been grazing somewhere else in the park.  By the time we got to the valley, it was about 11:30, so they might have sought relief from the hot sun in a shady area of the valley not viewable from the road.  There were two pretty close to the road that we were able to see.

We then moved on to the Lake Area of the park.  We stopped at Fishing Bridge for a snack stop.  They have a great store there with a cute old fashioned lunch counter.  The kids picked out some candy to tide us over until lunch.  We drove over to Bridge Bay to check out the boat tour schedule, but it was another hour until the next boat left, and there wasn't much there for us to do to kill time.  The water looked pretty choppy so we didn't think we were missing much by moving on.

Since we didn't see much wildlife on our first pass through Hayden Valley, we decided to drive back through there on the way back to the campground instead of continuing on the southern end of the lower loop.  We saw about eight or nine bison on the way back - still not nearly as many as we had seen years ago.  I could tell that Henry was disappointed, but this is a national park, not a zoo, and wildlife sightings are never guaranteed.

Lone bison on the side of the road

Geysers, Springs and Paint Pots, Oh My!

Our plan for Yellowstone, so as not to exhaust ourselves, was to pick different areas of the park to visit each day, and be back at the campground around dinner time.  West Yellowstone has many things to do in the evenings, like the local Yellowstone History Museum, the IMAX Theater, a small theater and of course, shopping.

On our first full day, we toured the Lower, Middle and Upper Geyser Basins.  Since we didn't do too much - okay, any - hiking in Grand Teton (other than walking around pullouts looking for animals), we wanted to make up for it in Yellowstone.  

In keeping with our plan to be a little more relaxed, we didn't wake up at the crack of dawn and head into the park at 7:00 a.m.  We got on the road around 8:30 a.m., grabbed our picnic bags and hit the road.

Yellowstone sits above a hotspot under the earth's surface, and the majority of the park is in a caldera. Various thermal features exist in the park:  geysers, springs, fumaroles and paint pots.  We found all three in the southwestern area of the park.  

Our first stop was at Old Faithful.  As we were pulling into the parking lot, we could see it going off in the distance, so we knew we had about an hour before it went off again.  We checked out other geothermal features on a boardwalk hat circled Old Faithful, and as we were finishing up the loop, it was about time for Old Faithful to erupt.  We watched from the back of the geyser instead of standing with hundreds of other people in the front.  This view allowed us to see it go off with the Old Faithful Hotel in the background - added scenery.

In 2009, Jeff and Henry hiked up to an overlook where you can watch Old Faithful from above.  Henry wanted to do it again, so he and Jeff set up to the overlook and Ruth and I set off to the hotel.  Our first order of business was to get huckleberry ice cream at the snack bar and go out on the deck to enjoy a seat with a view of the geysers.  Then we did a little shopping in the gift shop and looked at some gorgeous pictures of Yellowstone by a local artist.  By the time we walked outside, we spotted Henry and Jeff coming back, and we all walked back to the car to check out the other geyser areas.

If we could add a smell feature to the blog, right now you would be smelling rotten eggs.  Good thing you for you that a smell feature hasn't been created for blogs yet.  The springs and fumaroles emit sulfur in the gas and steam, so while you're looking at amazing bubbling, hissing, steaming holes in the earth, you are also smelling a pretty foul smell.  It's a small price to pay.

The Middle Geyser area had more features, including the Grand Prismatic Spring.  It's huge, and you can't see the whole thing from the boardwalk.  But what you can see is incredibly colorful.  It's the largest spring in the park, and if we were feeling more athletic, we could have taken a longer hike to see it from a viewpoint on a hill above.  We'll have to do that next time.

We drove along the Firehole Lake Drive and saw more geysers and springs.  We read that there are hundreds of these features in the park.  At the end of the drive we parked at the Lower Geyser section, home of the paint pots.  The geysers are magical to watch, but the paint pots are interesting in their own way.  The water underneath the earth is hundreds of degrees - so hot that they can melt the rock and turn them into clay.  The heat of the water underneath causes the pool of white goo to bubble and pop.  Sometimes, blobs of the white goo fly through the air and land back in another part of the pool.  Words just can't describe it, and photos can't either.  I shot some video because that's the only way to truly see the power of the hotspot underneath.

On our way back to the campground, we saw some elk laying down in the grass in a valley along the road to the West Entrance.  We had seen them there back in 2009 and hoped to see them again.  It was only females; we haven't seen any males in this park yet.

In my rush to get ready in the morning, I forgot to put on makeup.  More importantly, I forgot to put on moisturizer with sunscreen in it.  I didn't put any on myself or the kids.  Henry and Jeff had baseball caps on, but Ruth and I didn't, and the two of us had sunburned faces.  I also had farmer tan on the arms.  This was Ruth's first real sunburn, and it made her feel hot and tired.  Me too.  We put some aloe on and then some moisturizer before we went to bed.

The wind picked up in the evening, too much to cook outside on the grill.  We've had sandwiches for lunch every day for more than a week, so I ran into town and picked up some fried chicken.  I got enough to cover dinner and have leftovers for a lunch another day.  

Since we're driving to Hayden Valley in the morning and it's on the other side of the park, we went to bed early with a plan of getting up early.  Early birds get to see animals, you know.

Here are some more pictures:

North to Yellowstone

Yellowstone National Park is due north of Jackson and Grand Teton National Park, just a little ways up the Rockefeller Parkway.  We left our campground and drove back through Grand Teton National Park for one last view before heading to Yellowstone.

We pulled over at an overlook with a view of the Teton range to make sandwiches for lunch.  I went out to take a few pictures since the sky was as clear as it has been since we got here.  As I was taking pictures, a bald eagle flew up from the trees below and into the sky, right in front of the mountains.  In my excitement to catch it on film for Jeff, I forgot to take the camera off the manual setting from when I was trying to experiment, so none of the pictures came out.  I tried to wave at Jeff or the kids in the motorhome so they could come out and see the eagle, but they were making sandwiches.  Even though I don't have a photo of it, seeing the eagle fly by at that time was the perfect way to end my time in the park.

It took about three hours to get from our campground in Jackson to the Grizzly RV Park in West Yellowstone, Montana.  There were a few steep hills and descents on the drive which kept Jeff on his toes.  It's a beautiful drive through woods, along rivers and high up above canyons.

Having pushed ourselves a bit too hard in Grand Teton with early mornings, we decided to take it easy today.  The drive along the southwest area of the lower loop and out to West Yellowstone was the only part of the park we saw.  We set up camp at the Grizzly RV Park, which is a nice, spacious campground close to town and the West Entrance of Yellowstone.

After getting everything hooked up, Jeff pulled out his computers to do some work, and Ruth rested in the back of the motorhome.    After I ran to the grocery store to restock some of our supplies, Henry and I drove over to the Wolf and Grizzly Center, a few blocks from our campground.  The Center is a not-for-profit organization that rescues grizzly bears and wolves that can no longer be in the wild and keeps them in their sanctuary.  The grizzlies we saw were either orphaned as cubs or had to be taken out of the wild because they kept getting into garbage cans or vehicles in populated areas, looking for food.  

Henry loved seeing the animals up close.  Two bears starting playing together, wrestling and charging at one another.  The wolves, which were in a separate enclosure, were very active and curious to look at the people on the other side of the glass in the indoor observation area.  We looked at exhibits and watched a short movie about the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone.

We cooked dinner at our campsite.  Since it was raining, we made steak sandwiches inside the motorhome.  We wrote out some postcards, tried to get this blog up to date, and either read books or watched television.  Throughout the night, there were intermittent thunderstorms but nothing too bad.  We all had a restful night.

And Now, a Word from Jeff

We've had a very good time thus far, and aside from the occasional work related headache or the occasional "he said/she said" from the back row, I'd expect the remaining 23 days to be just as good.  

August will kick off with our attempt to watch elk and anything else that would like to come out and play on the western side of Yellowstone National Park and then we'll make our way to the geyser area to take in Old Faithful and a hike to the top of the mountain nearby.  Henry and I made this hike in 2009 and just missed seeing a coyote on the walk up.  There are about 700 grizzly bears and 400 wolves estimated to be in the park today which sounds like quite a bit but given that the park is about the size of Connecticut, we'll b e lucky to spot either of these and if we don't, it won't be for the lack of trying.  We do have an idea where some of the wolves are but won't likely make it to that area until Sunday or Monday.  It's also breeding season for the buffalo so here's to hoping they show some self control when children are present.  

The Rosy Moments:

Columbus, OH - Driving through Jack Nicklaus' boyhood town 

St. Louis, MO - Budweiser Tour

Hays, KS - Ice cream social

Denver, CO - Rockies game

Rock Springs, WY - Driving the Sheep Loop in Flaming Gorge

Jackson Hole, WY - Animal sighting, cowboy bar, would be a great place to live…..

West Yellowstone, MT -  Everything Yellowstone

The Not So Rosy Moments:

Columbus, OH - Being "assaulted" by my friend's dog, Norman

St. Louis, MO - Risked my life running to get Ruth ice cream at a convenience store in East St. Louis

Hays, KS - Turned East on I-70 instead of West after stopping for gas

Denver, CO - Bought tickets in front row but of the wrong deck at Rockies game

Rock Springs, WY - Stomach issues 

Jackson Hole, WY - Busted my water hose that I bought from an infomercial

West Yellowstone, MT - Electricity went out in campground and I can't get my DirecTV signal back on

Later...

Jeff

Henry's Grand Teton Animal Report

The scenic float and wildlife tour capped off our amazing wildlife viewing of Grand Teton National Park.  We saw lots of animals in the mornings in different areas of the park.  Here's my tally of the animals we saw:

Juvenile Eagle

18 bald eagles

6 moose

3 coyotes

3 mule deer

100 pronghorn

250 bison

4 bighorn sheep

10 osprey

40 elk

18 chipmunks

3 otters

2 pelicans

Lots of ducks (Common Mergansers and Cormorants)

1 unidentified bird that was either a hawk or an owl

Countless Canadian geese, magpies and ravens

We're headed to Yellowstone National Park today, and I'm excited to see more animals there.  Look for my next animal report, coming soon.

Female Moose

Sunrise Safari

To cap off our visit to the Grand Teton National Park, we went on a guided wildlife tour with Wildlife Expeditions.  We were able to see elk bulls running through meadows, bison climbing a ridge with the Tetons behind them, some pronghorn playing in a field and three moose grazing in bushes near a stream.  Our guide, Natalie, was great and shared interesting information about the biology of the park and the animals in it.

We had to meet Natalie at 6:00 a.m. in town for the tour, and it was a bit rough.  But Natalie had hot tea, hot chocolate, coffee, muffins and water for us, which made the early wake-up call much better.

Because we had already driven through most of the park, Natalie took us to more remote areas and the adjacent Bridger-Teton National Forest.  She showed us an area where bighorn sheep sometimes hang out, and she also showed us where a landslide created a natural dam and Slide Lake.  It was a beautiful area to explore.

Here are some pictures from our tour:

Looking at elk through scopes

Tetons at sunrise

Bull elk in the road

Bison on a ridge in front of the Tetons

Moose in the willows

Slide Lake in the Bridger-Teton National Forest

Pronghorn

Sunrise Float on the Snake River

Back in 2009, we had a great time on a mid-day float on the Snake River with Joe Morin, owner of Teton Floats.  We booked another float with Joe, but this time we chose the Sunrise Float.  If we haven't mentioned it yet, it gets pretty chilly at night in Wyoming, so when you get up early in the morning, it's often in the low 50"s.  As we got more acclimated to the Mountain Time Zone, it became more difficult to wake up for early morning activities.  

Jeff was really excited to see eagles along the Snake River.  He hadn't seen any yet in the park.  Henry was excited to see any kind of wildlife.  Ruth and I were just looking forward to a float down the river.

The weather was chilly, but sunny, and we had a nice float.  It seemed to flow faster than the last time we did it, and for awhile, Henry was a bit worried about what he had gotten himself into.  But once he started seeing eagles, and then different types of ducks, and then otters, he was just fine.  In total, we saw 17 bald eagles, including mature adults and juveniles.  Only the mature adults have white heads and tails.  One juvenile flew alongside us and then up into the air, giving us a nice show.  His parents were both perched in a tree nearby, posing quite majestically.  They are truly beautiful birds.

Our raft captain and guide, Chris, did a great job getting us down the river and talking about the area.

After 13 miles of the Snake River, it was time to hop out of the rafts and head back to our Jeep.  We all agreed that it was a great way to spend a morning in Jackson.

Grand Teton National Park

Holding to our research that early morning is the best time to see the park and find animals, we were up and out bright and early to see what we could see.

We first headed to the place where we saw the moose the night before, and we weren't disappointed.  We found a bull moose in the willows and then farther down the road, a female moose with her calf.  As we continued through the Gros Ventre/Antelope Flats area, we saw more bison grazing and moving across the sagebrush.  We explored more areas of the park, including Oxbow Bend, Jenny Lake and Signal Mountain, and the views were spectacular.

It was cloudy much of the day, which made for interesting views of Grand Teton.  Sometimes the clouds circled the top and covered it.  Grand Teton tops out at over 13,000 feet, and about 3/4 of the way up, the treeline ends and it's just rock and snow.

We took a midday break to run to the grocery store, rest a bit and let Jeff get some work done.  We stopped by my favorite grocery store in Jackson, a "whole foods" type store that has great baked goods.  I still remembered their foccacia bread with sun dried tomatoes and was thrilled to find they had one left on the shelves.  We picked up some cold cuts and freshly baked ciabatta bread to make sandwiches for our picnic lunches in the park.

Later that evening, around 4:30 p.m., we headed back into the park.  The early evening sun changes the shadows on the Tetons.  We hunted around various spots to find some wildlife, but the opportunities weren't as plentiful as in the morning.  We watched the sun set behind the Tetons and then made our way back to camp.  It was dark by the time we got home, and we were exhausted.  With a 7:20 a.m. pick-up time for our sunrise scenic float on the snake river, we went straight to bed and got some much needed sleep.

Touring the Antelope Flats

Moulton Barn on Mormon Row

Moose on Film

We were thrilled to have a few opportunities to watch the moose in Grand Teton National Park, and we took lots of pictures of them.