Six Weeks/14 Parks
2008
We don’t care what gas costs!
Dunraven Pass
Norris Geyser Basin
Old Faithful Geyser
Grand Tetons National Park
Hayden Valley
Mud Volcano
Buffalo!
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
Rising very early to try to beat the crowds, we left Canyon Campground around 7:00 AM. First we took a quick ride north to Dunraven Pass. We’d heard that early in the day wildlife could be spotted in that area. We were on a mission to see buffalo. OK, bison, but nobody calls them that around here, it seems. No buffalo at the pass, but some beautiful alpine meadows.
We headed west. To get to Old Faithful form the north, you take the road through the Norris Geyser Basin. Steam rises everywhere. It looks like forest fires from a distance.
8/1/08
At the Old Faithful geyser, there is a boardwalk around the area allowing viewing of the other volcanic action there. It gives you something to do besides sit while waiting the 90 minutes or so between eruptions of the big guy. There are so many interesting examples, too many to show them all here, so here’s just a couple.
Yellowstone has more volcanic activity beneath the surface than any other place on earth. The geysers are one of the signs of that. Water is heated beyond boiling by the magma under the rocks. The hot water and steam must find a way out. There are many places where the boiling water simply springs from the earth and flows into the cold rivers. Also, there is much seismic activity as well. Earthquakes which knock down the trees and change the geothermal activity are common.
Waiting for Old Faithful is an odd sort of experience. Some people get there an just stake out their spot on the bench. Others walk and then sit. Either way, by about 15 minutes before the eruption is to go, lots of folks are sitting and watching. The geyser isn’t quiet either. It steams and bubbles, often giving false starts. Finally, it gives the big bursts, going in spurts higher and higher until the water is way up in the air, with the steam going even higher.
We were on a quest for buffalo. A fellow had told us that down in Grand Teton NP, at a place called Antelope Flats, there were free-roaming buffalo. So we headed down there, fighting the RV traffic all the way. It was well worth it. The Tetons are beautiful. We saw a small herd of buffalo off the side of the road! Very cool! See those little brown dots? That’s the buffalo.
In 1988, there was a huge forest fire here. The park was evacuated and much of the forest was burned. The Park Service has made an effort to inform visitors about the fire and it’s aftermath. One of the consequences has been a policy of natural reforestation. Unlike were lumber is harvested and replanted in other parks, here they let the forest reseed itself. Everywhere you look there is evidence of this. Thousands of dead trees are still standing, waiting to fall, while around them small pole pines are beginning to grow.
We saw dramatic evidence of this on our ride back to camp. The road between Canyon Village and Fishing Bridge had been closed yesterday because of fire. This day, the road was open because the fire had moved away from it. Trees were still smoldering. This picture doesn’t do it justice.
Just a little further down the road, we found our buffalo. Imagine - we’d driven all day and then ten minutes from camp, there they were, right by the side of the road. With the smoke of the forest fire rising high beyond the hill, these animals seemed oblivious. They just happily munched their grass.
While Merry and the kids were taking pictures of this animal, they didn’t see the other one that was coming right up at them. At least not until he was three feet way crossing the road! Very exciting - so exciting I forgot to take a picture. Here he is coming back across.
The road passes through the Hayden Valley, another geothermal hot spot. Here, the activity manifests as the Mud Volcano, the Churning Caldron and the Dragon’s Mouth. Boiling water mixes with soil and bubbles up to the surface. The smell of sulfur dioxide is pretty overwhelming. Think hundreds of rotten eggs! The buffalo like it here because the smell keeps the biting flies away.
Seven hours on the road today, but what a fantastic day!
