Yellowstone

This is going ter be a longer post than usual. So I suggest that either you buckle down, give me yer undivided attention, and make yourself a nice big cup of ovaltine to drink as you read…OR for your convenience, I have divided it into sections. You can read a section, realize that this is pointless reading, and come back later to finish it… Let the posting commence!

Yellowstone: “The Bowels of the Earth”
I know, I know. Chicago has arrogantly claimed this title for themselves. But I will restore the title to its rightful owner: Yellowstone.

Day One: “We can’t find a place to stay!”

After a few hours of driving, we arrived at the west entrance. We drove along, only to realize that the Norris campground was full. We drove north. Indian Creek was also full. We slowly made our way to the northwestern most tip of Yellowstone: Mammoth Hot Springs. Luckily that camp was not full! (A rare thing for three in the afternoon.) Yay!
We found our camping spot, and we saw why it wasn’t full yet. This camp was made for the desperate. Like us. One of the main roads of Yellowstone wound around us; it was about 300 yards in front of us, and 50 yards behind us. The land was bare and stark. They set up sandboxes to set up your tent in. At night, the loud drone of trucks would wake mom and dad up, but not me! The lights woke me up…glaring off the tents.
Anyway, after we set up our tent, we explored Mammoth Hot Springs. Luckily, we overheard a way to get a more decent camp spot—reserve one by phone. Only a few camps do this, but it might be easier than rushing to the first come first serve areas. We secured a spot at Bridge Bay, Southeast from our position, and next to the large Yellowstone Lake. An ideal camping spot.

elk in Mammoth Hot Springs

Mammoth Hot Springs

Three elk in M.H.S. area

Day Two: “Buffalo are little Piggies”

After getting up, we packed everything up and drove south to Norris. There we looked at Norris Geyser Basin, which was very interesting and stinky. It was here that mom made the memorable observation that Yellowstone is the bowels of the earth.
After Norris, we drove west to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We hiked along a good portion of the northern rim. We saw the lower and upper falls. On our way back up, Mom spotted a hike she had to do on the southern rim. This is what it looked like from the northern rim.
We ate lunch before proceeding to the southern rim of the canyon. On our way to lunch, however, (or back…I can’t remember) we saw lots of buffalo crossing the road, in Hayden Valley. One particularly large one looked like he was going to bulldoze our car, mom probably got an impressive picture of him, since her upper body was out of the window…but he changed his mind, and went around the back. I’m glad mom’s still intact, too. We thought the buffalo sounded cute. Only mom thought they were very cute. So cute, that they couldn't possibly harm anyone. We should go pet one. They made sounds like little piggies snorting. Then in my imagination, I imagine three or four piggies inside a buffalo costume roaming around…
Uncle Tom’s trail just hurt looking at from the northern rim. Up close wasn’t any better. Every instinct in my body told me not to do it…but there goes dad and mom… The trail descends about 500 feet, has about 350? steps, and is all see-through metal. You have just one rock wall on one side, and nothing on the other, but a deadly drop. Luckily, there were rails to keep you safe. Dad observed that all of the paint is worn off the rails, because everyone, including me, grips them with a death grip. I think both ways were equally hard. Down was hard because you had to look down to be sure of your steps. The problem of looking down, is that you see right through the steps to the bottom of the canyon floor. Yikes! The problem of going up, is that you see all the steps that are slightly bent, kicked in, etc. etc. etc.
Uncle Tom’s trail was way worse than any scary ride in Lagoon. Scarier than the skycoaster. My legs were trembling so hard, they hurt. Mom wasn’t of any help to ease my fear, constantly yelling to me, “Nat! This is really scary! This is the worst part! Natalie!” (The scariest part consisted of looking down and the fall is easily 100+ feet.)
After Uncle Tom’s, we drove to Bridge Bay and set up camp. We ate dinner, then drove to Mud Volcano, where we smelt more foulness and witnessed more wonders of nature.

Yellowstone Lake




Now, that's what I call bad gas. (It's low quality. I apologize.)

Video and picture from Norris basin

Canyon pictures
No way! Are those really buffalo?

Uncle Tom's Trail: Northern Rim view

Day Three: “Let’s Erupt!”

I don’t know why Old Faithful is so famous. It’s kind of like Delicate Arch. Why is that arch famous? I’ve seen many cooler ones…meh, it’s not up to me to decide what’s famous and what’s not. I think Old Faithful is particularly famous because it’s easily accessed and it’s certain to go off in the next 100 minutes…and it’s pretty darn big for a predictable geyser. It’s pretty cool to watch, no matter what angle you’re at, whether you’re in front of it with the large crowd, far away, looking at other spectacles, or at the observation point on a mountain. It’s pretty impressive.
As we walked along the trails beyond Old Faithful, we just missed the Grand Geyser, something that is a rival of Old Faithful. It’s supposed to go for 20 minutes, in four or five bursts. However, I did get to watch the Riverside Geyser go off. I think it’s pretty because it’s all by itself right next to the river! It looks lonely, though. Many other popular geysers have buddies that go off as well.
Pathetically enough, my favorite geysers are the “baby” geysers. The Anemone Geysers were a particular favorite. Their cycles were only about seven minutes long. They looked completely empty, then water appears out of nowhere, making a pool, then they burst! After a minute or so, all of the water is immediately swallowed away from view, swallowed with a toilet-like sound. I think they should be renamed to “Magically unclogging clogged toilets.”
After the Old Faithful region, we drove North to visit the Lower Geyser Basin. We went to Fountain Paint Pot, and Firehole Lake Drive. That’s where I got to see the White Cone Geyser erupt. It was pretty cool.
Then we visited both Biscuit Basin and Black Sand Basin before returning to camp.

Old Faithful (too many people go to Yellowstone! [Look in the background.])

My favorite: The Anemone Geysers. The one in the background is finishing up its cycle. The one in the foreground is currently empty.

White Cone Geyser

Black Sand basin (I think. Could be Biscuit)






Day Four: “Can we be done yet?!”

We packed up, but couldn’t do anything fun in Jackson, WY. Why? Because mom said so, that’s why. No, we must work, work, work! No fun. Just find a place to hike, and we hike. Why? Because you must keep moving. You aren’t allowed to sit around. That’s wasting time. No, we’ll find a hike to do on the way to Jackson to pick up Emily. Let’s go to…Jenny Lake. And there we rode a boat to our hike, hiked, then rode it back (on the ride back we spotted two…moose?meese?). I will confess that the hike was very pretty, the mountains are simply majestic, craggy and overwhelming, and the lake looked so inviting.... After the hike, we picked up Emily and went out to dinner with Emily and Carvel. So I didn’t really get to see the famous town of Jacksonhole. We just ate at the “Merry Piglets.”
The “Merry Piglets” was an amusing stop, because knowing me, conversations are bound to go wrong when I’m present. For example, I got the feta cheese wrap, but only succeeded in eating half of it. It was larger than my foot! I was stuffed, and mom told me to eat some more. “But I can’t eat any more! I’m full!”
Carvel: “Have you moved?”
Me: “Why, no, I haven’t. That’s a good idea! Usually you move to wiggle in some more space for food…”
(Everybody’s laughing…I finally comprehend…)
Me: “No, I haven’t moved in for school yet. I do that on the 16th…”

I took pictures of these signs because they were found all over Yellowstone, and I thought they were quite amusing.

Yes, that's me and my tie-dye shirt in the sign.

Animals seen:
eagle
osprey
raven
crow
bull snake
bull elk/elk
deer
squirrels
chipmunks
buffalo
various water fowl
fish
moose…meese?

Places Visited (not necessarily in this order):
Mammoth Hot Springs
Roaring Mountain
Norris Geyser Basin
Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
Yellowstone River
Yellowstone Lake
Bridge Bay
Fishing Bridge
Sulfur Canyon
Mud Volcano
Old Faithful
Biscuit Basin
Black Sand Basin
Fountain Paint Pot
Firehole Lake Drive
Continental Divide
Lewis Lake
West Thumb/West Thumb Geyser Basin

Languages heard:
German
Asian (Japanese, Chinese, Korean, who knows?)
Italian
Swedish
Hindi
And many more I couldn’t distinguish…

One Last Thought:

Humans are like lemmings! They have to do what everyone else is doing. We were held up for about 15-20 minutes-not because animals were crossing the road, but because everyone driving by had to stop, park their car, and take a picture of the animal way beyond the road, or next to the road.
When we were waiting for a geyser to blow, we sat there with 2-3 other people. Within five minutes, there were 20-30 people looking to see what we were looking at. Unfortunately, many lost patience, and left after waiting 2-3 minutes.
If I had the time, (mom would never allow this laziness) I’d stand at a random spot on the road, a camera to my eye, and with a look of excitement on my face. I wonder how many people would stop to look for what I was taking pictures of—nothing.