Taking photos on vacation is one of my most favorite things to do. I’m learning patience when taking shots. (I could be the most impatient person on the planet!) Basically, if I don’t take time I’ll end up with loads that are blurry or slightly off centre or just not right. While I’m not stellar, I do enjoy taking as many shots as I can. They’re getting better–trust me! (Besides, I didn’t take photos professionally for 15 years of my life like Jon did.)
Luckily, Yellowstone is a living photo shoot. Everything is moving and colourful. From the massive hillsides of burnt trees, right down to the small things like stripes of cyanobacteria in water, or steaming blue pools of water, there were so many things to take photos of.
The park covers 8980km² which is about 2.2 million acres. In 1988 almost 800,000 acres burned. Thousands of fire fighters and 380 million litres of fire retardant were used for one of the largest fire fighting efforts ever, and still it was Mother Nature that eventually squelched the fire with fall rain and snow.
Yellowstone, and the National Park Services have a natural burn policy–as long as a fire is caused by nature (ie: lightening) and isn’t threatening human life, park structures, natural resources or areas of cultural importance the fire is allowed to burn. Obviously fire is important to the ecosystems of the park; I can appreciate that. Allowing 36% of the park to burn in 1988 certainly affected the landscape we saw. One can’t help but wonder what the deforested areas would have looked like had there been no mass fire. It isn’t as though we’re strangers to the scorched earth landscape left behind by wild fires–BC is always on fire. Always. On the positive side, the 20 year old trees appear to be thriving and green where they’re growing back.
Another tree oddity on Cooking Hillside–“Shake then Bake”. From one of the sign posts: “Covered by dense forest until 1978, this hillside changed dramatically after a swarm of earthquakes struck the area. In spite of being jolted again and again, the trees remained standing, but met their demise soon afterward when ground temperatures soared to 200°F or 94°C! Roots sizzled in the super-heated soil and trees toppled over one by one as steam rose eerily between the branches.”
Some more park facts for you:
Yellowstone Lake is one of the largest high altitude lakes in North America at 2557m above Sea Level. (Or, 7733 feet.) Yellowstone Caldera is the largest super volcano in North America. We crossed the continental divide several times while in the park. Most of the park is in Wyoming, but also there’s 3% in Montana and 1% in Idaho. This Map shows the Caldera, the Continental Divide as well as all the roads and other normal map components. It is almost identical to the one given out at the park entrance.
Moving from flora to fauna, in 1926 Wolves were nearly exterminated in the park. By the 1970’s the Wolf was on the US endangered species list. In 1995, and 1996 there was a successful Wolf reintroduction program. To promote bio-diversity, 32 wolves were imported to Yellowstone from BC and Alberta. Word is that the wolves “were back” when we were in the park. Loads of people with spotting scopes were at pullouts in the Lamar Valley. One couple we ran into (who said we had Canadian accents, and that they aspire to be Canadian because “we’re so civilized”–so funny!) had been successful in their viewing that morning. They have lived near the park all their lives, and were super excited to share information with us.
Once they had been watching a small wolf pack for days (can’t remember the pack name, but they knew exactly who they were), they saw the wolves take down a bull Elk, and then a Grizzly came and stole the carcass. They said they whole thing went on for about 3 days until loads of people showed up with scopes and binoculars to watch. We did not see anything even close to that, but then again, we didn’t have days to sit in one spot in hopes of seeing something with binoculars.
I did manage to spot some things with my eagle eyes, and thanks to my new camera I did get photos. These shots were taken from super far away, but you still get the gist. ps: I love the little goat peeking out from his leafy snack a top a cliff in the middle of nowhere.
We arrived about 15 minutes before an eruption of Yellowstone’s famous Old Faithful. Eruptions occur anywhere from 65 to 91 minutes apart with a 10 or so minute window either way, so we were lucky we didn’t really have to wait. Word is that if the eruption lasts less than 2.5 minutes the next one will be in 65 minutes or so, and if the eruption is longer than 2.5 minutes the next one will be in about 90 minutes. So clever those scientists making a schedule for everyone!
Old Faithful is totally the “Mona Lisa” of the Yellowstone. You can’t really visit without seeing it, but it isn’t the most beautiful feature. And, it is by far the most touristed. There were hundreds of people waiting to see the show–half probably on bus trips to see one or two things in the park and then off to their next destination. Oddly, when we were getting our info at the Yellowstone Association, the two guys who were behind us said, “We have 3 hours–what do we see?” How about a whole lot of nothing!
Surprisingly, even though it is most famous, Old Faithful isn’t the highest or largest geyser in the park. Steamboat Geyser (video in previous entry) takes that title. However, unlike Old Faithful, Steamboat is unpredictable with major eruptions from 4 days to 50 years apart. Old Faithful is usually around 145 feet high, whereas Steamboat has been up to 300 feet high. Last huge Steamboat Geyser eruption was in May 2005.
Here are the Old Faithful photos. Imagine you have a flip book.
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I’m sure the Old Faithful Inn and Visitor Info Centre go through periods of boredom and super busy insanity every 45 to 91 minutes. There was mass exodus once the eruption was over. Obviously, it was worth seeing, but not the most spectacular thing we saw in the park.
There is so much to see in the park that is isn’t funny. At each turn of the roadway there is another rock formation, another geothermal feature or another site to see. From Mammoth Hot Springs through to Madison on the 57km section there was a lot going on.
Sheepeater Cliff is a formation of basalt columns that formed over 500,000 years ago. When the lava cooled it formed the columnar joints. You don’t see rock like this just anywhere. There are also Obsidian Cliffs (that we weren’t able to stop for photos at the time) that has loads of actual black obsidian rock all shiny and glistening in the sun, again formed that way when that lava cooled.
Sheepeater Cliff
We stopped at Roaring Mountain which is rather bizarre. The steam vents in the mountain are sometimes barely heard, and at other times they create a roaring sound that can be heard several miles away. Sadly, the photos just look like a lump of normal mountain, so they’re not included.
Emerald Spring
As we continued South, we ended up at Emerald Spring and Steamboat Geyser. Emerald Spring is almost 30ft deep. The green colour is due to the high sulphur content. It smells bad, but is quite pretty. Again, be thankful you can’t smell the photo.
Steamboat Geyser was the first actual geyser we saw in the park. I took a little video that would be much better sans commentary provided by the couple beside me that would not stop talking. The next leg of the trip was from Madison to Old Faithful. Ooooo, be excited for upcoming entries!
When I set out on vacation, I don’t normally have a list of animals I want to see. I’ve seen several Yellowstone animals–deer, mountain sheep, bears, elk, coyotes, eagles etc, just from traveling and living in BC, so it wasn’t as if we’re coming from somewhere where these animals don’t exist. The one thing I was most excited to see in Yellowstone was definitely Buffalo, perhaps even more than Old Faithful! Second on the list – Antelope. And, of course, we’d take a Grizzly or two just for good measure! Who wouldn’t?
Approximately 200 visitors a year are gored by buffalo. That’s one every two days. There are ample warnings to “Stay Safe! Stay Away!” And, Elk will charge people, and damage vehicles. Google it up, you’ll find video for sure.
The Yellowstone Association near the North Entrance to the park has an electronic map that tracks where animals have been recently sited. While there, we asked the staff for some tips, best viewing locations etc, and luckily we did see a lot of animals. However, not one single bear, and not one single antelope. At least the buffalo were everywhere. I like them as much as I like Llamas.
On the drive from Yellowstone through to Cody we saw thousands of Pronghorn Antelope. They were just roaming around farmer’s fields. The irony is that the second time we visited the Yellowstone Association we asked if there were recent Pronghorn sitings, and if they were mapped. Apparently the Pronghorn are spotted so frequently through out the park that they aren’t even tracked. There is even a one way dirt road that is basically where your guaranteed to see them–nope, not even one. And, we were out at all times of day, all over the park.
ps: I love my new camera. The zoom is awesome, but the digital zoom makes for some fuzzy photos. Most turned out ok, and I had been forewarned that I wouldn’t like the digital zoom results.
Here’s your science lesson for the day: Water deep below the surface of the earth is heated by the Yellowstone Volcano. The water bubbles to the surface, and flows out over the top of the Orange Mound. Calcium Carbonate and Travertine deposits left behind by the water create the formation. Some people we were talking to said that when they visited Orange Mound Spring a year earlier, it was much, much smaller. At this point, it is growing over the current road way, and work of moving the roadway to accommodate the formation has already begun.
Orange Mound Spring is only one of several examples that show the park is always in transition. Word is that no two visits to Yellowstone are ever the same.
The night before our first day in Yellowstone we stayed in Gardiner, MT. In the morning, we entered through the Roosevelt Arch at the North Entrance. President Roosevelt laid the corner stone in 1903. The inscription is a quote from the Organic Act of 1872 that basically states the park cannot be sold, settled or occupied, and that it is set aside as a public space for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. Once through the gate we were in Wyoming, and ready for our Yellowstone adventure.
President Grant signed the bill declaring Yellowstone as America’s first ever National Park in 1872. The army served as park administration until a National Park Service was established in 1916. The NPS are still managing the conservation and preservation of the park. There are still army barracks in the park and several museums to celebrate the park’s history. Really, we weren’t too keen on the museums. Some of them are kind of ridiculous. Who needs to see a museum of the Park Ranger? (I imagine exhibits like in 1920 they wore green hats, and in 1940 they switched to beige. Seriously, we didn’t check it out.)
From prior research, I knew Yellowstone was going to be geothermal insanity, I just didn’t realize exactly how much we would see. Obviously everyone thinks “Old Faithful” when they hear Yellowstone, but there are more than 10,000 features in the park. There are steam vents, fumaroles, bubbling mud pots, hot springs, and lots of geysers. An astounding half of the earth’s geothermal features are in Yellowstone. We took loads of photos that don’t necessarily do the park justice. Sure the colours are beautiful, but if you can’t smell the stench of sulphur, or hear the water hissing out of the ground you won’t receive the full effect. (Be happy you can’t smell the sulphur!)
We covered all of the parks roadways making our way from the North Entrance down through Norris and Madison to Grant Village on day one. The first feature we saw was Mammoth Hot Springs. The natural terraces are formed by mineral deposits left behind by the flowing water. There trail is limited to wooden walkways that are built to protect the structures created by the hot springs, but also to protect the visitors. Some places in the park there is a very thin crust over scalding hot water, and people can be scalded or even boiled to death if they stray off the walkways.
Here are some photos from our stop at Mammoth Hot Springs.
Montana has some weird stuff going on. If you drive through Montana on the I-90 you’ll notice that there are a bunch of liquor stores, gun stores, pawn shops, porn shops, and casinos. The road-side billboards are all advertising those same things. Apparently the license plate slogan should be “The Heathen State” not “The Treasure State.” Who knew?
In Butte, the billboards aren’t any better than the establishments because they’re all about Meth. I suppose this is all fairly typical of a mining community, or any other small town that is highly independent on one industry (oil, lumber, coal, etc). Apparently the anti-meth campaign has been extremely successful though. The billboards definitely have an impact; I’m a few thousand km away and still thinking about them. My favourite one we saw: “Before Meth I had a daughter, now I have a prostitute.” Billboards and Montanan pass times aside, there were some great finds…
Like Evel Knievel Days! Who knew that Evel Knievel was from Butte, Montana?!? I’m only sad we weren’t there in July when all the stunts were going down. That would have been classic. There were helium stars and stripes balloons lining the street along with placards hanging from lamp posts to honour this home town hero. At some point in his career Evel Knievel wanted to jump his motorbike across the Grand Canyon, but never did. He did jump 13 Pepsi Trucks though. FYI: His bike is on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, DC. Don’t think I’ll be making a special trip there to see it, but if I happen to be in the neighbourhood you never know.
The other find, not much of a symbol of Americana, but also in Butte–Our Lady of the Rockies. (ps: I don’t know how we manage to find so much Catholic iconography on our travels, but we do.) The statue caught our eye from when we were checking out the historic district. Now, thanks to google, I know what it is all about. Here’s a little recap: Our Lady of the Rockies is almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty. Bill O’Bob built the statue for his wife after he promised the Virgin Mary he would build a statue if his wife recovered from her battle with cancer. When she recovered, and the statue was built to honour women everywhere. Another interesting fact–Our Lady of the Rockies sits atop the Continental Divide which we crossed several times during the trip. Stay tuned for the next entry of our exciting I-90 adventure.
Our first actual day in the US was September 11th.
Not that I wouldn’t have remembered the sombre significant day had I been in Canada, it just had more impact actually seeing the actions of the people. There were flags everywhere–which isn’t unusual for Americans to display, but I mean they were EVERYWHERE! 99% of them were at half mast. Businesses had messages on their communication boards. Homes had flags and messages in windows or on fences. Service men and women were hanging banners and flags on over passes. All of these things really acknowledged a shared sense of grief.
I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing during the 9-11 attacks, as I’m sure all of you do too. I was working at the resort, and we found out during morning check-in for rafting. There was no radio, no news paper, no TV, no nothing, just panicked phone calls asking if we were o.k. We were in the middle of nowhere in BC along a major river/transportation route, and there was a 3rd plane missing. Looking back, I think it is odd that people, random people at that, thought we would be in any danger at all. A super tiny Canadian village or the Pentagon, there is no contest really, but that is how panicked everyone was.
I didn’t see the actual footage until later that evening. Thinking of it now is still upsetting.
US Flags line the street
We Remember
Adventures of a couple seeing the world 2 weeks at a time.
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