View from atop Mt. Washburn

Grizzly Mama + Cubs

A Land of Extremes

“It seems like there should be dinosaurs here.” -Tom

Yellowstone is truly a land of extremes. This morning (7/8…Sunday I think) we started our day with a hike to Mystic Falls. Getting to the trailhead involved following a boardwalk over mini-geysers, fumaroles, and bacteria pools. As the steam rose around us we marveled at what early settlers must have thought as they first came upon the area. Of course, many of these early visitors (often trappers in the area) were ridiculed when they shared their stories back at the taverns of civilization. The hike was a pretty strenuous jaunt uphill to an observation point that overlooked the Old Faithful area and all of its geological hyper-activity. From then we continued down to Mystic Falls…waterfalls just don’t seem to get that old to me.

This afternoon we drove north, stopping at Artist’s Point for some pictures of the falls as they cascaded through the canyon. The canyon walls themselves were amazing; the colors ranged from a bright yellow to oranges and brick red. This little trip was also interesting as I almost saw a man fall off the cliff while he tried to sit on a rock for a picture.

After we got a campsite in the Tower Falls area and had a late lunch (real gourmet today…chicken breast, butter/herb noodles, corn) we decided that we still had enough time to do the Mt. Washburn hike. The view was supposed to be fantastic and guidebooks all but guaranteed a sighting of bighorn sheep. Alas, the trip was a failure in this regard as the sheep were apparently hiding in the valley today, but the view was absolutely marvelous. This was another strenuous hike with a (no exaggeration) continuous uphill the whole way. We did top out at over 10,000 feet (I’ll have to look at the picture of the sign to be certain of the height) so it really felt like we accomplished something. The fact that we did the whole thing in just under 3 hours means that we’re pretty tired now.

While in the parking lot after the Mt. Washburn hike we ran into a guy who was telling us that they had seen a grizzly mom with her two cubs just up the road. We left right away with the hope of seeing her before she moved on. Fortunately, our wildlife-viewing luck returned from its bighorn sheep sabbatical and we indeed came upon the grizzly on the hill above the road. She was making her way up the hill and the cubs were running around this way and that. It is amazing how effortless their movements look for being such a large animal.

Tomorrow we’re going to drive through Lamar Valley in the evening and hopefully see some more animals (we just keep checking them off the list!). Again, you’ll have to adjust for the dates because this won’t be posted until 7/10. If these posts seem like they are getting wordier (maybe they always seemed that way to you, or maybe you’re like Tom and just like to look at the pictures), just bear with me; I usually keep a journal on vacation and it seemed redundant to do the blog and the journal so this is serving as both.

I almost forgot! Last night we took a walk along the river by our camp (some bugs had hatched and the fish were jumping like crazy) when across the bend there was about 5-8 doe elk and 5 little fawns laying around and browsing in the grass. With the mountain in the background and the stream in the foreground, it really did look like a painting. Alas, you will have to take my word for it because we didn’t take the camera for the hike.

View of Old Faithful from the Observation Overlook

*sniff* *sniff* mmm…sulfur

It’s 7/7/07 and our lucky streak of seeing wildlife continues. Just a minute ago on the way to our campsite we saw two elk with nice sets of racks. Ok, that little bit of excitement out I can now focus on catching you up to where we are. First of all, let me just acknowledge that this probably won’t be posted until we get to Great Falls, MT for our night in the hotel (7/10). The trip is going great but to be honest to you, we’re both looking forward to getting to the hotel and taking it easy for a day. As a bonus, I think the All-Star game is the 10th so we’re gonna order pizza and hang out in front of the TV for an evening.

We weren’t sure about our schedule but we decided this morning to leave for Yellowstone today. So far we’ve only been with the other 98% of the people along the road but tomorrow we are going to do a couple of hikes, including Mystic Falls for sure. Despite the fact that we haven’t left the road, the Park has certainly given us plenty to look at as we strolled along the West Thumb Geyser Basin (saw a doe elk there…still not sure if elk are like deer or cattle in their naming…doe/buck or cow/bull…you could tell me if you know, it’s quicker for me to read a comment than do a Wikipedia search); looking at the water bubbling out of the ground is a peculiar sight.

The appearance isn’t the only thing that is peculiar in Yellowstone; the nose gets to be an active participant in the vacation as the odor that eminates from the geysers and standing pools is very pungent sulfur. At Old Faithful we got a very up close experience as the wind shifted just before the main eruption – a blast of water that proceeded to rain down upon us. We actually watched Old Faithful erupt twice – once up close and once from up at the top of Observation Trail. That walk was nice as it took us past smaller geysers on the way; plus we saw an osprey swoop over head while we crossed the river. On a side note, the forest has made a marvelous recovery since I was last here in 1999 (the forest fire was 1988).

Moose...scroll all the way down for Black Hills/Badlands/Rushmore

Bear rustling up some grubs

Where the deer and the antelope play...

Well, well, well; what have we here? A moose, a bear, a buffalo, and an osprey too! The Tetons have been magnificent – both for hiking and general scenery. Right now it’s 12:30 (MST) on Friday the 6th (it’s quite an effort to remember days/times out here, one can really lose track of that sort of thing). We’re on our way out to Camp Davis so I can show Tom where I spent my time at Geology class. I probably won’t get a chance to post this until this evening when we head back into Jackson. We plan to see the town a little bit and then have dinner (no sandwiches = yay!!).

Let me backtrack a moment to recap what happened since I last typed a post (but didn’t get a chance to get it to the internet). We drove through the Wind River Range to the Grand Tetons…there is no mistaking you are at the Tetons once you see them! They rise from the ground in a manner that looks forceful even though they are stationary (technically they are moving, they still lie along an active fault…for those of you that care, the reason that the ground is so flat and there are no foothills is there are two faults in close proximity and they produce a graben (German for grave) where the middle piece drops down and the outer edges rise up.) Other than being in the park, we watched the fireworks in town on the 4th (the night we got into town).

One of the first things we did on our way to camp was drive through a buffalo herd (literally – they were in the middle of the road). We are camping in the Gros Ventre slide area; this is pretty cool in its own right as a section of the mountain completely gave way and slid into the creek, creating a natural dam. Our campsite is along the lake so we went swimming yesterday (didn’t want to pay $3.50 for showers). It’s crazy but when waterways are glacier-fed they are pretty damn cold!

We’ve done a few hikes in the park so far and we’ve been lucky enough to see wildlife on them all. No farther than ¼ to ½ mile into our first hike we encountered a black bear. He was up above on the hill digging at logs (for grubs?). Fortunately he didn’t seem to pay us no mind so we kept on the trail. That took us to a nice view of Jackson Lake. Our next hike that afternoon took us up Signal Mountain. As we crossed a hill and came down into a clearing with a pond, we saw a moose in the water swimming and eating. It was pretty cool to watch it because it would completely submerge its head and then come back up. The only unfortunate part was that it wasn’t a bull moose and we were eager to see some horns (Tom likes racks).

Fast forward to today when we decided to take a longer hike along the base of the Tetons up to Cascade Canyon. The hike could have been longer but we opted to shave 2 miles (each way) off the hike and take the boat across Jenny Lake. The trail had a couple of interesting views as it wound up through the woods along a stream. There is a large waterfall (Hidden Falls) that was pretty cool; further up we made our way to Inspiration Point (7200 ft.). From then we proceeded up the canyon, following a trail the meandered with the stream. For most of the way the roar of the water over the rocks was our constant companion (if we wouldn’t have caught the first boat, we would have had a lot of people companions because the trail was busy on our way back!) We saw a marmot (badger-like, apparently very common and fearless – they like to beg for food if you picnic) and a snake. And then, as we came into a wide clearing where the stream slowed a bit I spotted a bird with a large white chest and curved beak. We kept walking and then he dove off the top of the pine tree where he was perched, swooped down into the water and caught a fish! I asked a guide on the way back, turns out that we had just seen an osprey fishing. The last notable thing we saw on the way down was a bull moose eating willows along the stream. He was just a young guy but we sat down to watch him for awhile. As we sat there we saw another young bull across the stream in some more willows (they like willow thickets for food and cover). These looked quite big to us…and then we saw a VERY large bull moose up on the mountain just on the edge of the tree cover. Now that was site to see, even from a distance.

So that’s that for the last few days, hopefully I’ll post this by the evening. I hope everyone had a great holiday and keep checking back. I’m also going to try and post the bear video but I don’t know if that will be possible.

Fireworks at Rushmore...scroll down 2 for post

Mt. Rushmore close-up