Yellowstone - the ultimate park

...because it was the last park on our trip, if for no other reason. But we think there are plenty of other reasons: several geyser basins, the mudpots, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, sprawling glacial valleys, and the thousands of bison challenging your vehicle's audacity to cross their paths once you've gotten inside the Roosevelt Arch.

We found a 40-foot coach is not a happy coach at Yellowstone. At the time we were there, there was only one campground inside the park that would accept a rig of our size, and it was in the northwest quadrant of this immense park. We ended up camping just outside the north entrance at the town of Gardiner on US Forest Service land. For a mere $3.50/night, we had a wonderful grassy site at more than 6100 feet of altitude.  No hookups, no problem; we had fresh water, spacious waste tanks and a generator to recharge our "house batteries" after watching our evening movies.  Even better, we saw the wildlife wander into our campsite, including elk and pronghorn deer. To get to camp, our coach had to climb 800 feet up the side of a mountain, an extremely steep climb through several switchbacks over a 2 mile long dirt road. The average slope was very steep, and that was just average.

But once we got there, it was an enchanting view and we could peek directly into the park. We looked across the valley to Yellowstone's Mammoth Hot Springs which is more than five miles line of sight; that's just too far for a zoomed-in closeup. Every day we could see the white limestone rocks of the travertine formation manufactured from the dissolved limestone the water spewed from the hot springs, complete with hydrothermal steam rising from it in the mornings. In this picture, what appears to be a snowfield is actually the travertine terrace of Mammoth Hot Springs.  See the steam?

The main north-south road through the 3,500 square mile Park stretches 95 miles border to border –at a speed limit of 45! Nobody can average that, however, due to tight turns and the wildlife that keeps wandering on the asphalt. To see everything the park has to offer, you would need

Mama elk and elkling

to spend more than a week there, and it would be best to move your base camp to various locations as you explore. We chose a section of the park to highlight each day, and literally spent four hours just driving our car to each one and back again. It was not wasted time, because the scenery was stunning and never got old. John and Debbie were blown away daily just with the first 5 miles of the park, which they drove just to get to any other location. We were here a total of five days –really, not enough time.

We missed our first planned Ranger-led hike because we didn't realize the drive down to the West Thumb area (in the south half) would take well more than the two hours we had allotted. This was disappointing because we thoroughly enjoy the education available from these marvelously knowledgeable people who live in this fantastic environment every day.

After walking the West Thumb boardwalk, we headed west from for half an hour, which found us in the Old Faithful Geyser basin. We arrived just in time for the 2:24pm appearance of the heated stream of waters dancing merrily high into the air before an appreciative crowd, many (but not most) of whom applauded this performance engendered by the unforgiving and deadly magma lurking a few miles beneath their feet. Up until the 50's, the eruption had occurred nearly hourly. The Rangers tell us earthquakes in 1959 and 1983 changed the underground "plumbing", and the length of the eruptive period began to expand. When we had the kids there in '90s we were told the average time between eruptions (ATBE -John got used to this sort of thing from his exposure to the government's aircraft regulatory division....) –ahem. 
Anyway, our recollection is that the ATBE in 1993 was around 76 minutes, give or take 10. Today, they say it is close to 94 minutes, +/-. That's too long to wait around for the reprise when we have a two hour drive back home and a daily pre-dinner date with an aperitif. Besides which, John's acerbic view of silly social customs would not let him endure another round of the crowd's ignorant applause for a jet of a water controlled only by simple physics. If you're a New Ageite, please leave a comment trying to convince him that Water's feelings can be hurt. We've already pointed to its merry dance, okay?  And we already know you're drinking Smart Water and believe it has Memory, as well.

The next day, Debbie wanted to attend another Ranger-led walk, one that was to last nearly two hours at the Mud Volcano on the east side of the rough figure-eight (or maybe a B?) formed by the Park Roads. It was in the Hayden Valley, a favorite hang out for the bison, it seems. The Ranger, Debbie reports, knew a lot about these “mud pot” features in this area –being distinctly different from geysers while sharing the same basic origin: underground water heated by magma. The difference is that the “plumbing” here does not have the constrictions that would keep boiling water from the surface until it had built up so much pressure that it just had to blow. Also, the water is acidic, some with  ph=1 –think battery acid. As a result, the rock is all dissolved and turned to mud when mixed with the water. 

 As you might expect, the underground thermal activity keeps the ground warm, too; hence the bison calling the Hayden Valley a favorite place. We hadn't seen many, however, because –just as the boy elk on the west coast who preferred to hang out with the guys until being forced to participate in the 7^th grade school dance (see Northern California #24)– these bison were off in the woods chasing their Buffalo Gals. (And now, you've that song in your head, too, Don'tcha?) The Ranger explaining these facts of rutting to Debbie's group was quite circumspect because of the number of younger humans present; he promised that we would see the bison showing up after their “family reunions” were finished.

Debbie was a bit disappointed in the mud pots believing them more watery than her 90's recollection. And John says, once you've stirred your soup on the stove, it's all pretty much the same, except for the sulfurous stink.

 We crossed the road to visit Sulphur Caldron, for the same sort of thing, then drove across the middle of the B –more than a 30 mile trip!– to check out Monument Geyser Basin and the Artists Paintpots. These were more colorful because of the thermophile bacteria to be found in them. Some Life can thrive in water as hot as 250 degrees, although none of the ponds in Yellowstone could reach that temperature, of course. (Water boils its extra energy away at less than
200 at these altitudes; you have to cook differently here, too.) The bacteria color the ponds brilliant greens, blues, reds and yellows and you actually can estimate the water's heat just by looking at the color of the bacteria in it. Debbie was just fascinated to learn that an enzyme from a microbe found in a hot spring here facilitated scientific study of DNA!

The next day was the fourth for us having stayed in “dry camps”.  Our coach's generator makes all the power we need in just a few hours and stores it in a bank of half a dozen batteries; we have 100 gallons of fresh water on board, and other tanks hold more than a hundred gallons of “gray” and “black” waste water. (“Gray” water comes from the sink and shower drains; you deduce whence the other

stuff originates.) A private campground in Gardiner charged us $15 to dump and fill.  And since we'd only paid 3-1/2 bucks per night to the USFS for our wonderful campsite, we didn't complain.

←Looking back toward our boondocking camp from atop the white travertine formation.  BryRV is too small to see and our handheld GPS figured it was just behind that yellowish hill to the left.  The town is the Army post cum Park HQ just inside the Gardiner entrance.

Mainly because we'd been looking over to the Mammoth Hot Springs inside the Park the whole time, we visited there starting early with another Ranger-led hike around the different springs.  This is atop one of the huge white ledges (in paragraph-3 above) on the side of the mountain here.  

We lunched a the Udine Falls, one of the very many falls (not lunches) in this northern part of the Park

Our final day in Yellowstone we spent traveling across the northern part of the park after taking a Ranger-led walk along the south rim of The Grand Canyon Of The Yellowstone. It's very much like the big one down in Arizona, except it's not ten miles across.

The scenery here also is distinctly different from that farther south in the center of the ancient –yet still very active!– volcano. Vast vistas of mountains and valleys and plains and– well, pictures just do not satisfy. We will carry the experience with us until we are no more. We did see one geologic feature that John recalls having been impressed by during our family trip three decades earlier: cliffs of basalt looking rather much like teeth because the rock's crystalline structure apparently caused it to fracture in tall hexagon columns.

East of the Tower-Roosevelt intersection, we were being wow'd by the bison that finally had finished their "family reunion" business and had gathered along the roadway. The NPS loudly and constantly educates us tourist types to stay a minimum of 25 yards away from these creatures when we are afoot. As one Ranger advised, they are not cuddly at all. But that separation is something we cannot do when they approach us in our vehicles. It was a bit unnerving to drive past these things almost close enough to reach out and touch.

It's about the last week of August. We've been on the road for more than four months now. Some days that doesn't seem possible. Other days– well, John just wants to get back home. We will head north to I-90 and shoot east. Our next blog will be the last, but we have two wineries among the last camps!