June 7th - Yellowstone

Frozen lake!

A rainy morning. After our version of sausage and egg Mcmuffins, we headed off to Yellowstone. When we got to the checkpoint for the NP, I ignored the ‘snow tires’ sign thinking yeah, right, but then the ranger told us we could go on at our discretion as they wouldn’t actually check. They were stopping trailers, which is why we were a bit confused because there were heaps of cars and trailers and RVs pulled up next to the checkpoints. Being the confident travellers we are (well, Will more than me!), we decided to soldier on, figuring we could also come back if we got stuck in snow. As we drove it rained and rained and rained. We drove higher and higher, but didn’t see any snow except for the huge drifts on either side of the road. We passed Lewis Lake, which was completely frozen over. It looked awesome and is the first frozen lake either of us had seen. There were low piles of snow scattered all over the lake, which were white against the pale grey of the frozen water. Will climbed over a snowdrift to get photos! 

Our first elk.

We continued on, but still no snow. We stopped at Grant Village for postcards and to watch the first video in a series about the NP. Each visitor centre has one, so we will do the video crawl, which may last a few days! This particular one was about fire in the park, particularly the big fire of August 1988. It surprised me how anti-fire everyone was ‘congress will have to answer to this,’ etc. Back then they didn’t realise it is an integral part of the rejuvenation process. People were complaining about how things just wouldn’t look the same and how the park was ruined and so on. And then they cut to a section about how Lodgepole pine trees’ pinecones don’t open unless they are subject to fire! Duh. And suddenly there were lots of new trees etc. I think it was such a huge fire because they hadn’t really let one rip through the park since it became a national park in 1872. So that’s quite a few years worth of dead trees etc.! 

Next stop was the West Thumb Geyser basin, where we inhaled sulphur as we watched a muddy patch bubble and spew steam. Then we saw an elk! Part of the trail was closed because there was a family of them wandering through this part of the park and someone had been charged at by one a couple of days ago. The elk did not have the huge antlers we’d expected, but it was still a magnificent animal. It was a big thing, happily grazing. 

As we were leaving, Utah drivers really surpassed themselves. In stupidity. There were at least 100 car parking spaces and we were parked in an RV space, which was a little too long for us, but they didn’t have to park RIGHT BEHIND US. Get your own parking space, loser! This is after we had a great big dirty bus parked next to us as we tried to eat lunch. Again, we were there first! Then another Utah-ian decided to do a U-turn without an indicator right in front of us as were leaving. Will reckoned he’d only just noticed the geyser which was right in front of the entrance! It wouldn’t surprise me if that were true!

Is there a bear out there?

We kept driving up to Fishing Bridge, mainly following Yellowstone Lake. Suddenly as we were happily driving along we saw about thirty cars pulled up on the very narrow shoulders of both sides of the road. So we knew there was something to see! Will, kindly (not) parked me in a snowdrift, so I had to literally climb out of Betsey and then I nearly slipped on my arse coming down off it. I think another tourist may have laughed at me. I know Will was just trying to pull right off the road, but we were more off the road than all the other cars!! Anyway, what everyone was gawking at was: a bear! Our first wild bear! It was two or three hundred metres away, so it just looked like a bear-shaped speck walking along and scaring flocks of birds. It was pretty awesome though! 

Stinky, sulphury, steamy geyser. Rotten eggs to the max.

Continuing on, we stopped at Fishing Bridge for more postcards. Then we were heading into Hayden Valley, which Lonely Planet had promised would have lots of wildlife. We stopped off at Mud Volcano to see the mudpots. They were great, all stinking hydrogen sulphide, mud and steam. They looked cool when they were bubbling and stinky. Like a witch’s cauldron haha. The Dragon one was awesome – the water was spewing out of a cave next to a little waterfall. The edges of the cave were red, green and brown and yellow. There were little plants growing on the little island in the middle of the streams, so they must like warmth and sulphur! We walked the loop, looking at all the various pools – keeping on the trail just like all the signs told us. I took Will’s photo with some of the pools right before the end of the trail and he was asking me about whether I zoomed in and I was like ‘WOW!’ There was a bison maybe 10 metres from the edge of the path! Just munching his way along, oblivious to anyone or anything. He didn’t really seem to notice the tourists wandering past and taking his photo. It was so cool! He was pretty big, with a hug shaggy neck! Then later, when I was waiting for Will at the toilets, the bison crossed the path and kept grazing. He was maybe a metre from the path and still hadn’t noticed anyone. Thankfully! Will said, well if we were that close, we’d run, but I’d just read something that said bison can outrun people. They run at up to 30 miles an hour, which is pretty quick for how big they are. So no outrunning them!! 

Pickin' up a bison.

We drove over the plains of Hayden Valley. We saw a ranger and some cars pulled over, but I couldn’t see anyone out taking photos. Then as we drove past, in the distance we saw what looked like a bear. Will reckons it was a grizzly, but I couldn’t tell. You can tell them apart because a grizzly has a huge hump on its shoulder and its rump is lower than that. A black bear has a higher rump. We kept driving and saw what may have been elk or moose and more bison in the distance. Damn them being so far away that I can’t take a photo! We also saw lots of birds, particularly Canada goose and Great Blue Herons (thanks to my field guide to animals and birds which I bought in Jackson at the visitor centre. Which is right next to the National Elk Refuge – but we were there at the wrong time of year to see any L).

Canyon Village – watched video on general Yellowstone (discovery channel doco perhaps? Discovery logo at the start). Learned more about how to identify bears (grizzlies have little ears and a dip between their eyes and snout in profile, black bears have pointy ears and a straight snout). Saw shots of moose headbutting cars and a bison attacking a family that were about a metre away from it (fair enough, I thought!).

 

Drove a slow 12 miles to our anticipated campground, Norris. We saw a Boris Bison along the lake near the campground as we checked in. (All Buffalo/Bison are now called Boris or Borisinas or Barry – to go with Scotties and Chippies – squirrels and chipmunks).

Chicken burgers and wraps for dinner, then a freezing cold walk – Will’s suggestion of course. A quiet and early night, ready for tomorrow’s adventures!