Yellowstone National Park, rodeo, ranches, Dick Cheney
The truck smells like
Sulfer
Favorite meal
Refried beans and canned corn heated on the Coleman, generous amounts of shredded cheese melted in, topped with spicy salsa. Eaten while enjoying a view of Liberty Cap in the background
Oops moment
Mistaking a welcome bulletin board for a rest area on the map...you can't pee or rest at a bulletin board
Highlights
Grand Tetons Chapel, the bison greeting us in Yellowstone, meeting the Belgian couple doing the same thing we're doing but in a van, taking crazy amounts of pictures in Yellowstone
Best drive
John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway from Yellowstone to Jackson
Conversations
The influence of art
Adjectives
Rocky outcrops, open spaces, other worldly, odorous
So how many of you have been to the Grand Tetons? And how many of you have been there when there was a photo shoot going on, complete with blond model and British photographer saying things like “oh yea, just like that darling! Marvelous!”? Well we have! We are dying to know in which catalogue the photos are going to appear. Sarah’s guess is J. Crew, Aaron’s is Delia's. What is yours?
Oh yea, and the Tetons were cool too. We wanted to experience all the glory that the Tetons had to offer. But surmised that unlike Glacier, there just aren’t any great day hikes here. For backpackers, it promised some seriously awesome 3-5 day adventures. But after spending 4 full days in Yellowstone already, we felt the need to save this for the next trip. We have been told by backpackers that the best views of the Tetons are from the highway. But don’t miss a dip in Jenny Lake because as you can see, it is picture perfect.
If you haven't been to Yellowstone, you should go, because it is one of the beautiful ways to feel like the end is nigh. That's right, I'm talking apocalypto.
Now you may not believe our claims of this impending doom. The first white man to see Yellowstone tried to tell everyone what he saw and no one believed him! In 1807, John Colter, described it as "hidden fires, smoking pits, noxious steams, and smell of brimstone". Everyone thought he was making it up because it sounded too crazy.
What is crazy is that Yellowstone is a giant volcano! The tourists come to enjoy a beautiful flat land to get a close up look at many geothermal phenomenon. What you learn in the process is that all of this activity is due to the fact that you're standing directly above a magma chamber the size of the Yellowstone area. Kinda scary if you start thinking about it. Consider this picture, stolen off of National Geographic's website, and similar to what we saw in the visitors centers. Notice the size of yellowstone and the two magma chambers. right under foot. Makes you want to get as far away as you can, like the French Southern and Antartic lands, which is an island on the opposite side of the earth.
Now they did reassure us that there is no imminent threat. For anything drastic to occur, there would be warning signs of violent earthquakes and weeks of slow oozing lava. But, if it did happen to erupt it has the potential to spew enough ash and poisonous gases into the atmosphere to temporarily block out the sun and start an ice age.
Now clearly, we're no geologists, but we were in awe. The earth is such a dynamic place and it's pretty cool to get to live in a time when all of this knowledge is so accessible. It should be noted that National Parks are such great places to learn! Most of them have interactive displays now with audio tours that you can download right onto your iPhone. And I won't tell you how many Parks we've been to thus far, but I will say we've far surpassed the $80 we spent on our National Parks pass. So worth it.
So we just have to share our experience with the Bison in Yellowstone. We discovered that for some people in the mid-west, seeing a Bison brings the same feeling as when we Californians come across a raccoon. But for us, we LOVED watching the Bison and were SO excited every time we found some! We drove less than 100 yards into the park and were met by this fellow...
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This was just a small taste of what was to come. We had heard of the "Bear Jam" that can occur in Yellowstone when somebody spots a bear near the road and stops to take a closer look. We unfortunately never got to start a bear jam, but were able to be a part of many Bison Jams! If only the commute home on the 580 was something so enjoyable.The Jams sometimes allowed for enough time to exit the truck and take a closer look, which you can see we were stoked to do!
The second coolest job in Yellowstone, after the Geyeserologist, would have to be the Bison Herder. They know where the herds are going at certain times of day and when it's time for the herd to cross the road, they sometimes have to use their large truck to encourage them along. At times the feisty males would get territorial and put up a bit of a fight. But in the end, size does matter. And especially for Roro, a Bison taking a bath. He was still dirty when he was all done, but covering himself in dirt gets rid any bugs that are bugging him.
Since Sarah bought this amazing book back in college, she has been awed by its cover photo and wondered where in the world is this colorful place?!?!.
Well, check it out: it's right here in Yellowstone, so we obviously weren't going to miss it! We were both really excited to stare into the depths of the prismatic spring. So we saw it…though the book was on to something when it took the picture from the air; from the ground, you really can’t appreciate the colors because you can hardly see them. If you look at the picture you can see that the 150 plus degree water has created a nice puffy cloud. So those clouds might look cute and all, but when it blows right over you, it's like you're in a sauna that smells like sulfur. Not so great... Now we should mention that it's still worthwhile to see, because it's huge. Look in the bottom right hand corner of the top picture and you can see the walking path. It's about 6 feet wide, which makes it about 30 feet from the edge of the pool. We know we're acting all gripy because we didn't get to see the colors, but if we were any closer, we'd be steaming like broccoli. It was amazing, but we recommend bringing your helicopter and wide angle lens. Nerdy note: the vibrant colors you see come from the varieties of bacteria that grow in these springs. Microbes that live in such hot water are called thermophiles and there are some that enjoy highly acidic environments called acidophiles. The yellow and orange microbes in the pool give a clue to the temperature of the water since they grow in 170 degree water. The blue in the middle of the pool is where the water is really deep. The discovery of these rare organisms, "Thermus aquaticus" led to all sorts of discoveries including PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction), which allowed for faster sequencing of the human genome. If you've got some time to kill, check outthis link.
Glacier was beautiful, but our next destination was the grand daddy of all the national parks: Yellowstone. A fact you might want to remember the next time you're playing trivial pursuit is that Yellowstone was the very first ever National Park established and it was because of President Theodore Roosevelt. The Saaron had never been to Yellowstone, but we have heard good things. We started by going to see Old Faithful; we felt that with all his faithfulness, he deserved to be the priority. We were not alone in this thinking, we found a few hundred others waiting in anticipation.
We discovered the best job in the National Park system: the geyser predictor. There’s a master control station in the visitor center where rangers all over the park are radioing in the times of geyser eruptions and the specially trained geyserologists use their geyser knowledge to predict the next eruption. This info is posted on all sorts of tourist boards throughout the park so not only can you plan your time to see Old Faithful, but also Grand, Daisy and Castle among others. We strolled out of the visitors center three minutes before the prediction and then, right on cue, geyser!
Before entering the park, we found these awesome free video podcasts on iTunes to help decide what we wanted to see. One video was about the eruption of Giant Geyser and how spectacular it is. It has erupted over 250 ft tall for lengths of an hour! We learned only the lucky or the dedicated get to see it's greatness, as it's eruptions are totally unpredictable. We discussed bringing a book there and just hanging out for the day in hopes of experiencing the great Giant, but were glad we didn’t when we discovered it last erupted in 2008. I guess our video was slightly dated. Most of us think of Old Faithful when we think of geysers, but really it's quite abnormal in the geyser world. A geyser goes off because there are super-heated pockets of water underground that finds its way up through weak fissures in the rock. These fissures are continuously changing so most geysers go through periods of high activity and then become irregular or inactive. Even a small earthquake could turn a consistent geyser into a dry hole in the ground. This makes Old Faithful even more impressive as he has been erupting every 45-95 minutes since first recorded in 1870, and who knows how long before that! Near Old Faithful is a very informative visitor center with the always helpful rangers, as well as a crazy big hotel and lodge for those who wish to watch the eruptions in their PJs. While we did have our PJs on hand, we were planning on getting away from the crowds and heading into Yellowstone's back country. At the visitor center we learned that if you hike off the beaten path, or boardwalk in the case of Yellowstone, you might fall through a thin crust of earth into a hot 500 degree hot spring and die. Apparently they lose a few hikers each year. While this was a tempting dare, we discovered that most of the must see sites in Yellowstone have boardwalks built around them to keep you from actually stepping foot on the earth. And since neither of us had been to Yellowstone before to have any idea of its grand size, we realized that we could "boardwalk" for 5 days and still not see everything.
So fear not mothers, we survived without falling into a hot spring, but have promised to return to see the lesser viewed areas of Yellowstone someday soon.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Don't forget to enter the Rad Trip Contest if you haven't already!!!!
We were able to fit in one more day in Glacier to go see the main event. Glaciers are kind of an enigma of natural forces. It's just a really big piece of ice right, or is it a slow, frozen river? Either way, their power equals earthquakes and volcanoes in their impact. We first saw glaciers in July in Glacier Bay, Alaska, where you can still listen to cracks and pops from sheets of ice that are hundreds of feet thick and gradually flow, ripping off chunks of the mountains and taking them to the sea.
Here in Glacier, Montana the mountain carving is done and the Glaciers have almost all melted into lakes. There are mountains that you can easily see the different layers of rock that have been pushed up out of the earth and slowly scraped away by tons of rock. There is, fortunately, a couple remaining spots where you can still get up and close with a Glacier, but you have to earn our way there by hiking 6 miles and gain 1600 feet to reach them.
Our hike of choice for our last day of Glacier National Park was Grinnell Glacier. Grinnell is predicted to be completely defunct (gone) by 2030. We’re glad we took this opportunity to see it while we still can!
We steadily gained elevation as we hiked through flowers and shoulder-high berry bushes. This was pretty unnerving because there was signs everywhere warning us about the grizzlies in the area. Almost every hiker we passed jingled with bear bells, but they say the most effective deterrent is loud talking. Good thing Aaron comes with that standard. At one point we picked up the pace because Aaron was hearing what sounded like loud slurping. Sarah couldn't hear it, but for Aaron, it was so loud! No worries, it was just the water jug sloshing around in the backpack. Their haste brought them up past the tree line so they had lunch at an awesome view of yet another teal alpine lake.
We highly recommend this hike, but we also recommend starting early. It's picturesque every step of the way and can attract quite a crowd. We saw a herd of longhorn sheep, wild flowers, and unbeatable views of the valley below. When we finally reached the glacier at the top of Mount Gould we were around 7000 feet. We enjoyed feeling the water, freshly melted off the glacier, as well as wondering about the fascinating geology surrounding us. The only disappointment was that we couldn't stay at the top longer.
As if the hike couldn’t get any better, on the descent things got even more interesting. A boat full of tourists was crossing the lake and we watched them suddenly stop and head for the shore about 100 yards ahead of us. Their fingers were pointed and cameras were blazing and up ahead the path was full of halted hikers. Turns out it was snack-time for a momma grizzly bear and her 3 cubs and the middle of the path was the perfect spot. Sarah fearlessly marched up to the front of the crowd to get close enough for a good picture. We pretty much all acted fearless, but there certainly were a lot of bearspray cans at the ready. We watched them quizzically enjoy their lunch entertainment and eventually they tumbled across the trail and slid off to the lake for a drink. Our time in Glacier National Park was then complete.
Glacier National Park is one of the most user-friendly parks that we have been to. The Going-to-the-Sun Road may have a far-too-long name, but it offers a fantastic tour of the highlights of the park. And they even offer red jammer tours for those that want their history with a little class or who'd like to look at more than the sharp curves ahead. Their campgrounds are well maintained and they even have a number of fancy lodges to stay at for a more "indoor" outdoors. We did enjoy one night in their campgrounds, but lucky for us, we were also in Montana to visit the Wilkins.
We were pretty excited to see Howard and Karen, to enjoy the historic blue couches, but we had no idea what a treat we were in for!The Wilkins Property brings back memories of an epic New Year's eve trip in high school which was "Sweet-Fun". When we called Karen on our way into Montana, not only were we welcomed, but it just happened that Janice Monkowski and her sister-in-laws were there for a visit. Now let me give you some context so you can understand the amazingness of this chance meeting. Two of Aaron's best friends from high school were Adam and Melanie, and now they're married. Melanie's mom is Karen, who now lives in Montana, so we were expecting to get to see her. Adam's mom, Janice, lives in Danville CA, and once a year, she gets together with her sisters-in-law, Carol and Annette. This year, that get-together just happened to be hosted by Karen and Howard at the same time that we just happened to be driving through Montana. Now if that doesn't sound crazy awesome, we just haven't written it right.
Now you may be thinking, "So they hung out with their friends' moms? This was fun?" It was so much fun! All four of these ladies came for some good hikes, and they know what they were doing. Karen knows Glacier like her own backyard because, well, it kind of is her backyard. She can hike as fast as a normal person can jog. Janice has known Aaron since elementary school and is always good for a long conversation, and when you throw her sisters-in-law into the mix, there's usually four or five conversations happening simultaneously. When we arrived in Kalispell, we were sat right down to some warm creamy chicken lasagna, a perfect salad, huckleberry pie, and chocolate bread pudding. Seriously. You can't follow up a day of hiking much better. Oh, wait, we also got our own bedroom and bathroom and in the morning Karen made fresh croissants and blueberry muffins. C'mon; I love going to see the Wilkins. The next day, we were right back on the trail, and this time it was Sarah, Aaron, Janice, Carol, and Nettie. We were headed up to the Hidden Lake Trail, a hike Sarah and Aaron had foregone since they were avoiding the crowds. The trail starts at a visitor's center which sits at highest point on the park road and has attracted so many people over the years that they built a wooden boardwalk to lessen the crowds ecological impact. The thought of crowds and a boardwalk were deterrents for us, but Karen sold it in style: she pulled out a painting that a local artist had painted for her based on one of her photographs. If all those people want to see what's up there, it must be worth a look-see. The trail is a three mile round trip boardwalk that gradually gives a better view of the area as the grade inclines. There are plenty of visual appetizers along the way of almost all the best of Montana's wildflowers. You're also bound to run into a surly mountain goat or a marmot going about his business. The view at the end is also quite breathtaking. Glacial water never disappoints. Blue, beautiful view of blue. Aaron caught up with Janice and Sarah chatted with Carol and Nettie, and we all took pictures. It was a good time. At the top we enjoyed our lunches and watched the nearby animals. Aaron really wanted to get a close-up of the Marmot, and so he hid in the shade of nearby tree. It turns out that the spot belonged to a mountain goat, who came right over when he saw it had been stolen. The mountain goat won. We all hiked a little more, talked a little more, and snapped our little cameras silly. This chance meeting was bound to end, so the next morning the girls were off to the airport. Thanks for letting us invade your special time, it was really special for us!
