Out and about in the wilderness of Life

Of course, I could not leave the park without visiting its trademark area. The Old Faithful geyser basin is a huge area comprising various hot pots, geysers, and thermal vents. The area is quite active and people are always reminded to stay on the boardwalk as it can be dangerous. A regular field can actually just be a thin crust of soil over a hot pot. Some teens working in the park a couple of years ago found this out the hard way when cutting through a field at night. One girl died after falling into boiling water.

Okay, enough with the scary stuff, this is an awesome area and really not dangerous so long as you stay smart. My first stop was at the Lodge, cause frankly after my hike to Fairy Falls I was pooped! And my heel spur was acting up like crazy, a perfect time to take a break in the Lodges lobby. A great place with huge picture windows over looking the Old Faithful geyser.

Upon leaving the lodge you are presented with the Old Faithful viewing area. The next eruption was “scheduled” for about 30 minutes from now, so I was heading down to find a place amongst the crowd. The reason I put it as “scheduled” is because they really can’t get a solid time on the eruption like they used to, lets just say its not as faithful.
When my dad worked the park back in the 50’s you could almost set your watch to the eruption. But after several seismic events over the years, including a big 7.5 quake in the 60’s it tends to be “about” every hour and a half now.

I only had to wait about 20 minutes for the geyser to go off. Looks like my luck with timing is good today. The crowd was full at this noon time blast and it was a tall one at about 120 feet. Its difficult to tell the height with nothing to refer it to in the background, but I got the height from a ranger after the eruption. You can see the Inn over on the left.

After the eruption I decided to do the minor loop around the basin. With my foot acting up I figured it was better, and it would lead me over to the Old Faithful Inn. There were plenty of people out and about, admiring the colors and the sprays from the different geological oddities. I did get struck dumb at one point. There were 2 foreign couples, middle eastern decent, northern from the look and sound, that did something I had never seen before. First the older man had taken off his shoes and was dipping his feet in one of the runoffs from Old Faithful. He said that it was rather warm, but nice. But what really just knocked me over was when another woman, not speaking English, dipped her hands in the run off and cupped some water up to her mouth and drank. She showed no ill effects afterward but I would have never thought to have done something like that. Is it dangerous? Well the taste would have been sulphery but not necessarily toxic. But there are a lot of microbe’s that dwell in that water that I would not want in my tummy. Perhaps she has a better constitution than I do (or less wisdom).

One of my favorite things to do in this area is tour the Old Faithful Inn. This mammoth of a building is so gorgeous in its construction. Its like a Swiss chalet and a log cabin combined. The inside lobby is 5 story’s tall with criss-crossed beams keeping everything together. The fireplace in the lobby is open on all 4 sides and I can almost walk upright into it. One day I will travel here during the winter and enjoy just relaxing at the Inn and snowmobiling around the park.

Last day in Yellowstone. Frankly I don’t want to leave. This is not normal actually, I tend to get tired of a place after awhile and want to get back to the comforts of my own home. Perhaps this trip was needed more than I had thought. Once again I get up WAY to early, just can’t get adjusted, and am out the door at 7:15am.

First stop today is a hike to Fairy Falls. Its about a 5.5 mile round trip hike, over fairly level ground, so while it is not just off the road it is an easy hike. The initial hike takes you behind the Midway Geyser basin and there is a good parking lot at the trail head. I got here so early that there was only one other car, so I knew the trail would be fairly quite.

The trail skirts along a good size hill with plenty of new pine growth on it. Since the park was devastated in 1988 by the great fire, it is good to see all these pine trees slowly recovering the land. Of course you can still see the lodge pole pines dead but standing in with the new trees.

My only companions on the trail were chipmunks. These little guys were thriving in the old downed trees and all the new growth. There didn’t seem to be any evidence of predators around, even the birds were the smaller finches so I suspect there were also plenty of mice and ground squirrels around. This little guy kept jumping in this bunch of grass, grabbing seeds, looking at me like I was going to steal them, then scampering away to eat them.

Even though it was still early in the morning, the sun started warming things up pretty quick. And of course, with enough foliage around, there were skeeters all over the place. Luckily I had picked up some spray with my favorite flavor of Deet before I left town. They were still annoying but tended to more divebomb me than actually clamp down for breakfast.
I had never been to Fairy Falls before but was told it tended to disapear in the summertime due to lack of water, thus I was not sure what I would find when I got there this morning. Luckily even with it being late July, the water was still flowing just fine and tumbling almost 200 feet to the creek below.
The only other couple that had parked at my lot was departing right when I showed up. So I had the place all to myself. Lighting was poor for the waterfall, and I wasn’t to sure how long I would have to wait before I could get some better shots, so I found a nice spot at the base of the fall and sat down to rest.
One of the nice things about this fall is that you can actually go right up under the falling water. While there is a pool, it is quite shallow and you can get there very easily from the official trail. I had already had a shower that morning or I would have been more tempted. As it was, sitting in the sun with the cool spray from the falls on my face was plenty nice.

I sat there resting for over an hour, enjoying the only sound around, the water crashing into the pool. One little chipmunk came up to share my trail mix, but otherwise it seemed like my private little slice of paradise.
The sun was not going to cooperate so I started the trek back. There were plenty of the yellow wildflowers that I had seen throughout the park growing along the trail.

And then I started seeing the people. Apparently everyone else knew to come later to catch the sun on the falls…or they just slept in more than I did. Either case, there were over 40 people passing me on their way to the falls. I guess it was a mixed blessing, I didn’t get quite the photographs that I wanted but I did get to spend some great private time at a beautiful setting. Perhaps next time I will come later for the photos…but just as likely I will come early to have the falls to myself.

Today I am off on my own into the park. I get an early start, mainly because I can’t sleep long in a strange bed and some people around here go to bed early. So its out the door I go at 7am.

First is the drive along Firehole river. This is a nice spot in the western part of the park, and generally you can go swimming in a special section of the river (only place in the park that it is legal do swim). But this year the water is SO high that the current is a little to much and they have shut down the swim hole. This is a shame as I wanted to take a dip. The river is fed by hot springs so it is warm year round.

Driving south I come upon the Lower Geyser Basin. This is a neat area to get out and truely understand that you are standing in an active volcano. There are tons of mud pots, hot pots, geysers, etc in this area. True, it can look desolate and depressing if you choose to look at it like that, but I like to see the vivid colors in the waters and watch the geysers go off. Course, you might have to hold your nose at times due to the sulpher smell.

The Midway Geyser is a great stop because not only do you get a nice place to walk around, but also that you get to see how it feeds the Firehole river. I have a short video that I will add later.

Craig Pass is one of the Continental Divides that you come across as you head to the south gate. There is a small lake here that is chock full of water lillies.

Lewis Falls is the first easily accessable falls coming from the south gate. It is only 29 feet high, but due to its width it makes for a great photo spot. There is a small dirt track that goes up and along the river allowing you to get pretty close to the falls. Worth the stop.

Next up is outside of Yellowstone and into its sister National Park, The Grand Tetons. While the Tetons is not as famous or as vast as Yellowstone, I think it has the best vistas. Jackson Lake runs in front of the Tetons and you can get some lovely photos of the mountains reflected in the lake. I have done this in the past but today the weather was not working with me. The clouds were low, but scenic, and the lake had a slight chop, so a reflection was out of the question. I still lingered here and at the Marina for quite some time enjoying the weather and the scenery. After this it was the long drive back to West and dinner with the folks.

Today I find myself driving my parents into the park. We are going up to Canyon and on to Lake Yellowstone.

After entering the park from West Yellowstone, we get to see some Elk along the Madison river. Its such a tranquil scene with the ribbon like river running through the green fields. The mountains on each side bookmarking the picture into your mind. There was even a young Elk out with its mom enjoying the morning.

This year the park is vivid in greenery. The winter was heavy in snow and their rainfall was above average, so even though its July things are still bright and alive. Also the rivers and lakes are more full than usual. In some circumstances this makes areas harder to see, as with the Upper Falls of the Yellowstone, it is so full it almost looks like an intense rapid from a distance rather than a major waterfall in a river. Its still a lovely place and great for photos.

Next stop was the Lower Falls. This one is a favorite of mine as you get not only a lovely scene, but also great height of the falls. My dad joined me on the trail down to where you can see the falls, but my mom stayed behind this time. She had a knee replaced last winter and really needs the other done before she is easily mobile.
The area downstream of the falls is called the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Gorgeous in its geological wonders, brilliant yellows and reds in the rock formations. The Yellowstone river flows north, which I know is rare if not unique.

Bison can be seen throughout the entire park. Often popping up when you least expect them. While they are a herd animal, obviously some have more of a streak of independence than others. If I want to be guaranteed to see a large herd, I always head to Hayden Valley. This area of the park is between Canyon and Fishing Bridge, and depending on the time of year…or even day…you can expect delays as the great beasts lumber along the roads. Today they are all over at the river keeping themselves cool luckily.

Lake Yellowstone is to the south central part of the park. There is still much damage found around the lake from the fires back in 1988, but things are sprucing up very quickly. Well, quickly when you talk about the speed of trees growing, for us humans its a tad longer.

I took my last photo of the day in the snack bar at Fishing Bridge. At the time I was just taking a crowd shot at this old style snack bar, but now it has a different meaning to me. So many kids are drug along on family vacations every year and positively hating it. When it comes to the Great Outdoors, you can usually pick those people out because they are teenage girls. In this photo you definitely get the idea that while the brothers are having a good time, she is just biding her time before blowing up at someone.

My parents have been working here in Yellowstone since they “retired” back in 1992. They, for the most part, enjoy the jobs that they do for the parks concessionaires and do enjoy the lovely area they get to hang their hats in the summer. Lord knows its cooler here than in Oklahoma.

How did they get here? Well my dad worked here for 3 summers back in the early ’50s. All the time he was working his real job as an adult, he kept thinking about how much he loved the park. Needless to say, there were a few trips to Yellowstone when I was a kid. I to got the fever for this lovely place, but being the rebellious teenager I did not want to follow in my dads footsteps (stupidstupidstupid).

I have started coming up here every 2-3 years to visit them and it works out pretty well. They take a little time off from the park to show me around and I get to venture out into the wilderness and fullfill my shutterbug addiction. I don’t know how much longer they will be coming though, it gets more and more expensive to get here and the company they work for does not really pay real world wages. I might have one more trip to see them, otherwise it will probably be on my own after that.

This morning I left Salt Lake after a couple of relaxing days with my friends. They saw me off after filling my belly with pancakes (yay!).

Typically, I take 15 north to 20 and straight into West Yellowstone. But this time, I decided to try some of the “scenic drives” that criss-cross Utah and Idaho. It was a good move on my part as it was an excellent day and I got to see a bunch of places that I normally don’t get to.

First stop was Bear Lake, which is on the Utah/Idaho border. A large sprawling lake that has a quaint little community on its shores. Apparently this is a big Raspberry producing area as they seemed to have everything out on the signs promoting Raspberry baked goods, Raspberry ice cream and just plain Raspberry s. I gave them a few Raspberry s as I passed through, but stayed as polite as possible (they were just walking in the road…wtf?)

Idaho, well there is a lot of farming in Idaho. Which is not a bad thing. In fact, since they have had a decent amount of water due to a heavy winter and good rains, everything was nice and green, even in July. Driving through the rolling hills is quite nice too, even though you do get sleepy after awhile.

Luckily I ran into a little town that I had not seen before. Lava Hot Springs is a town based around…well a hot spring fed by lava (I suppose). Seemed like a fun place, wish I had had more time to stop. They have a lazy river running through town that you can tube on (warm I am sure, and not just from the pre-teens) and a professionally built pool area where you can lounge in the warm water.

My main stop in Idaho was to see Mesa Falls. This little gem, not to far from the backside of the Tetons, is by far my favorite spot to visit. To be specific its the Upper Falls more so than the lower, but I think you get the idea. One reason for this is that I stumbled upon them years ago and litterly had my breath taken away. The photos I took today do not grab the same feeling that got me the first time, but they come close. It was later in the day this time and so you did not get to see the multiple rainbows flowing off the falls, and the moss formations in the backside cave are not as striking. But hopefully you can get some of the grandeur of this massive falls.

Next up was reaching my parents place in West Yellowstone. We had a nice visit and a little dinner before bed. Tomorrow they have taken the day off work so they will accompany me into the park.

The more I visit SLC the more I like the place. Perhaps there is something in the water here. The people are friendly, even if you are not LDS, and it has a nice safe feel to the community.

This morning we visited the downtown farmers market. Not only is it full of great produce, jams, meats, cheeses and bakery goods from the local area, it is also a great little crafts fair. I even bought a nice jade necklace, which is really not the norm for myself.

We walked around all the booths and snacked on some really good food. I even found this nice Jamaican lady (in SLC? who knew?!) who was selling awesome jerked chicken kabobs for under $3, numm nummm nummmm!

I got some locally made jams and jellys to take up to my parents, some kettle corn for the long drive tomorrow to Yellowstone and Amy got a new necklace as well as some fresh cherries. While there are several farmers markets around where I live in VA, they tend to stick to produce, a few baked goods and sometimes dairy. If I lived in the SLC area I think this would be a typical Saturday morning trip for me.

Amy is the hostess with the mostest. Okay, she paid me to say that but it is true. Kind of heart and spirit I have been fortunate enough to know her for over half my life. I like to think of her and Greg having a little oasis of understanding in the LDS controlled state of Utah.

Living so far apart it is always a blessing to spend time with them, and so when it is time to move on it is always done reluctantly.

Oh, the little dogs name is Saki…just like my cat.

So let me tell you about Greg. He is one great guy…kinda shy but one of the kind souls in this world. I am certainly glad that he and Amy found each other and are so happy together.

He hates his picture being taken so I had to do a quick shot to get this…let see if he kills me soon!

Well today is my first full day in Salt Lake City. My gracious hosts, the Grahams, are certainly making me feel at home. Last night after a VERY long day flying from the east coast they took me to dinner and gave me beer. What more can you ask for in a host?!

Today started off with a conference call with my lovely job…at 6am. I was actually pretty quite on the call, not so much that I was tired, but because this was the type of meeting that it was better to attend in person. Needless to say I have some damage control to take care of once I return.

After that I simply zonked out for a couple of hours, it seems that my day of travel affected me harder than I had originally thought. We had a nice lunch at a pizza place called Navoles. Then Greg took me on a tour of some of the iconic sites of SLC.

We walked around Temple Square and checked out their visitor center. You can’t get into the temple area itself unless you are of the LDS faith, of which I respect. But I would have liked to have seen the temple closer up. The entire area is quite lovely and they have plenty of volunteers to keep the grounds in perfect shape. The visitors center was nice also, including a large art gallery depicted the life of Jesus.

Afterward we went up to a look out area and saw all of SLC valley. Then a few adult beverages and back to the house. Hopefully I didn’t wear out Greg to much, when I am in a new enviornment I tend to get a little springy in my step.

Tonight its dinner at Madeline’s then a late night viewing of the new Batman movie. I can’t wait!!