National Park Road Trip - Day 5

Wednesday, August 6, 2008:


I'm writing this (really, just making notes in a journal) at 10:22 MDT, sitting at the picnic table next to the fire, using a lantern for light. I just finished getting my ass kicked in Phase 10, and now I'm starting to be covered in a swarm of bugs that like the lantern. Gross. Okay, I moved inside the tent now - couldn't take the bugs. Picture me lying on the air mattress, trying to scratch out notes in a notebook. I'm just glad I can understand my writing!

Today, we slept in a bit, and that was nice. After we woke up and had some breakfast, we started off to tour part of the Grand Loop. YNP is HUGE, and there are basically two loops - one in the southern part, one in the northern part. We decided to start on the southern loop today, which is Wednesday. Driving it and stopping at all the sights took all day, but it was a great day.

First, we saw the upper geyser basin, which includes Old Faithful and Biscuit Basin. This area had more springs and geysers, and included the Firehole River. I imagine it's called that because the runoff from many of the hotsprings flows right into it. I didn't touch the water (I took the warnings seriously), but some people had their feet in it, so it must not have been hot everywhere. I imagine there are hotspots though, hence the name.

The geyser basins are cool looking. You look out across them, and you see steam rising out of the geysers and the springs. When it's colder, the springs produce a TON of steam. I can't imagine what they look like in winter. I would like to return to the park in the winter some time, as I imagine it's quite different, and quite beautiful in a different way. Maybe someday.

Second, we moved onto the middle geyser basin. This basin included my favorite spring in the entire park - the Grand Prismatic Spring. The colors were amazing, and it was huge. I think it might be the biggest in the park. I saw a picture of it from above in a postcard, and it is simply beautiful. Strange, and beautiful. Excelsior Spring was also there, and that was another huge spring. The basins were actually hot from the springs, and combined with the sun overhead, made me sweat a bit. Crazy! The heat from the geysers and the signs prompted us to change a well known quote to the following: "It's all fun and games until someone gets scalded and dies!" Good times!

We also took a drive along the Firehole River, which was a side loop. It brought us to Firehole Falls and the Firehole swimming hole. We didn't go swimming, as it looked like a crazy tourist mecca, but it did look neat. I bet the water felt really good!

We then continued the loop and stopped at the Fountain Paintpots location, part of the Lower Geyser Basin I think. Paintpots seem to be mudpots, which basically means that mud is bubbling and boiling up out of the ground. Some of them have pretty colors, but mostly it just looks like boiling mud, at least to me. We also stopped at the Artist's Paintpot, which was sort of a bust. We had to hike a super long way uphill to see it, and then it was just another mudpot. With the name of artist, we thought it would be pretty, but it wasn't. Also, part of the trail was under construction, so perhaps there were pretty ones. I don't know. Regardless, we both thought it wasn't worth it. Plus, the parking lot was a zoo, and people were rude to others. Crazy. That's definitely different than than GNP, which had far fewer people in it.

After that, we stopped at the Norris Geyser basin, which included the Steamboat Geyser amongst others. We saw that one erupt, which was pretty cool as well. Not as big as Old Faithful, but perhaps we didn't see a full fledged eruption. Who knows.

Some notes about the park in general: all day as we drove along, we were surrounded by forests, rivers, mountains, and lakes - absolutely beautiful scenery. We had a nice picnic lunch at a picnic stop, as there are tons of those. Also, there are park rangers at many of the stops, and they are quite helpful and friendly. It's nice to be able to get information easily. We also saw smoke from a wildfire burning about 4 miles away. The ranger said they weren't controlling it, as they like to let nature do it's thing. Instead, they are monitoring it to make sure it doesn't get out of control. Glad to know they believe in allowing nature to be the boss, as ultimately we can't control it anyway.

After all those geyser basins, we turned east and started toward Canyon Village. Once we reached that area, we came upon the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone Park, and it was truly amazing. I think it competes with the Grand Canyon for beauty, but it's obviously quite smaller. There we saw the Canyon waterfalls, which were just awesome. There is a little strip of green in the water before it flows down - I've never seen that before. We were far away, so I'm not sure my camera captured it, but I tried anyway.

We then turned south and headed through the rest of canyon country. Stopped off to see the Mud Volcano, which was actually cooler than the mudpots. Also saw the Dragon's Mouth Steam Vent - I think that is what it was called. Perhaps a spring too-idk. It made a rumbling sound and steam/water came out. Pretty amazing.

I also think it was along this stretch that we saw tons of animals, but it might have been the lake country stretch too. I'm not sure. Regardless, we started to see tons of buffalo all along the road. One was just chilling in the woods right next to the road. Not as close as they came in GTNP, but pretty dang close. It was interesting to watch all the idiots get out of their cars to take pictures. I guess they didn't catch the spiel about bison charging and goring humans, which they will do and have done quite regularly. Crazy people!

We also saw what seemed to be a herd of elk in the distance, and they were running around playing. We also saw several deer, one in the area of the mud volcano. I guess it didn't get the memo about the thin crust of the earth!

We haven't seen any bears yet, but our campground does have a resident grizzly. As cool as it would be to see one, I don't want to see it in my campground. That's a little too close for comfort. Our campground at GTNP also had a recent bear visit, but again, we didn't see any there either.

After canyon country, we contined south into lake country, which borders Yellowstone lake and is just a bit northeast of our campground. This was a beautiful part of the drive, and we actually saw a rainbow over the lake (it was raining on and off in different places, including our campground).

After lots of driving and hiking around to see things, we finally returned to our campground, which was quite wet from the day's rainshowers. Fortunately, the tent held up fantastically, and everything inside was fine. Doesn't mean that everything wasn't damp, as that just happens when it rains, but nothing was soaked or anything. That was excellent news. However, the rain made it a challenge to start a fire, and both Manda and I struggled to get it going. Finally, it was hot enough to make hot dogs for dinner, and then hours later, it finally took off. I guess the ground needed to dry out and the fire needed to become super hot before the somewhat wet wood could burn. Also, the wood sucks in the national parks so far; I'm guessing they might do that on purpose, as they don't want raging fires around, as the fire risk everywhere is quite high. However, it would be nice to have a less smoky, prettier fire too. Oh well, what can you do?

Overall, we had a great day. I saw things I had no clue even existed, and the park is just beautiful in general. I had a good time with Amanda as well; we make a good team.

Tomorrow, the plan is to go hiking somewhere, and that should be quite fun too.

Random notes: Cell phone service is quite spotty in the park - it seems to only work in our campground and in other village areas. The stars are absolutely amazing - we can't see them like that at home. The weather has been great, even with the rain. Never too hot, and while it gets cool at night, it's not bad at all. I'm comfortable in shorts during the day, and I wear long underwear under my PJs at night, along with a winter cap. I'm just using a regular sleeping bag rather than my mummy bag, and it's not bad at all. Geysers sometimes actually spray you - wild! Amanda is becoming a camping pro now, which is quite impressive. It's a lot of work and takes some getting used to, but she's doing great. Finally, the bottle of windshield wiper fluid I brought along to be prepared managed to leak all over the car. Awesome! Manda did a great job cleaning most of that up - thanks!

National Park Road Trip - Day 4

Tuesday, August 5 2008:

We left Gros Ventre campground for the last time, as it was time to move on to Yellowstone National Park. The campground was quite nice, even though it was sort of far removed from the main part of the park. If we hadn't stayed there, we wouldn't have seen the moose in the morning and the buffalo crossing the road. No complaints here.

After packing up camp, we went to see the Gros Ventre slide, which is the site of a major rock slide that happened maybe 100 years ago or so. So much rock and earth fell that it actually dammed the river below. Eventually, part of the dam broke, and the ensuing flood destroyed much of the land downstream, including the whole town of Kelly, WY. Driving back from the slide, we had some great views of the Tetons - majestic and beautiful.

We then drove through GTNP once more on the way to Yellowstone, and stopped for a few more pictures along the way. We stopped at the Oxbow again, and we got some great shots of the mountains being reflected in the water. Then it was off to Yellowstone!

Overall thoughts on GTNP: I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. Several people had told me that it was better than YNP, prettier, less crowded, etc. I thought it was beautiful and stark, but not particularly user/guest friendly. The signage was great (way better than YNP), but other than that, we were never quite sure what we should be doing/seeing. We followed the main loop in the park and did many of the pullouts, but I'm still left feeling like I might have missed something. Additionally, the distant location of our campground made it difficult to go and do things at times. Not a huge deal, but something to think about if I ever go back.

Back to our journey to YNP:

We entered YNP via the South Entrance Road, which is closed during the winter. There were tons of downed trees, and we wondered if it was due to fires or something else. It turns out it was probably wind and bark beetles combined; at least that's what the park ranger said. We also saw a river and if I remember correctly, some waterfalls in the distance, but that's a bit blurry right now. Oh, I just checked my pictures and the waterfall came after Old Faithful - it was the Kepler Cascades. :) We also crossed our first of I think 3 continental divide signs - pretty neat!

We continued on and found our reserved campground, Grant Village, with little trouble, and it was a great pick by Amanda. Within the village, we had showers, laundry, ice machines, a gas/service station, and obviously the campground. We found our site, and set everything up with little trouble. We could even see Yellowstone Lake from it - excellent choice. Go Amanda! After setting up camp, we went to use the pay showers. Being clean is such a fantastic feeling - one of the top five showers in my life. Rock on!

After getting all cleaned up, we decided to do a little touring, as it was only late afternoon. We decided to go check out Old Faithful first, as it wasn't that far from our camp site. We arrived at almost a perfect time, as it was set to go off in about an hour. We checked out the ranger shop, grabbed some snacks, and found some good seats to watch the 6:10 viewing (their prediction was for ten minutes within 6:10. I really didn't know what to expect, as I've never seen a geyser erupt, but I can honestly say it was pretty amazing. I captured it on film using my digital camera - check it out!

The down side to Old Faithful was the crowds - the place was completely packed and there were tons of screaming kids. It was definitely worth it though - just odd to be around that many people. GTNP was much more isolated.

After Old Faithul, we decided to head back toward camp. We then made an impromptu stop at the West Thumb Geyser basin, which is located right on Yellowstone Lake. It was nearing dusk, so we had some neat light to take pictures, and I can honestly say I think it was my favorite geyser basin overall. Fewer crowds, picturesque site. Because I didn't do much research before the trip, I didn't really know what to expect from YNP. I didn't know there were so many hot springs, steam vents, geysers, and mudpots. It's truly amazing what the earth can do. Also a bit scary, as there was a sign that said: "stay on the path - danger of death by scalding/acid burning" or something very similar. Basically, the earth's crust is very thin throughout a lot of YNP, and people have literally stepped through it into scalding water/mud/etc. Craziness for sure!

Many of the springs had very unique colors, which is due to the sunlight refracting and the minerals in the ground. They also had a very unique smell - sulfur. Sort of reminded me of the Dead Sea at times, with its odd salt formations and the sulfur smells. I don't think my camera can do any of them justice, but I did try.

After seeing all that, we headed back to the camp site and made sandwiches for dinner, as we didn't feel up to cooking. After that and a little reading, it was time for bed. Camping makes me tired, as I don't sleep well at night. Also, for some reason, I have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night every night, even if I stop drinking way earlier in the day. I need to google why that might be (I have theories about it being due to the cold), but I do know this: it's annoying to have to crawl out of the sleeping bag, find my glasses and headlamp, get off the air mattress, unzip the tent, find my shoes, and trek off to the bathroom every night in the pitch black. Not the funnest thing ever to say the least, but I guess it's part of camping!

Oh, we saw an elk today as we were driving back to our campsite. Pretty cool.

Speaking of camping, we decided today to skip out on Glacier National Park. I'm just too exhausted from the bar exam, and I didn't know I would be this tired. I feel bad because Manda did all the planning for it, but she seems okay with the decision. Also, heading to GNP was always somewhat tentative, and it is quite far from YNP. Our plan became to head home on Friday or Saturday.

National Park Road Trip - Day 3

Monday, August 4, 2008:


Still in Grand Teton National Park: We started out super early today, as we had a full day of activities planned. As we drove out of our campground, we saw two moose walking right through it! I am almost 100% sure they were moose and not elk. It was awesome. We got some pics, but it wasn’t that easy, as we were in a moving car and they were moving as well. We think they were heading toward the river near our campground; regardless of why they were there, it was amazing to see them that close up!

As for our day of activities, we started off with whitewater rafting on the Snake River! We had to leave the park and head into Jackson to meet up with our guides. Luckily, we found the whitewater rafting place super easily and set off on our adventure. The first part of the trip was a scenic float trip, and I took lots of pics with the waterproof camera – not digital, so I cannot post them on here until I print and scan them.

We had a great guide for this part of the trip, and I liked most of the people in our boat. One family with us consisted of two parents, a son, and a grandfather. The family treated the grandfather like he was an idiot, but he was a pretty cool guy. He told us he wished he was camping instead of hoteling it. Poor guy, stuck with three people who think he's a moron!

The weather for the float trip was quite cool, and the water was freezing. We saw I 9 bald eagles and some osprey. We also saw Harrison Ford's land (he has his own private fishing stream) and Uma Thurman's house. Pretty cool.

A note on Jackson - it's a giant tourist trap! Perhaps it's better during winter ski season, but we both hated it in the summer. Yuck.

After the float trip, we got back on the bus and returned to HQ in Jackson, where they gave us lunch and put us back on the bus to go to the whitewater rafting starting point. We rafted for 8 miles through a canyon, and the scenery was beautiful. The trip went amazingly well, and we had a blast. We were both drenched, but that’s how it works! Some of the highlights: “going surfing,” which means we turned around and somehow rode the river backwards with water gushing over into the boat - it was almost like I was in a bathtub. Also, several of our boat mates jumped in during the calm points and floated along with us. The biggest rapids were fun, and the one called Champagne rapids was cool, as at the end of it, tiny bubbles rushed to the surface all around us, just like Champagne! The people on this boat were fun too (no one was mean to any relatives), and overall, the trip was great. I’m glad it went so well, as it was Amanda’s first trip. I always get a little nervous for adventures like this one, but I felt good before we started this time. Yay!

When we finished rafting, we decided to return to camp to rest a bit. After that, we headed back into the main part of the park and did some sightseeing: the Tetons (obviously), Jenny Lake, Jackson Lake, the Jackson Lake Dam, and an Oxbow, which were all quite beautiful. The pics of the mountains didn’t turn out that great, as the sun was setting, but it was still beautiful.

Oh, throughout the day, as we were driving on the road to our camp area, we saw many buffalo, some of whom were actually crossing the road. We actually had to stop at different points so they could cross! That certainly doesn’t happen in Minnesota, at least not in Saint Paul! Most of the pictures of the buffalo are on Manda's camera, so I don't have them on here yet.

Other wildlife spottings so far on the trip: a coyote on Sunday night, ospreys during whitewater rafting and at the oxbow, antelope on the drive, geese, and lots of deer. Oh, and some kind of cool ducks that can dive deep under the water for fish.

So far, so good. I’m writing this as I sit at the picnic table at our camp site eating dinner. Manda cooked tonight, and she did an excellent job. Her fire was much better than mine last night – nice job!

National Park Road Trip - Day 2

Sunday, August 3, 2008:


Today after a delicious breakfast at the B&B in Lander, WY (aka BFE), we headed to Grand Teton National Park and made our way inside. We wanted Jenny Lake campground, as it's the heart of the park, but it was already full. We decided to go find our second choice, Gros Ventre. Somehow, we got stuck on the giant park loop, and we wound up seeing almost the entire park by the time we figured out that we had to go down a random side road to find Gros Ventre. After seeing most of the park, we eventually made it and set up camp. We made dinner on the fire, hung out a bit, read some, and went to bed early. It definitely gets cold at night here-tonight I’m pulling out long underwear and possibly my winter cap!

National Park Road Trip - Day 1

Saturday, August 2, 2008:

We left Chaska at about 6:30 am, and off we went. As we neared South Dakota and all through it, we were surrounded by the Sturgis bikers, as it turns out it was Sturgis rally time. That was the second time we accidentally ran into Sturgis, as it happened once on a family vacation maybe 10-15 years ago. Crazy. Overall though, most of the drive was quite smooth. My favorite part of the drive was going through all the national forests, especially Big Horn. Absolutely gorgeous, even if the road was winding and crazy. We are definitely getting the hang of mountain driving now though!

Our original goal was to drive as close to the park as we could and then to get a hotel…little did we know that every hotel in BFE Wyoming anywhere near where we wanted to go was already booked. Also, who knew there could be an entire state that lacks cell phone reception for 100s of miles. Not us! Anyway, in real desperation, we called Beth, and after 53 phone calls after 1:00 in the morning her time, she found us a B&B that would take us. Thank God – shout out to Beth who basically saved us big time! I love you honey! The B&B was great, and sleep felt amazing. Despite the struggles, we made it that far, and everything turned out okay.

New Road Trip Buddy!

Thanks to Karen and Paige, Manda and I now have a new road trip buddy: Babo's Bird! Look for BB to make appearances throughout the trip, and we will do our best to capture his crazy antics. Thanks, K and P - you guys rock!

Also, here are some newer pics of Tony...clearly, it makes sense that he poops on my bed, as his life is super hard. I can't imagine what I will come home to...

PS...

The Twins rock! 3 out of 4 from Chicago - that's not too shabby at all. I love those guys...too bad about Casilla's injury though - he was playing really well. Now if we can only figure out how to win against teams from NY and Boston, life would be grand!

Holy Groceries!

Manda and I (and Mom) went grocery shopping for our trip today, and in case any of you were worried, we will NOT be going hungry on this trip. We probably bought enough food and beverage to last a month! Insanity, but good too. I like to have options, and we can eat the food when we come home too. I guess it's just a little nuts when you spend more on food for 12 days than you do for 2 months...but whatever! :)

We leave Saturday first thing in the morning, and I'm almost sure I won't be bringing the computer along. So, you'll all have to wait for pics. I'm sure you are crushed. ;)

Thanks to K and P for my gift - any readers will get to see what it is once I post pictures. Good stuff.

Off to bed - I'm still tired from that stupid bar exam!