For the past week, we have been in Yellowstone National Park. What an amazing mixture of diverse natural environments!! From mountains, forests and canyons to lush valleys, hot springs and high desert terrain....what an awesome display! Wildlife roam freely, waterfalls are abundant and you can drive for days and days - probably weeks, and still not see it all.
Lodgepole pines predominate the tree species in the park. I found them interesting because they grow so close together with long, tall straight trunks bare of branches til the top of the tree. Native Indians used these tree trunks for their tipis and 'wickiups' (grass-matted domed huts used by some nomadic Indian tribes).
A surprising number of acres throughout the park were overflowing with dead trees -similar to those in this picture. Some were clear remnants of fire, but many were not .... I guess just old, dead and dropped over trees! The park leaves things 'au naturale,' so the fallen trees are everywhere.
Sagebrush remains the primary ground cover in the west. Ever since we entered Oklahoma, sagebrush has been THE main terrain-fashion in each of the western states we have visited. I have learned that the famed 'tumbleweeds' are - in fact - dead sagebrush. We have seen plenty tumbling in the winds!!!
The valleys are lush and beautiful.
They are a primary location where - on most any day - you can see the buffalo roam.
And, boy did we see buffalo .... or more properly 'bison.' I bet we saw more than a thousand during the week we were there. Sometimes in large herds, and sometimes just 2 or 3 hanging out.
And more than a few times, there would be just one wandering or relaxing close to the road! This big guy was strolling right along the street line just munching away....only about 4-5 feet from the car.
You could usually tell where the bison had been hanging out. Just look for the trees missing some bark - they use the tree bark as sort of an emery board to rub off their shaggy winter coats as the temperatures warm. In the above two shots, you can see these guys still have some rubbin' to do!
Of course, another clue to 'track' their presence was to look for buffalo 'chips.' Watching where you walk is a good idea when stepping through the woods, in the valleys - or even along the roads!
The Roosevelt Arch welcomes visitors to the park at the North Entrance. Yellowstone was the first national park in the United States created by an act of Congress in 1872. Teddy Roosevelt laid the cornerstone to the arch in 1903 declaring the park should be 'For the benefit and enjoyment of the people.'
The entire basin of Yellowstone is volcanic, with an active magma chamber deep in the earth maintaining the 'hotspot.' Major eruptions hundreds of thousands of years ago created much of the terrain, combined with the glaciers that followed during the ice age. Numerous earthquakes are still regularly part of each year, although most are never felt.
The resulting geyser basins, hot springs, sulfur caldrons, mudpots and other such geothermal features can be found throughout the park ..... and are ever-changing. Steam vents and small hot springs can even be found along the shores of lakes, in valleys, next to forests - they pop up just about anywhere - and are not necessarily confined to collective basins.
This is the Grand Prismatic Hot Spring. It is HUGE - the largest in the United States, and 3rd largest in the world. The blue color of the water indicates the hottest temperatures (well above boiling) and the multi-color overflow is a combination of varied water temperatures and acid minerals.
This is the same overflow as it spreads out further over the crusty ground surface. I thought the coloring and patterns were awesome - looking like an expensive painting to me !! You can see the puffy white clouds reflecting on the surface.
This feature was located in the mudpot basin. It was named the 'Dragon Head' - looks just like it was breathing fire!
The Old Faithful section is not to be missed! In addition to an extensive and informative education center, the famous geyser is THE main attraction.
Old Faithful, of course, is the most famous geyser AND the most predictable - 'spouting' about every 92 minutes. Times are posted for the next eruption (+/- 10 minutes) - and the predicted time was 'right on' for this shot. There is a huge boardwalk surrounding the geyser, so there are multiple great viewpoints.
And....the absolutely gorgeous Old Faithful Inn. The interior is multiple vaulted stories of heavy logs with restaurants and lobbies and such on each floor - all visible from the main lobby. I could not get a decent shot, but believe me - it was breathtaking!
So much so that we just had to take a break at their bar for lunch and a beer! The bison burgers are amazingly delicious - like the greatest, most tender burger you have ever eaten. We'll have to look for bison on the Oriental menu when we get home - but don't remember ever seeing that listed!!!
Oh ... and check out the Yellowstone tour buses that depart from the Old Faithful Inn!
Purty fancy ....
Probably the next most famous feature is the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The canyon, along with the upper and the lower falls, is just spectacular!
These are the upper falls cascading down into the canyon. The Yellowstone River is huge and quite lengthy, fed from the very large Yellowstone Lake. We saw LOTS of fishin' in those waters!
Yellowstone is SO huge that there is LOTS of driving to get to the many locations around the park. Some driving is in the valleys where the temps are moderate, and some is in the mountains where the temps in the high elevations still maintain the remnants of snow - and pretty cold temps!
The extremely varied terrain was so interesting. One moment, you were passing through incredible rocky formations....
And then around the corner, you were into a sloping valley with a drastically different landscape.
There were frequent examples of glacial boulders, some with trees growing right along side of the boulder. The boulders were moved along by the glaciers; and as the ice melted over time, these huge rocks were left in the 'middle of the field,' so to speak. It was a very interesting sight.
This is one of the more famous glacial boulders. As a reference point, I should have asked Dick to stand in the picture ..... his head would have only reached about half way up. But, I think he was off trying to capture a rare shot of a wolf - one that I wan unable to get.
You may be wondering about all the gas we must have used with the extensive driving throughout the park. Our Prius was certainly challenged with efficiency performance - and, it certainly exceeded our expectations. Note the average mpg at 66.6! Once we extended our use of this tank, we leveled out at about 57 mpg - pretty awesome! Of course, this made up for the mpg average for the RV - we averaged 6-7 mpg :-(
Another feature we noticed in our drives throughout the park were the number of trucks sporting these mega-bumpers! Our mode was keeping our speed down to prevent wild animal collisions - and of course we have a small Prius. Maintaining higher speeds and protecting their vehicles seemed to be a predominate theme here for others.
The wandering buffalo was always an issue. There was a day last week where we understand a huge herd decided to cross the road - holding up traffic for hours. While we did not see the crossing, we did get tied up in the traffic jam for almost 2 hours!
The elk are actually more of an issue because they often emerge from the trees - causing a sudden appearance. They also are frequent cruisers close along the roads. This shot was taken from my car window....this big bull elk is up close and personal!
Then there are the bears - most often seen at a distance. These little guys are black bear cubs that Dick captured at great magnification. We always carried our bear spray anywhere we went, but never saw any up close - this was a good thing!
So ... speaking of bears .... we took a day trip to Bozeman, Montana to see 'Brutus' the grizzly bear. Brutus, and Casey Anderson (adventurer and feature reporter for NatGeoWild), have become a favorite of Dick's when watching the National Geographic channel.
This is Brutus - a 900 lb grizzly bear who was born in captivity and adopted as a pup by Casey Anderson, when he (Brutus) was in danger of being put down b/c the owners could not take care of him. To much history to get into on Brutus, but we clearly wanted to get a visit in w/ him on our trip.
Brutus now lives at Montana Grizzly Encounter in Bozeman, long with four other grizzlies. These others were either rescued or born in the wild outside if the continental U.S.. The website:
www.grizzlyencounter.com
This is a shot of Jake (rear) and Maggie (front).
Their newest addition is 'Lucy' and she is 18 months old. Lucy is the only grizzly in their brood who was born in the wild - in Alaska. She was abandoned and there was no luck in finding out what had happened to her mother. Grizzly Encounter was luck enough to be able to acquire her.
So - here is one more shot of Brutus. If you go on the website to read more about him, you will find that he is fully domesticated and very playful. He was certainly performing for us, especially when he wandered into the pond and started playing. He has that ornery 'twinkle in his eye' and easily captures the hearts of everyone he encounters!
And like most great guys - they need a strong woman to keep them in line. This is Sheena - companion and 'better half' to Brutus. Even though she is an 'older woman,' she keeps Brutus hopping to please her and make her life comfortable. They were so cute - and hilarious - together! Our trip to Montana Grizzly Encounter was definitely one of the highlights of our trip!!
OK - so you can rest easy now .... that's it for Yellowstone! We actually left there yesterday and are now in Cody, Wyoming - home of the famous 'Buffalo Bill' Cody. I will wait until Sunday to post our adventures in Cody - to give you time to get through the Yellowstone Special Edition :-)
