YNP Day Six - On the Brink

Girls Gone Wild (on "The Brink")

We head to the Yellowstone Grand Canyon for our hike to “The Brink”. This trail leads down 600 feet to the very edge of the Lower Falls (twice as high as Niagara Falls). Standing that close to so much power and violence is both scary and beautiful. Sara tests her altitude acclimated lungs and sprints the 600’ vertical back to the trailhead. Ruth and I walk.

Driving to Old Faithful Inn, the weather is spectacular (80s, blue sky, low humidity). We stop for a while at the quiet Ned Perce Creek to watch the cuthroat trout feed and jump from the water. Entering geyser basin we stop to see the Grand Prismatic Spring. We are walking up a slight hill and the spring is still above eye level, but already we could see the colors reflected in the steam rising over head – vivid yellows, oranges, reds, blues, and greens. It is a massive boiling tie-dye design flowing up and out of the bowels of the earth. We just gawk for the next 20 minutes.

Grand Prismatic

We arrive at the Old Faithful Inn and are bowled over upon entering the main lobby. It is impossible to describe but I will try. It is massive, all rough hewn post and beam construction – a wide open space six stories high with landings and staircases hanging in mid-air 60 feet over the lobby floor. A massive stone fireplace rises from the floor all the way through the roof. It is grand, classy, and woodsy at the same time. It feels like you are in a massive forest. This is classic American architecture making a powerful statement.

Relaxing on the huge outdoor porch overlooking Old Faithful before dinner, we play cards (manipulation, Oma would be proud) and sip cocktails while Old Faithful puts on a show in the background.

Chris

YNP Day Five - Boiling River

We wake up for an early morning hike to the beaver ponds (we’ve seen bear and bison, now we’re on a moose hunt). We don't see any moose but it's a beautiful hike with lots of bird life and some great views of Montana.

Before leaving Mammoth we stop at the Boiling River near the Wyoming-Montana border for a quick dip. The Boiling River is the confluence of the Gardiner River (very cold) and a boiling hot creek that springs from the ground a few yards from the river. The two merge and the result is a most bizarre swimming hole. The water has not really mixed - it is flowing rivulets of freezing cold water and rivulets of scalding hot water. It’s not homogenized; you are both hot and cold at the same time. Totally freakishly awesome.

We end the day at Canyon Lodge in a quiet backside room with the sounds of the wind a water wafting in through our open window.

Chris

YNP Day Four - Tutunka

This is where the buffalo roam

We wake up to drizzle and temperatures in the 50s, actually a nice break from the sun. We continue northward. It one point Ruth asks “who tooted?” That’s code in our family for “who farted?” Turns out it was the sulfur from the Mud Volcano and Dragon’s Breath hot springs just around the bend. These would be the first of our many geothermal feature sightings. How bizarre to see the ground literally boiling, a column of steam rising into the sky, and a lone bison grazing calmly a few yards away.

Further on we take a detour through the Lamar Valley, renowned for its spectacular scenery and wildlife. The huge expanses are mind boggling, you can see for dozens of miles in every direction. There is no sign of humans, just lush valleys, snow capped mountains, lodgepole pine forests, miles of wildflowers sprinkled with herds of bison, pronghorns, and elk, and a distant storm dropping rain in the distance. As we continue, we stumble into a bison herd that decides to cross the road in front of and behind us. All of a sudden we find ourselves driving (slowly) in the midst of a moving bison herd. We are surrounded in all sides by the herd which is moving up the valley at something between a trot and a gallop. We are so close we can hear them snorting and chortling. We are literally INSIDE a buffalo stampede!

Our "Mammoth" Bungalow

A few miles later we run into a Yellowstone traffic jam – cars and RVs pulled over on both sides of the road, people with cameras, binoculars, and spotting scopes lining the side of the road, all pointed in the same direction. Turns out it was a bear cub rooting around on a hillside about 300 yards away. No sign of mom, and too far to tell if it was grizzly or black. But pretty cool.

Around mid-afternoon we arrive at the old Army outpost of Mammoth, and we settle into our cozy little bungalow.

Chris

YNP Day Three - Those Mormons

We back track a little to Mormon Row, an abandoned community of picturesque farmsteads that have been featured in many famous photographs and movies. This spot is so peaceful with the old weathered barns, water still trickling through the hand dug irrigation streams, and bison wandering in the fields.

After an hour of exploring Sara decides bison may be the coolest animal ever (she may be right) and we head north to Yellowstone and the Lake Hotel.

Chris

YNP Day Two - Two Miles

Lunch spot at Phelps Lake. Not to shabby.

Day two starts with the “best breakfast ever” (Sara). That would be pan fried trout, eggs over easy, and hash browns at Norah’s Fishcreek Inn in Wilson Wyoming (population 35).

Two miles high and
about 20 degrees cooler

With bellies full we head north to Grand Teton National Park. Along the way we stop at Teton Village to take the Jackson Hole Tram to 10,450 feet for a snowball fight and to watch parasailors throw themselves off a perfectly good mountain top.

After a spectacular hike to Phelps Lake we settle down in our log cabin at Togwatee Mountain Resort and enjoy a well deserved hot tub soak.

 Chris

YNP Day One - Rodeo Clowns

We arrive Jackson Wyoming. Hands down this airport has the best view ever. I think that’s why they don’t use jetways. They obviously have the money, but there is nothing like that fresh air and that view of the Tetons when you step out of the airplane. We get ourselves a $4 styrofoam cooler and stock up on supplies (beer, wine, coffee, etc). After a dinner at Snake River Brewery we settle into our cabin (complete with queen size bunkbed) at Cowboy Village. We drift off into a deep sleep with the sounds of the announcer at the adjacent rodeo grounds. 

We have no clue what an awesome adventure we have just launched ourselves into...

Chris

Yellowstone National Parkapalooza

My Girls in The Grand Tetons

Eight nights in eight locations. Jackson Wyoming, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, and a quick jaunt into Montana just so we could say we went to Montana.  Accommodations would range from one room log cabins to the iconic Old Faithful Inn. This was our great American national park adventure.

I was concerned that nine days might be too much, that we’d be geyser’d and buffalo’d out by day three. It turned out that nine days was not nearly enough. There were so many distractions; it took 4-5 hours to drive just 50 miles a day. And best of all is that after spending 24x9 hours together as a family we were still laughing and enjoying each other’s company.

Highlights included a buffalo (bison) stampede experienced FROM THE INSIDE, swimming in the boiling river (yes it was freezing cold and it was boiling hot at the same time), an awesome mountain bike adventure outside of Jackson, and a couple of bear encounters one of which made me quite a celebrity at the Old Faithful Inn.

I’ll be posting stories and photos in the next few weeks, it is just taking a while to collect my thoughts and dig out from the backlog at work.

Chris

"I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in." 
     -- John Muir