Yellowstone, September 2019, Part 2

Barb and I traveled to Jackson Hole, the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park. Part 1 covers our first four days in Jackson Hole and the Grand Teton National Park. This post covers our time in Yellowstone.

---

Wednesday, September 11

We were able to get ourselves up and out the door of the Parkway Inn by 6:30am, before the hotel’s continental breakfast opened. Kevin loaded up all our luggage and we rolled over to the Creekside Deli where Barb and I got sandwiches on Sunday. Today, we got breakfast sandwiches and juice to go and got back on the bus.

We headed north, turning onto Gros Ventre Road to look for wildlife by the river. This was the same area suggested by the lady at the Visitor Center our first day. Before long, we saw a group of cars and campers clustered around a trio of bull moose. They were a long way from us, and by law our little tour bus was not allowed into the campground area. We took some long shots and watched them for a while.

• 

• 

• 

After a pit stop at the Craig Thomas visitor center to use their bathroom, we headed to another overlook that should have offered a great view of the Tetons if it weren’t so cloudy. It was the place Ansel Adams used for his famous photos of the Tetons, overlooking meadows and the Snake River in the foreground. In the meadows, Kevin helped us see more elk and pronghorn antelope in the distance, but too far for a good photo.

We then went to the Oxbow Bend viewpoint over the Snake. Again, this would have been very pretty but it was cloudy and the rain picked up. Still, we saw heron in the trees across the river (I don’t think I’ve ever seen them in trees), and a great white pelican flying by (I didn’t know they came inland, but they do).

• 

• 

We drove by Jackson Lake and skipped the lodge since the views were lousy. We headed on north toward Yellowstone. The rain relented a bit as we climbed into the actual park, up the Lewis Canyon, which was pretty but only merited a quick photo stop.

• 

• 

• 

By the time we got to Lewis Lake, we had already imperceptibly crossed into the Yellowstone Caldera and onto the Yellowstone plateau, which seemed to me to be pretty much the same thing — they’re not. The Plateau is much larger, the Caldera is the result of the most recent major explosion, about 600,000 years ago.

We also crossed the Continental Divide for the first time and Kevin tried to explain how the Snake River flowed south and eventually westward while the Yellowstone flowed north from the park and eventually eastward to the Missouri and Mississippi. I sort of understood, but I was still confused.

• 

Kevin passed the time telling us stories of his background, growing up on the Shoshone reservation east of Yellowstone, son of a (half?) Shoshone mother and white father. He said he grew up as an Indian until he was 18, when he was forced/obligated to “turn white.” At that point he had to move off the reservation and started life as a cowboy, tending cattle, hunting and riding all day. He did that for several years before getting the opportunity to enroll in college. He got what sounded like a pre-med/animal biology degree (he knew a lot about animal digestive systems, for example). He seemed to bounce around before and after college, also doing rodeo riding, being a hunting guide, and other activities. There was also a marriage in there somewhere that didn’t last very long and didn’t get much explanation. 

Over the years, Kevin came to the realization, like many others in the West, that working with tourists was easier and more remunerative than working with cattle. Some of his fellow cowboys thought he was a sellout, but it made sense to him. So he focused on becoming a backcountry guide. Kevin also became skilled at “neolithic art” using primitive tools and spoke of the stone, wood and beadwork that he does, though he refrains from bringing samples on his tours because he says it feels like a conflict of interest to foist them upon a captive audience.

Eventually, Kevin became part owner of the Elephant Head Lodge near Cody, Wyoming (he didn’t tell us it was still in operation, nor the full story of how he got in and out of that business), and he led private backcountry tours until he got to the point where he couldn’t ride horses all day. He said he shifted to Brushbuck and “front country” driving tours about three years ago. That was the first we heard of the phrase “front country” to represent us paved road dilettantes.

Kevin wanted to take us to Old Faithful which was not on today’s itinerary — it was scheduled for Friday, our final day. He felt that if we got it in today, we would have more flexibility on Friday. One of our tour members, Susan from New Orleans, squawked and wanted to see it Friday per the schedule and when the weather report looked better. There was some dissension on the bus, some of us wanting to defer to our guide’s expertise, but Kevin soon relented and kept to the original itinerary. 

We made a stop at our first geothermal feature, the West Thumb Geyser Basin near Yellowstone Lake. There were a few bubbling springs with steam rising, some mud pots and a bit of an acrid smell. It was a small taste of the geothermal activity that makes Yellowstone famous. We would see lots more, especially Friday.

• 

• 

Heading for a rest stop at the Grant Village store, we rounded a corner and saw several large female elk on the road right next to us. Kevin stopped the van and Fiona, our young attorney from Australia, jumped out and scooted across the road for pictures. Kevin had to call her back to stay closer to the van. The elk were quite magnificent and we had them to ourselves for a few moments before other cars stopped.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We got the classic shot of an elk casually crossing the road, stopping traffic.

• 

• 

• 

We rolled a few yards down the road and encountered a male elk with a magnificent rack of antlers. He was resting by the side of the road, within earshot of the females and not far from a calf also resting in the grass. They were both beautiful. We did our best to get photos without disturbing them.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Kevin took us to the Lake Yellowstone Hotel where he decided we would take time for a nice lunch. The hotel itself looks somewhat like World War II barracks from the outside but is quite impressive inside. Unfortunately, there is no WiFi in hotel lobby area. Barb and Fiona (and I) were getting very fidgety, not being able to check email or news. We had little choice but to talk to one another. It was a strain.

• 

• 

We ended up having to wait nearly 30 minutes to seat our group of eight at two tables. Barb and I sat with Fiona, who we learned worked for Uber and was born in Hong Kong, and Barbara, a nice older lady from New Mexico who was recovering from a broken leg and couldn’t walk too far. Barb and I ordered burgers and the others ordered nothing very complicated. For whatever reason, the other table got their food and finished before we got anything. Once we finally got our food, it was fine but nothing special and we wolfed it down in about ten minutes. Overall, the lunch stop killed almost two hours. Disappointingly, it was still raining outside and we could barely see the shores of the lake. 

We headed north for a while toward Canyon Village and Mount Washburn, the highest mountain in the park. I think Kevin was scouting for sights for us to see, like the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone or the Upper or Lower Falls, but we passed each of them by for the time being. They weren’t on the day’s agenda, but Kevin seemed to know better than to bring that topic up again.

At some high point I got cell reception long enough to retrieve a voicemail saying that the Maids are coming to our house the next day as originally scheduled. I had cancelled the cleaning before we left but they seemed to be coming anyway. I tried calling back but couldn’t get through. I kept the problem to myself, hoping to figure things out once we got to our evening’s lodging and trying to keep Barb from worrying about it. 

Eventually, Kevin pointed the van into Hayden Valley, in the direction of the East Gate and our lodge. Hayden Valley is one of Yellowstone’s prime wildlife viewing areas and very quickly we saw more several more bison not far from the road. One was a solo dude just hanging out by the river. Nearby was a pair that seemed quite interested in one another…but nothing happened while we were there. The female was sporting a tracking collar which may or may not have made her more attractive to the bull.

• 

• 

• 

• 

While still in the valley, Kevin was able to spot some elk in the distance and watched for bears but did not have any luck with them. In retrospect, it was not a dramatically good day for wildlife spotting in the valley, but we were excited and pleased with what we saw.

We headed east toward our evening destination, climbing over a mountain pass to the Yellowstone’s East Gate entrance which, deceptively, is well within Yellowstone’s eastern border. The grandly named Pahaska Teepee Resort (website) is just beyond the gate and listed as being in the town of Cody, Wyoming, though the actual town is another 60 miles to the east.

The “resort” was a single building with a gift shop, gas pump, restaurant and lounge, surrounded by a dozen or so multi-unit cabins scattered up the hillside. No teepees in sight, and no other town or buildings within walking distance. This was the location of Buffalo Bill’s hunting lodge and in fact his lodge building is still there, but in a state of decrepitude. Barb checked it out but could see nothing through the dusty windows.

• 

• 

We dropped our bags in our cabin room which was basically two beds, a little desk and a bathroom. It at least seemed reasonably clean and we figured out how to turn up the heat. The tour information had warned us the lodging would be “rustic” and it was, as advertised.

We hustled down to the main building for dinner. I had a decent plate of ribs and Barb had pasta with shrimp. No complaints: the food was hearty if not exactly healthy, service was friendly and reasonably quick.

There was no cellphone signal anywhere and WiFi was only available in the restaurant and lounge so after dinner Fiona, Barb and I elected to camp out in the lounge. The WiFi only barely worked, but I tried to discreetly send an email message to Mark, our neighbor and cat sitter, to please call the Maids and make sure they cancelled our cleaning for the next day. Minor domestic crisis averted, hopefully.

Barb and Fiona could only sporadically get email headers, sometimes a whole message, but had little luck reading attachments or sending mails so they really couldn’t get much work done. But the technology challenges gave us time to get to know Fiona a bit and commiserate over the legal profession, technology careers, Australia and Hong Kong.

About 9:30, when a local cowboy talent pulled out a guitar in the lounge, we decided to give up and head to bed. We huffed and puffed our way up the hill (it was the altitude, not that we’re out of shape) to our cabins and were in bed by 10:00pm.  

Thursday, September 12

Breakfast started serving at 7:00am and we were there for the opening. We had a big, heavy breakfast: Spanish omelette for me, eggs and bacon for Barb. The portions were more than we bargained for, but we ate most of what was in front of us. Maybe not the healthiest decision but we are not conditioned to turn down food.

Somehow, we got everyone out of their cabins and into the van by 8:00am. Fiona reported that she saw a pony near her cabin that morning, but another lodger walking by reported that it was a moose. We gave Fiona a hard time for the rest of the trip that there were ponies coming out of the woods all around Yellowstone.

Fortunately, this morning the sky lifted and the mountains surrounding the resort were much prettier. As we headed down the road just a few hundred yards, an early morning bull bison was standing by the road, quietly eating grass. Kevin stopped and Fiona once again jumped out for photos; Kevin quietly yelled at her to get back close to the van. The bison slowly walked all the way around our van, not particularly perturbed by us. Fiona got her selfie and didn’t get gored.

• 

• 

• 

The Yellowstone sign at the east gate proved irresistible for individual and group photos. I can’t remember who took the group photo of us. I guess it was another car of tourists who came for the same shot.

• 

• 

• 

• 

About five miles into the park, over the first high mountain pass, Kevin stopped at an overlook with a great view of Yellowstone Lake. With the skies clearer, he took the opportunity to give an overview of park’s topography and surrounding mountain ranges. It was great to actually see what he had been talking about the day before. There was no actual “caldera” to see, but we got a better sense of vast area ringed by four mountain ranges: the Wind River, Beartooth, Absaroka and Gros Ventre.

• 

• 

We sat in traffic for road construction at Fishing Bridge for nearly half an hour which gave everyone time to contemplate the pros and cons of building roads in the wilderness and how bad traffic must be in peak summertime. 

Our next stop was the Mud Volcano, where there was a short boardwalk that went past the Dragon’s Mouth Spring. It does indeed look like there may be a dragon breathing inside a cave. The Mud Volcano itself is mostly a pool of bubbling mud, the volcano having blown itself out some decades ago.

• 

• 

• 

We headed northward to Artists Point for classic view of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River. Gorgeous.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

This was the spot where Thomas Moran painted his masterpieces, several views of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Moran had been sent on an 1871 expedition to capture images of the region which became instrumental in Congress creating the National Park the following year. His large paintings were completed later and now hang at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. I had contemplated them back in April in preparation for this trip.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Every direction seemed to be a great shot. It was a truly spectacular place.

• 

• 

• 

• 

We drove a short way for a view of the Upper Falls which were only slightly less gorgeous. 

• 

• 

• 

We stopped for lunch at the Canyon visitor center and shops. Rather than sit down for a longer meal, Barb and I grabbed a quick tuna sandwich and hot dog then headed to the Visitor Center. On our way there, we bumped into Kevin who had a cup of coffee and was sucking on a toffee candy. We asked if that was his lunch and he said, no, he actually had two toffee candies. We realized that other than yesterday’s lunch at Lake Yellowstone, we really hadn’t seen Kevin eat much of anything. Maybe it’s an old cowboy trick to avoid having to stop for a bathroom. Barb started to keep a closer eye on Kevin and his eating habits.

The Visitor Center had several excellent presentations about the Yellowstone Caldera and its eruptions over history. It was the best presentation of Yellowstone geology that we’d seen (gist of it here and here for ash maps), more informative than Kevin’s verbal explanations. It made us realize that we would have liked to spend a little more time in the visitors centers. We also had a little time in the gift shop — Barb finally found her bookmarks and I got Allie a present.

We pushed northward toward Mt. Washburn, stopping again for some big vistas. 

• 

• 

• 

On the other side of the pass, there was another beautiful canyon carved by the Yellowstone River. I wasn’t sure if it was precisely part of the Grand Canyon, but it was very dramatic and lovely (I’ve since learned it’s narrowest section of the Grand Canyon called the Calcite Springs).

• 

• 

• 

• 

There were basalt column features in the canyon wall, both on the roadside and opposite side of the valley that were reminiscent of the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland (and, as it turns out, the Devils Tower further east in Wyoming). The top layer corresponds to Yellowstone Volcano’s eruption 1.5 million years ago which formed a molten lava lake some 25 feet deep.

• 

• 

I noticed a second layer much lower on the cliff face and asked about the age of that layer. Kevin didn’t know but I found a sign that said the lower layer was from about 50 million years ago. I was pleased to add that little bit of knowledge and relayed it to Kevin, but it didn’t really register with me until weeks later.

The lower layer was from volcanic activity around the time when the Absaroka mountain range was being formed…unrelated to the current Yellowstone hot spot which was then hundreds of miles away. The entire cliff face reflected maybe 80 million years of geologic activity, sliced away by the Yellowstone River over the last 15,000 years since the last major glaciers of the ice age. Dinosaurs died out some 65 million years ago, below the lower layer of basalt. The Tetons were formed in the last 6-9 million years, just a bit below the upper layer of basalt. The most recent large explosion of the Yellowstone Volcano 600,000 years ago left mostly ash, not lava, so no additional basalt. But the ash had become rock and then was pushed around by glaciers since then. Humans had been around for maybe the top foot or two of topsoil, and Westerners (us white folks) for maybe the top inch or two. I pieced this timeline together from different sources so I may not have it 100% correct, but I think it’s accurate enough to be a humbling reminder of the vastness of geologic time and the relative eyeblink of human endeavors. The earth is more fluid and dynamic than we think, and will long outlast us, one way or another. Somehow that’s both comforting and sad at the same time.

I didn’t have all that on my mind at the time. I was more interested in trying to compose what I hoped would be artsy shots of the canyon. What do you think?

• 

• 

• 

We moved from the Yellowstone River valley into Lamar Valley which is advertised as a prime wildlife viewing area. It did not disappoint. We soon saw several hundred bison in various grazing herds. Antelope were also easy to see across the open valley. Then someone saw bears on the slope above us. It was a mama and two large cubs, turning rocks over for grubs. We watched them for a long time. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Kevin found a wolf trotting far, far away across the valley. We could see it with his scope, but not with binoculars or bare eyes. It’s a miracle he can spot things so far away. After a while, it howled and suddenly a chorus of coyotes (that we couldn’t see) joined in. It was a very eerie sound, one that hits a primal chord.

I spotted a bald eagle soaring down the valley like a Air Force jet flyover at the Super Bowl. It happened too quickly for a photo, but I had a good look at him through binoculars. A truly majestic bird. We spent maybe two hours in same spot seeing all this activity, not to mention bison crossing the road just ahead and then all around us. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We saw one straggling bison and realized that it has a broken rear leg and was emaciated with its ribs very prominent. It was very sad and I couldn’t bring myself to take a picture of it. Kevin noted that while the park rangers vowed to let nature take its course and would let the bison linger and eventually die or be killed, his position would be to put the poor beast out of its misery. It was hard not to agree with him.

We went just a few hundred yards up the road when Kevin spotted a grizzly bear across the valley. We watched as four bison filed slowly by. Neither the bear not the bison seemed to care about each other.

• 

• 

• 

• 

It was getting to be around 5:00pm so we started the final hour or so drive to Cooke City. Kevin promised to get us there for an early evening, foregoing a run over to Mammoth Springs until the morning…but it meant we would need to make an early start the next morning…6:00am. We agreed.

We went only a few hundred yards before we spotted a grizzly bear trotting along the opposite bank of the river, just 100 yards or so away from us. Kevin tried to stop to get photos but the bear was on the move and there wasn’t a good spot to pull over. We tagged along with him, trying to stop where we could, but he was moving away from the river and further into the brush. After a while, we had to give up, but it was our closest encounter with a grizzly and he (or she) was pretty impressive, though I don’t think anyone actually got a picture.

The drive toward Cooke City got progressively more beautiful as we headed into the mountains just as the sun reached golden hour. We were about 30 minutes out from Cooke City, driving through a narrow valley formed by a stream when Bill, our former Top Gun fighter pilot who was now riding shotgun in the van, noticed a glint through the bushes near a stream. It was from the antlers of a big bull moose, and soon we notice there was a second one. We pulled over and did our best to get shots through the bushes in the fading light. 

• 

• 

• 

We were there for about 10 minutes when a Park Ranger pulled up and read Kevin the riot act for parking illegally. Kevin got off with a warning but he was pissed both because he thought the ranger was being overly strict and because now he would have to explain the citation to his boss. 

Finally we made it to Cooke City, after encountering one more huge bison in the road just a mile or so out of town. It was almost dark, close to 8:00pm. So much for getting there early. 

Kevin pointed out the four potential restaurants in town, each a short walk from our Super 8 motel. Kevin dropped us off and we quickly got settled in our rooms, very pleased that they were a step up from the cabins the night before. There was actually TV and Wifi in the rooms, and an ice maker down the hall.

• 

Five of us opted for The Bistro that Kevin recommended. When we arrived, we found that Kevin was already there with Fiona and most of the members of fellow Brush Buck guide Chance’s bus. The hostess seated us at a separate table and urged us to get our orders in before their large table. We did. I got a grilled pork chop while the others chose pasta. It came out quickly and was all reasonably tasty. The best part was that we finished before the other table even got their entrees. It turned out Kevin also ordered the pork chop and Barb couldn’t resist getting a photo of him actually eating.

Back in the room, Barb and I tried to actually use the WiFi. It was marginally better than the night before, but still only barely functional. Barb couldn’t successfully log in with her computer and made do with triaging emails on her phone. We went to sleep by 10pm because our 5:30am alarm would come early.

Friday, September 13

The alarm worked, we got up, packed and were out the door at 6:00am, as assigned. The hotel breakfast was not open yet, so Kevin directed us to the Bearclaw Bakery next door for a carbo breakfast and coffee. As we left the hotel, Barb knocked on Susan’s door to make sure she was up, as she was the only one who hadn’t appeared yet. She answered her door with wet hair and makeup, saying she’s about ready and would meet us at the bakery.

The bakery was excellent. I got what turned out to be a monstrously large sausage and egg biscuit sandwich. Barb got a croissant, I think. It was supposed to be grab-and-go, but we lingered a long while until Susan showed up after 6:30 — she said she thought that was the appointed time. No one was convinced and everyone is somewhat pissed, though since the sun was only just rising it’s not clear what we would have seen in the dark.

Inside the park, we stopped near a sheer mountain face to look for mountain goats. Before long, they come into focus as little white dots way up the cliff face. We stayed for about 20 minutes spotting different goats but they were too far away for my camera. It was also very chilly as the sun was just rising, though it cast a lovely light on the mountain.

• 

• 

We drove back through Lamar Valley, stopping a few times for antelope and bison, and Kevin scanned for more wolves and bear to no avail.

• 

• 

• 

We drove about an hour across the north side of Yellowstone to get to Mammoth Hot Springs. There we found an otherworldly scene of white and rust colored mineral springs cascading down a hillside. Kevin drove us to the top and we walked together through the upper set of boardwalks. The scene, with decades-old burnt out trees, reminded me of a stage set for “Waiting for Godot.”

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Kevin took the van and some of the crew, including Barb, down to a lower parking lot and we were able to walk downhill through the rest of the hot springs. The crystalline layers seemed like fondant icing from a massive cake. It made for an Instagramable spectacle and tourists from all nations posed for photos.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Having gotten our views and photos of the hot spring, Kevin decided there was time to head a few miles north to Gardiner, Montana, to take photos at the Roosevelt Arch. The arch was the north entrance to the park, and its cornerstone was laid by Teddy Roosevelt. It is now set on a little bypass so there is no traffic through the arch, just tourists. We happily had it to ourselves for awhile and snapped our photos.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

While in Gardiner, we stopped for lunch at the Wonderland Cafe. Elk chili for me, onion soup and salad for Barb. All pleasant enough, though I had a little trouble with flies and the heat from the sun coming through the windows.

Kevin checked on the timing of Old Faithful eruptions and determined that we needed to make a long, direct run to hit the next predicted eruption at 3:00pm. So we bundled back into the van and sped for about 90 minutes, ignoring any potential stops or animal sightings along the way, of which there were few anyway, to be honest.

Sparked by a question from Barb, Kevin launched into a long discourse on the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone. When the process started in 1995, Kevin adamantly opposed the move and was a spokesman for local ranchers and hunters. Over the course of two decades he changed his tune and now believes it was, on balance, a positive program that has been well managed. The number of elk have declined but the herds seem to be healthier, and there have been a number of unforeseen positive effects including the return of beavers and their watery habitats. It’s still a contentious issue for some whether the wolf reintroduction was the best thing. The entire wildlife ecosystem throughout the greater Yellowstone region (more) is more closely monitored and managed than in the past, and Kevin at least holds out hope that humans are getting better at balancing and understanding the complexities of its different moving parts.

We arrived at Old Faithful with about 10 minutes to spare before the appointed time, which is always approximate anyway. We found likely spots among the thousand or so folks ringing Old Faithful, watching and waiting.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

In the distance, one or two other geysers erupted. Old Faithful is just one of many in the Upper Geyser Basin, but it is the most predictable so it gets the crowds and fame. I would have liked to wander the rest of the Upper Geyser boardwalks but that was not to be. Maybe some other trip.

I guess you could say once you’ve seen one geyser you’ve sort of seen them all, and Kevin in fact pretty much said just that. But I think maybe the same is true for bison or elk. Each one is an individual, and the encounter is what makes each one special.

It was another 10 minutes or so past 3:00 before Old Faithful actually burbled to life. The eruption’s jet of water and plume of steam itself was impressive, lasting maybe 3-4 minutes. Everyone snapped their pictures and movies.

Mission accomplished. Tourist bucket list item checked off.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Once the eruption was over, Kevin gave us just 10 minutes for a bathroom break and quick look inside the Old Faithful Inn. The Inn is a magnificent historic landmark, begun in 1903, and worthy of a much longer visit. There are tours of the building itself, but we had to scoot. The bathrooms are nice, given the amount of traffic. I can say that much.

• 

• 

• 

• 

We would have really liked to spend more time at the Inn, geyser basin and in the large Old Faithful visitor center, but the group’s vote has been taken (largely influenced by Fiona’s wish) to go see the Grand Prismatic Spring. So we got back in the van and retraced our path back north a few miles.

As we had been racing our way to Old Faithful we had seen the crowds and parking lot traffic at the Grand Prismatic Spring. Kevin alluded that it was only since the 2009 National Geographic overhead drone shot that people have felt that the Grand Prismatic is a must-see. You can’t get much of a sense of the colors from ground level. And at this time of year you mostly see steam. All this proved true.

We got to the Grand Prismatic, Kevin eventually found a place to temporarily park the van so we could get out and find him afterward. From the parking lot, you first cross the Firehole River, which was actually quite lovely, with the spring’s steaming water cascading into it.

• 

• 

• 

The boardwalk went past the Excelsior Geyser which is now not really a geyser but another prismatic spring. The colors were impressive even though it was hard to get a really good shot.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The Grand Prismatic was a little further up. The slight plateau was quite windy and there were a number of forlorn hats that had been sacrificed to the National Park Service. I held onto mine. The spring itself was quite steamy and it was hard to even stand and look at it, much less get a good photo. These were my best.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

There is a trail up the nearby hill to an overlook that purportedly offers a better view, but that would have taken an hour or more and we didn’t have the time.

The boardwalk looped back toward the parking lot, passing two smaller springs, the Opal and Turquoise. The prevailing wind offered a slightly better view of these.

• 

• 

• 

In all, we were at the Grand Prismatic Spring for maybe 30 minutes, but it hardly seems to have been worth the effort. Even more, we wished we could have stayed longer at the Old Faithful Inn and the visitor center.

By now, it was about 5:00pm and time for our run back down to Jackson. Most of us passengers took naps. We assume Kevin didn’t. The road itself was mostly through pine forest so there was not a whole lot to look at. Kevin kept a low-key commentary going for those that weren’t asleep.

• 

At one point, Kevin mentioned that the road would be crossing the Continental Divide three times on this southward trip. We passed the little Isa Lake, which actually flows from one end toward the Snake and the Pacific, and from the other end toward the Yellowstone and Gulf of Mexico. I finally found a map that clarified the local divide for me. The divide is highly dependent on local topography, and to some extent the Snake follows the valleys left behind by the movement of the continental plate over the Yellowstone hot spot.

As we left Yellowstone and descended back into Jackson Hole, I requested a photo stop to catch the Grand Tetons without clouds. Kevin obliged with two vantage points. Both were lovely, especially the second stop just as the sun was dipping behind Grand Teton itself. A nice finish to our tour.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We were back in the Parkway Inn by 7:00pm or so, the first ones let off. We said goodbyes to our tour mates and to Kevin.

Barb wanted to do some souvenir shopping at Jackson Square before dinner. She made her purchases and we were on our way to the restaurant we’d selected, The Kitchen, when Fiona bumped into us. We decided to have dinner together. Barb and I shared popcorn shrimp, ceviche and hangar steak tapas. Fiona got trout. We all had a pleasant time. Fiona had to get up at 4:30am the next morning for an early flight to Salt Lake and then San Francisco, so we bid her one more farewell and head back to our own hotel.

Saturday, September 14

The hotel serves a continental breakfast if you’re not getting up for a 6:30am tour. We enjoyed ours, after which Barb did emails. I went out for a walk to hunt down a bison toy for Manny, per Allie’s suggestion, and to get photos of the construction at Huff House. Sure enough, they have added a two-story modular building to what had been a basement foundation the week before. Pretty remarkable.

• 

• 

I made one more trip back through Jackson Square where there was another (or a continuation of last week’s) Art Festival with food trucks all around. I skipped the calories, found a toy store, and selected an appropriate bison.

• 

• 

Our car for the airport arrived pretty much on time at 11:00am. We caught our 1:15pm flight to Denver. The departure from Jackson Hole was just as dramatic as the arrival, and the weather was better.

• 

• 

• 

I let Barb know that as a treat we have first class seats for the Denver-Baltimore leg. I was able to request an upgrade with MileagePlus points, but wasn’t sure whether we got it until I checked in the night before.

We had two hours to kill in the Denver airport, but can’t get into the United lounge as I’d hoped (only works for international first class, not domestic). We went to our gate and called Betsy, who coincidentally had just picked up Kristen at the airport, coming home from her two years in Australia. It was world traveler day.

Our first class flight to Baltimore was quite nice. I had lots of scotch, warm nuts, a tandoori chicken dinner, plus Barb gave me the chicken from her salad dinner. Beat a bag of pretzels in coach.

We got home to Manny (and Busty) around midnight. Barb stayed up past 2:00am unpacking and bustling, knowing that she still had a day to recover on Sunday. Our trip was done.

• 

• 

In retrospect, it was quite a good trip. We enjoyed Jackson and the Tetons, and the Yellowstone tour turned out at least as good as I had hoped. Kevin was an excellent guide and showed us far more animals than we ever would have seen on our own. I was certainly glad to have him driving rather than negotiating the roads myself. It was good to have someone to answer Barb’s questions, rather than guessing at them myself. We got along well enough with our tourmates, though we sometimes would have liked to vote someone off the van. We would have liked more time in the visitor centers and Old Faithful area, but that was more or less the tradeoff Kevin made on the first day in sticking to the itinerary.

A lesson from this trip and maybe also Portugal (when Laurie and I would have liked to go back to Sintra) is that it might be good to plan in an extra day at the end of each journey to catch up on things we missed, before heading home. Easier said than done, no doubt, but something to aspire to.

I guess it gives us a reason to go back someday. Maybe.

---

With the benefit of a few weeks of hindsight and processing, I’ve come to a few “big picture” thoughts that I didn’t fully grasp at the time, but are taking on more resonance as lessons learned.

It took me a while to process that all the geothermal activity we saw in multiple places over many, many square miles of Yellowstone were all related to the single hot spot that is the Yellowstone Volcano. It is massive, a very different beast than Hawaii’s volcanoes. While it is capable of planet-altering cataclysms at some point in the coming millions of years, I’m somewhat reassured that it’s unlikely to do anything so substantial in the coming human-scale millenia. Perhaps the worst might be hydrothermal blasts of steam and ash — a sort of supergeyser — that might be locally devastating but not planet-altering. But even that doesn’t seem a likely event anytime soon, based on the measurements and monitoring underway. The cliff face at Calcite Springs with the basalt columns gives a humbling perspective of geologic time. Given that vast span of time, it’s only been a few decades that we’ve started to understand tectonic plates and the forces at play, much less measure and predict them. We have a long way to go and a lot of other existential threats to manage before this supervolcano takes us out. But what an excellent laboratory in which to learn.

Likewise, it took me a while to begin grasping the complexity of interconnections between wildlife and humans not just within the parks but the larger Yellowstone Ecosystem as a whole. We are still in the early stages of understanding the impacts of species like wolves (and ultimately, ourselves) on entire systems of flora and fauna. Again, what a great laboratory. I’m glad humans recognize the value of this special place and are starting to figure out how to better manage the whole region. We’ve really only been at it for a little more than 100 years, and most of that was still in the messing up rather than fixing up stage. But managing involves making decisions and judgments that seem above our current paygrade, and especially above our current political abilities. We have a lot more to learn, and I’m afraid that we’re still at the stage where trial and error is our primary methodology.

Then there’s the whole role of humans in the equation, including balancing needs and quantities of tourists, building more facilities, accessing more parts of the park, offering affordable housing for tourist industry workers, interests of hunters and ranchers outside the park, impact of humans on wildlife, and so much more. It calls for an even greater level of wise management that strains our current capabilities. And what becomes of the role of government in this reddest of red states? I can’t say I have many lessons learned on this front, just a lot of worries at the moment.

I’m glad the parks are there. I’m glad we got to see them. I’m glad they seem to be getting better over time. I’m glad I was able to learn some lessons from visiting. I hope the same can be said by visitors 50, 100 or (dare I say) 500 or 1,000 years from now.

---

There were several other lessons on a personal level that I am still processing. Given that our world operates as an increasingly consumer-driven economy, the tourism choices we make are among our biggest-ticket decisions. How do we make the best of those choices, for ourselves and for society?

Tourists, even the best of us, are often assholes. We get wrapped up in superficial, primal needs: what to eat, when; where to poop or pee, and when; looking for wifi or cell signals to check emails to see what’s happening in the “real” world or do research on where to eat next; is my seat on the bus comfortable; are the other people on the bus jerks or are they ok? I’m trying to learn to be better.

I think it’s important to travel with an open mind and open heart, with receptors turned on and preconceived notions tuned down. But even in the best of circumstances, it takes time to actually learn things, process them, and make connections. For me, writing about the experience has become an essential step in learning, getting beyond the superficial. You can do some research ahead of time, and you can do a little more in real time (doing too much online research in real time as you’re traveling gets distracting and exhausting), but for me, nothing beats going to see a place with your own eyes, experiencing it in the moment, and then taking time to really think about what you experienced.

It’s great to have a guide and probably wise to seek them out as often as possible, even if it means paying a bit more. I love to travel independently, be on my own schedule and pursue my own interests, but that’s not always the best or most efficient way to learn, particularly in a short period of time. Better to have a guide to help take care of the superficial and point out the things that are important…to help put you in the best position to learn things for yourself. That said, the lessons can’t be force-fed; they will be different for different individuals. It’s another interesting balance.

Being cooped up with the same group of people for four days, it’s easy to start speculating on individual personalities, backgrounds and motivations. It’s not fair to the real people — there’s no way we could really get to know one another — but it’s fun to let one’s imagination run wild and make up stories. I can see why Agatha Christie often wrote about murders among people traveling together. I’m not that kind of writer, at least not at this point, but I can see the temptation. Maybe there’s a future where Barb and I could cook up something together. We could be Mr. and Mrs. Jessica Fletcher. Murder, They Wrote.

---

Yellowstone, Part 1

Travel Main Page