Yellowstone Sep 4-19, 2005

Hurricane Katrina slammed into Waveland MS on August 27, 2005. What does this have to do with a journey to Yellowstone? It sent the price of gasoline rocketing, and by Wednesday of the following week had caused incidences of gas shortages, with stations running out of fuel. Further, countless hours of news coverage of people living on bridges and rooftops in New Orleans, mothers pushing carriages with starving babies, thousands of missing people, wearied us. We were emotionally exhausted. After donating to the Red Cross and determining that we had no other particular skills to give, we decided that we 1) Would go on our planned trip, 2) would be willing to scrap the overland route, with its risk of getting stuck far from home with no gasoline, for an air flight if one could be found. And Voila! We could fly from Nashville to Salt Lake City for $300 each and rent a car for two weeks for $250. Flying was in, driving was out.
Our last day to work was Sunday Sep 4. We made a reservation at an airport hotel (Fairfield) which would allow us to park our car for two dollars a day for the two weeks. Pete had the car packed, so when I got home from work, I pulled off my scrubs, pulled on traveling clothes, and we were headed west. The slight drawback of our flight was its 6:30 am departure, (BUT that’s 7:30 EDT), so it was a VERY early morning-didn’t even get breakfast bar at the hotel. We flew Frontier Airlines, so we got to change planes at Denver, which we like. Denver is a comfortable airport. The plane out to Salt Lake was practically empty, so we each took a window seat and spent the hour looking down. The good thing about flying so early is we got to Salt Lake and into our rental car (Ford Explorer-free upgrade) by about 11am MDT.
The first item on our agenda on these flying/ camping trips is always to find a store that sells canister fuel. We had mapquested the REI, so we took off from the airport, map in hand, looking for the REI. Our first adventure was figuring out how Salt Lake City numbers its streets. The map we were using was not expanded enough, and it took several trips down streets that ended before we got the big picture and found REI. The REI people pointed out the nearest grocery store, which we could see, but, again, took several tries to be able to get too. Armed with fuel and food, we were ready to be OUT of the city. However, we felt obligated to say at least we had seen the Mormon temple, so we drove to the part of the city where it was. After negotiating more one way streets, and making poor choices, we finally got a glimpse of Temple Square. We ended up circling it three times, between being lost, and then, being found, just looking at it. Going in would have involved another circle to the parking area, and I really wasn’t in to it. Kinda had enough of city traffic by then. And I really didn’t have the patience to deal with Mormons at that point in my day. Part of being on vacation is you get to choose what you do.
By now we were seriously hungry, had a car full of food, but no picnic place in evidence, and we were cranky and needed a rest. We headed north out of the city, and stopped at the first restaurant we found, which was a Denny’s clone. An hour later, fed and refreshed we resumed the trip north.
We drove past busy bee Mormon agriculture for an hour, and then crossed into Idaho. The part of Idaho we traveled through was dry ranching land, very soothing to drive through. We only had a general idea that we wanted to go north and east to get to Yellowstone, so randomly picked a highway that headed east and looked interesting, if somewhat devoid of towns. The first town we came to on that road was Lava Hot Springs. The town proper is in a valley below the highway, but from above we could see that there was activity in some pools, so stopped and looked down. Evening was approaching, the only other town on the road was 30-40 miles away, and this WAS a hot springs. We circled back to drive down into town, drove up and down the two block main street a couple times deciding which motel to try, and pulled into one across the street from the springs. We discovered that, although this is a busy tourist town, the season ends abruptly Labor Day Weekend. There were only maybe four rooms occupied in our motel, and we got the winter rate of $50. (However, it was a pretty bare bones room). Also, there was only one restaurant still open (and I DON’T recommend it). Our room was along the creek (actually the Port Neuf River), and a few hearty souls were tubing its rapids. We didn’t touch the water, and it may have been pretty warm, because there were hot springs everywhere feeding the river, including one 10 feet from our window. I discovered I had forgotten to pack a swim suit, but that wasn’t going to deter me from getting into the pool. I just put on the lightest weight shorts and shirt, and we walked across the street. The hot pools are actually a state park. The water was VERY warm. We had a little trouble getting in—almost like getting in too cold water-you have to enter a little at a time and get used to it. Once in it was great, and a very relaxing way to end a long day which had started in Nashville.
Tuesday, Sep 6
We had cereal and juice from our well stocked larder, then continued east through more beautiful ranch and grass farming land. Signage taught us we were following the old pioneer trails to Oregon. We took a small detour to look at Gravel Creek FS campground, and had our first moose spotting. A cow and calf ran across the road in front of us.


Snake River Canyon
By midmorning we were in Wyoming. Crossing a small mountain range we came into the Snake River Gorge. This is a rafting section. Nobody was in the water on this late season day, but we enjoyed the canyon, and I felt obliged to get in the water (to my knees). It was chilly.
The town of Jackson, WY is at the head of the canyon. This is a famous ski resort town. Very western chic. We blew through town with thoughts of Tetons, and were quickly rewarded with our first view of the famous peaks. We found a gorgeous tent-only
campground right across Jenny Lake from the Grand Teton. We claimed a spot and set up our first camp, had lunch, then set off on a walking tour. We walked around the south edge of the lake, marveling at the views. We took a small detour to Moose Pond, which came complete with a moose. We walked home and fixed a rice mix supper, then got in the car to see the rest of the park. With exquisite timing, we arrived at the top of Signal Mountain just before a glorious sunset. After enjoying the sunset, we stopped at the Signal Mountain lodge for dessert, then admired the starry sky and the coyotes calling.
Wednesday, Sep 7
Hike day. We woke up to a cold morning ready for our Teton hike. We walked back down to the lake and rode the ferry across the lake, which cut four miles off our hike. We chose the Cascade Canyon trail, which first climbs above the lake, then cuts back, following a valley between the Grand Teton and its neighbor. We walked 4.5 miles to the head of the canyon. This is one of the most beautiful hikes I’ve ever done. Everywhere we looked was awesome. The Grand Teton was the highlight, but the cascading creek was delightful, a big bull moose was browsing in a marshy area, and there were huge rockfalls where we searched unsuccessfully for pica. Great day.
After we got home we drove up to Colter Lodge (named after John Colter of the Lewis& Clark expedition who remained behind to become a mountain man) to enjoy a shower and a great meal. The Teton and Yellowstone parks concessions are run by Xanterra. We had wonderful meals in the restaurants. Certainly beats my cooking.

Thursday, September 8
Today we broke our Jenny Lake camp, after declaring it one of our top camping spots ever, and drove north into Yellowstone, following the Lewis River. We started to learn about the 1987 fire which consumed much of Yellowstone. The Lewis River (named after Meriwether Lewis) area was recovering, but the forest was obviously young. We stopped to photograph Lewis River Falls and pretty Lewis Lake, where there is a small campground. By late morning we arrived at the huge Yellowstone Lake, and toured our first series of hotsprings, in the West Thumb area of the Lakeshore. We learned about thermophyles, bacteria living in hotsprings. They act as a color thermometer. Blue water is too hot for any bacteria. Yellow bacteria live in hotter water than red. We especially enjoyed the cookpot, a hotspring with a built up rim a few feet offshore. The tale is that fishermen would hook a fish from a boat, then paddle over to the hotspring with the fish still on the line, dip the fish in the steaming water, and eat it. We had lunch at a windy spot along the lake shore, then enjoyed the Hayden valley mudpots and buffalo herds before arriving at our next home in Canyon.
Friday, September 9
Canyon is a big operation—huge campground, a lodge, and village. We spent three nights at Canyon, spending one day touring and hiking (climbing) the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. The elk were in rut, and from our tent we could hear them bellowing. It would be hard to say which part of Yellowstone is the most beautiful, but the upper and lower falls of the Yellowstone, and the wild canyon can certainly compete. Even with fellow tourists everywhere, there was a feeling of pure wildness, with the raging river, impassable cliffs of yellow rock, pounding waterfalls. We walked Uncle Tom’s trail which descended five hundred feet on 328 steps to a view of the lower falls. While down in the canyon we met Peter Larsen, volcanologist from the University of Washington (Yellowstonevolcano.com). He and a graduate student were placing sensors in the canyon to monitor earth movement. In the evening when we went to the Canyon services area for supper a bus from Knoxville Tours pulled up and discharged passengers. We watched them disembark, but didn’t see any familiar faces. A huge rainstorm woke us in the middle of Friday night.
Saturday, September 10

We wanted to see a little back country, so we picked out Grebe Lake (6.6 mile round trip) to walk to. It was an easy walk through more burn. In 17 years, some sections had trees only 4 feet tall. Others were taller, but it is obvious that in Yellowstone, life is hard. Just as we arrived at Grebe Lake the first snowflakes landed. We did a quick survey of the area, then headed back, since we didn’t know what the weather would do. (Spring 2006: Tennessee tourists discovered after spring thaw releases bodies from snow drift). It never got any worse than flurries. We traveled a few miles further on the road and stopped for a short (one mile) hike to Ice Lake, to see a handicapped accessible back country site
Our destination for the day was the Norris Geyser Basin, for our first view of geysering water rather than just bubbling hotsprings. We didn’t get to see any big eruptions, but we enjoyed watching Steamboat and Echino geysers gurgle and dance, with 10 to 12 foot eruptions. We stopped at a visitor center at Norris campground where a retired ranger hosted a film about the history of the park.
Back at Canyon for our last night there, we bought buffalo burger and cooked it with Spanish rice, then made our only fire of the trip.
Sunday, September 11
Overnight there was snow, so we woke up to a magic world on Sunday morning. Canyon campground closed for the season on this day, and by the time we packed up our camp it was pretty deserted. It was cool walking around in the snow thinking the area would be pretty much undisturbed (by humans) until next spring.
We drove back to Norris to visit a few geysers we had missed the previous day (and to give Steamboat another chance to erupt for us, which it didn’t), since we couldn’t follow our planned route to Tower (closed by the snow). By lunch time the weather had improved and we enjoyed a picnic at Sheepeater Cliffs, named after the local Indian tribe. The cliffs are of tubular basalt and looked like hanging curtains.
As we approached the Mammoth area we dropped into the Golden Gate Canyon, on a road hanging off the side of the cliff. The sun made its first appearance of the day and lit up the cliffs. We got to the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel at midafternoon, checked in, and enjoyed a shower and nap. First bed in 5 nights. We walked around the Mammoth area. Many buildings were from the nineteenth century army fort and have been converted for park service headquarters. We walked past a bull elk with his large harem occupying the park HQ lawn. A block away, another huge bull elk, single, lounged around, looking for his chance to steal some women from the other big fellow. As the sun dropped towards the mountains, we drove to the hills above the village to tour the upper terrace of hot springs. I was standing watching the colors change on west facing slopes, breathing the pure cold western air, feeling the calmness and quiet of evening descending on the mountains when Charlene called me while she drove I- 10 from Louisiana to Florida. She relentlessly and compulsively described the devastation she had passed until I finally stopped her and said, “let me tell you about where I am.” I was, with my words able to give her the gift of some peace, to take her away from the nerve jangling, heart wrenching destruction. I was so glad she had chosen that moment to call.
After dinner in the dining room we went to a presentation by a Mammoth Springs resident photographer, story-teller and pianist (one man show). It was pretty entertaining, but there was no TV, so he didn’t have much competition!
Monday, September 12
We woke to another dusting of snow (different story when seeing from a hotel window rather than a tent). We drove the 5 miles out to the edge of the park to visit the town of Gardiner, MT. It wasn’t much in the first place, a few blocks of street set in a bowl of brown grass covered hills, and in mid September it was pretty much hunkered down for the winter. There was one little cafe open, and between local folks and tourists, it was overwhelmed. I hope the waitress made a fortune. She retained her good humor and worked like a demon.
We resumed our touring of the Mammoth Hot Springs. The springs in this area tend to precipitate out travertine (calcium carbonate), which I first saw in Grand Canyon. The travertine builds up in multiple ledges, leaving white castles. During our walking tour we came to Canary Springs, which has changed course recently and is burying the deck in travertine.
We drove south, retracing our route past Norris, then followed the Gibbon River from a three foot wide stream at Norris campground to its junction with the Firehole to form the Madison. Pete liked the Gibbon best of all the rivers we followed. In the Norris area we came on a small herd of buffalo (buffalo are as common in Yellowstone as cows are in Blount County) lying down. Several chose that moment to stand up, and it was fun to watch the dust/frost/snow shake off their fur. We had lunch at a picnic area on the Gibbon, and then enjoyed Gibbon Falls and many hotsprings, including a beautiful sipapoo beside the river. (We gave it that name—it’s a Navaho term. In the Navaho creation story people emerged into the world from a built up travertine spring along the Little Colorado. Whenever we see a spring bubbling from the top of a stone and flowing over it, we are reminded of the sipapoo story.)
We made our new home at Madison campground, first removing the wet tent from its garbage bag and hanging it out to dry. (Took maybe 10 minutes—in the west, if it’s not raining or snowing, it’s DRY). We were in a tent only loop, which we love. All the tents in a circle look so pretty. I guess I also like the sociological aspect of being among people who choose to sleep in a tent. The elk were gathering here also for the rut. Again, one fellow had collected a huge harem, and a half mile upstream (actually right at the junction of the Gibbon and Firehole) another bull had four or five cows and was hoping for more. We were serenaded during the night by the bugling. We drove out of the park into West Yellowstone, MT for supper. West Yellowstone is more prosperous than Gardiner, and we had choices of eateries. We had suppers both our nights at Madison in town, enjoying hearty fare in family owned restaurants (As the author of Blue Highways would say, “three calendar restaurants”).
Tuesday, September 13
We woke to a glorious sunrise in 25 degree air, and since it was our day to visit Old Faithful, decided to have breakfast at the Inn. We drove up the Firehole Canyon road, photographing waterfalls, hot springs, and buffalo. After breakfast (we were unfortunately seated next to a snooty couple who looked uncomfortable about being so close to us. Hey—we bathed at Mammoth—don’t know what their problem was. I’m guessing Old Faithful Inn must attract the more elite visitors.), we stopped at the visitor center to map our geyser viewing itinerary. The idea is to be at the proper place at the proper time. Unfortunately, the eruption times have a deviation factor of several hours, so there is a luck factor involved. We did pretty well. Of the big geysers, we saw Old Faithful erupt at 10:20 and 1:45. We also caught Grand Geyser at 12:30, and Castle Geyser at 1:00. While hanging around Grand, watching it spit and bubble before erupting, we enjoyed watching the buffalo. Humans are confined to boardwalks, but the buffalo (I’m supposed to say bison) meandered everywhere. We saw a young fellow decide to move from one little grazing group across the white crust to another group. He apparently put his foot in a hot spot. We saw him shoot straight up, dance a pirouette, and then trot across to the other group. If you can imagine facial expression on a bison, he looked pissed. Also while we sat on some benches, a sizeable group decided they needed to cross the boardwalk. They meandered right past the geyser hole, and chose to cross the boardwalk just where we’d been sitting. (We had meanwhile mosied off a few feet). The boardwalks are made of recycled plastic and are a little slippery. It was entertaining in a slap stick way to watch them try to get up and over.
In the afternoon we drove back down to Madison, stopping, admiring, and of course photographing geyser basins and mudpots while walking on miles of boardwalk. It actually became overwhelming to see so many weird things.
Wednesday, September 14
Our last day in Yellowstone. We woke up to another beautiful 27 degree morning, breakfasted and broke camp. We revisited the Firehole canyon, and stopped at the Middle Geyser basin for more buffalo and hotspring viewing. We especially enjoyed Grand Prismatic Spring, with its rings and ropes of thermophilic bacteria. Driving south to complete our circuit of the park we passed some great hiking opportunities and wished we hadn’t broken camp. We exited Yellowstone and drove past the Tetons again. In the week we’d been gone, they had gained a good deal of snow. We found a little cabin in Jackson and scoured the town for a restaurant that had prices we were willing to pay. We found a little Mexican place, with good meals under $10.
Thursday, September 15
Today before heading south we spent the morning at the National Wildlife Art Museum. They had a traveling exhibit of Georgia O’Keefe, as well as a large selection of historical wildlife art. It was very enjoyable. Pete was most amazed at the contest entries which were for sale. Ask him about the bunny and its price.
Our trip south started about 11 am. We drove through beautiful hill country and rolling ranchland. We think we saw antelope just north of Pinedale, WY, where we stopped for lunch. Our waitress was a nice black lady. I know that there were black cowboys, but a black lady seemed odd in this out of the way place. We continued south, keeping the Wind River mountains to our left, until we came to I-80. First interstate since Sep 5. We stayed on I-80 for about 15 miles to the next exit, Green River, WY, where we found a great motel. We had a huge room, the bathroom was as big as some entire rooms we have stayed in, and the price was $40. After we settled in we drove around the town, just looking. We found the John Wesley Powell Park on an island in the Green River. This island is the place Powell decamped for his two excursions down the Green and Colorado Rivers. The park had memorials to a couple dozen excursions which had commenced there.
Friday, September 16
We rose early to explore the Flaming Gorge of the Green, described by JW Powell. The terrain shifted from Wyoming short grass plains to Utah red rock desert. We had a picnic breakfast overlooking the reservoir. Later in the morning we drove the Sheep Creek Canyon geology loop. Various rock formations were labeled, with name, era, and what would likely be found in them (oil, fossils, etc.). It was a very pretty road. We THINK we may have seen big horn sheep, but they could have been elk. We THINK we saw curving horns. We for sure saw three horses walking down the road. They stuck their noses in the car for pets (Well, perhaps for handouts, but all they scored were pets). We lunched at a picnic area. As we continued south we came to the actual gorge part of the reservoir. We stopped at several overlooks to admire the flaming red walls of the gorge, and finally the dam. Pete made lots of pictures.
Next we DROPPED out of the high plains into the Utah desert. This was a 3000 ft descent over 11 miles into the town of Vernal. A very dramatic drive. Dinosaur National Park is a few miles east of Vernal, and we found ourselves a great campsite on the Green River. We especially enjoyed taking our lawn chairs to the river beach, sitting and having hors d’ourves (crackers and coke) before starting to cook supper. A huge family of deer came by, also a flock of turkeys. As the sun set and the moon rose we walked around the camp and saw more rabbits than we’d seen in our previous lifetime.

Saturday, September 17
Today was ancient day. First we visited deep time ancient. The park is named for the dinosaur deposits here. For the casual visitor there is a cliff, 30 feet tall, 60 feet long, jammed with exposed bones. Amazing. Buried 70 million years ago in maybe a mudslide, and then at some point in deep time, the earth tilted so we see them vertical. Several species, all together in death. We spent the morning trying to learn as much as we could.
After noon we drove to the other side of Vernal to the McConkle Ranch. Thr ranch abuts red rock cliffs adorned with hundreds of Fremont era Petroglyphs. (CE 0-1000). We climbed the cliffs and came upon an Art History class out of Brigham Young U. It was very interesting eavesdropping on the professor’s speech. We drove back to Dinosaur Park in the late afternoon and did a driving tour in the park which took us to more petroglyphs as well as the remains of a homestead.
Sunday, September 18
Packed up camp for the last time and headed west back to Salt Lake City. It was an enjoyable drive across Utah. We crossed desert, plains, followed a reservoir, climbed the Wastch mountains, saw Park City and the Olympic ski stuff from the highway, and got to an airport hotel in mid afternoon. We repacked our bags for the airplane, took a luxurious bath, then drove downtown for dinner. Another Pete and Dianne adventure comes to a close.