Last Day at Yellowstone

Since we have been in Cody we have been just blah...I don't know if it is the change in altitude or what. We have done nothing up til yesterday. Yesterday we decided that we had come this far West to see Yellowstone. The snow had hampered our trip through the park due to drifts, closed roads and general bad weather. So we wanted to see the park in good weather. We started out with the temp over 60 degrees and headed down the Bill Cody Scenic Highway to YNP.
This was one of the "scenics" by the highway.

And this was another:

It was over a 50 mi trip to the entrance to the park. This entrance had been closed or the roads we could take to it had been closed since we got to the park. This might explain why:
That is a snowbank almost higher than my 4 wheel drive truck...amazing

We were convinced that the other side of the park was prettier and had more wild life than this one til we turned the curve onto this scene.

The hot steamy water pouring into Yellowstone Lake at this point causes the water to be a different color...can you see it?

We have learned, being the seasoned travelers that we are, that in this park when there are lots of people congregated in one spot, there is a bear. Sure enough a big grizzly bear. I had no idea that they had blond fur on their back.

We stayed for quite a while watching this one forage through the grass for who knows what. It would look up at the crowd every once in a while, but not be interested enough to quit eating. ( We think Disney did a remarkable job on this one making it look so real. Ha)
We drove on over to Mammoth Springs, quite a drive filled with beautiful snow sites, but I am sure you have seen enough of that.As we approached here was our welcoming view:

Elk, lots and lots of elk complete with a warning sticker!It reminded us of our first visit to Banff, before the elk became such a nuisance that they were banished from the town.
Nothing in YNP is easy to get to. You must walk from the parking lot to the sights. Some of the walks are awe inspiring, some are "AW, no!" inspiring. This one was the latter:
We climbed most of this thing. But to do all of it is about a 2 hour hike.
Due to geological changes, earthquakes, calcium deposits and etc springs have left the most interesting deposits down the side of this hill( and I think the hill is from that too):

Yellowstone is full of warning labels. They warn you about the animals. They warn you about cars in the pullouts. They warn you to stay on the trails. They warn you not to walk on some of the ground because some of the ooze is so acidic that it will eat through the soles of your shoes. The scariest warning is that any minute a new steam eruption may occur. Some of this stuff is just vile:
But no one told the buffalo/bison.

We saw more wild life on this side of the park. I think it was because of the weather. Even the animals don't like the snow. Deer, elk, bison, bears a couple of times (remember look for the crowd of people), rabbits. We even think we spotted an eagle's nest, but some spoil sport said it was an osprey's.We have seen a "wolf-ote", so why not a "osgle"?

This guy was a hoot. So slow "one foot then wait then another foot then oh yeah I have two more feet to move

, but there is good grass right here":

Just remember if you are in that big a hurry you should have left yesterday!

Blizzard and Heat Stroke

We left West Yellowstone yesterday in the worst snowstorm. It was so bad that we could barely see across the street. But our camp host told us just get on the road and it will be better,true. Erwin shoveled snow off our slide outs and broke up ice hunks just so we could slide them in.
I cannot believe how much snow we have had and seen since May...first in Flagstaff then in Zion and Bryce Canyon and now YNP. Most of the roads through the park were closed yesterday due to the snow fall so we wound up going twice the distance just to get to our destination, Cody WY.
Today it is warm and sunny.We are only about 50 miles from the East entrance to the park, so I plan to go again. We could not get to this side from West Yellowstone due to the snow. Actually the snow was fabulous but it sure limited my fun.It just isn't fun to be wet and cold and fight the wind. How do you Chicagoans do it, or why?
Cody is a cute town but we have seen very little of it so far. Our camper needed to be put to right again after all the snow and rain and the trip. We were seldom home in West Yellowstone but we had wet clothing all over the place drying.
What a mess. But we are back together,clothes dried, groceries have been bought and stowed and we will site-see tomorrow, maybe later today.
Diesel fuel is about $.30 cheaper here than in MT. (Did you know that there is not a "cents" symbol on the keyboard?,hrmph)So we may do a little more. We will be here a week then make our way to Gillette WY for a rally.

So, How has your June been so far?

Can you believe snow in June. We have had snow since June 6th and looks as if more is on the way.



There is a lot of Yellowstone Park that we cannot even get into due to icy roads( In June?) and an avalanche( In June?)
The first day we were here I kept telling Erwin I would love to come back when there was snow on the ground and I wanted to see bears.
The snow I got right away, the bears took a bit longer.



I am still amazed at the stupid people that you see in public. Yesterday we were stopped for a herd of bison to cross the street in front of us and this jerk coming from the other direction whipped around the stopped car in front of him, nudged his way into the herd, did not even stop, and proceeded to cuss us out for yelling at him....Where was that charging male bison when we needed him?????
But back to the snow. Our camp host said that in April snow would have been higher than our camper if we had been at the park. Now that is over 14 feet of snow! The TV station reported that over 50% of the bighorn sheep had died during the winter due to the unusual amounts of snow. My mind cannot take it in. Apparently this town only plows two streets. The rest you must use a snowmobile to pass.
I have never been as cold as I was the other day. Wind with ice pellets in it. This ole Southern gal isn't used to that.

But we soldiered on and saw a lot of the park that day. How often do you get to see Ol' Faithful in the snow?

This park is so huge that it is taking us almost a week to see the parts we can get in. Of course, if I didn't make Erwin stop every time I see a pullout we could see more. But I came to see not to speed.



I think this photo says it all....




Most of the tourists here are very helpful and will tell you where they have spotted beautiful scenery or wild life. Yesterday a young man heard me say I had never seen a bear and he told us where to find them. He was right on track. We saw several bears and a mother with her cub. We had to stay quite a distance away but we had binoculars and got very good views.

We also saw this "wolf-ote". We think it is a coyote, but we are not sure. He was trotting down the road and we never could see his face.


I think the most interesting part of the day was the mud volcano.


There is this rock with a hole at the bottom that oozes this yucky slate gray mud into a pool. there is bubbles and hisses and steams. I felt dinosaur eyes on me the whole time we were there.

Yellowstone National Park

Thar's snow on them hills! And lots of it. It is cool during the day and cold at night here, just perfect.
We got in yesterday to West Yellowstone, Montana from Idaho Falls, ID. Our campsite is a little rugged but it has all the hookups and is in walking distance to the town. This is basically a tourist stopover for all those wanting to go to Yellowstone. Expensive trinkets and clothing.
We got in early, unfolded our camper, wandered around town, ate lunch and took off to the park. Erwin has a National Access Pass so we get into all National Parks free. Guess you wondered why we visited so many of them, huh. If we did not have this it would cost us over $25 each time. But this way we can come and go as we please.
It must have been Bison on parade day at the park. We saw them at about every turn. Then we saw elk about as often. We were just fortunate to stop and have the coyote pointed out to us. But the falls were magnificent... and the steaming pools with the snow covered mountains in the background were almost more than I could stand.
It is turning out to be just what we had hoped for....Enjoy









These steaming ponds and streams are really eerie looking. Sort of a glimpse into the prehistoric ages.
I have this real interest in the bison and their preservation. I have been to bison preserves in IN, seen them in UT and now here. They look as if they are slow moving quiet creatures but they can turn nasty in seconds. these creatures can weigh over 1000 lbs,can run over 35 mph, jump 10 ft straight up and can turn completely around in less than their length. The herd is run by the older females who decide what males are to be allowed in the herd. We have seen lots of males off by themselves. ( Erwin says away from naggin' wimen and squallin' youngens)We have been told that they are totally unpredictable, yet we see people trying to get close enough to touch. Dummies, guess that is why we have emergency rooms. More people are gored by bison in Yellowstone than are bothered by the bears.

The Golden Spike

My head is so full of history right now. It is ashame that I will not remember all I have seen and read. We left SLC yesterday for a short trip to Snowville UT.

From Snowville we made a day trip to Promontory Point to visit the National Park, The Golden Spike. This National Park commemorates the driving of the last railroad spike to link the Central Pacific Railroad out of Calif. to the Union Pacific Railroad out of Omaha, Nebraska.It has the best gift shop and book store in its visitor's center that I have ever seen. So I bought a book about the settling of the West and one about the Momon's trip to SLC with handcarts.
Men of vision, in both cases, caused the Unites States to be changed. Lincoln had seen the Union about to segment when the South split away and the West felt it did not belong. So he had Congresss mandate the the transcontinental railroad. This brought major expansion to the West. The West could send its ores to the East, the East could manufacture parts and machinery and send it to the West.Money flowed in both directions.
We had a great time watching the beautifully restored or rebuilt engines chug along belching smoke and blowing their whistles. We then drove along the old railbed for a number of miles and marveled at the engineering and surveying that was done without a computer or GPS.





Count the stars on this flag....

Later that day we drove out to the Northern end of the Great Salt Lake. All that white on the shore is salt.

The Past and LDS

For the past two days we have spent at least 6 hours a day or more at the Family History Center operated and owned by the LDS(Latter Day Saints, aka Mormons).
This is an amazing free service provided by the LDS. The building is four floor tall with an extensive microfilm library, family history books, and computer terminals that connect to US and world wide data bases. The originals of all these records that LDS holds are kept in a granite vault outside of Salt Lake City.There are missionaries in the center to help and they all seem to get as excited as those that they help.Every once in a while someone would say loudly, That is my .... whatever and we would all look to see who was so lucky. On the wall there is a family tree that shows how Shirley Temple, Donnie Osmond,the Wright Brothers and Lucille Ball are related.. How 'bout that!

I was surprised that I could go back at least 6 generations in the Baker family. It certainly helped that in most generations the name Peter Baker showed up. I got as far as the Baker immigration from either NC or VA to KY in the early 1800's then I got stuck. By the time I got to there, my brain was in overload. The Moore family ( my Mom's) were a bit harder to trace, but I am still working on it.

Erwin on the other hand had a great time finding his ancestors in Charleston and Germany. He found passenger lists and even a picture of the ship his Grandmother took from Germany to the USA.... more to follow on that I am sure.
We got home each night after 9 PM, our heads full of history and questions. It is surprising how much information the government has on each of us that is public knowledge. Imagine if I were a hacker what I would find...........

Mormon Tabernacle Choir

It was fantastic! Since this is Memorial Day weekend,their program was patriotic. And they had bagpipes playing during their arrangement of Amazing Grace. Sent chills up the spine. The concert was in the LDS Convention Center.

That place is huge. I think it holds over 21,000. There were maybe 2,000 there today. But it was hard to tell due to the construction of the building. When you have over 360 singers, a full orchestra and bagpipes music can be made.
On this day they were taping their TV and radio programs. The cameras did not interfere with our seeing the choir, but it sure did limit my picture taking.

I had signed us up for an all day tour and this was our first stop.
John, our tour guide, was quite a scatterbrain but fun. He would start one sentence, think of something else he wanted to say, go with that thought and return or not return to the original thought. Reminded me of the way some of my thoughts go.
Other stops on our trip were the Heritage Museum

the State Capitol building, and lunch. If you have never read about the Mormons' trip to Utah, now is your chance. Quite a story of faith.
After a whole day of LDS and religion, Erwin and I went off on our own.We went to the Brewvies, a brewery with a cinema. Not too bad according to the beer snob. The movie starred Jackie Chan, a fun way to end the day.