YELLOWSTONE AND GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARKS

Saturday, October 28, 2017

It was stark clear, not a cloud, when we entered Yellowstone National Park from the West Entrance and crossed the border from Montana to Wyoming.

It was a last minute decision to drive through the park, based largely on the beautiful day.

A bison was our first visitor. Nonchalant, he hung out in the middle of the road. Our Australian Shepherd Kiva was a bit alarmed.

We received a detailed map at the entrance and we used it to determine our path.

As we approached the Artists Paintpots, the steaming earth inspired us to pull off for a closer look. The smell of sulfur was strong, but our curiosity was stronger as we stepped toward a beautiful cove of color and heat along the river next to the bridge.

The Artists Paintpots required a short walk, about half a mile, through a beautiful woods. The path climbed up a hill and wound around various water and mud pots with all sorts of colors. The hydrothermal system is compared to a double-boiler. There is a hot water system under the ground with acidic steam. The steam heats the ground and causes rocks to become clay. The pools of the Artists Paintpots only receive water from snowmelt and rain, not from underneath. The bubbles are causes by steam and carbon dioxide.

 

 

 

Back in the parking lot, unintimidated, a raven perched on some bicycle handlebars.

 

 

We continued to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, viewing it from Artist Point and Lookout Point. Fourteen years ago, I first saw the canyon and the beautiful falls with the jade dagger of water following on the left side. It was the inspiration for a poem I wrote in 2003. Read it here.

 

 

 

 

 

We made the decision that it was shorter to drive back the way we came in order to stop at the Old Faithful Geyser.

On the way, we stopped at Gibbon Falls.

 

We stopped again at the stunningly beautiful Grand Prismatic Spring. There is a short walk around the stunningly beautiful pools.

 

 

 

Grand Prismatic Spring, about 200 feet across, is the largest hot springs in Yellowstone. Its temperature is about 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Hot springs form when magma from an active volcano heats water that rises to the surface through fissures in the rocks.

 

 

 

 

After our geyser experiences in the place where the word “geysir” comes from, Iceland, we were intrigued to witness the eruption of the iconic geyser of the United States. The space between eruptions is about seventy minutes, so we got something to eat at the last place open before closing for the season. We did not realize that Yellowstone was seasonal. Many roads and services close starting mid-October and early November is the final date for most services. Our timing was fortunate.

After a quick bowl of soup, I took a walk around Old Faithful and found some translucent blue pools, boiling pots, white and orange sinter deposits.

 

 

 

 

Another geyser erupted nearby and it amused me that there were people walking near it who did not notice.

 

Old Faithful’s eruption began earlier than estimated and lasted about five minutes. It was beautiful to watch and surprisingly soundless, at least from my viewing point.

 

West Thumb was next. We almost didn’t stop because sunset was approaching, but we are very glad we did.

The southwestern part of Yellowstone Lake sticks out like a thumb: West Thumb. There was a volcanic explosion about 174,000 years ago that created a caldera within the caldera throughout most of Yellowstone National Park. So many years later, the shore of the lake remains thermally active.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove toward the south park entrance. Thankfully, although the gate attendants had gone for the day, the road was open to cross into the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Parkway and into the Grand Teton National Park just beyond it. The Grand Teton mountains were beautiful in the sunset glow.

 

 

 

After miles of just us on the road, we saw a pack of stopped vehicles and were concerned that there had been an accident. No, it was a grizzly bear sow and her cub surrounded by eagerly reckless park visitors. We did not add to the melee and drove through.

We stopped at Mount Moran to stretch our legs and enjoy the beauty.

As we approached the National Elk Reserve, we saw numerous elk along the road.

We arrived in Jackson, Wyoming as twilight set in.

A TRAIN RUNS THROUGH IT

Sunday and Monday, October 29-30, 2017

We emerged from Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and into the touristy and historic town of Jackson. Our feet landed on wooden boardwalks, the feeling and sound was much richer than concrete. Along the walkways, we found signs about the history of Jackson.

The layout of the town was designed by two women, Maggie Simpson and Grace Miller, between 1901 and 1905.

Wyoming Territory was the first to allow women to vote in 1869 and Jackson continued this tradition of women in politics by electing one of the country’s early all-women town governments in 1920 that included a female Town Marshall, Pearl Williams. The New York Evening Herald called it the “Petticoat Government.”

Wyoming’s territorial legislature also passed laws granting women teachers the same pay as men and providing married women property rights apart from their husbands.

 

 

Dan stands under one of the four arches of elk antlers providing gateways to Jackson town square since 1960. Roughly 7,500 elk winter on the nearby National Elk Refuge. The antlers they shed are collected by local Boy Scouts and sold in the Jackson town square each May.

 

 

 

 

Dan said that Western Canada was towering rocky mountains right up next to the road, Montana was big valleys with lots of sky between mountains, and Wyoming was low rolling hills covered in sage.

 

 

 

 

We stopped in Laramie, Wyoming for the night. The streets were very wide and flat. It was easy to imagine a showdown on those streets at high noon.

We found a beautiful used bookstore and coffee shop: Night Heron Books and Coffeehouse. It was populated by studying university students. One of my son’s favorite books was there, Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum. It reads like a choose your own adventure. I couldn’t resist. Meanwhile, Dan was fascinated by the only empty shelf. We discovered that alphabetically it would contain the works of Italo Calvino, an author who was missing from the collection. The empty Italo Calvino shelf. Somehow fitting.

The Midwest Trunk and Sporting Goods Clock was trendy back in the 1920s, 30s and 40s. The catch phrase of the Midwest Trunk and Sporting Goods Store was “Look for the Clock” and people would say “Meet me at the Clock.”

 

 

Dan watched the series Hell on Wheels and learned the story of the people and town that moved along with the building of the Union Pacific Railroad. The town that became Cheyenne, Wyoming was chosen as the focal point for the railway. We stopped in Cheyenne to look through the Cheyenne Depot Museum.