Last big visit for the year

Coming to realize that we were less that three weeks from our departure date and the end of a fantastic summer in Yellowstone, we decided to take one final look at one (if not our most) favorite places. The road between Madison and Norris is closed in the park which means that from our RV site in Madison, our only option to see the park requires travelling from here, to Old Faithful, Grant Village, Hayden Valley, and Canyon. Beyond that would take an additional day so we limited our adventure to a trip from here to Canyon and back.

The road from Madison to Old Faithful took us through the three most spectacular geyser basins in the world. The drive along the Firehole River is spectacular even though a few herds of elk impeded our movement. Seeing so much wildlife is such an inportant part of any trip through the park so we just enjoy even though it may be a bit of an inconvenience. At the Fountain Paint Pots we saw (and smelled) the boiling mud of the paint pots and saw all four types of thermal features that can be seen in more exagerated forms elsewhere in the park.

Our next stop was Great Fountain Geyser. Though it only erupts every 12 +/- hours, our timing was good and we saw one of the Park's most impressive predictable geysers put on a great show. This may be one of our favorite geysers, but picking your favorites in Yellowstone is as difficult/impossible as picking your favorite child or grandchild. Each and everyone is special.

From Great Fountain we travelled the short distance to the Midway Geyser Basin, home of Grand Prizmatic Spring, the largest hot spring in this hemisphere and the third largest in the world. No words can describe the majesty or beauty of this special place.

We stopped at the Black Sand Basin, a place that we do not visit often, but a place that we find very special. There is a very active geyser there, some spectacular pools, including the famous handkerchief pool (where travellers long ago would toss in their dirty handkerchiefs, only to have them emerge from the abyss thoroughly cleaned) and a certain undescribable solutidude and beauty. A juvenile bald eagle made a pass, stooping downward toward the treetops only to soar upwards, then fold his wings and ballistically soar over the top in a sine-wave-like curve which he repeated numerous times. The eagles have just fledged and this one was certainly enjoying the fact that he can "slip the surly bonds of earth and dance on laughter-silvered wings".

Old Faithful, our next stop, is still Old Faithful and about every 90 minutes puts on a show for those who watch this event and miss the many other much-more spectacular eruptions around the park. We had our ice cream, saw the Inn (largest log structure in the world) and continued toward the Continental Divide. The Divide, as all geography students know, is the backbone of North America where rain falling either flows eastward to the Atlantic Ocean or westward to the Pacific, At Isa Lake, located on the divide, the water flows both ways during peak snow melt season. The one end of the lake has water flowing to the Firehole River, thence to the Madison, Missouri, Mississippi, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic Ocean. Water from the other side of this lake (more like a pond) flows through Shoshone Lake, the Snake River and eventually into the Pacific Ocean. There are only two such places like this in North America- both in Yellowstone National Park. God only knows how much I love this place!

We continued down to Grant Village for a short visit with a very special friend who is a ranger at Grant--probably Yellowstone's ranger with the longest history in Yellowstone National Park. Marilyn was a 5 month old baby when her father served here as an interp ranger many years ago (I will not say how many). He is featured in a life-sized mural at the Ranger Museum in Norris. They lived in a tent that was heated with a wood stove. I wonder how many of today's rangers would be willing to live like that. I only hope I can bounce up mountains like she can after I have logged as many miles as she has.

From Grant we headed northward into the Hayden Valley. Past Sulphur Caldron, a hot spring with a pH that nearly compares to battery acid, we entered the broad valley and were drawn to the large mass of vehicles at the second roadside pull-off. This is Yellowstone's indicator that there is either a wolf or bear in the open. This time it was a huge black Grizzly bear. A carcass of a bison, now just a broken up skeleton, lay at stream side. The Grizzly, still gorged from his last meal, woke up from his napping place in the higher grass, moved a few yards and then laid down at streamside for another nap. Earlier in the day that same bear shared the carcass with three other bears and three wolves. Now even the ravens could not find enough pickings for a decent meal. A coyote approached the carcass cautiously but decided that the risk was not worth the reward and crossed the Yellowstone river and headed to parts unknown to the East.

Only a few miles further up the valley and we encountered the herds of bison who migrate here annually for the rut. When the rut is active, bulls grunt, groan, roll in the dirt, and fight in fatal engagements, for the cows of their dreams. Seems all the bulls and cows are already paired up, but seeing the vast expanse of sage with hundreds of bison was still a rewarding and moving experience.

Our last stop was Canyon where the Upper and Lower Falls look much like they have for thousands of years. On one of Yellowstone's earliest explorations, one of the explorers, approaching from the upstream side, was distracted by his pack horse and looked up to suddenly see the canyon only after his horse stopped. His partners soon came up from behind and all were so overtaken by the majesty of the sight that not a word was spoken for over five minutes. I get the same feeling every time I witness the falls and the canyon.

This has been an awesome summer. Since I was but a grade school student, I always wanted to be a ranger. I even started my college years in a forestry program but was side-tracked by a war in a far off country in the far East. Now I am a ranger, and it is everything I had imagined. Sandi and I have had a special summer here this year and expect to return in 2010. For now we are but a few weeks from packing up and heading Southward before the cold weather comes and freezes us in place.