Yellowstone Trip Part Two

Tuesday, we drove to Hayden Valley for a hike.  According to the rangers and guide literature this is a high density grizzly bear area, and the best place to observe them. We had bought a fifty dollar can of bear spray, and attached bear bells to ourselves. As we put on our packs, Gail asked me if I knew how to use the bear spray, which is essentially mace. I proceeded to show her how fast I could unholster the can, remove the safety clip, and aim.  As I did so, Gail, who was standing in front of me, started to scream and practically roll down the bank.  I thought she was being funny until I realized I had actually sprayed her, then I started to feel it in my throat.  My thumb had accidentally pushed down on the trigger in my haste to remove the trigger safety.  It wasn't until a while later that we could both laugh about how I sprayed Gail with bear spray.

 Every trail head has a bear warning sign.  Unfortunately, a man was killed by a bear in Montana while we were at the park, so it is no laughing matter.

We didn't see any bears on this hike, but we did see this Pacific tree frog.

Gail scouts the hills for movement.

That dark spot is a lone bison.  We did see a distant large herd of bison awhile later.

A western toad in the grass.

Thunderclouds formed and we had a little lightning, thunder, and rain.

The trail followed Allum Creek.  Because of the change in weather, we decided to head back to the car and drive up to the Lower Falls.  We took better pictures of the falls a couple days later.

Fall colors were starting to appear in the bushes.  Most of the trees are evergreen, so they don't turn colors.

Another bison seeming unconcerned.  However, bison can suddenly charge a person considered a threat. The park shows a video of a man getting too close to one.  The bison suddenly charged around a small tree and with its horns, threw the man high into the air.  It was amazing he was able to pick himself up off the ground.

We enjoyed watching these common mergansers fish on the Madison River.  When they located a school, they would go into a frenzy of group diving.

We enjoyed this little byway along the river where we watched a bald eagle. The next day we saw several ospreys and a belted kingfisher here, also.

On Wednesday, we took a little hike at dawn to Harlequin Lake.  Here, Gail points out the fresh work of beavers.

Lilly pads and mist on the little lake.

There were two beaver lodges over in the reeds.

Gail spotted this spotted frog.

The beautiful Madison River, a fly fisherman's dream.

In the afternoon, we took a six mile hike to Wolf Lake.  We passed Little Gibbon Falls on the way.

The lichens on the rocks color coordinated with Gail's jacket.

Most of the forest is recovering from the 1988 fires.  There were some areas that were so dense in fallen timber, they would be very difficult to walk through.

Chipmunk!

We really enjoyed the clear flowing water and greenery - so not like Southern California.

Having seen the scat display at a visitor center, we are pretty sure this is wolf scat.

After a quick look at Wolf Lake, we headed back as the clouds thickened.  Frozen droplets started falling on us.
In the late afternoon, we drove back to West Yellowstone to pick up my mailed camera gear, and then drove to the north entrance to the park at Gardner, our new base.

On the way, we passed through Mammoth, a park facility.  The elk seem to make their way down to the visitor area every evening.  We wondered if it was to be safer from wolves.  Managing a herd of elk, cars, and tourists in Mammoth is quite a headache for park personnel - especially now when the rutting season is on.

Gardner has the appearance of a frontier town.

Vote!   Vote!    Vote!    We had a contest to see who could make the best folded napkin from a paper towel.  Please submit your vote.  Thanks!

Napkin #1.

Napkin #2.

Yellowstone Trip Part One

Saturday, the 6th, we set out for Yellowstone National Park.  I had never been there, and Gail had only seen it when she was around nine, except for a brief drive through when it was very cold, rainy, and foggy.  We had an unforgettable journey with highs that brought us to tears, and a couple snafus that almost brought us to tears, too, such as the lost bag of camera gear, and the bear spray incident.  More on that later.

 We brought our Schwinns along.  Here we are in Barstow for a pit stop.  We had planned to take three days to get to West Yellowstone, but did it in two days - about 1,050 miles.

 West Yellowstone, Montana, is a tourist town and western gateway to the park.  Gail startled everyone, including all the foreign tourists, when she set off the alarm on this Pawparazzi vehicle.  The sign said, "Don't Touch!"

 Unlike the other motels, the Ho-Hum was rather empty -  hmmmm.  Our motel, the Evergreen Motel, was a great little place run by a very professional and friendly young couple, Logan and Sara.

 Apparently, the Japanese like to let loose when coming to the wild west!

 Another non-chain motel.

 There were a number of painted bison around town.  They disappeared the next day.  The next morning, we drove into the park along the Madison River and saw our first elk.

 Monday morning I made the terrifying discovery that we had somehow lost a bag containing my "good" camera, lenses, binoculars, and laptop computer. I phoned the motel we stayed at Saturday night in Cedar City, Utah, and they indeed had the bag.  They mailed it to our motel in West Yellowstone, and it arrived Wednesday afternoon.  I think we had left it on the ground behind the car while we were loading up.  Whew!!!  In the meantime, Gail and I had our pocket cameras, but every time we saw wildlife, I was wishing for my telephoto.

 It wasn't long before we saw our first bison.  A big bull was rolling around raising dust, which they do to impress the females.  Notice the burned dead trees.  The fires in 1988 burned over one third of the park.

 We decided to make Monday our geothermal exploration day.  It seems like most everywhere you go there is some kind of steam visible if you look around.  Yellowstone sits over a 60 mile diameter  caldera of molten magma close to the surface of the earth.  600,000 years ago the whole thing blew, in an explosion the size of 1,000 Mt. St. Helens explosions.

 Bubbling mud pots.

 A small geyser and fumaroles.

 A selfie at Cone Geyser.

 The Firehole River is actually warmed by hot springs runoff.

 Some of the boiling pools of water were immense, deep, and colored by various thermophiles that flourish at particular temperatures.

 Our favorite, by far, was the Grand Prismatic Pool which covers several acres, and its colors are other worldly.  We climbed up that mountain in the background to get the pictures below.

 For some reason, Old Faithful gets a lot of attention.  It is next to The Old Faithful Lodge, and there are rows of seating extending for hundreds of yards.

 We were glad to have seen the geothermal sights, but what we were really looking forward to was  hiking away from crowds and seeing wildlife like grizzly bears, wolves, big horn sheep, and moose.

 The inside of the Old Faithful Lodge is unbelievable.  It is immense, made of logs, and was built in a year.

 This is the view into the dining room from above.

 We walked through this geothermal area to get to a hiking trail in the late afternoon.

 All these areas smell of rotten eggs due to the hydrogen sulfide gas emitted.

 Our hike led us up a mountain with an overview of the area.  We had heard so many bear warnings, particularly for grizzly bears, that we were a bit nervous.  We carried the highly recommended bear spray, but weren't too confident, though, as grizzlies can run at you at 35 m.p.h. - not much time to unholster the spray, aim, and fire.

 The trail led to Mystic Falls - very magical in the evening light.

This was to become an everyday event, that is cars stopped in the road for elk, bison, and other wildlife, with people getting out and running towards the animals  One thing very nice about Yellowstone is that most of the park has no roads and therefore very few people more than a few hundred yards from their cars. Also, getting up and out at dawn was a great time to see wildlife with very few other people.  Well, it was time to get back to the motel just outside the park and rest up for another day.

Labor Day Weekend

Sunday, we went into San Diego's Balboa Park to see the Shakespeare play, Two Gentlemen of Verona, at the Old Globe Theater.  We had prepped the plot for a couple days, mainly with Cliff Notes.  The play was a hoot, complete with Crab the dog.

 But first, we had dinner at the zoo. We like to make good use of our annual passes!

 Also, before the play, was a free outdoor rock concert featuring the official Spreckle's Organ Pavilion organist playing with a reunited grunge band.

Monday, Andria and the kids came up for a day of fun.  Susanna delighted in playing storekeeper in our old puppet theater.

 Midday, we all watched George of the Jungle, which became the day's theme.

 After the movie it was time for pool mayhem.  Gail gamely partook in the diving exhibitions.

 Nora wisely prefers the feet first approach.

The "train" getting ready to leave the station.  We had a BBQ and birthday celebration for Andria, too.  Happy Birthday, A!