Friday, June 9 - Day
7 – drive to Yellowstone
By my mistake and God’s providence, I took a right turn leaving
Colter Bay RV park instead of a left. We
didn’t realize this til I’d travelled appx 15 miles headed south/east on 287,
instead of north/west. Had I gone the
right way (left……) however, we’d have missed seeing the mother grizzly and her
two cubs just 70 yards off the road! We
stopped (as did 50 other vehicles) and took pictures for 20 minutes.
 |
| sow grizzly and cubs |
Deanna
will still be deleting less than perfect pictures of this trio feeding on
flooded grass in two months. Her nickname on trips like these is “Nakamoto”,
for taking more pictures than a Japanese tourist. Truth be told, she takes great pictures, so
deciding which ones to delete is no small task.
At any rate, no one regretted my
navigational mistake, another first...
The drive up was otherwise uneventful. No critters beyond the grizzlies (whose Latin
name is Ursus Horribilus, really).
Someday, I might find a place I like more than Yellowstone.
If and when that happens, I’ll let y’all know.
Yellowstone National Park is the most geologically unique
place on the planet. The molten caldera
underground is a huge ball of lava that provides Yellowstone’s unique “thermal
features”. Features like Old Faithful,
Morning Glory (my personal favorite) and Mammoth Hot Springs. If I recall correctly, the crust is thinner
here than any other place on earth.
Just in case that wasn’t enough, God left a spot we humans
call “The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone”.
It’s complete with some HUGE waterfalls, incredible rock coloration, and
if you know where to look, an osprey nest complete with a couple young’uns
waiting on mom to bring dinner.
The road access around the park is two loops shaped roughly
like a jagged figure 8, since the roads have to follow contour lines at ~7800’
of elevation. There are several access
roads that connect the rest of the world to the “two loops”. Our campsite, at Fishing Bridge RV park is
on the lower loop, east side. Once camp
was setup, we took State Hwy 20 headed towards the east entrance, since it was
a road we’d never seen before. It is
TWENTY SEVEN miles from our park to the east entrance. This park is just huge. On this section of
roads, we saw the following: geysers,
sulfur vents, the northern shoreline of Lake Yellowstone (itself a
monstrosity), eight bighorn sheep, two elk, some buffalo, countless waterfalls,
and a small roadside pond that remained 50% ice covered.
Much of the eastern section of the park was burned up in the
1988 fires that ravaged a full third of the park. Remnants of this ecological
disaster remain plain to see. Old stands of lodgepole pines are naked grey
toothpicks, half of which have fallen over waiting for their brothers to join
them in creating a deadfall (blowdown) of “Pickup Sticks” on an enormous scale. Some young trees have sprouted to replace
them on some hillsides, while other hillsides are just covered with grass and pretty
fantastic flowers. A high vista at Lake
Butte Overlook provides a view of nearly roadless countryside all the way to
Jackson, Wyoming about 70 miles away.
Though most of the park is in Wyoming, considerable portions
are also in Idaho and Montana. Rare and
huge is the park requiring 3 states to cover it all. J
While driving through it, I can’t help but wonder when Moses
was writing the scripture that if his people didn’t recognize Yahweh as the
Creator of all, that the rocks would “cry out”, if he wasn’t referencing a
postcard from his cousin in northwest Wyoming at the time…… cause the rocks
here are crying out mightily. Snowmelt has created waterfalls every couple
hundred yards. Some, more glorious than others, but all a testament of God’s
provision (snow) to the mountains.
 |
| rocks crying out :) |
I would have loved to have toured this place with my
grandfather, Neal White. “Pepaw” loved
to drive through beautiful country slowly and just “take it all in”. There’s no better place to do so, and I sure
do miss him. He’d have really enjoyed
his great grandkids that we’re raising.
He’s been gone 13 years now. A man of few regrets and avid camper
himself.
Alternatively, I’d love to tour the park with an
atheist. It’d take several days to drive
all the roads in the park, and I’d sure as heck like to hear how all this
(earth, Yellowstone and…… life itself) is the result of a cosmic accident,
caused by a perfect arrangement of pressure, energy, water and time. Lots
and lots of time….. Neal White, a
man who I heard curse less than 5 times in all my encounters with him might
hear the atheist’s explanation of how this came to be, look out the window at a
momma elk eating grass near a “thermal feature” emitting sulfurous gas and
boiling water, smile and say “cosmic accident my ass”.
Back in camp after our trip, the kids started building a
“snow hut” in a snow pile 20 yards from the camper. Amanda, of course, still
sees no need to wear shoes at all during snow hut excavation. Ah, to be twelve and oblivious……
Tomorrow’s plan is to take the north loop up to Mammoth Hot
Springs, which we didn’t see on our 2015 trip.
I’m now a week into this vacation and I’m pretty well
checked out of work entirely (sorry guys).
For all the features Yellowstone has, one it lacks almost entirely is cell
service. Wifi is a tougher find yet. I probably can’t “share” these experiences
til we get to Glacier. Sorry for the
inconvenience this may cause my 3 blog followers (“Hi mom!”), but I’m okay with
this loss. Completely okay. I’m reminded
of the cell phone commercial featuring Ozzy saying, “How many bloody G’s are
there?”. Well, Ozzy, there ain’t any G’s
around here. J
While heading back towards camp I did see the boy (Travis)
in the backseat playing with his tablet for entertainment as snow, elk, bighorn
sheep and waterfalls passed by. I
wondered if Teddy Roosevelt would have knocked him silly and said, “Hey, Dingleberry,
I didn’t set aside this park larger than the state of Rhode Island so you could
play Candy Crush as you passed through it”.
I just heard on the radio that a hiker went missing yesterday while hiking solo, wearing khakis and a tee shirt. A reminder that while this area is beautiful, it’s also dangerous if you’re not careful and at least a little bit lucky. It’s easy to get lost, confused, hurt, or whatever, and find yourself freezing to death overnight in early June. They mobilized 5 search parties with search dogs, a helicopter to look for him, in an area ironically called “Rescue Creek” near the parks north entrance. Early 50’s and was doing just fine a couple days ago. Not true today. Hope they find him alive.
Every day an opportunity, and no tomorrow promised. Live it.
One observation I made today is how the nature of my
problems have changed since the trip started.
Before the vacation, my problems were first work focused. Jobs behind schedule, subcontractors not
delivering on expectation, and (say-it-aint-so) spreadsheets that weren’t
accurate. Today my problems were as follows:
·
diesel is $2.81/gal
·
wife mad because another guy got close to our
truck while passing me
·
turned wrong way (re: grizzly)
·
long hill climb into Yellowstone (transmission
strain)
·
can’t canoe creeks/rivers in YS (park rules, and
I think Teddy would call BS…..)
·
radio station won’t tune in very clearly….. lots
of background fuzz
·
nearly
out of cheap red
for some reason, these are
problems I don’t mind so much
Saturday, June 10 – Day 8 – North Loop of Yellowstone
Written
by Travis (the son). In Yellowstone,
there are 2 loops. They are shaped like
an 8. Today we took the northern loop
(which is 100 miles around). In Yellowstone,
there are buffalo in the thousands. But
at any buffalo sighting a traffic jam popped up. That gets very old after the third buffalo
sighting. Anyways after 25 miles my dad
saw a turn off. We drove for 45 minutes
and then turned around. It was an hour
and a half that got us nothing to see.
Back on the loop we turned off to Mammoth Hot Springs. Words can’t describe it. It was a hot spring with a huge calcium
deposit. From the road to the top of the
calcium was 350 feet. The calcium grows
3 feet a year. Most of the calcium
mountain was white and inactive (It got too high and the calcium water from
underground was flowing elsewhere. Where
the water flowed thermophiles (microorganisms that can live in boiling water) gave
the calcium colors like orange, pink, gray or green. It was very a beautiful sight. Top 3 most beautiful things that I have ever
seen.
 |
| Mammoth Hot Springs |
When we got back I kept working on our snow tunnel. I started on a vent hole from the roof down
to the tunnel. I was digging from the
roof down when I rammed the shovel down in the hole to see if I could see the
bottom of the shovel. I went down for a
look. Nope if did not poke out. I went to the roof to remove the shovel. I grabbed it, but it did not move. I reached both of my hands down there, got in
the squat position and pulled up. I was
in 7th grade and could squat 100 pounds without any big
problems. Even with that the shovel did
not budge. I kept trying and eventually
got my sister for back up. Two minutes
later she left me and told me that it was not her problem and walked away. I kept trying not to give in to asking my old
man for help. I got some rope and tied a
loop around the handle of the shovel. I
put a piece of wood in the rope for a handle.
I pulled again so hard that it left intricate marks on the handle of
where the rope had been. Still nothing.
I did one more quick pull, and it came
flying out. I went back to the camper to
find my sister eating popcorn! I asked
for some, and she gave me 2 kernels.
After we got back to camp, I (Shane)
got a bit bored piddling around, so I decided to go for a hike around the
neighborhood. Since the neighborhood is surrounded
by forest, that meant a “walk in the woods”.
Since I’m burning all my PTO on this AK trip, that means I’m not elk
hunting in 2017. First time since 2009,
and I miss it all the more here in elk country.
It’s 6pm, and I just intended to take a brief ~1 hr walk. Still, in the
mountains, you must all but plan on getting lost and take basic survival stuff
with you, just in case your planned 1 hr walk becomes a 20 hour misery, or
worse (recall lost hiker in T-shirt mentioned previously).
So I strapped on a pistol, grabbed a flashlight and my GPS
unit and just wandered off into the woods, generally headed southeast. As I headed out, I’m purposeful to remember
that I started off SE, and that there’s a road (HWY 20) about half a mile due
south of camp. Worst case scenario, I
head south til I hit that road, period. If all goes to plan, I should be able
to just come back NW to find the campground. I mention all this, because it’s
tragically easy to get lost in the woods.
I’ve not been “completely” lost, but I’ve certainly lost my bearings,
got disoriented, and several other euphemisms for “kinda lost” in the
woods. Like when you think you’re
walking north, and suddenly realize you’re walking directly towards the sun,
which is never to the north around these parts….
Anyhow, after getting only about 40 yards off the camp
grounds, I started to encounter:
blowdown trees, mule deer poop, elk poop, negligible signs of man, and
the northern hemisphere’s supply of mosquitos. Luckily, I was pretty covered
up, so the mosquitos damage was limited.
The ground was moist from last night’s rain, so being quiet was fairly
easy, were it not for all the blowdowns. I’m convinced that the most dangerous
thing in the woods is a dead pine tree.
They can fall on you (called widowmakers), or you can fall on them. The “blowdowns” are just downed pine trees,
and they quickly lose most, but not all, of their limbs. Invariably, they will
break off about 6” from the trunk, leaving a series of daggers pointing in all
directions the full length of the trunk.
Having crossed about 9000 of these things while elk hunting, I’m always
terrified of slipping, falling and impaling myself on such a limb. Not only
would it be a painful injury or possible death (ever heard of the femoral
artery?), it would be a damned shameful funeral. Imagine the headstone engraving…… “Here lies
Shane, killed by deceased pine tree”.
Back to the trail… I didn’t get injured, indeed, I had a
great time. In short order, I encountered a squirrel, and like all his brethren
before him, he announced to all members of the animal universe, “Hey guys,
there’s a hillbilly in the woods, watchout!!!”, in his squirrel language of
barks. Eventually, I hit a prominent
game trail and followed it through the woods, since it went the way I was
headed. After a couple hundred yards or so, it led to huge park/meadow/field
that was at least partly flooded with water headed towards Pelican Creek, and
then on to Yellowstone Lake. Nearing the field, I heard throngs of male frogs
calling out erotic frog song in search of girly frogs. Before long, one of them
must have spotted me, because they simultaneously went silent. Two ducks fed in the flooded grass. Near the
waterline I found remains of a buffalo.
First a hip bone, then a full lower leg, with knee still attached. Fairly fresh….. Eventually, I found the head,
and it still had the exterior layer of horn on the left side. A slight tug
liberated it. Horns like this is what
early settlers used to make a “powderhorn”.
In the distance to the south is Hwy 20. I’m too far from the road for
drivers to see me. I drove that same road just hours ago, but didn’t see the
squirrel, the ducks, frogs or buffalo carcass.
While the pickup remains a handy tool for seeing vast
portions of the park, it provides poor visibility into the micro scenes offered
on foot surveys of the same area. I now realize the mistake I made wasn’t
getting started too late in the day (I needed to start heading back) it was
failing to bring the kids along with me. They didn’t get to experience any of
this. A teaching moment lost. Dad
fail.
Sunday, June 11, 2017- Day 9/Yellowstone (by Deanna) – South
Loop
My husband is a morning person. This is not a surprise to anyone who has ever
vacationed with him. Morning people tend
to irritate non-morning people. I am a
not a morning person. The sun rose this
morning shortly after 5:00, and Shane rose with it. He’s not the quietest morning person, so I
was (reluctantly) up soon after. I’d
just gotten out of bed and was sitting on the couch when he started lip syncing
and dancing to “What I Like About You” which was playing on the Classic Rock
station out of Jackson, WY. This kind of
energy and excitement was more than I could appreciate, so I encouraged him to
go do something (anything)- so he and the boy went for a walk. This allowed the non-morning people (Amanda
and me) to make a more gradual entrance into our day.
 |
| buffler skull - sorry it's sideways |
This was our last full day in Yellowstone, and our plan was
to travel the lower loop. Our first stop
was to see Old Faithful. On average the
geyser erupts every 92 minutes, but we had no idea when it was next scheduled
to erupt. We lucked out and only had to
wait 10 minutes. At 10:10 we watched as
thousands of gallons of steaming water thundered into the sky- too cool!
Too cool… not only how I’d describe Old Faithful, but also
how I’d describe the day. It was chilly,
overcast and rained periodically throughout the day. It wasn’t the “chatter-your-teeth” kind of
cold, but it was the “I-just-can’t-get-warm” kind of cold. It didn’t get out of the 40s for most of the
day. Now this may sound heavenly for you
in Texas, but I just kept wishing I’d worn my longjohns. (You know you’re
chilly when you seek out the sulfur-smelling steam of a geyser that crosses the
boardwalk as a place to stand and warm up.)
After leaving the Old Faithful area, we visited the other
basins along the lower loop. One thing
we realized as we revisited some of the sites we saw in July, 2015 is that the
colors in the thermal pools/geysers are much more vibrant/visible on warm,
clear days. The steam which erupts from
the geysers is much more impressive when contrasted against a clear blue sky
vs. a grayish overcast sky. The view
into the thermal pools/geysers was also obstructed by clouds which formed when
the steam over them condensed due to the cooler temperatures. If you’re planning on visiting Yellowstone,
I’d recommend going in late summer when the weather will be at its warmest.
While eating lunch or waiting out the rain, we sat in the
truck and listened to S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders on audiobook. (If you’re ever planning on taking a road
trip, I highly recommend audio books.
You can check them out for free from your local library and download
them to your phone so internet access is not necessary. Add a Bluetooth speaker, and you’re
set.) Amazingly, Hinton was just 16
years old when she wrote this book in 1967.
One of the reasons she wrote the book is because she couldn’t find any
books that dealt realistically with teenagers.
I love this book. It’s Timeless. (And I think it’s too cool that a girl wrote
so well about a bunch of boys.)
Editorial adder by Shane:
Downloading today’s pictures (we have 5 cameras on the trip,
two of which are used daily)…….
99 pictures taken by Deanna
150 taken by Amanda
10 taken by Travis
0 by Shane
Upon detailed review, Amanda took appx 3 pictures per item
to “make sure” she got a good picture of each.
Upon REALLY detailed review, one of these series was of a pile of buffalo
poo. Yes, we have an aspiring buffalo dung photographer in the family. Clearly,
father gene breakout here….
 |
| buffler poop on geyser basin - attagirl Amanda... attagirl |
Time to head to the shower. Bear in mind, I (Shane) have
been using the RV shower for the past week.
RV showers were apparently all designed and built by 13 year old
Koreans, because I have to “hunker” into appx a 5’ 6” frame, and every time I
turn around in the shower, my butt catches the shower curtain. Not great.
Today, I got a chance to use a “real” shower at the
campground. So I grabbed my soap out of the shower in the RV, and searched for
a bag to transport it, knowing that it’d return wet. The Scotsman (cheap) in me searched the trash
bin for a useful ziplock and found one in good shape. So I grabbed said baggie and tossed the soap
in it. Kids and I headed to the shower station in the truck.
Amanda says, “Whose soap is this?”
“That’s mine”, says I.
“Well, it has spaghetti on it”, says the confused
daughter.
Apparently, the bag I grabbed out of the trash used to be the
spaghetti carrier….
Monday June 12 – Day 10 travel to Glacier National Park
No flats again!
Wahoo! We rolled out of camp in
Yellowstone just after 6a, and arrived at West Glacier campground around
5pm. Spotted several elk, muleys, and
one billy goat on the drive up. I’m
happy to report that all of 287 in Montana, or at least all of it that I drove,
is gorgeous. The Lolo National Forest and Flathead Nat’l Forest is
fantastic. I’d move here in a heartbeat,
(I think).
While driving, I called Erik. They leave Wednesday to start
their trek north. He reported that his productivity has shifted from
·
Productive Contributor (months ago) to
·
Marginally Attentive (last week) to
·
Counterproductive Distractor (this week)
His company stock will likely rise as soon as he punches out
on Wednesday. J
Listened to a casual mix of:
Hall Tall (high school/college drinking tape), Joe Satriani – Surfin’ with
the Alien, Merle Haggard’s Greatest Hits, and Theta Tau Rain Tape (Anderson
special) while in transit. By the time the trip is over, I expect both kids to
be able to sing the full Merle Haggard tape with me. Travis is catching on already…
In a moment of weakness, we stopped for lunch in Deer Lodge
at a place called “Yak-Yak”, which is definitely local dining….. Cup of soup and a gyro sandwich was $7. That was only the second time since departing
TX that we’ve eaten “out”. First time was breakfast at Subway in Wyoming.
Really proud of that. So far, the budget for the trip has been well controlled.
J That’ll change as soon as we hit AK dirt.
En route, we stopped in Butte, MT to ship two pistols to
Alaska. Can’t take pistols into Canada,
darn their hides. L I always feel naked without a firearm,
especially when travelling.
The place we stopped at was called “Three Bears” and this
was their only store location NOT in Alaska.
Awesome man-store. They sell everything you need, almost without fail.
They are a “general” store. Groceries,
camping gear, fishing stuff, hunting stuff, beverages, clothes, hiking boots,
ammo. While there, I:
·
shipped two pistols,
·
bought beer and
·
bought 3# of bacon.
I didn’t get tested, but I’m certain my testosterone level
rose 20% today. Thank you, Three Bears!
At some point I feel like I must talk about the gear we’ve
brought on this trip. Since our plan is to sell everything we can, donate the
rest to a thrift store, and then fly a very limited stock of stuff back to TX,
I was very purposeful in what I brought on the trip. Clothes, in particular, were selected
individually for scheduled disposal. The following is a list of items I brought
with the intent to donate:
·
the pair of blue jeans that had hole in the
right knee and bleach stain on the back/belt area
·
boxers, holey underwear, any other
“unmentionables” that I don’t like
·
80% of my dress sock collection – let’s face it,
I’m a white sock guy. Dark colored socks just occupy space that should
otherwise be reserved for white socks. Life ballast they are, but not after
this trip. They can be a snazzy Alaskans
life ballast.
·
The red and white checkered pearl snap shirt
that my wife hates with the white hot intensity of 1000 Suns. I got it at a garage sale in Azle several
years ago for $0.50 (overpaid). You’ll see it later in trip pictures. I look
like a walking picnic table cloth. Just imagine a bald Jethro Bodine touring
western North America. That’s me. Even I think this thing is atrocious. Were I
Catholic, I’d have to confess its ownership to a priest.
·
The tennis shoes I bought in 2012 just before a
half marathon. They’ve been good to me, but have seen me through well over 1000
miles of running by now, and look as if they were drug behind the truck.
·
A dozen t-shirts. My cup runneth way over here.
Glad to have some drawer space back.
·
The formerly long sleeved McGettigans bar shirt,
that got converted into a short sleeved shirt in the field due to unanticipated
emergency. The sleeves are ragged. I’m
wearing it now.
·
The Docker shorts that are a 33 waist, even
though I wear 34-35’s. I feel like a
pimple ready to pop in these things.
Glad to pass them off to a skinnier person very soon.
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