Travel Update Leaving Yellowstone

Sunday August 21, 2011

We left Cody this morning on our way to Yellowstone!  This is a place we have always wanted to visit and now were on our way there.  It’s about 50 miles to the entrance and another 25 or so to Fishing Bridge, our home for the next 7 days. The road was beautiful, the scenery was spectacular.

After entering the Park we passed through some areas devastated by fire.  Not a pretty site, in fact you could actually smell the burned wood.  They have had many fires here, the big one was in 1988, but they have had other fires, the last in 2007.  All caused by lightning.  The Park position is it is a natural occurrence, no big deal!

After getting set up we went over to the Visitor Center to get maps and tips on where to go.  We then attended a 2 hour ranger program at the Mud Volcano.  This was our first glimpse at thermal features.  Very strange, other worldly, and they stink!  The gas is CO2 from bacteria laced with sulfur (oxides).  It was very weird to walk by and get blasted with this smelly steam.  A couple of pictures follow.

After dinner we attended a ranger program, “Hikes for the tennis shoe hiker”.  It looked to be right down our alley.  We leaned some valuable stuff.  When asked about having Bear Pepper Spray, it was explained the down sides of having it.  Like if you discharge into the wind.  It must contain skunk odorant, because you can’t get it off and is really bad stuff.  Seems as though the best solution is noise.

Monday August 22, 2011

This morning we took a Ranger led boat ride around one end of Yellowstone Lake.  She explained the historic buildings and things about the lake. 

They have a problem with Lake Trout, which were planted in rivers above the lake but have migrated into Yellowstone Lake and raising havoc with Cut Throat Trout the preferred food of bears, heron, pelicans and other animals.  Problem is Lake Trout get too big for these critters, live in deep water and eat up Cut Throat fry.  Their solution, gill net the Lakers, kill them and dump them back in the lake.  I debated the issue with the ranger over how stupid that solution was.  Returning the dead fish will screw up the lake eventually.  They should be removed, in my opinion.

Onto look at some geysers!  First stop West Thumb Geyser Basin.  This place was like another planet.  Using my infrared thermometer, I measured 164 F in some of the geysers.  A couple of pictures follow. 

Next stop Old Faithful.  Watched it erupt with about 500 fellow tourists.  In many cases this is the only stop these folks make to Yellowstone.  To be truthful, we weren’t that impressed.  It shoots steam and hot water maybe 30 feet high for about 5 minutes.  Can’t figure out what draws people.  A picture follows.

We then took about a 2 mile walk along the Upper Geyser Basin.  There are many thermal features (“ranger jargon”) some were erupting, some just bubbling.  These guys are boiling.  It’s not CO2 like at Volcano Pots.  I picked a couple of the more interesting ones to show you.

Well we were pretty pooped out.  Although we “trained” for this, I think the 7700 ft elevation got to us.  So home to rest up for tomorrow!

Tuesday August 23, 2011

We’ve been on the road two weeks now.  Time has flown by.  Today we decided to travel up to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  A large canyon sliced by the Yellowstone River.  First however we passed through Hayden Valley.  This is where the buffalo roam!  There was a very large herd meandering back and forth across the road, which tended to mess up the traffic.  They are approaching mating season, so lots of butt sniffing, and grunting mainly by the bulls hoping to get lucky.

In case you haven’t seen a buffalo, a picture follows.

This canyon, in our opinion, is the most beautiful feature of Yellowstone.  There are two waterfalls, Upper and Lower, with a 1000 foot total drop.  To get an up close view of the Lower falls we hiked Uncle Tom’s Trail, which descends into the canyon via 300 steps, with inclines and switchbacks.  Some pictures follow, but they don’t really capture the beauty here.  The South Rim and North Rim are quite different.  The cliff faces are all different colors, yellow, red, black, tan from the different minerals.  By the way, this whole thing sits on top of a volcano, which rumbles about every day.  In 1974 an earthquake knocked off one of the overlooks and underlying rock on the North Rim.



Upper Falls



Uncle Tom's Trail

Lower Falls

Grand Canyon

We then went over to Norris Geyser Basin.  We didn’t spend a lot of time here as most of the geysers are dormant or are “burpers”.  These geyser basins though are so bizarre.  If you could not see the surrounding area you would think you’re on another planet.  Just like the others these also stink, Mother Earth really has bad breath.  The smell is not just from sulfur, it also has a metallic character, really like nothing else, but quite unforgettable.  Some pictures follow.

It was getting late and we were again tired, so home we went.

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Wednesday August 24, 2011

Today we headed north toward Mammoth, which is the original entrance from Gardiner, MT.  There were several things to see here, Fort Yellowstone, the original gateway arch, and hot springs.  The fort was built to protect the park from destruction of the thermal features and stop the poaching of buffalo.  It is not a fort as you might envision it since there were no battles.  It is a collection of buildings used by the cavalry between 1886 and 1918.  Today, the buildings are used by the Park Service as residences for employees or administrative offices.

When you look at today’s US Park Ranger uniform, it is a throw back to the cavalry uniform.  Most US Park rangers were former cavalry when the service began in 1916 as part of the Department of Interior.  Since Yellowstone was the first national park, they were the first to have rangers.  The pictures that follow show the arch and one of the buildings of the Fort.

The pictures that follow show the hot springs around Mammoth.  The were very unique so there are several.

From Mammoth we traveled across the top of the north loop road to Tower.  Saw the Roosevelt Lodge built in 1906.  Teddy had it built as a center for fishing and adventure trips.  Same use as today. 

We saw another deep canyon cut by the Yellowstone River, and Tower Falls, a narrow but steep waterfall.  A bit of confusion for me, it appears the Yellowstone River is flowing north toward Montana.  I think I need to ask a ranger.  In the meantime enjoy the views, we sure are!  I’ll update you on the ranger’s answer tomorrow

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Thursday August 25, 2011

We asked a ranger our river flow question, and were told that Yellowstone Lake is 2000+ feet higher than the Yellowstone River is at the north end.  So its just a matter of gravity.  The same holds true for the Firehole and Gibbons Rivers which converge in the west side of the park.  The Continental Divide passes through the park, so some of the rivers flow east, some west.  The Yellowstone flows east eventually ending up in the Missouri River in North Dakota.  OK class dismissed!

Today we visited a bunch of the thermal features, geysers, pools, mud pots, fumaroles, and springs that we did not get to earlier in the week north of the Upper Basin.  Catching a geyser eruption is tricky as some are random.  An eruption occurs when the steam pressure builds sufficiently underground to shoot a stream of hot water.  The steam coming from those geysers is nasty.  If the wind carries it to you downwind, it screws up glasses and camera lenses, and smells pretty bad.

Springs and pools have crystal clear water.  Many hot springs feed the Firehole Lake and River.  No fish here, if there were, they’d be already cooked when you catch them.  Only thermophiles live in this water at 150F plus.  Different species  produce different colors depending on the water temperatures, red, yellow, orange, black, brown, and green.  All normal plant matter, trees, flowers, grass are all dead and mineralized, so this creates a very unique landscape as you can see in the following pictures.

The ranger identified some bike trails for us, so planning to give it a go tomorrow.

Friday August 26, 2011

It was threatening rain this morning, and actually did rain a little bit.  So we decided to try a couple bike trails nearby.  Well, that’s not the only reason, we haven’t ridden them much as we should have preparing for this trip.  Fortunately, eventhough they took a beating getting here, they worked OK.

Most of these trails are old service roads.  The surface is a combination of blacktop and dirt.  One of today’s trails followed Yellowstone Lake shoreline, while the other traveled to Natural Bridge, a rock arch.  One of my favorite things is shooting flowers and bugs, so one is below.  At the Natural Bridge, the trail pretty much was a climb all the way, so Lynn decided she wasn’t climbing the last steep 200 feet or so to see the Bridge close up, but I did  The last picture is proof I made it.

On the trail

Yellowstone Lake

Natural Bridge

We may venture to another trail tomorrow, provided we can get out of bed! 

Saturday August 27, 2011

Guess we’re getting used to it, not too sore at all.  So feeling all renewed, we took the bikes over to the Lone Star Geyser trail, geographically, about 3 miles south of Old Faithful.  This geyser erupts every 3 hours for about 30 minutes.  We didn’t hit it, so we waited about 1½ hours.  It was worth the wait!  The show was way better than OF.  You have to work for it though.  Its 2 miles each way, and the seats are logs and rocks.  Oh yeah, no restrooms either.

Lone Star Geyser

We speculate the road was originally open back when, but closed because it couldn’t handle large volumes of people or vehicles.  We were also surprised, no barriers or boardwalks.

This was our last day in Yellowstone.  Reflecting back on things we like and disliked:

Likes:

Colorful pools and canyons; the park shows something different at every turn.  We loved the chromatic pools, huge canyons and waterfalls, and the uniqueness of the thermal features.  The NPS has done an outstanding job with all the boardwalks.  There must be 500 miles of them!

Dislikes:

Too many people, rip-off prices from Xanterra (the concessionaire), and people gawking at buffalo.

On to our next adventure. Grand Teton National Park

Still in Cody

Friday and Saturday August 19-20, 2011

Today we visited Buffalo Bill Cody Historic Center.  It is a complex of 5 museums, Firearms, Bill Cody,  Plains Indians,  Western Art, and Natural History.  It was interesting and the displays were good.  Our museums place a pretty high benchmark, which we do not feel BBHC met.  We were disappointed that it told about the life of Bill Cody, but not the man and his personality.

This is a painting of him in his wild west show.  He made a ton of money with his show.  He used it to benefit others.  Cody, Wy would not exist if not for Buffalo Bill Cody.

Although my understanding of guns and hardware is not that good, if you understood what you are looking at, the Gun Museum would be down your alley.  They have over 2500 guns on display on 2 floors.  Here is one of those.

Tomorrow we head for Yellowstone.  We are really looking forward to it.  We have lots planned, and will have much to share.  Unfortunately, WiFi has not yet come to the National Parks, so this may be our last post for a while.  I am hoping for a hotspot at one of the lodges, but not holding my breath.

So until next time, Happy Trails!

Beautiful Wyoming

Wednesday August 17, 2011

Somehow we got rolling at 6:30 AM this morning!  I’m glad we did as it took an hour to get up to I-90.  We made Devil’s Tower in time for a 9:30 Ranger led walk around the Tower.  As always, they add those extras that make it really interesting.  A couple of pictures follow.

The guy that shot this for us laid on the ground on his back.  Amazing that he would do that!

OK, this is where the trip got interesting from a towing standpoint.  We exited onto Wy 14 and were at about 4500 ft.  We needed to climb to 8900 feet to get over Granite Pass, so more truckey testing.  Although the speed limit is 65 mph, you cannot drive it that fast unless you have a death wish.  The road is very twisty and narrow.  Most were driving about 40 mph, thankfully.  On those 10% grades we could keep up at 40 but needed 2^nd gear at about 4500 rpm.  Oh am I happy I bought the 4.3 axle!  Additionally, all temps stayed in safe range, 220F or lower.  What really surprised me was I didn’t burn any oil.  That Motorcraft stuff is only 5W20.

The scenery was awesome!!!  Canyons, mountains, big rocks, wow-wow-wow!  I almost turned around just to see it again,….. just kidding!

Finally got on the Wyoming plains, about 120 miles of it.  We passed through towns with a population of 10, and they had a Post Office, no wonder USPS is going broke!  It is pretty deserted, we did not even see a car for like an hour.

We arrived into Cody at Absaroka Bay RV Park about 7PM.

Thursday August 18, 2011

Today we went to Old Town Trail, a reconstruction of a late 1800s town built on the original Cody townsite.  It contains buildings from all over Wyoming.  Big personalities were Jeremiah Johnson, Robert Parker (Butch Cassidy), and Jim White.  I included a couple of pictures.   It was pretty interesting.

We then traveled a little ways to see the Bill Cody Dam.  It dams the Shoshone River for irrigation of the Wyoming plains, and provides power to the area.  The dam is 325 ft high making it 2^nd only to the Hoover Dam.  It was built over 5 or 6 years.  Lots of challenges, apparently the river is too high April – September from ice melt.  So all work is done from October to March.  When completed in 1910 it was -10F.  They had to figure out how to set cement at that temperature!  A couple pictures below.

This picture was taken looking down from the top of the dam.  The dam is that wall on the right. 

   

We also went to the Cody Rodeo.  Had never seen a real rodeo until tonight.  It was pretty cool.  A couple of pictures follow.

All for now, tune in for more of our adventure!

Mt Rushmore and More

Monday and Tuesday August 15 & 16, 2011

We are in Keystone, SD in a small campground called Kemp’s Camp.  A little challenging to get to because of narrow roads and hills.  Boy, been putting my little truckey to work now!  Had a climb out of Rapid City that required 3^rd at 4500 for a couple miles.  Put the tranny up to 220F, and the fans were howling, but we held 50+ mph.  This engine seems to be a winder.  I am very glad I put that 4.3 gear in it now!

After getting settled we went back into Rapid City, needed gas (big surprise!) and Keystone was close to 4 bucks, gotcha.  I needed a truck wash to get off all the grasshoppers from the Badlands.  Lynn even got smacked in the face as we were driving with the window down.  She freaked out! 

When I went to dump tanks in Interior, I discovered one of my tank valve handle and shaft loosened and fell off, so I went looking for an RV parts store, found a Heartland dealer, but they didn’t have the part.  The guy says, yeah we get a lot of requests for those, Dah! Maybe you should carry them!  And finally, Lynn’s watch needed a battery.

We then visited a museum about Gustov Borglum which was interesting.  That guy was a genius!  Have to remember its the 1920s when he started the Rushmore faces.  Besides an accomplished sculptor, he had to know the geology of the granite, engineering for the hoists, cables, and tools; and be project and labor manager.  I have often said that if you can leave your mark in some way that future folks will remember you, that would certainly give you a sense of accomplishment.  The museum was self guided with audio headsets.

We then attended the evening Mt. Rushmore program, which was OK but nothing that special.  Returned today to take in several Ranger led programs, and took a guzillion pictures.  A couple are shown below.

After driving the twisty scenic roads we headed to Hot Springs, a mammoth excavation site is there.  Apparently a wide swath of tropic seas covered an area north to south including the Badlands and Hot Springs.  The dumb mammoths would go into these muddy lake areas and then couldn’t get out.  The site contains many of the critters remains which they enclosed in a building.  The picture below is a mammoth head.

We are having a good time, couldn’t ask for nicer weather.  On toward Cody, Wy tomorrow.  We want to stop at Devils Tower so we need to get a really early start.

Travel Update Aug 14

August 11, 2011

After visiting our friends in Grand Rapids we headed out early this morning going  west.  We made a stop at Walcott, IA to visit the Truck Museum at the I-80 Truck stop.  It is the largest truck stop in the world.  The Museum was pretty interesting.  It consisted of a collection, belonging to Bill Moon, of mostly antique trucks along with a history of trucking.  After about an hour we went over to the truck stop to check it out for overnight.   The place was way too busy for our liking so we decided to move on.  The huge store is a trucker’s candy shop!

After another hundred miles, we ended up at a WalMart in Newton, IA and are currently parked there.  They requested we park at the southern end of the lot.  They are open 24 hours and have lot security.

So we covered about 450 miles, averaging just shy of 10 mpg.  Another reason to hate Illinois, had to fill at $3.69/gal, 20¢ per gal over Michigan and +35¢ higher than Iowa.  Kind of weird in Walcott, 89 octane at BP sold 10 cents below 87 octane.  Probably loaded with EtOH courtesy of the farmers.  The truck tended to drop 2 gears in the rolling hills, so I went to manual and managed to pull most in 6^th at 60 mph.

Tomorrow, Sioux Falls, SD, or further, maybe.  We expect to make the Badlands on Saturday.  All for now.

Friday, August 12, 2011

We’re in Mitchell, SD at a WalMart tonight.  Looks like a campground, so many RVs parked in here!  Into a strong headwind most of today, ran in 5^th most of the way at 8 mpg.  Our route took us through much of the flooded areas around Sioux City.  What a shame, there still is lots of water over roads, fields, yards, and up on houses.  I-29 is closed south of Sioux City as it’s really bad down river from there.  Hey where’s CNN and the “celebrities”, I guess  it isn’t New Orleans?

We stopped at the Corn Palace once we got here.  Pretty cool, only one in the world.  They use 3,000 bushels of rye, oat heads, and sour dock, plus 275,000 ears of corn to decorate the face and side of the building every year.  They use several different colors of corn grown in isolated fields to keep the color pure. Work starts with a template developed by artists, kind of a paint by number thing only using corn.  The template is put up and workers trim the ears and nail them in place.  The process takes about 2 months.  The first picture is the fron of the Palace, the second is a close up of the left mural showing the actual ears of corn used.

Tomorrow we head for the Badlands.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

We arrived in Interior, SD which is in the Badlands.  We went to a Minuteman Missile launch control and silo.  It has been decommissioned since 1993.  There were hundreds of Minuteman II’s in silos all over the Great Plains to provide response to a Soviet nuclear attach.  Each of these babies had over twice the destructive power as the bombs dropped in Japan.  Such a war would have obviously destroyed the world.  Today we went down into the launch room for the command wing that controlled 150 of these things.  Also saw a remaining silo with a disarmed Minuteman II in it.  Growing up during the cold war as many reading this did, we found it pretty interesting.

Also made a stop in Wall, SD home of Wall Drug.  The store opened in 1931, offering free water in an effort to get people to stop between the Badlands and Rapid City.  It now covers a good city block and is a destination, not just a stop! 

Seems like Wall, SD would make a good place for a “Wall”-Mart, however I’m sure the Drugstore would put a kibosh to it.

Campground here is OK, but not very high on the nice place list.  They are supposed to have WiFi, so we will check into it tomorrow.

Sunday August 14, 2011

Spent the day driving and hiking around the Badlands.  As you see in these pictures, its pretty rough countryside.  These buttes and spires are from water erosion, and have been in the making for about the past 60 million years.  The different colors represent different periods of time.

Spent some time watching the prairie dogs.  They remind me of a cross between squirrels and rabbits, the way they eat and run around.  They are on every predators menu.  Lynn had one actually get almost close enough to take some grass from her.

Tomorrow we leave for Keystone to see Mt Rushmore.  Stay tuned!

 

Preparing for our Adventure

August 7, 2011

Greetings all,

This is the first update to our blog, and is really a test to see if  this thing works as intended.  We are preparing for our departure Tuesday August 9^th.  Our first stop is the Grand Rapids, MI area to visit friends.  From there we will be heading West.  Our first stop will be near Davenport, IA on Thursday night if things go as planned.

Actually Walcott, IA at the I80 Truckstop, the largest in the US. We plan to visit the Truck Museum there if we make it before 5PM, and their store.  On Friday we will be headed toward Sioux Falls, SD.  Our first real stop will be the Badlands in SD.  We’re not sure where we will have WiFi to provide the next update. 

Add this blog address to your favorites and check back at your convenience:

http://adventuresoflynndan.blogspot.com/

All for now.

Lynn & Dan