1997 Book 2 Alaska 1

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Episode II

5 A TASTE OF THE WEST
WYOMING

We drove north, through Fort Collins to US 287
in and out of Laramie Wyoming and the
Continental Divide. We were moving right along
when all of a sudden we passed this State
Trooper. He turned around and pulled us over.
He said we were speeding. This could ruin one’s
day. Here in Wyoming where there’s no one else
on the back road, miles upon miles of open
range, and this guy came from the other
direction, not even following us, and he pulled us
over. To add insult to this injury he made us
remove our windshield tint. He said it was to
low on the windshield, and as he was going to
write us up for that too, I pulled it off and told
him it was now gone. ‘Just look!!!!’
We got a ticket. Boy, don’t believe what you hear
about States with no speed limit. Don’t believe
that Wyoming is one of them. And above all
remember that you’re a visitor in, Wyoming, a
foreign land, and if these guys don’t tag you they
don’t get paid and probably don’t eat. Yea, I’d
say I was pissed and that’s an understatement.
We went on, with me cussing and fuming, Arlene
making excuses why such a tragedy was missed
placed by charging us with such a dastardly deed,
until we came upon Sinks Canyon State Park.

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It was more like a roadside picnic area than a
State Park. It had about 8 campsites between the
road and the river. The canyon is said to be
about 600 million years old. It shows it’s age on
one side by the stratification of rocks on the cliff.
The other is covered with spruce. We were
tucked in between.

In the spring the water roars down into a sink
hole in the limestone, disappearing, until it comes
up on the other side of the road a short distance
away. We heard that dye added to the sink hole
eventually came up at the other side, but it took
several hours. It must be a mystery as it’s only
300 yards away.
The rushing water was impressive. It drowns out
all sounds, including any travelers on the road
above us. All the sites are along the river, which

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made it easy to choose one, but we still were
careful to choose one that left us with a get-away
up the hill to the hi-way.

A lesson well learned as many years ago, as a
teenager, I had camped with some friends in a
Virginia valley campground called Elizabeth
Furnace. During the night a hurricane passed
through Virginia and swamped the valley. There
was no way out, and we were stranded as the
river rose 15 to 20 feet. I wasn’t eager to repeat
that experience.

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Regardless of the simplicity of this camp we
enjoyed ourselves. There were lots of pretty
spring flowers, and a swinging suspension bridge
that crossed the roaring waters.

At night the roar of the water kept us awake, but
even so the sky was clear, the stars bright and a
full moon shown through our back window.
We liked the place and for the day and night we
were there we’re giving it a rating of 3. That’s to
much as it didn’t meet many of our criteria, but
we’ve been having our problems with the system,
and this is just another one.

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Lander, Wyoming was just a short distance away.
We were up early, 6:00 and into town for some
coffee. In the shopping center parking lot there
were three large western sculptures, like
Remington’s. Lots of detail, cowboys in chaps,
with decorative sticking, hats tied down and
ropes ready, on rearing horses with flaring
nostrils and blazing eyes. They were 20 feet tall
and made in a local foundry. They were being
shipped to Dallas.

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Outside of Lander’s the country side is changing
as Arlene is driving, giving my lead foot a rest.
It’s much more hilly, closer to the mountains, the
Wind River Range, and snow. Lander’s was 50
degrees this morning. The valleys are smaller,
greener with smaller ranches along the creeks.
The hill sides are arid, however, some with
obvious layers of earth and no vegetation, others
with sage covering them.
We should learn more about lapidary, and
geology. These land forms would tell a simple
clear story about the land, weather and minerals.
Yet we haven’t a clue. You know where’s the
Silver, the Gold, Copper, or Turquoise?

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As we drive along I’m able to muse about the
direction of the rivers. Do they flow into the
Pacific or the Atlantic? Driving across Texas,
Lubbock, the plains of New Mexico, Portales,
Clovis all the way into Colorado, we followed the
Canadian River. The part of that river didn’t
evaporate or wasn’t used for irrigation ended up
in the Mississippi and eventually the Gulf of
Mexico and Atlantic Ocean.
Since Lander we’ve been following the Wind
River, our tent is named after it, and even though
we were traveling west the river seems to be
flowing east. The Continental Divide adds a little
to the mystery as it changes from place to place,
following the mountain range. So I’m not sure
where the Wind River ends up. I’m only
guessing the Mississippi valley.
Arlene often mentions how the countryside looks
the same. I heard a lot of that from her while
crossing the plains. Although I have never felt
that way maybe it’s because there’s more to the
riding than just resting my foot.
Arlene prides herself on staying below the speed
limit. She drives like a snail 5 or 10 miles under
the limit. And as I’ve mentioned Wyoming
doesn’t have a posted limit. We have just entered
the Shoshone National Forest, the first
designated forest in the US, and later today, if we
keep going at this rate we’ll eventually get to
Yellsowstone, the first National Park.

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Another dreaming thought I’ve had as we poke
along came from a sign alerting us to bear
country. It said: ALERT! GRIZZLE BEAR
AREA. Special rules apply. Arlene has prepared
herself all the way across the country for this
occasion and these critters. Now that they are
actually around I wonder how she’ll sleep.
Probably like a hibernating bear herself, like a log.
Ha! Ha! we’ll see.

Although spring has come it’s still early, the
aspen have neither buds nor leaves, but there are
more and more conifers. We just passed Brooks
Lake recreation area. Malcolm had

recommended we stop here, but it is still closed
and hadn’t opened for the summer.

It’s apparent that we were climbing, Arlene has
taken off the cruise control, on both sides of the
road there’s 6 feet of snow. We’ve come to
another Continental Divide at 9,600 feet. The
road is clear, but there’s lots of snow, and the
creeks are bursting. There are snowmobile tracks
around yet we haven’t seen any. None of the
side roads are plowed. What we see are rugged
mountains, with sharp snow covered peaks.
They are ghostly white accentuated by the
sunlight, the bright blue sky and the dark green
thick conifers.

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As we drop off of the Divide, down 2,000 feet
the snow is scattered, and the signs say we are in
‘Open Range’, where loose stock wander around
like wild animals. The fences are now used to
keep cattle and animals away from ranch houses
and barns. We don’t see much ‘barbed wire’, but
the story of wire fences is interesting. There are
hundreds of types, each with a different twist to
the barb.

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6 THE FIRST NATIONAL PARK
YELLOWSTONE

Here’s our first view of the Grand Tetons, with
peaks reaching over 13,000 feet. It’s awesome,
and by looking closely there’s a layer of clouds
resting on their lower levels.

These mountains, the Tetons are startling to the
eye. They seem to come out of nowhere and jut
into the sky. Usually our mountains rise from a
continuing slope and hills of the earth. It’s a
gradual increase, but here they jump almost
straight up from the earth’s floor to 13,000 feet.
Along their base is a plain that has been a
cattleman’s dream, flat well watered grass lands.
In fact, the town of Jackson is in a hole, which

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has become famous. It’s called ‘Jackson Hole’
and you can see where the geological fault rises
100 feet along the plain. Thanks to the
Rockefeller family much of the land was bought,
removed from the local ranchers, and eventually
turned over to the U.S government. In place of
cattle are Elk; thousands of them. They come
down from the mountains during the winter and
are fed in holding pens outside of Jackson Hole.
We arrived in Yellowstone through the Tetons’ at
the southern entrance. It’s an exhilarating
experience. But our first objective was to get
situated and set up camp. We thought we’d stay
in the Madison Campground near West
Yellowstone. Yet we had no idea that it was
almost 100 miles across this National Park. We
passed the headwaters of the Snake River, which
flows into the Columbia, and separates Oregon
and Washington. Over two Continental Divides,
Past Old Faithful, the world famous geyser. Past
many thermal pools, and fishermen on the
Firehole River, past grazing Buffalo and Elk to
the Madison River campground. It was a long
and exciting trip, but we stayed on the road and
continued until we got to camp.
Good fortune was with us. At the Park’s
entrance gate, now miles behind us we were
greeted by a Ranger that played with us about
bringing a couple of butterflies and grasshoppers
into the park, on our hood. He thought we
should remove them before entering. Just

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kidding. He was a relief from the sour faced
serious trooper we’d met several days before. He
was so glad to see our Golden Age Pass that he
gave us lots of information about the park, and a
quick idea of how far it was to the other side.
His smiling face and jovial attitude was
welcomed. We felt glad to be here.
At the gates of Madison Campground, one of
seven in the park, we presented Arlene’s Golden
Age Pass and explained how long we wanted to
stay. Of all the surprises the lady at registration
was a Zimmerman, who was sure we were
cousins. We visited for a while and she thought
we should have a special campsite, near them,
along with the other RV’s and trailers, as
opposed to the tent area, further away from the
facilities. That suited us just fine.
Within hours we had set up camp. That’s not
unusual, as we are proficient at unloading the
van, putting food and other things in the front
seat, and setting up our picnic table with a tarp
over it. That didn’t take hours, but because we
were staying for awhile, we unloaded the tent
from the car top carrier and proceeded to raise it.
We’d been assured by Eureka’s quick setup
brochure that it would take less than 15 minutes.
It took a little longer, more like 2 hours. Without
going into great detail over our challenge I will

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sight only one small problem we had with these
fiberglass poles that one strings together and then

slides into sleeves along the outside of the tent.
Our early problems reoccurred as the poles were
different lengths. We didn’t realize that until
after we’d strung them through the sleeves and
raised the tent. It just didn’t look right. Never-
the-less we persevered and before dark we had
the tent setup with it’s vestibule, and gear inside.
Yellowstone is a magnet for tourists all over the
world. The first National Park in the US, 1872. I
visited it as a boy in 1946 with my family as did
hundreds of a relieved Americans after the War.
It is a Volcanic Caldera that at any moment might
explode or erupt into the worst disaster since the
meteorite created the Gulf of Mexico millions of
years ago. Underneath this thin crust is the

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largest geothermal area known to man, woman or
nature.
Accordingly, our first objective was to see Old
Faithful, the geyser. Had it really kept erupting
with steam and boiling water, 200 feet into the air
each hour, over my lifetime? Was it so faithful
that it has become ‘Yellowstone Time’? or was
that just a story the Rangers told. Was it true that
the famous Yellowstone hotel was emptied each
hour so the patrons could see the eruption, 200
yards away? We had to see for ourselves.

Here she is the ‘Old Faithful’ geyser erupting on
schedule, every 59 to 60 minutes throughout
eternity. What a sight. And to make it more
impressive we had to find a parking space in the
huge parking lots, each hour, hundreds of people
fill these lots to see her. They leave, only for the
lots to be filled again the next hour.

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During our visit here in Yellowstone we came
back again and again, always to the same parking
ritual. The draw is something that we can’t
explain. We even watched it erupt during a
hillside hike.
Visiting The Lodge was a grand experience also.
It’s a prime example of a blend of Adirondack
and Western Architecture, designed by Robert
Reamer, it’s usually referred to as National Park
Rustic Architecture. During the great fires in
1988 that swept through the park it was feared
the lodge would be lost. It was saved, doused
with water as the fires blazed on the hillsides.

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The old Inn may be the largest log or timber
building in the world, surely in North America.
Inside it looks like a Tinker Toy, or Lincoln Log
design, with an 85 foot stone fire place.
There are many levels, where guests sit around
on padded uncomfortable hickory furniture. It’s
amazing, when it opened in 1904 they advertised
electric lights, and of all things steam heat.
Really, steam heat in the middle of this huge
caldera. What would they say in Iceland? As in
Canada the development of the Railroads
supported these parks.

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By the time we’d gotten to Yellowstone almost
everyone else had been here, the Indians maybe
for 11,000 years, the Europeans less than 150
years counting the Mountain Men, and the Asians
since the 1960’s. During that time there had
been a few simple rules developed for tourists.
As a ‘Road Tourist’, one doesn’t need to search
for wild animals. The animals are pretty smart
and by the time we had gotten there, they
followed the roads and everyone was alert to
them. Wild animals near the road are always seen
by the tourists, and it always causes a major
backup, possibly for miles and for hours. So it’s

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not necessary to search for them, just watch the
tourists.

Years ago it was the general past time to feed the
animals, especially bears. People would just hand
food out their car windows to the bears. Camp
dump stations had bleachers for Bear Spectators
watching the evenings entertainment. Bears
scavaging for food in the trash. This poor habit
was finally ended, and now it’s unlawful to feed
the animals. Bears around campsites are now
removed to remote areas. So don’t feed any wild
animals. A fed animal is a dead one.
Remember that many of us are ‘Road Tourists’.
That means we travel the country or world
without getting out of our car. This creates a fine
opportunity for anyone that is adventurous
enough to get out and walk or hike. The rule

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then is for each ½ mile from the road the
number of tourists are reduced by half. Thus if
you hike for 2 miles there are no other tourist
around.

It’s really helpful to read about the place or area
your visiting. As we travel along we pick up
books from other campers and try to get an idea
of what we will see. In our National Parks, the
Rangers are a great resource. Often they have
college degrees in Forestry, Botany and/or
Zoology, and have been on-the-line for more
than a season. They truly represent a treasure as
important as our Parks themselves. For tourists
they make an incomparable team. Take
advantage of their guided hikes and tours.
They’re safer, are really interesting and go into
neat places.

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This picture is an example of the worst kind of
hiking. Arlene is alone, in thick brush, called a
timber fall. Bears, Moose, Elk and Deer love this
habit, they move through it naturally, quickly, and
soundlessly. For any hiker it is menacingly
dangerous, because our visibility and protection is
very low.
Animals whether squirrels, turtles, wolves, bears,
sheep or huge buffalo are wild, and should be
treated with a good deal of respect. The rule is
simple give them a lot of room, and stay away
from them. Buy a camera with a high zoom
capability.
Arlene demonstrates this rule for us while in
camp at Madison. She ducks under our tarp,

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then heads for the van instead of the tent. Good
choice, fortunately this Buffalo, and several
others were just traveling through.

We have heard, and later saw bears near Fishing
Bridge. There are two campgrounds nearby, the
newer one was built because the older one
seemed to be close to where Bears roamed. We
saw scat, at the Visitors Center outside the older
one, where lots of campers come and go. Shortly
afterwards we saw a Grizzly foraging in a field
near the new camp.

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This is a sign of poor management and design.
Where the wild animals have lived and fed, along
the mouth of the Yellowstone river for centuries.
We thought the Camps should have been moved
away from the Bear habitat.
This is the famous Fishing Bridge, near the
mouth of the Yellowstone River, and Lake. For
years, anyone could fish from it without a license.
I can remember seeing Lake and Rainbow trout 2
feet and longer swim under it. My brother
caught several trout fishing from the bridge in
1946. Today you can only stroll across it. Too
bad as it was an experience and memory for a
life time.

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We had accomplished our first quest, the famous
geyser, and saw a number of wild animals, but we
had chores to do. It was raining and cold so
today we headed into West Yellowstone,
Montana to mail my speeding ticket, and do
some grocery shopping.
This turned out to be quite an experience. West
Yellowstone is small, 10 blocks by 10 blocks, so
when we asked where the bank was we expected
a simple set of directions. In 30 minutes, we
asked 5 people none of which knew where it was.
We however, following the different directions
found it on our own, and bought a money order
for the speeding ticket.

After the bank we knew the search would be on
for the Post Office. ‘Can’t miss it’ one said,
there’s a big flag outside. As we walked around

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we counted 7 flags and no Post Office. We
stopped for directions at an Ice Cream parlor,
and a cute young girl, who had lived all her life
here, twirled around and pointed toward the ice
cream maker. ‘It’s over that way. The new part
of town’. Another twirl, and pointing ‘Go up
here, turn right, down to Yellowstone, turn right,
and follow the street’. ‘You can’t miss it.’
I asked, ‘Let’s see is that 3 or 4 blocks?’ ‘Well it’s
right down there.’
Arlene has told me I ask too many questions.
She’s right of course. But, we followed this
young ladies directions, and found the Post
Office in the new part of town, and mailed our
bond money, as well as several post cards to
friends that who were waiting for some word
about our journey.
We still had a little grocery shopping to do, but as
we walked around we went into the fishing store,
a hunting, western gear, souvenir shop and a
liquor store. The latter had a beer made in
Missoula Montana called ‘MOOSE DROOL’. It
immediately became my favorite beer. They also
had Moose Drool beer glasses, napkins and
coasters. I wanted all of them, but settled on a 6
pack of bottled Moose Drool.
We finished our shopping, noticing that everyone
is called by their first name and only wear original
Levis jeans. No fake blue jeans here. It’s a lively

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place, and even this early in the summer it was
full of tourists.
On our way back to camp we were stopped for a
short time while everyone gazed at the Bald
Eagles nest, and for a long time as a small herd of
Buffalo with their calves sauntered down the
road. Their rough winter coat in shreds and their
black eyes looking somewhere, but you can’t tell
where or what they have in mind. Usually eyes
give you more of sense about what a person is
thinking, but not those guys.

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Behind the buffalo, on the hillside, is an example
of the devastation the fire of 1988 took on the
park. It’s now 10 years later and the scars are still
everywhere.

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Of course there’s another school of thought
about the fires. The Interior Department has
changed their mind on both natural and
preventive fires. Believing that what has taken
place naturally over thousands of years is pretty
good for the land. They now conduct preventive
fires regularly, saying that it enriches the soil,
vegetation and wild life. Unless a natural fire, like
a lightning strike, would get out of hand, for
instance the 1988 fire, they are now inclined to let
it burn.
We will see signs of the 1988 fire everywhere,
from burned out and fallen trees, to creeks filled
by log jams, to hillsides that the new trees, 6 to
10 feet tall grow so thick that it’s dangerous to
walk or hike through them.
Back in camp we hurried to put on a few more
layers, it was really cold in the rain. We also met a
new neighbor, Motorcycle Man. He was a retired
Air Force Colonel, and a professor at a school in
Idaho. He wore a yellow deer skin Eisenhower
jacket, brown cowboy hat, levi’s and flat heeled
cowboy boots. His partner, Ann, wore high heel
‘Wellingtons’, levi pants and a green fleece jacket.
Their motorcycle was a large black Suzuki, with a
real sheep skin on the long double seat. They
pulled a small black, 2 wheel, trailer with all their
supplies, tent and gear.
Two things won us over right away with these
travelers, first they were on their way to a

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wedding and reunion in Wisconsin. Her dress
for the wedding was in the small trailer. Second,
he said they didn’t used to have the trailer, but
had grown into it. He expected their next step
would be either a 34 ft RV, something large
enough to carry all their possessions.
He had lots of information about the West. The
last winter had lots of snow that was heavier than
usual, and caused more flooding. By staying in
Yellowstone for a longer time he figured we’d
give the rivers a chance to recede which would
make traveling easier for us.
He thought there was only one way to see Alaska,
and that was by the air. North of the Brooks
Range everything flattens out. It’s difficult to tell
where the tundra stops and the arctic ocean ice
begins. A pilot would point down and say ‘that’s
the Arctic Ocean’ which you would never had
otherwise known. That was nice, but I doubt if
we’ll be flying anywhere.
We’ve seen a lot of Elk along the road, and had
hoped we could get down to Jackson Hole to see
the thousands. They however, have probably left
for the season, and it’s a couple of hundred miles
round trip. We won’t be making that trip.

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We’ve heard the snow was really heavy. Above
10,000 feet 35 feet or more, at 9,000 8 to 10 feet
deep and 6 feet at lower elevations. Because of
the high snow levels the Rangers expect that
many animals won’t survive. We have seen a
Buffalo carcass, and heard of several others,
including Elk. Bears have been seen feeding on
them and a wolf was heard last night by several
campers.
Wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone finally,
by 1995, after trying to do it for over 10 years. It
was around 1880 when the last wolf was believed
to have been shot in the Rockies. They were
hunted and hounded into extermination by the
cattlemen and ranchers who believed they killed
their stock. Government and environmentalists

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believe that wolf packs kill, but usually it’s old,
infirm stock, and wildlife.
We went on a hike to the original Wolf Pen
where they set them up 2 years ago. It helped
them get acquainted with the area. Four males
and two females were brought down from the
Canadian Rockies to start the pack.
We hiked out across the meadows North of
Norris into the hills. It was wet, with a little
snow, but mostly grass. Along the hillsides were
groups of thick Aspen, and further up green
conifers. We walked a mile or so before heading
up into the woods, and behind a knoll where the
pen was laid out. It was about as large as half a
football field, enclosed by a 6 foot chain link
fence.
The wolves were long gone and the fence had
been disassembled, but not taken away. Around
the grounds were bones, the remains of Elk and
buffalo carcasses they had fed them during the
adjustment period.
If the cattlemen believed a wolf had killed some
of their stock, they would be paid for it provided
they could prove it. The Rangers also believed
that the packs would stay within the Yellowstone
area as there was plenty of food, with the large
Buffalo, and Elk herds.

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Two years is surely to short a time to tell how
things are going. But close tabs are being kept on
them, there are two packs now, and only a couple

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of ranchers have claimed their stock was reduced
by them.
It’s quite a story, and reintroducing wild animals
into native lands has captured a number of States
interest. Pennsylvania and New York are both
interested in reintroducing Moose and Elk.
Newfoundland, never had indigenous Moose, but
after introducing them, they estimate there’s
more Moose than citizens in the province. If
these states are successful it may be possible to
maintain their populations through hunting. As
they haven’t been able to do it with their deer. It
could lead them to introduce wolves also.
That was quite an experience. All we needed was
a few wolves to polish off the morning, and no
sooner said than we saw one moving across a
small open valley with a creek running through it.
It was more like a bog, with spring bushes
beginning to leaf, bunches of grasses, a few logs
and pools of water.
We were above it with for a good view. The
wolf, unlike so many of the animals we’d seen
had a full coat. It was multi colored, mostly
tanish with a black, brown and orange mix. It’s
bushy tail hung down behind it while it moved
from one spot to another, with it’s head down, as
if it was looking for some small creature for
lunch. From time to time it stuck it’s nose into
the ground, then raised up perking it’s ears and
looking around. It didn’t seem to mind the cold

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water pools or the stream, as it crossed them
again and again as it meandered down the valley.
As we watched it moved along on it’s thin legs, it
occurred to us that it might not be a wolf. Surely,
it was large enough, but why didn’t we see several
others. We’d just learned how clever they were
as hunters, that they acted as a team. But, we
didn’t see any team. Suppose it was a coyote? It
has always been a mystery, an unsolved question,
as even later when we saw wolves fenced in West
Yellowstone we couldn’t tell. Nor has our
research uncovered the truth. Maybe because
we wanted to see a Wolf it was. We’d watched it
for a long time, and couldn’t remember when
we’ve ever seen a coyote in the west.
We returned to camp and it’s raining again. So
we have a choice, either stay in the car watching
our neighbors, or not. I’ve always enjoyed
observing others, and we’ll hopefully learn
something. If we are lucky we’ll learn a few tricks
about camping and thereby be better prepared.
A rainy evening is a good time to observe.
Beside us the Motorcycle man put up their tent,
removed everything from their picnic table and
smothered their smoldering fire. Across from us
a new camper, in ponchos, is setting up their tent
and trying to start a fire. We collected firewood
yesterday and stacked it neatly between two trees.
Firewood belongs under the picnic table where it
is going to stay dry, even if we never build a fire.

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A new golden rule is never, never, ever get wet.
If it’s raining, and cold, don’t camp, and don’t set
up your camp site. These poor people next to us
are drenched. They probably will never get warm
or dry again.

We thought we had made some adjustments to
our camping baggage, but it’s not enough. As we
sit here in our cluttered van, there’s not enough
room. We need to reduce the amount of
baggage. There’s too much to carry, from the car
to the tent. Now that we’re in bear country,
which we have a new book about, we can’t keep
anything on the picnic table. That’s where we
packed everything every night. No more; ‘BEAR
COUNTRY’ the official sign says it goes in your
car. This list is long:

Flesh; That’s arms, legs, entire body

Water Containers Cooking
Containers Eating dishes
Utensils

Drinking Containers Stoves

Grills & Coolers Ice Chests

Trash & Trash Bags Food

Cosmetics Toiletries
Pet Food Wash Basins
Peppermint Soap

Anything with an Odor

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Well ‘BEAR COUNTRY’, where the hell are we
going to put all of it???
Probably we’ll send toys home, with all the books
we probably don’t need our scrabble game. That
will cut down some, and there must be other
things we can cut back. We’ll work on it in the
next several days.
We didn’t sleep to well last night, more rain, all
night. It’s early morning and getting dressed on
this floating mattress and slippery sleeping bag is
tough when you try not to giggle because your
bladder is full. After the toilet and 20 degree
water to wash up in you might not recover for
the rest of the day, but there are things to do.
Raise the canopy, used to keep the water off the
empty picnic table. Move all the food, utensils,
stove, water, and everything else on the LIST out
of the front of the car. Prepare a lovely
breakfast, while standing around, drink of either
strawberry or chocolate ultra-slim fast. Yum,
yum, and our 45 vitamins, with a piece of bread,
and Oh! Boy! Hot coffee.
Now were moving and ready to go. But first we
need to wash the mugs out in the 20 degree
water, at the sink. Move everything to one side
of our bedroom and start unpacking the front
seat and filling up the other side of the back of
the van with our LIST stuff. Our BEAR LIST.

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Boy! That was a lot of work. Now it’s time for a
rest. We’ll go see some geothermal events, or
maybe we’ll talk to some cheerful campers.
There must be some around here, it’s a big camp.
Maybe over there in the RV’s or 5th wheelers.
The rain continues and our attitude seems to be
in the drain also. We chose the hydro thermal
events and our warm car.
Up the road past a few Elk and a lot of Buffalo
we came to the Middle Geyser Basin. It’s one of
several thermal areas along the way, but has a
large area of pools. I like the pools of steaming,
boiling water better than the geysers, and we
could see them overflowing down the hillside
into the Firehole River. The water, still hot, is
filled with minerals that stain the hillside, along
with organisms. The flow colors are red, orange,
rust, yellow and bluish green, against the
limestone white and gray. It’s nice to see and a
good introduction to the Hot Spring pools.
As long ago as I can remember there has always
been a pedestrian bridge across the Firehole
River to the hot spring pools. However, there
were no boardwalks around the pools and it was
up to you to traverse them at your own risk.
Where ever there are thermal areas you can be
sure the crust of the earth is thin.

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Richard doesn’t look cold here, in fact he is quite
comfortable. He and Arlene have on extra
clothing and our Sterns foul weather jackets.
They were a hold over from our sailing days.
The large number of people have caused the Park
management to build the cat walks, saving both
visitors and the environment from damage. Here
is one of the pools called the Grand Prismatic
Spring.

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The colors are from organisms that are thought
to have lived in the over heated early stages of
our earth. Ones in the springs are called
Thermopiles; those along the run-off are
Estramophiles.

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These pools cover the entire valley or basin and
are often 50 yards wide, and very colorful. The
temperature ranges from 180 to over 220 degrees
and each change in degree causes a different
color or richness in the blue. Along the edges its
light pastel blue, and as the pool deepens it turns
to a dark sapphire blue. When the water is above
it’s boiling point it bubbles and spits, with a slight
sent of sulphur.
Although it’s difficult to tell where the boiling
point or bubbles come from. They seem to
come up around the darkest color in the pools.
Rangers say the darkest areas are the hottest. Yet,
maybe the hottest areas are where the pools are
deepest and closest to their in ground source.
Each pool has it’s own name, and often matches
it’s color, thus a greenish pool would be called
the Emerald Pool.
We spent a lot of time here. I even felt the water
by the run-off into the river. I expected it to be
hot or at least warm, but it wasn’t. It was still
pretty cold.
Across from the Middle Geyser Basin is the
Firehole Road. For some reason this area follows
the ‘Road Tourist’ rule and few visitors travel
along it. Too bad, because it has some really
nice geysers, hot springs and run-off. They are
really accessible, and there are few crowds.
We were able to walk right up to this little pool,
Blue Star, without a boardwalk. It’s color was

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uniform and more emerald green than blue.
Addressing this pool was something you couldn’t
do around the more journeyed areas.

this is our favorite geyser, because we could get
so close to it. Although we stayed on the catwalk
around it the spray that poured down on us was
surprisingly cool. This is the White Dome. It
erupts every 20 minutes or so and caused us to
stick around for several eruptions.

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There are other pools on Firehole Road, some
have boardwalks, but there are seldom many
tourists. These pools are backed up against the
hillsides and thereby easier for the animals to get
to during the winter. We also could get around
them to see better than at the Middle Basin. We
saw two carcasses lying near the pool. The heat
and steam must attract them to the water where
they could sink, or become exhausted from the
heat, or just old and unable to fend for
themselves.
Back at Old Faithful, we made lunch, peanut
butter and jelly sandwiches, with soda and chips.
That rejuvenated us and we were off again
toward the Yellowstone Falls.

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We haven’t given credit to Jim Bridger or
Thomas Moran. Bridger was the first European,
and Mountain Man to enter Yellowstone in the
late 1840’s. He like any verbal historian was able
to tell some swell, yet seldom believed tales about
Yellowstone, it’s geysers and hot steaming lakes.
It took some time before folks believed the tales.
Thomas Moran was an illustrator and painter,
who captured landscapes of the west along with
Albert Bierstadt. Moran, is given credit for
several paintings that influenced both the US
Congress and President Grant into signing the
bill creating Yellowstone into 1872. Mount
Moran, in the Tetons’ is named after him, as
Bridger-Teton National Forest is named after Jim
Bridger.
The Yellowstone River moves calmly north from
the Lake, with seldom a ripple across several
planes until it arrives at the first of two drops, the
Yellowstone Falls. At that point the water is
forced into a tight rocky funnel and with
unbelievable force drops a 100 feet. This is the
Upper Falls, and we were able to climb down to
the bend where it’s forced together and picks up
it’s incredible momentum river coming around
this bend is reduced to less than 70 feet wide
from as much as 250.

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The lower falls a little further down drops
another 300 feet and is more spectacular as it’s
easier to see and it falls into a very narrow
canyon. This picture is taken on the Eastern side
of the Canyon at Artist’s Point looking south
toward the Lower Falls.

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Artist’s Point drops off straight down and gives
one a splendid view of the Yellowstone Canyon.
Looking north you can see how narrow the
canyon is and the river has become. The
beautiful colors, along it’s steep sides are roses,
reds, yellows, tans and grays. They attracted
Thomas Moran in 1871 and many artist still
today.
We took our time heading back to camp, driving
past Fishing Bridge where we saw the grizzly. To
our surprise, the worlds finest mole hunter was
out in the field digging his heart out. We
watched for a while and then headed back past
Yellowstone Lake, over the first of two Continual
Divides, within a mile of each other, back to
camp.

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What a day this has been.

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