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Showing posts with label Yellowstone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yellowstone. Show all posts
America's Wonderland - Old Faithful to Bozeman
We've reached the last installment of our Yellowstone/Grand Teton vacation! (Only about four months since we went, but let's not talk about that.) Our last day in the park was a busy one. First on the agenda: Climb the overlook to watch Old Faithful erupt. (The first time we actually planned to see it!)
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Someuneducated uncaring stupid tourists tried to hand-feed a chipmunk. Apparently my tone was a little stern when I asked them to stop, that it wasn't good for the animals.
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America's Wonderland - Old Faithful
On our next-to-last day we woke up so early that there was frost on our windshield! A was very unhappy to have to scrape ice in summer.
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We were up so early to go on the Fairy Falls Frolic (yes, that's seriously the name of the hike), which was led by a ranger who took us to Fairy Falls and then on to Imperial Geyser. She was a wealth of information, telling us all about the great fires of 1988 and how the dead trees are just now starting to fall while the new ones are growing taller.
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We were up so early to go on the Fairy Falls Frolic (yes, that's seriously the name of the hike), which was led by a ranger who took us to Fairy Falls and then on to Imperial Geyser. She was a wealth of information, telling us all about the great fires of 1988 and how the dead trees are just now starting to fall while the new ones are growing taller.
America's Wonderland - Jackson to Old Faithful
On day #7 of our trip we awoke to snow flurries! In June! Four days before the official start of summer! After driving up through Grand Teton toward Old Faithful we found about an inch of snow on the ground in the southern part of Yellowstone. Now, we've seen our share of snow after two winters in Chicago, but it was still crazy to see it at the tail end of spring!
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America's Wonderland - Lower Loop (Canyon to West Thumb)
I'm sorry it's been so long since the last post! I could offer any number of excuses (A's crazy rotation schedule, photography classes two nights a week, more travel), but instead let's continue the story! :)
I accidentally omitted this photo from the last bunch, but I find it funny so I had to post it now... While the staff at Yellowstone seems to have the thermal features pretty well mapped out, every now and then one just pops up wherever it feels like it. Sometimes in a parking lot.
America's Wonderland - Canyon
We spent our second day in the park exploring the Canyon area, beginning with a morning hike along the South Rim trail led by a park ranger. He told us many interesting facts, including:
- Rangers used to fight fires which started in the park, but now they let them burn.
- Lodge pole pine trees have special cones which are only opened by extreme heat (in the form of fire)
- Bison rub their winter coats off on the trees
He also pointed out some different types of scat (AKA animal poop), not that we were able to tell the difference among most of it.
- Rangers used to fight fires which started in the park, but now they let them burn.
- Lodge pole pine trees have special cones which are only opened by extreme heat (in the form of fire)
- Bison rub their winter coats off on the trees
He also pointed out some different types of scat (AKA animal poop), not that we were able to tell the difference among most of it.
America's Wonderland - Upper Loop (Mammoth to Canyon)
After seeing Mammoth Hot Springs in the morning, we drove along the Upper Loop road toward Canyon. We made a couple of pit stops along the way. The road has these convenient pullouts where you can stop and avoid stopping traffic as the road is only two lanes. And there's only one road. If someone has spotted an animal and the pullout's full already, people just get as far off the road as they can. It's pretty crazy!
Our first stop was to take the short hike to Undine Falls. We passed two other groups on the trail, but only briefly and in the opposite direction.
Our first stop was to take the short hike to Undine Falls. We passed two other groups on the trail, but only briefly and in the opposite direction.
America's Wonderland - Arrival and Mammoth Hot Springs
In June, A and I headed to Wyoming to visit Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. I read multiple travel books and myriads of online forums in an effort to hammer out a list of must-dos from the hundreds of possible activities. Having gathered as much information as possible, we still found ourselves unexpectedly unpacking and repacking our suitcases the night before in an effort to switch out our clothing from t-shirts and shorts to jeans and winter coats. Apparently it hadn't yet warmed up in Wyoming; the average high temperature while we were there was 50F with lows past freezing. It even snowed on us! (Just about an inch, but seeing as how it happened two days before the official start of summer, we found it impressive.)
I have to start this story not on our first day in the park, but on our travel day. You'd think they'd be the same day, but that wasn't the case. The morning of our flight we hopped on a train and arrived early at the airport. After having to explain to the TSA agents why the name on my boarding pass was different from that on my driver's license (long story), we passed through the metal detectors and ran into a problem. Our flight to Minneapolis was not showing on the monitors. I figured maybe it was because we were running early, but decided it wouldn't hurt to check with a gate agent. We walked up to a random gate and asked to confirm the gate for our flight since it wasn't on the list. The agent typed on the computer, then said, "It's been canceled." Um, what? She couldn't give us an explanation, but looked at rebooking our first leg. Unfortunately, we had to wait an hour and a half, therefore missing our connection, which got us rerouted onto a flight to Salt Lake City instead of Bozeman, MT. So essentially adding an extra leg to our trip and bumping back our arrival time by six hours.
I have to start this story not on our first day in the park, but on our travel day. You'd think they'd be the same day, but that wasn't the case. The morning of our flight we hopped on a train and arrived early at the airport. After having to explain to the TSA agents why the name on my boarding pass was different from that on my driver's license (long story), we passed through the metal detectors and ran into a problem. Our flight to Minneapolis was not showing on the monitors. I figured maybe it was because we were running early, but decided it wouldn't hurt to check with a gate agent. We walked up to a random gate and asked to confirm the gate for our flight since it wasn't on the list. The agent typed on the computer, then said, "It's been canceled." Um, what? She couldn't give us an explanation, but looked at rebooking our first leg. Unfortunately, we had to wait an hour and a half, therefore missing our connection, which got us rerouted onto a flight to Salt Lake City instead of Bozeman, MT. So essentially adding an extra leg to our trip and bumping back our arrival time by six hours.
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