Hey, Campers!
We made it. YELLOWSTONE! Our
destination, turnaround point and almost half way through the trip.
We started the day at Colter Bay in
Grand Teton National Park. It was chilly.. high 40s... as the sun
started to light the sky. The trailer's furnace was coming on and off
about every 20 min. Just enough to keep us at 65 degrees (for the
benefit of the dogs, of course... after all, Kailey is 17 now and
needs to be cared for). I made the coffee and headed to the shore of
Jackson Lake with camera and lenses. It was a clear morning... not a
cloud in the sky. Good, you say. NO! Horrible news for a budding
landscape photographer. The clouds (did you see the panorama of the
Tetons in yesterday's sunrise???) catch light, add their own
beautiful colors, provide texture that contrasts the rock, reflect
light onto the terrain... I'll stop there... landscapes need clouds.
Here, let me show you...
Yesterday:
Today:
Any questions?
So, we packed up for the long day on
the road. Not! Colter Bay to Grant Village in Yellowstone is only an
hour drive. And that's just because the speed limit is between 25 and
45 the whole route. If both places were on the Washington Beltway
they'd be just 5 exits apart.
The south entrance to Yellowstone was
clear. We breezed in at about noon. The route to Grant Village was
narrow by modern road standards. Especially since every other vehicle
in each direction was a full size bus, a giant motorhome or some
jackass in a Tundra pulling an Airstream that's 8 ½ feet wide. Stay
on your side of the line, Jackass! (that's what they call me in
Yellowstone. I think it's my “Indian name” sort of like “Dances
with wolves”). So “Stands with a fist” and I drove north and
quickly realized that the road was climbing but the terrain to our
right was dropping. I think its safe to call what we had there a
sheer drop off of many hundreds of feet. And guess where the Federal
government decided to save our taxpayer dollars... right...
guardrails! I can hear the chatter at Department of the Interior HQ
in DC now... “Guardrails! What a waste of money” and “Darwin
would have approved of this decision to divert the guardrail fund to
the President's new helicopter landing pad” (OK... they probably
didn't say that... but there are no guardrails). So we drove along
heading north and I insisted on pointing out every beautiful view
while Mrs. C' responded to each one with “Keep your frickin' eyes
on the road” (which, if I could have chosen my Indian name I
certainly wold have chosen over that “.... Jackass” moniker).
We made it to Grant and checked in to
our campsite which is on the very end of the campground within 200'
of Yellowstone Lake. In fact, I can see the lake through the pines as
I type this at 8:00 local time on Friday evening. After getting the
trailer unkooked, hitch removed, spare gear out of the truck (we're
going to be parked here for 4 nights) we made some lunch and looked
at each other. Conclusion: Time to explore the crown jewel in
America's national park system. We locked the dogs in the trailer (it
was in the mid 70s and the windows were all open. They were happy to
be in the silver cocoon. Trust me, they've see enough windshield time
now with about 3,300 miles under out belts in the last two weeks).
We drove with the intent of heading
deep into the park. On one occasion, the road was blocked with people
parked on the shoulder on both sides, people pulling “U” turns in
the middle of a blind curve and generally carrying on in a way that
is generally associated with heavy drug and alcohol use. “What
could it be?” I asked Mrs. C'. Well, as we crept through the logjam
of Chevys, Winnebagos and Mercedes, we saw what it was. An elk.
Unlike Jackson, Wyoming, here they seem to not turn elk body parts
into public structures and so elk are visible. This particular elk
was grazing near the road. He was pointed north, the road was too his
south (get out a compass and map if you need to orient the scene so
you know which end of the elk was presented to the gathered
onlookers. Standing 20' behind this magnificent beast (which appeared
to be about the size of our Airstream) was a man dressed head to toe
in gear I bet he purchased at Orvis for an African safari that got
canceled earlier this year. In his had was a camera with a lens more
suited to taking pictures of Mars than massive wildlife close up. He
was taking a picture. I like to take pictures. I particularly like
sharing them with people to give a sense of wonderful places. I try
to be thoughtful about my pictures. Why this man abandoned his car on
a busy road to take a picture of that end of an Elk I can not
explain. I hope it is a beautiful picture and he has it printed in
11” x 17” and framed to hang in his living room with a carefully
chosen title. May I suggest “Self Portrait”.
Anyway... we kept driving... and
driving. We crossed the Continental Divide... twice (I'm so confused
about the Continental Divide right now that I can't tell you if a
spit ball sent to the ground here would wind up in the Atlantic,
Pacific or Indian ocean. It seems really important to them to remind
us since there is a road sign every time we cross the darn thing.
After about an hour we came to a somewhat developed area. I pulled
out the map of Yellowstone to see how much ground we had managed to
cross. We covered about 10% of the width of the park. I don't have
internet, but I'm thinking that Yellowstone is about the size of New
England... including Maine. Given that this is the first true weekend
of summer and Yellowstone is drawing Americans like my neck draws
Yellowstone mosquitoes (more on that below if I don't loose my train
of thought) we are going to have to be very thoughtful about how far
we try to go and what we prioritize to see. Suffice it to say that 4
days here won't be enough to “see” Yellowstone. I think we are
more likely to sample it.
Well, that developed area we came to
was jammed with people. They were running, walking, rolling in every
contrivance from wagons to strollers to wheelchairs and all heading
in the same direction. Since we we members of a species generally
known to be herd animals, we joined them. I can hardly describe what
happened next. Thousands of people sat on benches circling a pad of
poorly formed cement and staring at any timepiece they had (watch,
cell phone, portable sundial, etc.) suddenly the earth erupted with a
plume of what appeared to be steam. The stuff shot 200' in the air.
Here, here's a picture:
That went on for a minute or two and
everyone got up and left. I've never heard of such a thing. I'm
surprised they don't tell the world about this. It's one of a kind.
So we headed back to Grant Village, the
trailer and the dogs. They were happy to see us, happy to eat and
happy to walk since the ground here is a combination of scents
including the 1,000,000 dogs that have preceded them and a few dozen
bear markings (hey... we're in the woods... what do you think bears
do here?). Mrs. C' and I ate in the trailer (we are well provisioned
right now).
After dinner I went out for a short
walk around this part of Yellowstone Lake. Short turned out to be an
hour and a half since what looked on the map to be a ½ mile walk to
the Lakefront Grill (I heard they serve a first rate Snickers ice
cream bar) was more like 2 miles. They didn't have ice cream and I
had to walk 2 miles back. But I did get some shots along the way.
Check these out. All within 2 miles of our campsite and none of them
even rate a mention in the average Yellowstone guide book.
I came upon a small pavilion. It looked like this from the approach on the path:
Unassuming.... right? I entered. It was laid out like an open air chapel with semi circular benches for about 40 people and a stone altar in front. I sat in the fist pew (that was a new feeling) and took this:
Today's funniest shot. Probably the most decrepit camping rig we've seen in 3,300 miles. It was parked (I assume it was driven there...) and I honestly couldn't tell which of the two vehicles which were hooked together was more likely to push or pull the other...
So, we are settled in here. Reading and
writing (we have no water or electric at this campsite. We have
generators but have not used them yet. I'm writing on an old
fashioned hand crank computer. Perfect for the rustic simplicity of
Yellowstone.
After the beauty of the Grand Teton's
and the horror show that is Jackson, Wyoming, my first impressions of
Yellowstone are that it may be the best of both worlds. It has the
amazing natural features that we saw in the Tetons and the crowd
magnetism of Jackson, Given its size and the loving and thoughtful
attention the Park Service has given to Yellowstone it may well have
been worth a 3,000 mile drive, the expenditure of 300 gallons of
dinosaur juice and countless months of planning a preparation.
Follow us the next few days and we'll
let you know if that proves true.
Here's the panorama of the day. A view of Yellowstone Lake from just below our campsite...there are snow capped peaks in this view... 1/3 of the way in from the right.
SC
P.S.: The mosquitoes... they are the
size of normal mosquitoes here but given the long winter (many roads
here are only open from mid-May to late September... the mosquito
season is probably equally short) they have a lot of ground to make
up. I have not see so many mosquitoes on a person's arm as I saw on
mine today except in a Deep Woods OFF! commercial (the “before”
shot). Like piranhas, it isn't the bite of a single individual that
should worry a person. It's the fact that they travel in packs of
thousands.
