Day 79 - Yellowstone Midway And West

Our first stop this morning was to the Midway Geyser basin, site of the famous Grand Prismatic, the largest hot spring in the world. I had remembered this place from our drive in for its bright orange drainage channels falling into the nearby river. The morning was foggy and the pools were too misty to see the depth of the major pools, but the setting was dramatic.

A few miles up the road we saw a huge Bison (correct name for a Buffalo) on a side road. We drove in, only a few feet from the mean-looking Bison, enjoying the uniqueness of this animal, before driving through the Great Fountain geyser basin and back out to the main road. A few miles later we came across a herd of hundreds of Bison as they were grazing and crossing the road. As we passed slowly a Bison snorted at me or maybe at the biker crossing in the other lane.

Arriving in West Yellowstone, a town just outside the west gate, we had a Mexican lunch and then drove north through Montana to Earthquake Lake, a lake formed by a landslide from a 1959 7.3 Richter scale earthquake that took 20 campers lives. Trees had already began to grow on the massive landslide hill, an example of the natural processes-- earthquakes, floods, et. -- that formed this great western mountain scenery over the millennia. The trees in the lake and the landslide in the distance can be seen in the picture below. And a reinactment of the effect of 100-mile per hour winds after a landslide.

We drove back through pretty Montana and Idaho countryside before settling into our hotel room for a relaxing quiet evening.

Comments

Day 82 - Yellowstone to Montana

My alarm sounded at 5:30am, a time early enough for me to arise before someone found me secretly camping. The geyser prediction said Grand at 6:15am so I set out toward it. I ran into geyser gazer Jim there and he said it likely erupted at 4:30-- missed it. Early morning eruptions are hard to predict as someone needed to have seen the previous overnight eruption in order to make a prediction. I walked on toward Artemesia, an unpredictable geyser at the far corner of the basin. I had seen her erupt from a mile away and wanted a closer inspection. The early morning setting was momentous, yet I didn't see a geyser erupt up close until Grand at 10:30. Then Sawmill erupted with its twirling thirty foot action (pic). The only remaining geyser left to experience on my mental list was Beehive up close. With a predicted window of 810 to 1210, I arrived at 1030 and waited until 1pm, before giving up. The sun was hot, I had read the geyser book cover to cover, and while seeing e...

Day 78 - Yellowstone Old Faithul Geysers

See Old Faithful, Grand, Lion and Beehive geysers erupt in 60 seconds: http://youtu.be/tv7BPXW4x5g This morning was one of the most exciting mornings of my trip. It started off when I decided to take a long solo hike through the geyser field, leaving at 630am. Mist was still covering this dense geyser field as I walked from geyser to hot spring (20% of the world's active geysers reside here in this one square mile area). Following a boardwalk, so not to get burned, I saw a man sitting on the boardwalk staring at an empty geyser hole. I asked him if he worked for the park service and he responded no-- he was an amateur geyser gazer-- he watched the geysers and recorded eruption times. He mentioned that we were quote "entering the window for Grand" -- geyser gazer speak for Grand geyser is about to go off. I walked a short ways to Grand and waited, one of a few at first and then one of a few dozen as a quick hour passed. The Geizer Gazer, Jim, instructed me on how to wa...

Day 104 - Glacier to Vancouver

The hike up Balu Pass was supposed to be fairly easy, beautiful and dotted with waterfalls, but when I talked to the park ranger and learned that Vancouver was an eight hour drive away, I decided to skip Balu and drive west. I left behind this pretty view. And drove many hours through pristine mountains, fewer and fewer snow-capped ones the further west I drove. Some of the valleys were flooded to make reservoirs, leaving scenic sights. I eventually made it to Vancouver and drove right on through to Point Roberts USA, a five mile by five mile coastal land just below the 49th parallel and thus in the USA. The park ranger had suggested this as a good place to camp but being late of the Thursday night before the Fourth of July there were no spots available. I drove around instead and stopped at a forested coastal park. After ten minutes of walking I came to my first grand Pacific view with Mount Baker 60 miles east. The San Juan Islands and Orca Islands could also b...

Road Trip Daily

Search This Blog