Harlan's Spring Roadtrip

March 29 - May 27, 2004

Wyoming and Montana

Having never been to Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies, I was determined to spend some time there. I left New York and drove to Indiana in one day; this 650 mile leg was my longest of the trip. I stopped in Chicago to see my pal Stan Cohen. Of course we went to the Frontera Grill, one of my favorite restaurants in the whole USA. (See more on gastronomical adventures below.)

I left Chicago and faced up to the task of driving through the middle of the country. Illinois wasn't too bad, and I could take Iowa. But then there was Nebraska. Wow, that is one wide state! My new definition of purgatory: spending all of eternity driving across Nebraska! But it was worth it when I hit Wyoming and the Grand Tetons.

I was really taken aback by the beauty of the Tetons. Maybe it was just the right time of year, but it was a real treat to hang out for a couple of days and do some exploring. Most of the good hiking spots were still snowed in, but several trails along the base of the range were open. It was difficult to pull myself away. But it's a ROAD-trip.

I was camped out in Jackson Hole one morning and I looked out of my tent about daybreak. It was snowing, and there was a moose in my campsite! I grabbed my camera and carefully angled around to get some pictures; I didn't want to scare him away or, more importantly, have the moose scare me away. I didn't have to worry; I walked around taking pictures for awhile and the moose completely ignored me. I suppose I wasn't too intimidating to a moose.

The weather report that day was for heavy snow all morning and afternoon, with temperatures dropping to the low 20's, high teens that night. Being a fair-weather camper with a gold card, I moved in to the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park.

The Inn is one of those grand old hotels that was built in National Parks a hundred years ago. It's all wood and very impressive. However, it is definitely built as a summer place; they were not really prepared that night when the temperature hit 20 degrees F. I wasn't prepared either; it was the coldest night I spent on the whole trip!

The interior of the Inn is nice. Here are some snapshots, including one of the guy who plays a grand piano every evening up on the second floor balcony.

The Old Faithful Inn is aptly named; the Old Faithful geyser is literally a stone's throw from the front door. I'd heard about this natural wonder all my life; now I finally got to see it, and I think it lived up to it's reputation. About every ninety minutes, plus or minus ten, it shoots off a spray of hot water several hundred feet into the air. It was especially impressive the day I was there because it was so cold that you could see more of the steam.

The National Park Service has a clock in the lobby of the Inn that predicts the next Old Faithful eruption. However, I found a signal that more accurately predicted the next show: the timely arrival of tour buses filled with camera-laden Asian tourists. No need to watch the clock -- when the buses show up, its time to move out for the big event. I have no idea how the bus drivers coordinated this logistical feat; obviously an advanced information technology system somewhere.

Time to go exploring in Yellowstone. First job: dig out the truck. Of course I didn't have an ice scraper; I'd come prepared for warm, sunny weather. (I brought a pair of short pants that I only wore for about four hours the whole trip, somewhere down south.) I improvised an ice scraper using the bottom end of a large tube of Banana Boat sun screen. There's a little irony there I think.

Yellowstone is famous for buffalo and geysers. Here's a picture with both. Most of the geysers and mud pools have lots of signs warning not to get too close. They attempt to put the fear in you by telling tales of tourists boiled alive because they get too close and fall in. The buffalo evidently don't read the signs because they get very close to the thermal pools and vents to warm up in cold weather. Didn't hear any reports of boiled buffalo.

They also encourage the tourists to give the buffalo lots of room. More horror stories of buffalo trampling kids, etc. I got semi-brave and had my picture taken with some of these animals. But I gave 'em the benefit of the doubt and stayed pretty far away.

The most common large wildlife in the park are elk. You see them in large herds and in small groups. Here is an interesting picture of a doe with an attached radio transmitter. Also, lots of the elk and buffalo had metal tags, mostly on their ears. I guess the Park Service is doing lots of wildlife management in the area.

Yellowstone has a wide range of thermal geological attractions: geysers, hot springs, and pools of hot mud. I took lots of hot mud-puddle pictures. Trust me -- you had to be there. Here's a panoramic with lots of steam coming up, undoubtedly helped by the cold weather. I'll spare you more hot mud pictures; if anyone's interested, let me know.

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, cut down the middle of the Park by the Yellowstone River, is a special place. It is a miniature version of its bigger, more famous sibling, the Grand Canyon of the Colorado in Arizona. The Yellowstone canyon is more contained and accessible. In addition, it has a unique feature: because it is formed by eroding down through such a thermally active landscape, many of the hot springs and geysers can still be seen spilling down the sides of the canyon walls.

Here are a couple of pictures from about the middle of the canyon. The right picture is looking upstream (south), with Lower Falls seen in the distance. Hot spring activity has continued to alter the lava rock on the canyon walls, depositing a variety of iron compounds. These appear as the clearly visible red and yellow regions.

The left picture is looking downstream. Again, hot spring activity is visible on the canyon walls.

There are few access points into the canyon; the terrain is just too steep and rough. Also, because of the hot spring and other thermal activity, the walls are prone to crumbling and giving way. One excellent observation area that was on a rock point that projected out a hundred feet over the canyon collapsed several years ago, adding a little more rubble to the canyon floor. Fortunately, no tourists were present when the collapse occurred.

An excellent trail runs along the western edge of the canyon, with access to many spectacular viewing areas. Here is a picture of Lower Falls from one of these prime vantage points.

Yellowstone National Park spans three states: Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. The North Entrance at Gardiner, Montana, is pretty impressive. With budget cuts and leaner, meaner government, we probably won't see any publics works projects like this one for awhile.

This was my first time in Montana. I thought it was stunning. I had to keep telling myself not to stop every five minutes and take a picture. It was just one darn postcard after another. But I couldn't resist the picture on the right. The sky, the mountains and the scope of it all was overwhelming.

This barn was an absolute show stopper. I tip-toed around it, afraid that too heavy a footstep would make it fall down.

I made a brief stop at Glacier National Park, but it was still frozen in. No place to play there. So I headed north across the border into Canada.