Alyssa and I decided to take a good long road trip before the beginning of the school quarter. The plan was to camp for several days in Yellowstone National Park, making stops along the way to visit friends as well as Stephen's mom, sister, and Grandpa.
Day 1: Drive to Missoula through Spokane - 9/19/15
We are on our way to Missoula and after that to Yellowstone. Actually, we are planning to meet up with "the beautiful Daniel" soon for the aforementioned exchange of goods ... well not really an exchange, but a giving to Daniel of all the stuff he left when he moved out.
We are only about 3 hours behind schedule. The delay started yesterday morning when dad kindly offered us the use of his Durango because of 4-wheel-drive concerns. To be honest though, Carlos has been a bit under the weather lately - a trip to the auto shop to have the error codes read resulted in many pages of printouts outlining many expensive problems he might be having. So we were happy to have a chance to use the Durango and as Stephen points out, it is a lot more spacious than Carlos (Pontiac Grand Am)
What we didn't realize (and I maybe should have) is that the Durango was filthy. Dad has said, "just go ahead and put all my stuff in a box." There was SO much stuff!; crumbs everywhere, dirt caked onto the steering wheel... it took about two hours to get it cleaned up with Stephen manning the vacuum and me doing the detail work. At the moment it looks pretty good - proud of us.
This morning we hauled the last of our apartment furniture (for now) up from my parents' house in Auburn and got it into place. We didn't have time to finish cleaning up though because we had to hit the road!
Anyway, the beautiful Daniel was looking a little different than when we had seen him last. He lives in a kind of extra long mobile home and upon arriving we asked his neighbor is she knew where he was. She seemed puzzled and honestly very high. She was really scary - she had really bad skin which was all discolored and she was totally out of it. Daniel didn't look scary, just a lot more scruffy than before.
After giving Daniel the things he had left at the old apartment, he showed off his new car, a Ford Taurus SHO (twin turbo). It was pretty snazzy. Daniel acted modest, but you could tell that he was pretty excited about it.
then we drove the rest of the way, had awesome sandwiches made by Stephen's mom, talked with her well into the night, watched an episode of Parks and Rec and dropped off to a much deserved sleep.
Day 2: Missoula - 9/20/15
After getting up in the morning, we found out that we couldn't have breakfast as his grandpa's house so we got ready for the day and cooked up some delicious eggs and bacon at his mom's house.
Then, Danielle showed up. We all got into Stephen's mom's Jeep and headed out to Pattee Canyon to go hiking. We saw tons of cute dogs along the way. Also, apparently in Montana people leave the keys to their cars under the back tire when they go hiking - not very well hidden. Stephen says that his mom says this is common practice there.
Next, we zipped home to make lunch and went to see Inside Out. I ate too many Milk Duds and we got a large popcorn because Stephen's mom was excited that it was the same price as the medium one - we didn't even manage to eat half of it :( We were excited to see the Lava short again that is played at the beginning and Inside Out was just as good the second time.
After regrouping at Stephen's mom's house we went to El Cazador with Stephen's Grandpa. The food was bueno! We got the carne asada and a strawberry margarita minus the alcohol which made it tasty :)
Day 3: Missoula and Drive to Yellowstone - 9/21/15
Tired from the previous day's hike, we slept in. I got up for a few brief moments to say goodbye to Stephen's mom before she headed to work. Stephen only managed to grunt charmingly at her as he made a beeline from the bed to the bathroom.
Then, we actually slept for a couple more hours. We tried to be fast about preparing our things to go, but it took a long time and we eventually gave up the haste.
We decided to go to the bakery across the street, Le Petite Outre, to get coffee and a snack for Stephen's mom (we needed to go to her work to drop off the key to her apartment). We also got a loaf of day old bread which we were really excited about because it was cheap and had very few ingredients.
At about 12pm we finally drove out of Missoula - the drive to the park was uneventful.
We stopped in Gardiner, which is literally feet from the park boundary, to get groceries. This took a very long time. Then we drove in, arriving at Madison Campground after dark. We cooked up a prepared bag of chicken alfredo with a lot of vegetables, a wonderfully wasy and tasty camping dish it turns out. At the indoor wash station, we quickly cleaned up our dinner mess and headed to bed.
Day 4: Yellowstone - Old Faithful - 9/22/15
A VERY cold morning! In the frigid morning air, we cooked some bacon & eggs. Afterward we headed down the road and stopped at "Ojo Caliente," a medium sized, river-adjacent hot spring where a team of geologists from USGS were using a long pole-like apparatus to retrieve water samples from it. Very cool!
Next, we continued south and stopped to see Fountain Paint Pots. These were very stinky, but very neat. The hot water and gas coming up through the earth break down the rock into clay, leaving giant bubbling pots of mud.
The majority of the day was spent in the Old Faithful area. At first arrival, you come across the towing wooden Old Faithful Inn. It looks like a castle from Game of Thrones, complete with a square formation of both standards waving from the pinnacle terrace. We inquired at the front desk in hopes of filling a cancellation slot, but alas, there was no room at the inn (save for a $700/night suite!). Walking into a nearby building, we learned that Old Faithful was scheduled to erupt in about 30 minutes so we grabbed some ice cream and a seat and waited...and waited.
Apparently Old Faithful is a woman because most people around us that were talking about the geyser referred to it as "she." Well, "She" gurgled and garbled for a good ten minutes straight, more and less strongly, and every time water became visible above the rim, the whole crowd (100s of people had gathered) gasped. Most lifted their camera phones too. This happened several times, followed by the immediate lowering of the cameras and a synchronous groan of disappointment before Old Faithful finally shot way higher than I ever would have guessed it could and continued to spew strongly for several minutes.
Afterward, we walked around the geyser basin and were able to see Riverside Geyser so that was fun. Stephen says he liked that one the best because it was really surprising that the eruption lasted so long - about 20 minutes.
We walked back to the inn and saw a video in the visitor's center's theater about the park. I liked it, but Stephen didn't because it was really general - an overview.
When we got back to camp, we cooked for a long time and make a pretty mean chili using chipotle peppers in adobo sauce! There was a ranger program at 8pm in our campground, so we hiked a short way to that. It turned out to be all about wolves and their role in the park which was super interesting.
After that we decided to just get off to sleep because we knew we'd have to get up early to a site at Mammoth Campground the next morning (first come, first serve) Sadly, in the middle of the night I had to take a puke trip to the restroom and Stephie was nice enough to wait in the warm men's restroom next door to protect me from bears. The only bad thing is that now I don't want to have anything to do with the chili and it was so good! :(
Day 5: Lamar Valley - 9/23/15
This day was filled with woe and adventure. It started at 6:15am(ish) when we woke up, quickly crammed the folded tent into the Durango, and started heading toward the campground at Mammoth. We were trying to arrive early because the internet had told us that this first come, first serve campground had recently been filling up as early as 8:30am. Unfortunately, this fool-proof plan was foiled by long construction delays. Twice we had to wait for a lead car to take us safely through long stretches of road repair.
Arriving a bit after 8am, we found ourselves in a line waiting for campers from the previous day to pack up and leave so that we could secure a place to sleep for the night. Things were not looking good for us, but after an hour or so in line, we got one of the last two sites. We took our time making a breakfast comprising oatmeal, bacon, & some stellar eggs cooked by Alyssa, then headed out for the day. Our first stop was to hike around for about a half hour at the travertine terraces at Mammoth. It was quite hot out and we got to enjoy seeing a large elk buck basking in the sunshine just off the trail.
Next, we headed east on highway 212 to see what the Lamar Valley had to offer. Shortly after passing Tower Roosevelt, Alyssa realized she needed to use the restroom. Without knowing how long it would be until we could find one, she demanded that we turn around and return to the last service station that we had seen. This turned out to be a very good thing because when we reached the junction where the restrooms were, we realized that we had unknowingly turned south toward Yellowstone Lake - the wrong direction. Correctly oriented anew, we drove into the valley. At the time we didn't know it, but we wouldn't leave again until well after nightfall as passengers in a tow truck.
Driving in Lamar was excellent; we stopped at nearly every turnout to search the plains and hillsides for wildlife. We were able to pick out a coyote and several groups of pronghorn in addition to the elk and bison, which no one could ever miss. In fact, at one point a group of bison was blocking the road and there was only to roll down your window and reach out if you wanted to touch one as you navigate the crowd. Some people did this. We did not.
They call Lamar Valley "The Serengeti of North America" and the name is very fitting. It looks just like something out of an african nature documentary. The Lamar River weaves whimsically through a wide valley of brownish yellow grass and bushes. Here and there are small groves of trees whose leaves are turning and everywhere are huge groupings of bison, grazing, just laying, or tossing and turning on their backs in what are known as "buffalo wallows."
Just as we were really getting good at spotting animals, we ran into trouble. About 2 miles east of Buffalo Ranch, the car stated braking lightly on its own. The caliper seemed to be having trouble releasing. Even after driving just short distances, the pads and rotors were getting very hot and emitting a burning smell. For fear of damaging the vehicle further, we didn't want to drive it any farther. So, we stationed it in a gravel pullout, left a note on the dash, and stuck our thumbs out for a ride. A friendly older couple in a Prius dropped us off back at Buffalo Ranch; basically, an empty corral, a few old cabins, and dust.
Technically there are no visitor services at Buffalo Ranch, but luckily we found Ranger Matt leading a class of 4th graders. He actually live on the ranch and used his house phone to call another ranger to come help us. After spending a long time on the phone with the insurance company trying to find the best company to tow our car, it was starting to get dark and cold. Our second ranger, Jeremy Painter, arrived and informed us that there was only one tow company allowed to tow in the park. Great! He helped us arrange the tow and it turned out he also lived at the ranch so we walked over to his cabin. He invited us in and we spent the next hour or so chatting and playing with his girlfriend's needy, mustachio'd cat, Dr. Phil.
Ranger Jeremy had to get back to work so he gave us a ride back to our SUV, now fully dark. We would have to wait another hour and a half for the tow truck to arrive. Alyssa and I passed the time writing in this journal, reading The Screwtape Letters, and combing the darkness for animals with the binoculars. We never saw any, but more than once we heard the long howl of a wolf followed by a harmony of responses from others.
Eventaully, our tow truck driver, Wes, arrived and loaded the car up onto his flat-bed. truck. The only auto-service station was about 50 miles away, back out in Gardiner. We headed in that direction. Wes was really friendly and chatted us up the entire ride there, relating tales of wildlife encounters he'd had in the park and all his favorite vehicle recoveries. Along the way, we also had a deer hop along just in front of the truck for a bit and were at the receiving end of an angry bugle from what was at least a seven point elk. He blocked our way, voiced his discontent at out presence, then meandered off the road. $495 later, of which the insurance company covered $150. Wes dropped us off at Super 8, the least expensive hotel in Gardiner with any vacancies that night. We were able to fall asleep very quickly.
Day 6: Auto repair and Yellowstone Lake - 9/24/15
After several nights sleeping on the ground, even the Motel 8 beds were feeling pretty good. We slept very soundly, but had to wake up at 7am which seemed much too early! The night before, when Wes had dropped the Durango off at the repair shop, the parking lot was full. The only remedy was to leave our heap right between the only two bay doors. It was the best place available at the time, but it meant that if we didn't move it first thing in the morning, it would prevent the shop from getting any cars in or out of the building.
Sure enough, at 7:55am we were at the front door of Dino Lube and talking to them about the troubles we'd had the previous day. They needed some time to inspect the vehicle, so we returned to the motel for second breakfast. They called us shortly to report that yes, the caliper had been causing the problem and that in addition the brake pads and rotors needed to be replaced on all 4 tires. The bill was a staggering $856. We had no choice but to give the go ahead because we had to be back home in time for school to start.
After checking out of the hotel we went for a walk around some of the frontier-looking stores in Gardiner. The Yellowstone Association store had a lot of interesting items related to the park. We bought the Death in Yellowstone book to add to Stephen's Death in ______ (insert national park) collection. He is already the proud owner of Death in Yosemite and Death in the Grand Canyon. A lady named Paula introduced herself while we were perusing the other offerings. She had seen us at Dino Lube earlier and recognized us. After chatting with her we learned that she actually lived inside the park and was nice enough to offer us a ride back to Mammoth so we could spend at least some of the day inside Yellowstone.
In Mammoth, we spent most of the afternoon lounging on the lawn in front of the visitor center, just like all the elk in that area. We read some interesting, but horrific stories from the death book, ate our peanut butter and jelly sack lunches that we had made at the hotel, and occasionally had to get up to avoid the same cranky buck from the night before when he'd venture too close. He became particularly agitated at one point when a younger buck came to close to his harem or about 20 cows. In a bizarre display of dominance, the older male lowered his head down between his front legs and jostled it about while urinating so as to get the liquid all over his face and antlers. He then lifted his head and faced the younger buck, repeatedly pulling his front hoof over the grass indicating that he was about to charge. By this time, several rangers had moved in to monitor the situation given that there were so many park guests nearby. The ranger nearest to us suddenly let out a yell for everyone to take cover on the balcony of the nearest building "NOW!" I had looked down for just a moment, but now that I looked up, the older buck was sprinting toward the younger. We all cleared from his path and he ran the youngster off. Until then, all the elk we'd seen had appeared quite slothful so it was cool to see them actually moving quickly from such a close vantage point. We learned from a ranger afterward that the female elks can detect how much a buck exerts himself from the smell of his urine which to them is directly related to virility. The buck had urinated on himself both to entice his lady friends and to warn away the approaching male.
At about 4pm, we filled our water bottles in the cafeteria one last time and walked to the road to find a ride back to the auto shop. Only two cars passed before a Gardiner local picked us up. Chatting with him, we really got a sense of how small Gardiner is because when we told him the store of our broken down vehicle, he knew all the people we'd dealt with along the way. He even guessed Wes' name correctly.
Eager to be independently mobile again, we paid for our newly repaired vehicle & headed back into the park. There was just enough sunlight left to make it Lake Lodge at the north end of YellowStone Lake so we headed there. The drive was fairly uneventful with the exception of a stop we made at a point in the road where probably 50 cars were parked and people were crowding the hills on either side of the road with all manner of looking devices. Two gentlemen explained to us that wolves had very recently been spotted off to the left and that to the right some others had seen a grizzly bear. Both were so far out though that a out binoculars weren't powerful enough to really see anything. Instead of hoping for them to come closer, we decided to stick to our plan of reaching the lodge to see the sunset and continued on.
Day 7: Mammoth and Missoula (Zoo Town) - 9/25/15
More to come...
