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Yellowstone (Canyon and Roosevelt Areas)
This morning, Genevieve and Sebastian ran off to investigate some small piles of wood they had spied yesterday near the RV. The piles turned out to be on-going building projects by creative campers—with life-size “Lincoln Logs.”
Genevieve and Sebastian’s imagination kicked into high gear, and they spent over an hour reorganizing and building. Here is Genevieve with a log:
The kids were joined by two sisters, Haley and Tegan from Albequerque.
Sebastian told me later that Genevieve had used her comedic talents to keep their new friends laughing—she would carry a log sideways and pretend that she couldn’t fit between two trees, staggering around, bumping into the trees, and making silly faces.
Today, we were heading toward the northern area of Yellowstone, on the same road that we had traveled over last night. We would be doing some hiking along the way, with an overnight stay at the rustic Roosevelt Cabins. (The campgrounds near Roosevelt were not intended for large RVs.)
We followed the Yellowstone River north for about six miles.
Then we stopped for our first hike of the day—we were going to see some bubbling “mud pots” in the Mud Volcano Area. Mud pots are acidic hot springs that contain limited water. Hydrogen sulfide, which rises from deep within the earth, is converted to sulfuric acid by certain microorganisms, and the acid then breaks down the surrounding rock into muddy clay. Bubbles in the mud are caused by underground gases that escape to the surface. The mud pots fluctuate in appearance and activity based upon the weather and the season.
Our first mud pot:
I loved the “gloop-ing” bubbles—they conjured up images of witches cauldrons and dark swamps.
There was a walking path through the mud pots, on a raised wooden trail. The map said that walking clockwise would be less steep and strenuous; so, of course, we chose to do the counterclockwise loop!
Here are Genevieve and I at the trailhead.
More mud pots and some hot springs:
We walked up a short distance to see Dragon’s Mouth Spring, which was named after the waves of water that once whipped out of the small cave like a dragon’s tongue:
Until December 1994, the waves were so big that they sometimes reached the walking trail. Today, the dragon was pretty mellow.
The edge of the Dragon’s Mouth Spring:
We continued along the trail and found Mud Volcano:
Mud Volcano was named by some European-Americans who were exploring this area in 1870. They followed a thunderous, intermittent sound that shook the earth, and were amazed to find thick clouds of steam shooting out of a cone that was 30 feet high. The bursts of steam were ferocious and occurred as often as 5 seconds. Two years later, explorers returned to find that the bellowing cone had blown itself apart; in its place was a pool of muddy water, bubbling away against a crater shaped back-wall.
Here is Grizzly Fumarole:
A fumarole is like a “dry geyser,” with steam and gases escaping from holes in the ground. During the rainy season, the Grizzly Fumarole turns into a group of mud pots.
Continuing our walk upward:
At the top of the walkway was Sour Lake:
(Hmmmm. I wonder who the unfortunate soul was who discovered that the lake was "sour".)
Nearby was Black Dragon’s Caldron, which suddenly appeared in 1948 with a force that destroyed a large area of forest.
Through the mid-70’s, the caldron erupted with explosions of water that flew 20 to 30 feet in the air. Over time, it gradually shifted about 200 feet to the east and now is fairly quiet.
We started the downhill portion of the hill and were soon enveloped in the warmth (and sulfuric smell--ewwww) of Churning Caldron:
Sometimes people-watching is just as interesting as the geological sights. Here, this man’s mini-skirt caught my eye—I admired his independent sense of style. (I also had a skirt just like that in the early ‘80’s, although I didn’t wear tights with it.)
Sizzling Basin had small bubbles all over the surface:
Looking down toward Mud Geyser:
All around us were grey tree trunks on the ground. You can see some of the toppled trees in the bottom of the photo above, as well as to the right of the path below.
This area was called Cooking Hillside. It had once been covered by a dense forest. However, in 1978, after a series of small earthquakes, the ground temperature rose to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. The tree roots couldn’t withstand the heat, and the dead trees fell over one by one.
Near the end of the trail was Mud Caldron.
Back on the road, we were momentarily stuck in this small traffic jam.
What had caused the back-up? We strained our necks, hoping to see another bear or perhaps a big elk. We finally saw this sole buffalo (being photographed by a man who wasn’t observing the “25-yards away from wildlife” rule, and obviously didn’t respect the buffalo’s pointy horns and potential speed).
To our right, some birds were flying low over Yellowstone River.
This man had waded in pretty deep to fish.
Our next stop was the “Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.”
The canyon is about 24 miles long and varies from 800 to 1200 feet deep.
We hiked a few miles along the northern rim, with incredible views.
Despite this being the busiest tourist season of the year, we had the entire trail almost to ourselves.
Genevieve liked to lead the way:
Ben and Sebastian:
Where were all the people? We looked across the canyon and found them! People were crowded together in the area called “Artist Point,” which was the furthest spot to which people could drive on the southern rim.
The river roared below us:
We found more people when we finally reached the end of our trail. A new road had recently been built to this area with a viewing platform down below the trail. We stopped and enjoyed a snack among the glorious scenery.
Looking back toward the direction we had come, we could see a waterfall called Upper Falls. (It’s near the very top of the canyon, in the distance, in the photo below.)
A close-up:
A hawk was gliding gracefully above us.
Genevieve and Sebastian still had plenty of energy for the hike back.
We soon could see our RV parked along the rim.
We took the narrow road into Canyon Village, where we wanted to attend a scheduled ranger presentation at the visitor's center.
In front of the Canyon Village store, Genevieve and I found a bear!
Genevieve was trying to earn a Jr. Ranger badge for Yellowstone, and one of the requirements was to attend a ranger presentation. We attended the program “You Smell Like a Mammal,” presented by Ranger Michael.
Ranger Michael was funny and very good with all of the kids. He taught us that humans can detect about 170 smells, dogs can sniff out 1700, and bears a whopping 3000! Also, noses can smell things better after a rain because moisture enhances the odors; this explains why some animals have permanently wet noses.
The kids got to play several sniffing games involving the identification of odors. In the final game, Ranger Michael gave each child a film canister containing a cotton ball that emitted a particular smell (cinnamon, vanilla, orange, etc.). There were two canisters for each smell. Genevieve and Sebastian had to sniff the canisters of all the other children in order to find matches for their own smells.
After the presentation, Ranger Michael signed off on Genevieve’s Jr. Ranger booklet.
Continuing north, we crossed over Dunraven Pass (8,859 feet). The road twists up and down, with narrow stretches, steep drop-offs, and areas without guard rails. While our guidebook warned that the road was not for the faint-of-heart, Ben effortlessly maneuvered the RV up and over the pass.
Some views along the way:
On our bus tour last night, we had passed this mountain showing the layers of basalt and riverbed silt.
I was still mesmerized by the two horizontal stripes, showing the vertical columns that formed when the thick layer of volcanic lava hardened.
A close-up:
This small body of water was named Rainy Lake.
Multiple underwater air vents shoot gas upwards, causing ripples and creating the illusion that raindrops are falling on the surface.
We arrived at the Roosevelt Lodge area and checked into the main building, which contained the front desk, a restaurant, and a small bar.
The Roosevelt Lodge was established in 1906, in commemoration of a camping trip that President Roosevelt had done here with a guide in 1903.
I must say that the front desk clerk was not very friendly nor welcoming, and he even snapped at me after he printed out documents that we didn’t need for our dinner reservations.
Our cabin was a short distance away. It was very basic, just as we had expected, although we were a bit surprised to find that whoever prepared the cabin hadn’t wiped away the squashed flies on the walls. The small sink in the room also had a rapid drip, no matter how tight we turned the handle. (In the interests of water conservation, I reported this drip to the front desk clerk, but it was never repaired; we ended up just turning off the main water valve under the sink.)
Here is a view of the road in front of our cabin.
Yes, those are large rats running about. They didn’t bother us and were actually quite cute.
We parked the RV fairly close to the cabin, wishing that we could just sleep in the RV overnight in the parking lot. Then we hurried off to dinner. Tonight we were participating in the Roosevelt Old West Dinner Cookout, which involved riding in a covered wagon to a western cookout.
We met our large group of dinner companions (208 people) at the Roosevelt Corrals, a short 5-minute walk down a dirt road. We ended up riding in the wagon pulled by Tango and Cash, beautiful draft horses.
Each draft horse is paired up with another horse as a working team for life, and they always pull on the same side of the wagon (i.e., one horse always pulls on the right side, and the other on the left). The horses work at Yellowstone for three months each summer. Then they spend their winters on a ranch in Montana.
Our driver was Travis.
As Travis drove, Kathleen kept us entertained with stories about the history of Yellowstone.
Of particular interest was the tale of Truman Everts, who got lost while exploring the park with the Washburn Expedition of 1870. Everts inadvertently was separated from the rest of the group, and suffered a series of misfortunes before he was finally found 37 days later. First, his horse ran away with all of his supplies. He suffered gangrene on his feet, as well as severe burns on his body from falling into a hot spring. He also lost 50 to 80 pounds by surviving on the high-fiber elk thistle root.
Our wagon train:
The cookout took place in a large open area called Pleasant Valley.
Picnic tables were set up within a grove of trees, with a large grill and a roaring campfire.
Genevieve immediately hooked up with a new friend, Casey.
The food was quite delicious—steak, potatoes, beans, and other yummy items. Here we are waiting in line (Chris, Ben and the kids):
We ate at a picnic table with a family of four who had driven to Yellowstone from Chicago. Their previous vacations were mainly at luxury beach resorts. When the mother had announced that they were going on a trip to Yellowstone this summer, the 14-year old daughter had said, “We don’t do that kind of thing!” And the 15-year old boy had said, “Why do we want to go to a big hole in the ground?” When I asked them how they were enjoying their trip, they both said, “It’s okay." While they didn’t seem enthused to be here, they didn’t look completely miserable either. After dinner, the mother managed to entice her kids to take a walk with her up the nearby hill. I bet in a few years, they will all have very good memories of this trip.
After dinner, Chris and I went exploring down by a small creek that ran through the valley.
Here is the view back toward the cookout:
The mosquitoes were hungry tonight!
The homeward trek:
Kathleen drove the team back, while Travis entertained us with more stories. Kathleen let each child take a turn holding the reins of the horses.
We all thoroughly enjoyed the cookout experience. Thank you Kathleen, Travis, Tango and Cash!
We stopped by the main lodge to share a drink in the small area next to the bar. Sebastian drew a picture, while Genevieve worked on finishing up her Jr. Ranger booklet. The mosquitoes kept joining us for quick nibbles (they seemed to really love Ben and Sebastian), so we cut our evening short and headed back to the cabins.
There was a note on our RV windshield from a ranger, reminding us that we were prohibited from camping here overnight in our RV, and asking us to move the RV if we were not lodge guests. We wrote a note providing our cabin numbers and left it on the windshield. (The note appeared to be untouched in the morning.)
A layer of clouds blocked the stars tonight. We lingered outside for a few moments, watching the flashes of lightening in the distant sky.
<< Day 57: Yellowstone National Park (Yellowstone Lake) | Day 59: Yellowstone (Mammoth Springs) to the Grand Tetons >>
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