Day 2 at Yellowstone
posted 6/11/09 by Julia
Morning (to be truthful, afternoon) we return to Yellowstone. We have left Bozeman, but not before –
- We pick up some food and donuts at the Safeway.
- I forget my jacket at the hostel and have to return from the Safeway parking lot to get it.
- A girl at the hostel, during my last few jacket-grabbing seconds there guesses my astrological sign. She gets it wrong and says I am a Leo because of my outgoing energy. I tell her I am a Capricorn. She nods, understanding that the stars must’ve been aligned in a special way the day I was born.
- We decide that Bozeman may be a blue oasis in what is otherwise a red state. We base this decision on the existence of a food co-op and a girl wearing an Obama shirt at the Safeway.
We enter the park through the north entrance today, dropping south on 89 from Livingston. This entrance has a huge stone gate from back when the park was founded. John and I agree that this must have been where Stephen Spielberg got the inspiration for the Jurassic Park gate. “What’ve they got in there? King Kong?”
Mammoth Hot Springs. We walk on boardwalks over terraced hot springs created by years of activity. Thermophilic bacteria color the springs which have mounded up over time. Steam rises off of the hill and fills the air with an unmistakable sulfuric smell.
A young ranger called Rheanna scrubs away at part of the springs just off the boardwalk, where a thin layer of water courses over the rusty rock underneath. Someone had decided it would be smart to carve their initials into the rock formation. Some other idiots thought that they’d do it too. Rheanna leaves bright white scrubbed patches that in a few days will be recolonized by the bacteria that thrive in the springs. At least people won’t recognize it as graffiti and think that they should do it too.
As is the custom, whenever you see any animal at Yellowstone, stop your car in the middle of the road and gawk out your window. Two elk stags grazed in a field near the main road and caused a delay in both directions. Hell yeah, people stopped. We found a place to park at a nearby picnic area and walked over to check them out. One elk had already moved off, but the other grazed peacefully, ignoring the cluster of people watching him from the road. His antlers still had a fine fuzz covering and at the base were thicker than my wrist. He concentrated mostly on a plant with thin brown stalks and bright green leaves. His lips stripped off the leaves, leaving the stalks bare. His grazing brought him closer to the road and staring people, within ten feet of where I was standing. An overly enthusiastic man with a camera stood directly in front of the elk. The stag looked up and snorted. John and I backed away and soon left. The elk was now too close for our comfort and we went back to the picnic area to have lunch.
And yes, we took plenty of pictures.
Tower Falls. The trail down to the base of the falls is blocked off by temporary wooden fences. The trail ahead is supposedly washed out. We ignore the barriers and squeeze through to the
other side. We get down to the riverside and walk down to where we see the washout that has taken out a large chunk of the hillside. We get no view of the falls from this level, but a marmot looks at us from its perch on a rock. It’s got a yellow belly and cute nose.
Pull off. They say you can see bears frequently at Antelope Creek. Sure enough, a number of cars are stopped in the road ahead. We follow suit. A middle-aged woman with a coral-colored windbreaker points out the “griz” far across the river and up the side of the mountain. She tells us how earlier the bear had challenged a coyote for its kill and the coyote backed down. No kidding. Even though the bear has moved farther away from us than the elk or bison closer to the river, it still looks formidably large. It lumbers up the hill as we look through the spotting scope the woman’s husband has trained on it.
Yellowstone Falls. The steep trail to the brink descends 600 ft in 3/8 mile. At the viewing platform you look out over where the falls fall. Green water spills over the brink, casting white spray outward and in plumes upward when it crashes against the water below. The river continues on through a steep canyon of yellow stone. The steep trail from the brink ascends 600 ft in 3/8 mile.
We see these iconic falls from another viewpoint, from which it is more commonly photographed. It’s not as real (as opposed to picturesque) as being right next to them as the river breaks to gravity’s pull.
Pull off. A herd of buffalo graze underneath a graying sky. Cows with caramel-colored calves stand calmly. One calf nurses, hitting its nose against its mother’s tummy. The cow kicks out with her back leg, jolted by the calf’s insistence. Two males fight, lowering their heads and ramming them together. They push each other back and forth until their short battle tires them. They back away from one another. One shakes its head back and forth, frustrated. After the two square off for a few moments, the frustrated bull comes back for more. They keep up their battle as we leave.
Leaving. The sun is setting as we are passing by Yellowstone Lake. Three Barrow’s goldeneye swim on the lake surface, sending out ripples onto calm. A bright orange sun casts across the lake and onto the mountains towards which we are driving. A stand of gray skeleton trees looks eerie, illuminated by the dying light.