We arrived in the Park on the day before the lodges and services closed for the year. Being late lunch time, we decided to eat at the Grant Village Lodge. I think they were down to the last of the items in the fridge and freezer and everyone wanted to be elsewhere. I had the misfortune to encounter the worst fish coating ever. I ordered fried codfish, a no brainer in most places and just about the only thing on the very short menu that I was interested in. Ugh. Bad choice. I'd have been better off with whatever and artichoke hearts after all. The tempura style batter was way too thick and raw and squidgy near the fish. Yeek. I ended up peeling the fish and eating it plain. Meanwhile, Ray was happy enough with his Reuben sandwich. O well. The view of Yellowstone Canyon made up for the hideous fish coating. And the weather was wondrous.
We decided to change our plan and instead of heading for the West side of Yellowstone, chose to drive up the East side. Oh, my, what a road! Twists and turns and hairpins and switchbacks and no edges and astounding views. Until Upper and Lower Falls, the road follows the Yellowstone River and it's canyon. The stones really are yellow! We were glad we were not there in the height of the tourist season, because even on the second to the last day, the parking lots were often full, as were many of the roadside turnouts. They don't mark those turnouts, so you have to keep your eyes peeled.
We took pictures at West Thumb, which is part of Yellowstone Lake, and is an older caldera. Here they try to keep the road open for a while and we marveled at how tall the snow poles were. Ray took a picture of me standing next to a snow pole so you could see how towering they were, but there must have been a little earthquake as the picture is blurry and you can't see the pole. But the pictures of West Thumb turned out fine.
On a lark, we turned off the main road to take a look at Fishing Bridge, which bridge has been there nearly forever. Quickly we discovered a Yellowstone not-so-secret. While the 2 main roads are in great shape, not so for the side roads. Fishing Bridge road is a colossal collection of potholes, missing pavement, loose gravel and curves. The road goes around the top of Yellowstone Lake and across the eastern part of the park to the East Entrance. This section of the road is closed from early November to sometime in May and apparently is not high on the maintenance list. We drove across Fishing Bridge and then turned around and rode back over, as we knew we had some ways to go before we got to the end of the day's road and there was simply no time to go to the end (or beginning) of the road.
Pictures of the canyon were taken at every opportunity we had to do so. Yellowstone is at a high elevation, or at least higher than we are used to. Walking about quickly reduced us to slow podding and panting. We didn't stop at Canyon Village except for the pit potties.
We went over Dunraven Pass at 8895 feet. At this point the twisties really got going in earnest. It was very challenging, especially when the road turned West into the sun. It's very hard to negotiate curves when you can't see or with one hand while the other shades your eyes so you can see. The Park Service was conducting a "managed" burn east of the section between Dunraven and Tower Fall and we managed to get some great pictures, although the best viewing spots were taken up by firefighter trucks and professional photographers and Park Rangers.
Just bout dusk, we came into the Mammoth Hot Springs area. Elk were in town. On this night, only females. The elk were outnumbered by tourists with and without cameras. We happily joined them in elk observation.
The exit is another 5 miles beyond Mammoth Hot Springs, so we soldiered on, being pretty worn out by this time, and it's getting dark. Came around a switchback and ! Traffic jam! No one is coming up and no one is going down. Why? As we inched forward with the rest of the tourists, we found out. Mountain goats! They were crossing the road and leaping up the face of the mountain to our right. Fairly vertical it was, as they cut the mountain to make room for the two lane road. But those goats, large and small, went up that near vertical face like they had sticky pads on the bottoms of their hooves. Twas amazing to see and you will have to take our word for it because we had no time to get the camera out, being in impatient traffic and all the pullouts were full.
By the time we left the park and got to our motel it was full dark. The room was smaller than it should have been for the price we paid, but it was clean and quiet and we slept just fine after finding an Italian restaurant run by an Eastern European family, where we ate spaghetti that tastes suspiciously like Prego and doing a couple loads in the motel laundry. We hit the bed and slept like logs.
Up early the next morning, we visited the little breakfast room for bagels and cream cheese and then headed to the local market to forage for lunch fixings. There are many beautiful, quiet picnic areas in the Park and we decided that we should take advantage. We had plenty of room in the cooler for the things that needed to stay cool. We entered the park at the North Entrance and went straight to Mammoth Hot Springs. The springs have changed over the years. Earthquakes both in and outside the park change the underlying geology and the Springs move over time and run at different strengths from time to time. They are in a lower phase right now, but still beautiful. We saw them today in both bright morning sun and close to dusk at the end of the day. They are beautiful both times of day, but look different at both times. We stopped so often to take pictures that Ray got quite weary with picture taking. We took a ride thru the Upper and Lower Terraces area, another example of exceedingly neglected pavement, but worth the shaking and bouncing and maneuvering.
On down the road we stopped at the Norris Museum of the Park Ranger but it was already closed for the season. But we also stopped at the Norris Geyser Basin and walked all around the basin on the boardwalk. Quite a wearing walk, even tho most of it was flat in the bottom of the basin. There's not much air up there and then there's the fumes from the fumaroles...phew! We took a breathing break at the bookstore. So many wonderful books, and we left feeling quite proud of our selves for not spending every penny we had left on books.
Then it was a break at a beautiful, peaceful riverside picnic area. On all the tables are bolted metal signs: DO NOT FEED THE BEARS. CLEAN UP YOUR MESS. UNLESS YOU ARE ACTIVELY EATING IT, PUT ALL FOOD AWAY. KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN FOR BEARS. BEARS ARE DANGEROUS. Luckily, the largest wild animals we saw were chipmunks.
Refreshed, we hit the road again and drove south to the Fountain Paint Pots. Here again we walked around to see all the "pots" and their colors. It's amazing. We tackled Firehole Lake Drive. And it tackled us, but we got thru with the shiny sides up, road notwithstanding. All thru the park the main roads are being repaved, even when it looks like the road was in ok shape to begin with. But the side roads are truly crumbling into nothing much. Those of us who are brave enough to take on the side roads recieve tremendous rewards of scenery, bothered by few people. I could have spent more time watching the rapids of the Firehole River, but there were more things to see.
Our next stop was Old Faithful. We had about 45 minutes to wait for the anticipated eruption, so we found comfy seats on the porch of the new lodge and drank a couple of sodas. We had not known how much we needed that rest and hydration until we'd had them! Right on time, Old Faithful erupted and it was the highlight of the day. By this time, it was after 5 and we decided we'd better head toward the North Gate and our motel.
The lighting was of course, different at this time of day and we enjoyed the way the sun lit the cliffs. The animals began to come out and we saw bison, elk, deer, antelope. No bears and no wolves. My goodness do the animals ever attract people! You actually have to watch to avoid hitting the people. The animals seem to have the good sense to avoid the roads. We stopped again at Mammoth Hot Springs to take more pictures of the Springs in the different light. And of course, the elk were back in town, and this time, the ladies brought a gentleman. Wow, did he have a spectacular set of antlers, many points! The elk are so calm and concentrate on cropping the nice green grass and the people so excited. You'd think it might be the other way round, wouldn't you? This time, no mountain goats on the road. Again we got back to the hotel about dark. We opted for dinner at the same place, because it was closest to the hotel and because we were tired. Ray had lasagne and I had mexican pizza. It was food. We ate. We went back to the hotel and repacked and hit the sack again.
In the morning, we had bagels and cream cheese again and left on a very chilly day. Sadly, it's time to go home. The trip is winding down and we can feel the end coming closer with every passing mile. I don't like that feeling much. I wish it could go on for many days more. There is still much to see and many curves to enjoy in the coming days. And I do like that feeling!
