August 2017: Epic "Roadtrip" Part I: Yellowstone/Grand Teton

Rainbow over Upper Mesa Falls

So here's the thing.  When you marry someone, you don't just marry them, you marry their family.  When I married The Hot Chick, I acquired a few more siblings.  I gained some extra brothers and a sister.  For me, I don't really see 'brother-in-law' or 'sister-in-law', I just see brothers and sisters.  We are all part of the family.

In August of 2017 we had a total eclipse of the sun.  My house was right in the path of totality.  Ground zero for eclipse folk.  There are people who spend thousands of dollars and lots of their free time chasing eclipses.  Who knew?  It seemed a bit weird to me, but it seemed like a once in a lifetime deal, so we got excited for it.  We convinced The Hot Chick's sister and her family to come to our house to witness it, then we shamed The Hot Chick's brother into coming here with his family.  He works really hard and is a business owner.  When you are a small business owner, you are never really sure if you own the business or if it owns you.  We convinced him that his children needed to have that experience and that it was a once in a lifetime deal.  So he came and brought his family.  We were glad he did.

Remember what I said about family.  I was only trying to establish the familial relationship.  I have been a member of The Hot Chick's family for a long time, and several of her siblings were young when I joined the family, one of her siblings has almost no memories of life before I was a member of the family.  So her siblings are my siblings.  My siblings are now her siblings.  It's a package deal.

All the news stations were predicting huge crowds of people in our town, at least three times the population coming for the eclipse.  Stores were selling out of lots of goods and there wasn't a hotel room to be had.  People were renting square footage in potato fields for people to tent camp.  It was crazy.

We convinced our family members who were travelling to come a few days early to beat the rush, and in return we'd go see some of the sights around and about.  Our brother hadn't been to Yellowstone since he had been a teenager, his kids had never been here.  We wanted to make sure they had a good time.

Mesa Falls Scenic Byway
The quickest route from our home to Yellowstone is along US 20, as I discovered in an earlier blog post is the longest continuous road in America.  You can dip your feet in the Atlantic and drive all the way to the Pacific and never leave US 20.  At the town of Ashton, Idaho a spur road called Highway 47 takes off to the east.  It might be the old highway to Yellowstone or it might be it's own thing.

HWY 47 dips down into Warm River Canyon where a fish preserve is located.  People feed the fish all summer long and some of the trout get up to two feet long, maybe longer.  Then the byway continues up a pass and descends into Bear Gulch.  Then it continues up to Lower Mesa Falls and then Upper Mesa Falls.  There are other things to see on this byway, but for this post, those are the things that matter

When we got to the trout preserve, the trout weren't feeding, but the only entity allowed to fish there was.  The osprey.  We ended up feeding the ducks instead.  Then we headed up to Lower Mesa Falls and Upper Mesa Falls.  I have written about all of this before, but this was the first visit for our brother and his family.  One of the things The Hot Chick and I love more than just about anything is taking first timers to see the sights.

If you get to Upper Mesa Falls at just the right time there is a magnificent rainbow effect that plays there.  We were able to see it on that day and it was magical.

The Fish Hawk in it's natural habitat.  I learned yesterday that an Osprey is a member of the hawk family.  I had thought
they were their own deal.

Fish hawk again

The only fish pic of the day

But the ducks were fed

Feeding the duckfish

Lower Mesa Falls from the overlook

We asked a stranger to take this group shot.  She took the photo and didn't steal my camera

Bears sometimes pose for tourists
(ok, so these aren't live bears, they are dead bears that have been posed to look like live bears)

Brink of the falls

Rainbow at Upper Mesa Falls

The Hot Chick and the nieces

Turkey vulture flying overhead.  Not sure if he was waiting for me or not

More Mesa Falls

Even more

Just before the Idaho/Montana border on US 20 is a pullout called Howard Spring.  My kids say it is the best water they have ever tasted.  Somewhere along the line the natural spring was tapped and they made a fountain for weary travelers.  There is a picnic area as well.  Sometimes we picnic there.

In 1877, just after the Battle of Camas Meadows, General Howard, in pursuit of the Nez Perce tribe stopped at this natural spring.  I don't know if he named it after himself or if someone else named it for him.  There was a pass through a narrow canyon to the Montana side.  Highway 20 follows along the Nez Perce Trail for a short distance here.  A hundred and forty-three years ago, though this canyon was bustling with hundreds of cavalry soldiers and their mounts as they pursued Chief Joseph and his people.

We just stop for the water.

The nephew and the nieces at Howard Spring, the best water on earth

Lewis Monkeyflower.  Merriweather Lewis is the first scientist to describe this flower in scientific literature.  It is named for him as many things are in the Louisiana Purchase and the Oregon Territory.  William Clark got to name a few things after himself too.

Yellow Monkeyflower.  Both the Lewis Monkeyflower and the Yellow Monkeyflower are found at Howard Spring annually.

Yellowstone:  Entrance to Old Faithful
I grew up in West Yellowstone, Montana.  Because my dad owned a theatre there, we worked at night, so having a long trip into Yellowstone didn't happen very often.  We usually had in and out trips.  That meant we went in to see Old Faithful often.  These days, when we visit the park, we spend most of our time on the upper loop.  We go to Mammoth, Norris, Canyon, Tower and The Lamar Valley.  Thing about it is, there is so much to see and so much to do in Yellowstone that you can literally go in after a thousand times and see something different.

That being said, when we bring newbies along, we start with Old Faithful, because you have to.  You have to see it at least once.

Firehole Falls, which I have photographed ten hundred million, billion times and will photograph it at least that many more times before I take the dirt nap

We always pose for a photo here.  Never gets old

Silex Spring on the Fountain Paint Pots Nature Trail.
This is what Morning Glory Pool used to look like before stupid people

I think this is Spasm Geyser on the Fountain Paint Pots Nature Trail

The Old Faithful Inn, the largest log structure in the world.  Take that, Texas and Russia!

Geo-thermal royalty.  The Big Kahuna, La Grande Fromage!
Old Faithful

Yellowstone:  The Million Dollar Room
So I said you could go to Yellowstone a thousand times and see something new every time.  It's true.  After Old Faithful erupted, we went on an obligatory visit to Hamilton Store because ice cream.  When we were hanging around looking at authentic Yellowstone souvenirs made in China, I saw a sign on the wall that talked about the "Million Dollar Room."  I asked an employee at the register what that was and she asked, "Would you like a tour?"

Hmmmm, let me think, "Uh, Yeah.!"  So Charles Hamilton was an early concessionaire in Yellowstone.  He may have had a monopoly at one time.  Jury's out.  His headquarters were in the upper rooms of the Hamilton Store at Old Faithful.  Hamilton saved every cancelled check he ever wrote for supplies and merchandise and when he had enough, he wallpapered his office with them.  Then he called it "The Million Dollar Room."  He had six rooms in the upstairs, but sadly his office is all that remains.  The National Park Service, though brought in a conservator to clean and stabilize the paper of the checks and then covered them with plexi-glass.  Now you may take a tour upon request.  Disclaimer:  The total dollars represented on the cancelled checks don't equal a million, more like 1.9 million.

You can always find something new.  Always

Charles Hamilton's original light

Some of the check wallpaper

The lights were low, so the pics are dark

And people in motion are fuzzy

I finally decided to use a flash

The final tally

Yellowstone to the South Entrance:  Waterfalls
When we planned this trip, we only planned up to Old Faithful.  We didn't have an exit strategy.  I don't know the reason, but we decided if one national park was good, then two would be infinitely better.  I did ask the nieces, "Which of your other uncles have taken you to TWO national parks in one day?"  Of course the answer was, "None."  Favorite uncle, right here.

We really just stopped at waterfalls from Old Faithful to the Southern Entrance.  First we stopped at Kepler Cascades.  Then we stopped at Lewis Falls and finally Moose Falls.  I have blogged about all of these waterfalls before.  Really, this trip was all about showing our family things they had never seen before.

Kepler Cascades

The family at Kepler Cascades

Lewis Falls.  Named for Meriwether Lewis of the famous Lewis & Clark expedition.  Contrary to popular belief, Lewis & Clark (or was it Clark and Lewis?) never explored Yellowstone.  If they had, they would have never left.

Stone bridge near Moose Falls

Moose Falls, one of my favorites

The family at the brink of Moose Falls

Grand Teton National Park
The Teton Range in Wyoming has often been called, America's alps.  There is a whole range of mountains that are over 11,000 feet above sea level.  They aren't the tallest mountains in the United States, but they may be the prettiest.  There is an Idaho side and a Wyoming side to the Tetons.  That doesn't mean the mountains are half in and half out, it means that when you view them from Idaho they are very different than if you view them from Wyoming.  The classical view is from the Idaho side, but most people who really experience them see them from the Wyoming side.  I am pretty sure the lonely Frenchman who named them was looking at them from the Idaho side.  It's the only side that makes sense.

Story goes, a lonely French trapper saw the mountains and proclaimed les trois tétons (which means the three teats).  What can I say, the west has some interesting place names.  There is a town in Idaho named Malad.  Story goes, a French trapper got sick while camping there.  Was it the same French trapper?  I don't know.  Food poisoning, and the whole camp got sick in ways that are unspeakable in polite company.  They complained about their malady at that location and then an English speaker shortened it to Malad.  So the story goes.  In fact, when I lived in Buffalo, New York I was told that a French trapper looked out over the Niagara River and proclaimed "Beau fleuve!"  Which means beautiful river.  Someone passing by thought he said Buffalo, even though there were no buffalo in what would be called Buffalo, New York.

Grand Teton is directly south of Yellowstone National Park and is connected to it via the John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway.  The parkway is managed by the National Park Service (NPS).  Really, the whole area is managed by them, but there are divisions of responsibility within the park service so they all do different things.  It doesn't make sense on the one hand, but the two parks are very different so I guess it's okay.  Grand Teton was carved and sculpted by glaciation whereas Yellowstone was born of fire.  Two vastly different landscapes separated by a mere 27 miles.

Grand Teton was established in 1929, the same year the stock market crashed and ushered in The Great Depression.  We still cared about beauty during that period.  From the north, coming from Yellowstone, the first body of water a traveler encounters is Jackson Lake.  It is a natural lake but a dam was built at one end before it became a park which raised the water level by 40 feet.  My understanding is that after the original park was created, lands were added to it when they became available.

For our trip, it was late in the day and we were headed home over Jackson Pass, so we just enjoyed the drive and didn't hike.  We stopped at Jenny Lake for the sunset because there may not be a more picturesque lake anywhere in the world.  There may be lakes that are equal but I've never encountered one that is superior.  At Jenny Lake, we ate a small picnic dinner and headed for home as the sun went down.

Jackson Lake almost at the golden hour

The marshlands

Our family

I've had something to say about place names in the last few blog posts.  This area I live in was discovered by and settled by creative, colorful, maverick people.  There was a trapper in the area named Andrew Henry who named everything he could in this area after himself.  Fort Henry I, II, and III, Henry's Lake, Henry's Fork of the Snake River.  Almost like a retirement plan.  The French guys who named things after body parts and functions.  Lewis & Clark named all kinds of stuff after themselves.  When you drive up to Northern Idaho, through Montana, you will cross over the Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone River at least ten times.

Then there was this other guy.  Richard Leigh.  Richard Leigh was a trapper and a relative latecomer to Idaho toward the end of the fur trade.  Leigh was a colorful character who trapped all over the area that is southeast Idaho and northwest Wyoming.  He especially liked the Tetons.  Leigh was an Englishman who came to the west to seek a fortune.  He was well liked in the trapping community and with the local settlers.  He married a Shoshone woman who had converted to Christianity, and her Christian name was Jenny.  There are two lakes in Grand Teton that are connected by a smaller narrow lake.  The northern lake is Leigh Lake which is connected to the southern lake called Jenny Lake by way of a small body of water called String Lake.  They are joined together for eternity.  All over the Tetons there are features named for Leigh and Jenny.  In southeast Idaho, near where I live there is a park named for Richard Leigh.  For this park, though they did not name it for his Christian name but rather his nickname.  It is called "Beaver Dick Park."

Jenny Lake at dusk.  There are a few days of the year that you can photograph the sun going down between the two
Mountains.  When there is smoke in the air or dust, the sunbeams through the gap are amazing.  Professional photographers
will camp in Grand Teton on those predictable days just to try to get that shot.  I've never taken that photo.  Some day maybe

See what I have to deal with?  I can't handle this much beauty

Mount Teewinot in the golden hour

So, I have titled this Epic "Roadtrip" even though our home was our homebase.  We didn't camp, we didn't stay in hotels, we stayed in our home.  We did set up a tent in the backyard and the kids slept back there.  So why call this a roadtrip?  I think I'm calling it that because of the epic nature of our staycation.  Our family certainly made a roadtrip to see us, but then we basically camped at our house and went all around the area waiting for the eclipse.  Everything about this felt like a roadtrip except the accommodations.  In the end, I guess I'm calling it an Epic "Roadtrip" because it's my blog and I can.


Epic "Roadtrip" Part II:  Lewis & Clark Caverns

Epic "Roadtrip" Part III:  Teton Dam

Epic "Roadtrip" Part IV:  Total Eclipse of the Sun

September, 2015: Yellowstone--Mystic Falls

This is BOB.  It stands for Big Ole Bison.  Courtesy of my children

We only went to Yellowstone once in August.  The reason we only went the one time is because there were so many people in the park on that trip, we decided we'd let it calm down a bit before we went back.  I'm not opposed to people hanging out in the park, it's just that I'd rather not hang out with so many of them.  I go to the park to commune with nature.  It's difficult to do that when there is so much noise and confusion at all the major stops.  I live so close to Yellowstone that I can go at any time.  The tourists sometimes plan for years to go.  Many of them will only go to Yellowstone once in their lives.  I do not wish to deprive them of the opportunity, but I would rather not share it with them.  Typically, in August I like to hit the backcountry for that very reason.  For one reason or another, we weren't able to hit some of the longer Bechler hikes I had on the agenda this year. There's always next year.

We had some friends I had promised to take through the park before the semester started.  They made it back to town and wanted us to make good on that promise.  It was time to go back to Yellowstone.  As we headed up, I assessed what they had seen and what they had not seen.  I wanted to make sure they saw things they had never seen before.  That was actually quite easy because they had only been a few times and had only hit the big stuff.  That made it easy.

Stop #1:  Bear Gulch/Mesa Falls
There are two ways up to the West Entrance of Yellowstone from where we live.  The regular way, Highway 20 which is an hour and a half or Bear Gulch and the Mesa Falls Scenic Byway. which adds twenty minutes of driving and an hour of sightseeing.  When we take new people up to the park, we like to go the scenic route.  It gets them primed for what is to come.  I have blogged about this trip already a few times, so I won't go into much detail today.  Mainly I'll just show pictures.

We stopped at the fish platform down at Warm River and fed the fish.  I didn't take any fish pics this time, but I did capture a really cool osprey.

After feeding the fish, we went first to Lower Mesa Falls and then Upper Mesa Falls.

The osprey at rest

In flight

Going fast

I liked the shadow

Lower Mesa Falls

And we found a Geocache, serendipitously 

Upper Mesa Falls

Rainbows at the base

Stop #2:  The Cool Stuff Along the Way
One of the things our friends said they wanted to see was waterfalls.  We decided to take them to Mystic Falls, which is one of our favorite waterfalls.  It's one of the prettiest that I have seen.  On the way, however, we took them along the Firehole Falls Drive, then to Mattie's Grave and the site of the Marshall Hotel before we made our way to Biscuit Basin and the trailhead to Mystic Falls.

E. C. Culver, the proprietor of the Marshall Hotel used to throw his trash in the Firehole River right at this bend in the river.  You can still wade out and pick stuff up, mostly broken plates and other tableware.  You Can't Take It From The Park, Though!  Leave it in the river where future generations can enjoy playing archaeologist.

Firehole Falls

Obligatory annual photo in front of Firehole Falls

Wading in the Firehole

and finding pot shards.  We left them there

I believe this flat spot across the river to be the site of the Marshall Hotel.  We didn't go there because of the bison.  Didn't want to shorten or complicate our trip

More wading.  The river is surprisingly warm right here.  Quite pleasant actually

Stop #3:  Mystic Falls
At the end of the boadwalk at Biscuit Basin is a dirt trail to Mystic Falls.  Somewhere along the line, Fairy Falls got advertised in tour books and it has become a heavily traveled trail.  So far, Mystic Falls, while a popular hike doesn't get the same traffic that Fairy Falls does.  That makes it better.

Mystic Falls is a cascading plunging waterfall that falls about 70 feet in total.  It's called Mystic Falls because of the thermal activity around it.  Steam rises from numerous thermal features all along the length of Mystic Falls, giving it an ethereal quality.

We had only hiked in to the falls and back in the past.  This time, the Hot Chick suggested we take the loop trail this time.  If you hike in and out, the total distance is probably about a mile and a half.  If you take the loop, your total distance is about three miles with a short but steep ascent in a series of switchbacks to the top of the Madison Plateau.  On that trail there is an overlook that opens over Biscuit Basin.  The view over the whole of the plateau and the upper geyser basin was quite impressive as well.  We caught an eruption of Old Faithful from the overlook.  I'm pretty sure that's an experience very few people get every year.

We hiked into Mystic Falls along the regular trail first, then we climbed up the trail to the overlook.  We did take a moment to walk over to the brink of Mystic Falls.  I like to, whenever possible, photograph a waterfall from the base, from the side and from the brink.  Just when you think Mystic Falls can't get any cooler, you happen upon a better view.  I took many pictures of this waterfall.

From there, we hiked along the top of the plateau to the overlook and then headed down to the parking lot.  When we take new people into the park, we often see the same things we have seen before, so we like to extend our trails and do things we haven't done.  That's why we took the plateau trail to the overlook.  I think it enriches the experience a great deal.  The view was so spectacular that I will hike this again.

Varmint along the trail

First view of Mystic Falls

Afternoon sun behind the falls.

Closer to the base

Hoodoos

More hoodoos

Me and our friends

The Hot Chick and our friends

Further out to get a sense of scale

Going up the trail, you get a more clear shot of the upper part of this waterfall

It's kind of steep

This waterfall keeps getting cooler

and cooler

Up the trail looking out on the valley

The waterfall from the trail

Mystic Falls from a higher vantage point.  

Why they call it Mystic Falls

The brink of Mystic Falls

This gives you an idea of how long it takes for dead wood to rot away in this part of the country.  This has probably been here for many decades

The trail

Overlooking the Upper Geyser Basin

Then we noticed Old Faithful was going off in the upper right corner

The Madison Plateau with another geyser going off

Old Faithful from the Madison Plateau

Biscuit Basin from the overlook

More of the plateau

What the trail looked like

What it looks like with the Hot Chick on it

An idea how steep it can be

Fall colors

and idiot tourists.  Down the boardwalk from here there was a woman off the boardwalk, dipping a hanky in the thermal overflow and rubbing it on her face.

I like texture

Started the day with an osprey, might as well end it with one.

And the bluebird of happiness

After the hike down, we were so close to Old Faithful that we stopped by and got the obligatory ice cream.  Because I can't have milk, I always get the mango sorbet at Old Faithful.  Dang good.  Since we had seen Old Faithful from the plateau, we didn't wait around for it to go off again.  We headed home after a very cool day in Yellowstone.