September 2015: Hot Water with Friends

The Hot Chick with our Boise State Friends at Firehole Falls

When I was in College, the guys in the apartment next to mine were my buddies.  We were all a little older than my roommates, so we hung out.  My roommates were all pretty juvenile, and that's a lot coming from me.

Somewhere along the line, my friends hooked up with an apartment of girls across the way and they started dating a couple of the girls in that group.  In a long and convoluted story that belongs on a different blog, I hooked up with the Hot Chick who was also one of the girls in that apartment.

The Hot Chick and I were married and our Grant and Cheryl were married.  We moved on to BYU and Grant and Cheryl moved on to Boise State.  We both became great football fans of our respective teams.  Time and distance being what they are, we lost contact for many years.  But then, because of social media, we found each other again on Facebook.

It just so happened that their son is attending the University I teach at, so they came from Boise over to East Idaho to drop him off.  We got together and did the most natural thing in the world.  We went to Yellowstone.  The Hot Chick and I love to take friends to Yellowstone.  It's my favorite place to be.

In the old days, we'd plan ahead for what we wanted to go see on a particular day.  When we lived in West Yellowstone, our work schedule didn't allow for long, protracted days in the park, so when we'd drive by a trailhead, or some feature you had to work a bit to get to, we'd always say, "Someday we'll go there."  We moved away for about twelve years, then I got a job teaching in a university in southeastern Idaho and we moved back.  About ten years ago, we headed up to the park without an agenda.  As we were passing Seven Mile Bridge, The Hot Chick said to me, "I think it's someday."  I told her I thought she was right and we just stopped at things we'd always talked about but never had done.  It was so enjoyable that it has been 'someday' ever since.

Our friends picked us up and we headed up to Yellowstone.  We found out Grant had only been to Yellowstone once and Cheryl had never been.  We decided to take them up on the scenic route.  We love to drive through Bear Gulch and see upper and lower Mesa Falls, so we took them there.  We stopped at Warm River and fed the fish.  We had just been that way a week earlier so I didn't get the camera out at the fish feeding spot and Mesa Falls.  Big mistake.  There was a brilliant double rainbow at Upper Mesa Falls.  Conditions were just right for the brightest rainbow I'd ever seen there.  So now I just have to remember it.

As we headed up, we asked our friends what they wanted to see.  They both said, "Waterfalls."  The only condition on our Yellowstone trip on that day was that we had to be back home in time to watch Boise State play BYU in football.  We took them to Upper and Lower Mesa Falls, then we took them on the Firehole River Drive and saw Firehole Falls.  Our original plan was to hike either to Mystic Falls or Fairy Falls to show them those ones, but when the Hot Chick found out that Cheryl had never been to Yellowstone, she insisted on showing them the hot water.  You have to see Old Faithful at least once, right?

So our first stop was Fountain Paint Pots.  I like the trail at Fountain Paint Pots, but I have been on it about a hundred times in my life.  I find it very cool to take people who have never experienced the park on these boardwalk trails through the geyser basins.  I get to see the park for the first time, vicariously through their eyes.

Silex Spring at Fountain Paint Pots

Sinter edge of pool

Bacterial mats

More sinter, even cooler

Fountain Paint Pots, the mud pots for which it is named.  In the spring, this will be far more active

Leather Pool

I believe this is either Twig Geyser or Fountain Geyser

I believe this to be Spasm Geyser and Clepsydra Geyser erupting simultaneously

Celestine Pool

Tree branches and other obstacles get in the way and create terracing in the geyser basins.  I've been watching this terrace form for a few years.

We headed next to Old Faithful to see the most famous geyser in the world erupt.  We were waylaid, however by a herd of bison.  They think they own the place.  They walked leisurely across the road, oblivious to the fact that we had places to be.

We took Grant and Cheryl to Old Faithful, where we got the obligatory ice cream, then we went out to Old Faithful.  For the second time in my life, while we were watching Old Faithful erupt, we looked across the Upper Geyser Basin and witnessed Beehive erupt.  Simultaneous eruptions of Old Faithful and Beehive are uncommon and I have witnessed it twice now.

After the eruptions, we headed back into the Inn and showed them around.  I always try to see something I have never seen before when I go to Yellowstone.  It doesn't matter if it's big or small, I just want to see or do something unique each time.  So far, on this particular day, I hadn't seen anything new.  While we were in the Inn, I looked up at a lighting fixture I had never looked at before and lo, there was a bat.  Not a real one, mind you (although I'm sure there are plenty of bats living in the inn) but a lighting fixture of cast iron formed in the shape of a bat.  Too cool.

Bison think they own the place

Then there was this guy

Old chrome

I miss the old style.  Wouldn't trade the modern ride though

This is the only evidence I was on the trip

Beehive

This is either the largest geyser in the world or it's a forest fire.  (fire)

Old Faithful

Die Fledermaus

Again

We had time for one more thing before we had to head back.  We chose Black Sands Basin.  It's a shorty and the Hot Chick and I haven't stopped at it much.  It's not a particularly flashy geyser basin, but there are a few very active but small geysers there as well as some nice pools.  As I looked around, I noticed a small horsetail waterfall coming down from the Madison Plateau.  I had never noticed it before.  I got to add another notch to my waterfall book!  Life is good.

Cliff Geyser

This might be Handkerchief Pool.  Not sure.  It's been renamed to keep people from throwing handkerchiefs in.  In the early days of the park, you could throw a handkerchief in the pool and it would be sucked in and ejected in an adjacent pool a few moments later.  We don't do that anymore.  Vandalism may have destroyed that feature.

Cool texture

You know I like texture

I always love seeing the hot water empty into the Firehole River.  Some of my favorite places to skinnydip (in my youth) were where the hot water from a geyser emptied into the Firehole.

A couple of small fellers erupting simultaneously

I believe this to be Emerald Pool

And lo, there's a small waterfall

Might be Handkerchief, I just don't know

Rainbow Pool

It was a fun day to hang out with old friends.  You know you have a true friend when you haven't seen each other for twenty or thirty years and when you get together it's as if no time had passed.  It was like that for me, seeing Grant and Cheryl again.

We made it back home in time to watch the BYU/Boise State football game at the local movie theatre.  They show BYU games on a big movie screen.  They can't exactly charge admission, but they do require you to purchase a slice of pizza and a soda if you want to hang out in their theatre during the game.

BYU won!

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.