Yellowstone: Sounds, sights and many, many Smells!

Wow. Wow.Wow.Wow.Wow.Wow.Wow.Wow.Wow.Wow.Wow.Wow.Wow.Wow.Wow. (You get the idea!)

If you have never been, I suggest you book your air ticket! Now! ...c'mon, stop reading this and do it!

We've just stopped at our first campsite with showers for four days in Montana, more importantly, our first campsite outside Yellowstone and we're both sad :( It is truely an amazing place.

We started our first day (Friday) early with 100 miles to go to get into Yellowstone, we thought we could knock them on the head quite easily and get to the campsite we'd chosenby lunch. Getting to Yellowstone wasn't a problem at all, we'd driven up the first bit of Rockies with only minor overheating problems (well, it was 90 something F and we're in a fully loaded 110!) and arrived at Yellowstone at about 11ish, it took us until 3pm to do the 50odd miles to the campsite! You really can't help it, there are so many places to stand and stare, walk and look and cycle and gawp! Still, we made it too the campsite and due to it nearing end of season there were still plenty of spaces. We completed our first day by driving some of the main loop road looking at the fantastic lake and view of the mountains and booking a western-style horse back ride for Monday afternoon. We also visited West Thumb Geyser Basin, our first foray into the bizarre world of Yellowstone, it is honestly like some prehistoric world. If you want an explaination as to how these form and you can even see them on a webcam visit: Old Faithful Webcam






We spent most the night looking at the stars and made the mistake of having a beer.. not usually a problem but the temparture had also fallen to a (bloomin freezing it felt like!) 4 degrees C and our bodies decided they didn't need the water they'd been retaining.. needless to say we spent most the night getting up and going to the loo - for the first night in proper Grizzly teritory this was terrfiying! (but we survived!)

Saturday started bright and early because we were both hyper active and raring to get out into the park proper. We're doing everything at each location in an order whereby 'if we were forced to leave tomorrow what would we have wanted to do?' so needless to say, we did the touristy thing and went to see Old Faithful and the other Geysers in the Geyser Basin... and pulled into the car park just as it was finishing! Oh well, there were plenty of tracks that lead to some smaller, bigger and prettier places so we did them first and promply got drenched in the thunder storm. We got back just in time to grab a seat for Old Faithfull to go up and watched it go with a huge thunderstorm in the background, the lightening really added to the effect. Most Excellent.


As it was raining and cold, we followed the true Shire Holiday tradition and went to get an ice cream :) We watched the storm from the terrace in the Yellowstone Lodge with a couple of rocking chairs all to ourselves and in true mountain style it blew over within about 30 minutes. We took a few walks up the Mountain (it's amazing how the number of tourists decreases when the sign say's it's a long way!) to the observation point and some more Geysers. By the time we got back to the car it was about 4pm... As you're not meant to hike or cycle after dark and the weather was somewhat changable we decided to do a few of the loop drives that are off the main loop road. We drove around Firehole Lake


and Firehole Canyon


Both stunning!

Sunday started with us finding a new camspite as we also wanted to investigate the north of the park. We went for a cycle upto Lone Star Geyser. We couldn't cycle quickly as there was a worry due to the rounding a corner and finding some wildlife but this meant we could enjoy the ride and play in the splashy puddles! Again, we arrived just after the Geyser had finished (what is it with us?) but as this had a wait of abou 3 hours we decided not to hang around and cycled back instead.


We left the north of the park and found a campground at Slough Creek... this was no accident. It happened to be in the Lamar Valley, home to Yellowstones largest Wolf Pack. COOOOOOOOOL! Although it is summer and as all the books say, it's very, very rare to spot a Wolf in the summer - that's why none of the Wolf watching tours were running :( It was also a fantastic campground, one you drive up 3 miles of gravel track that would be at home at 7Sisters to the middle of nowhere and post your money in a little box in the middle of a Valley in the Rockies. Stunning :) We completed our day by deciding to drive out to Yellowstone's own Grand Canyon.. we were quite happily driving down the Lamar Valley road when I caught a glimpse of brownish red out the corner of my eye. Dan simulated ABS in Charlie (lucky no-one was beind us!) and that was it, we'd spotted our first Wolf! Way bigger than a coyote with small ears and a large face, long legs and about 6ft from tail to nose, it was definatly a Wolf :) We rushed to the nearest gift shop so I could confirm it wasn't a Coyote (I knew how much I wanted to see a Wolf and didn't want my mind to play tricks on me) and I was still convinced it was a Wolf. We admired the Grand Canyon and Dan found a Ospray nest from our outlook and visited Tower Fall, again stunning scenery:



Nest

On the way back we went to the Mud Volcano Area, this looks like a cross between Richard's Hottub and a Shire LRC Playday! I know most of you would have loved to drive through it, but the acidity levels of pH1-2 (about the same as a car battery) would have disposed of the Landies quicker than Guy Shepard driving carefully ;) Hehe. Only joking Guy. Here's where I wish we had smell-o-blog as the place smelt wrong, very wrong! Imagine some egg mayonnaise that's been left for a week or two and you'd be getting close. Certainly a place to have to visit to experience but here's a pic anyway:



Then headed back to Lamar Valley, I wanted to drive the length of it before returning to the campsite as I knew the Wolves we most likley to be out between 6pm and 9pm on a Summers evening, we drove approx 2 miles past the campsite, very close to where we'd seen the Wolf eariler only to find several cars parked up on thhe side of the road. We pulled in an asked an old Texan couple what they'd spotted - the Druid Wolf Pack, all walking up the hillside in a line! WOWOWOWOWOWOWOW! It was fantastic, the guy reckoned he'd counted about 22, I'm not sure it was that many but thanks to the nice old lady who lent me her binoculars I got a good look - a mainly black Wolf pack with a couple of grays and an almost pure white one taking up the rear. They stopped on the hillside before finally continuing on - this has made my mind up that I'm a: Buying some binoculars and b: returning to Yellowstone in the winter for their Wolf Watching tour. We were amazingly lucky to see what we did. It took me ages to get to sleep that night! I think I annoyed Dan with my excitment! :)

Monday:
We awoke to perfect peace and quiet in our seculded campsite and packed up before heading out to join our Hose riding tour. We had a bit of time to kill so visited the Petrified Tree (or angry bush as Dan calls it). We also saw a Coyote on the way which allowed me to confirm the Wolf we saw yesterday close up was definatly a Wolf :) Extra cool.

Arriving at the Coral (oo, very Western!) we were asigned two horses, Dan had Russel (lol!) a Stawberry Roan Gelding and I had Crow a coloured Mare. I'll pass over to Dan now for his first horse riding experice:
Mounting the beast! The less said about that the better!
The first hour of the trek was fantastic, I really enjoyed it. We were able to get out into areas of the park that we woundn't have seen any other way, and all without using any energy at all... thats my kinda trek ;-) But as time went on, I could feel this ache all down the inside of my legs. Muscles that I never knew existed were telling me that I either shouldn't be doing this, or that I perhaps need a tad more exercise. I must admit that when we came over the crest of the hill and I saw the entrance to the coral I was infinately relieved as I was by this time in some agony! Getting off the horse was nearly a disaster, but I managed to stop myself landing arse-first in a big muddy puddle. Then I tried walking. OUCH! The pain lasted for a couple of hours, but no lasting damage was done, which is a good thing, 'cos I'm now looking forward to having another go... after doing some inner thigh exercises!
Athough it was a brief relationship, I grew quite fond of Russell and his quirks. In some ways he was a lot like me, had a mind of his own and kept falling asleep! I'll miss him.



Wildlife pics:
Bison (don't mess with these):


Millions and millions of chipmunks:


Ravens:



And now it's time for some gratuitous Camel Pics:








Coyote:


Elk:




As it is, we're now in Montana and by the end of tomorrow we should be on the boarder of Glacier National Park. Life is Good.

Thanks again for the messages, Farter, they are getting through loud and clear and we did get to Devils Tower, I just forgot to write about it! Thanks for the message Becky, hope all's well with you and Mike :) JU, yes, I know, Dan agrees, there's still time ;)

Next lot of postcards should be hitting the post in the next couple of days. I'll pubish this now and try and put the pics in before the laptop runs out of juice, but if they're not here now they will be tomorrow. Missing you all, Jenx

P.S. I am the firestarter...