Greetings from Jackson, Wyoming. We are staying here tonight and coming back home tomorrow. Today is my birthday and it also would be my Grandfather's 100th birthday. Anyway, now that I am out of Yellowstone, I can post another entry to my blog, so here we go. (If you didn't read the first part, scroll down before reading this one).
After our lunch in Gardiner, Montana, we returned to Yellowstone and saw the Terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs. The most famous one, Minerva Terrace, is now dormant. We were disappointed with that, especially since a picture of it with water trickling down and making yellow, brown, and orange colors is on the official Yellowstone brochure. But there were more active springs trickling down on the other side of the hill. This area like all the geothermal features in the park appears desolate with no visible signs of life. This is caused by the heat and acid of the water. You can even see places where the thermally active areas are moving by the dead trees at the edge of the desolate areas.
After hiking around the terraces, we returned to the Old Faithful Inn for dinner and hung out there for the evening. On the way back, and earlier in the day as well, we passed several wildlife along the roadway, mainly Bison and Elk. There was even one place where a Bison was walking along the road way and we just rolled down the window and took a picture. Also, in Mammoth Hot Springs, there was a whole herd of Elk lounging in the grass on the main square by the hotel. The herd consisted of about 20 females and one male. The male had a large rack of antlers on his head. I was told by park ranger that the females are out year round but that the males only come out in October during "the rut" which I assume is mating season. He also said there were so few males because they are so competitive and kill each other.
Each night we hung out in the lobby of the Inn. In fact, that was the thing to do as there was no television there. The lobby was a hubbub of activity such as I have never before seen at a hotel. There were people reading and writing, playing cards with there families, drinking wine, beer, and coffee, or simply just watching the fireplace and listening to the piano player. Todd and I both enjoyed the experience of just relaxing on the lobby balcony and watching people. It reminded of an old Agatha Christie novel, where everyone is always hanging out in the hotel lobby. Unfortunately, most hotel lobbies I have been to, including the one I am in right now, have nothing going on but people checking in and out. I'm glad there was no TV at the Old Faithful so we could have that unique experience.
Saturday was remarkably colder and wetter that the previous days. We began the day at Midway Geyser Basin to see the Grand Prismatic Spring. This spring, as seen from the air, is the size of a football field and colored like a rainbow because of the various bacteria that live there. But we could only stand by the surface, shivering in the cold and rain, and see steam rising up from the surface. We felt like Frodo and Sam in the Lord of the Rings wondering if that was where we should throw in the ring.
Fortunately, it stopped raining after we left there so that by afternoon, we could enjoy the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The canyon is cut by the Yellowstone river and has two waterfalls, the upper and lower falls. We took a scenic drive with several stops along the way and got some great views of the canyon and both falls. When I post pictures later, I will of course include them.
We took the long way back to the Inn, through Hayden Valley where we saw bison herds and along the Yellowstone lake. Along the way, we stopped at the Sulfur Cauldron and the Mud volcano. The Sulfur Cauldron is a muddy spring of sulfuric acid that has the acidity of battery acid. Once again the whole area around it looked desolate. The mud volcano was a similar spring but on the side of a hill and it was spewing out muddy water continuously, as was it's neighbor, the Dragon's Mouth. The smell of sulfur was strong in all of these areas, and in fact, permeated all the geothermal areas of the park.
We are now in Jackson, Wyoming where we are going to go out for steak to celebrate my birthday. I am sad that the trip is almost over but I look forward to coming home and posting my pictures for all to see. I hope you have enjoyed my first travel blog posts.
