Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Yellowstone National Park (June 21)

The skies were blue, and the nights were cold, really cold. We woke each morning to frozen condensation on the tent, and our breath puffed like smoke out of our mouths. Even with the chilly temperatures, we were happy to be sleeping in a tent, side by side.

There are a lot of things that I like to beat myself up about, my inadequacies, if you will. One would think that the stress of such a long trip would magnify this essential part of my personality, and to my great surprise, it didn't. Being outside with the girls, camping, hiking, enduring the weather felt so right, so good. Camping is something I'm really good at. Hiking is something that I'm really good at (even though I don't exercise regularly or at altitude). I grew up in a very rural setting. I spent as much time in the woods as I did indoors, so perhaps none of this is all that surprising. Our trip felt a bit like going home (to a home that hasn't existed for at least 16 years).

On this very chilly morning, we decided to head north to visit Mammoth Hot Springs. Yellowstone is so big and our time was fairly limited (5 nights), so we didn't have the time to indulge in long hikes (not if we wanted to see very much of the park, anyway). Off we went in the van. With narrow roads and wildlife at every turn, a 20 mile drive takes hours. On the other hand, the landscape and wildlife are so breathtaking that time flies.

Our first stop was Roaring Mountain:

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If you're wondering, it does sound like a the earth is hissing and roaring.

Our next stop was at the Upper Terraces of Mammoth (a place that thoroughly frightened Julia, like much of Yellowstone). Grace and I spent a lot of time wandering along the walkways.

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Looking for cool forms, like this twig encased in calcium carbonate:

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And mountain bluebirds:

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Julia begged us to leave the Upper Terrace. The steam and smell were too much for her. Yellowstone is a stinky place, and Julia, poor kid, had a really hard time at many of our stops.

At the base of the terraces, we found a place to eat lunch. We weren't alone. See the elk beyond Julia?

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Wildlife own Yellowstone, so that elk paid little attention to us. She walked even closer:

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After lunch, we took a tour of the Lower Terraces (which surprisingly, Julia didn't mind quite as much).

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We needed groceries, so as we prepared to leave Mammoth, we stopped at the store. Six dollars for a box of cereal convinced us that we should drive another five miles outside the park to Gardiner, Montana to do our shopping.

As we headed back into the park, Julia asked, "where are we going?"

"Back to camp, kiddo."

"But I don't wanna go back to camp. I hate camping!"

Julia had a love-hate relationship with camping. On a good day, she'd tell you how much she loved to camp. On a day like this one, she would have done anything to stay in a hotel (and not a motel, mind you, the girl knows the difference). This would become a longstanding joke. Later in our trip, after we were done camping, when Julia would misbehave, we would tell her we were going camping, and her behavior would change (for the better) immediately.

Her day wasn't completely ruined though. We made one more stop at Sheepeater Cliffs, and she was able to distract some other tourists with her karate moves. People were driving by and laughing as Julia shouted, "hah" and "acha". I was able to capture just a few seconds of her show:



Meanwhile, Grace and I hiked to the top of the cliffs:

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As always, the full slideshow for the day is below.

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