29th June 2016
Close encounters with lots of bison !
I had heard from a number of people that the crowds in the park were
making it quite difficult to get around or even to park in a lot of
places. Additionally all the camp sites
in the park are fully booked out, so I decided to try to see what I wanted to see
in one day, starting early and leaving late.
As a result I woke up in my State Forest campsite just outside the
northern entrance of the park at 5 am, and was on the road before 6 am. It was 1 deg C - No wonder I had been a bit chilly during the night !! The sun was just coming up, and after a few
pics of Cooke City (the furthest east I had got in Elsie in 2012 because of
snow blocking the road), I had only just entered the Park and there was a big
old bull bison wandering along the road in front of me. Just him and me – Everyone else was still
asleep !
He wandered all over the place, but kept coming back to the centre of
the road. When I tried to go to his
right, he would look round at me as if to say “Just try it, buddy”. I go left, he does the same thing. And the road was narrow enough that if he
decided to swing in the same direction as me, he would collect me before I got
past ! But he obviously had no
intention of getting off the road for a while, so I had to do something, and
eventually I faked one way, went the other – But he still got excited and broke
into a run as I passed – But I got through unscathed ! Phew – I think that woke both of us up quite
quickly !
For the next hour or two, as the sun came up, it was bison, bison and
more bison. Really nice to see them all,
in quite large numbers, grazing in the fields just like they would have a
hundred years ago. Then there was a herd
coming towards me – Much easier to cope with than when they are going in the
same direction ! So I just switched off
the engine and sat there, clicking away.
All was going OK until what looked like the Likely Lads who were keeping
up the rear came towards me – Fortunately they peeled off to the side, no
problem. But this just revealed the King
of
Haven’t been on the road an hour yet and my heart has already had 2
workouts ! But it was beautiful to be
out at that hour – The animals were all mobile instead of lazing out of the
heat in the shade, and there was still very little traffic on the road. I drove west initially along Soda Butte
Creek, and you can smell the sulphur smell as you drive along. Then you drive along the Lamar Valley, which
was just beautiful in the morning sunshine, and after turning left I
The climb up to the top of Mount Washburn leaves you surrounded by the
whitened trunks of dead trees – Quite eerie. But as you climb you are looking
down on the most beautiful green plains that just stretch for miles, and then
as you drop down the other side the view of plains is replaced by endless
forests stretching as far as you can see.
And every so often you see a cloud rising from the middle of the trees,
and your first thought is that it is a fire – But of course it isn’t – It is just
steam from one on the many natural geyser basins that are all over the park.
I did a detour at what they call the Yellowstone Grand Canyon, and went
to the upper falls of the Yellowstone river – Kind of hard to see through all the trees, but quite impressive
nevertheless. From there, following the
Yellowstone River south through the Hayden Valley there were lots more bison on
the move – One group had just come out of the river after having their morning
swim, and not only was the steam rising off them as they warmed up, but the
steam was also rising off the river as well – Quite a sight in the morning
sunlight.
More bison were crossing the road everywhere – And as the traffic built
up, you started getting more people either stopped in the middle of the road
when the animals were off to the side, or doing U turns in the middle of the
traffic so they could go back and get “another photo”. The poor Rangers make it very clear that you
should only stop in pull-overs (of which there are plenty), and keep away form
the animals, but half of them really lose the plot. Anyway…….
We passed one flat area where there were quite a lot of cameras set up
on tripods, and then I saw that way down on the river bank were a herd of elk,
having their morning swim ! Then it was
past the Sulphur Caldron and Mud Volcano, and then the Yellowstone river flowed
into Yellowstone Lake, which is enormous !
And flat calm. It was now just
after 8 am, so it had taken me 2 hours with virtually no traffic to get from
the North entrance down to the Lake – Probably a quarter of the roads in the
Park, so it gives you some idea of the size of this place.
We drove right round the west coast of the lake, enjoying the beautiful
views, and then as we turned away from the lake, I, and several other cars in
front of me came over a blind brow and corner to find 3 or 4 idiots stopped in
the middle of the road, taking photos of something. How we didn’t all run up the back of them I
don’t know – Unbelievable. They were
looking at an elk up on the bank which had a fairly big rack on – I managed to
get a couple of pics without stopping because he was on the right, and so was I
!
From there it was off to Old Faithful.
I was very interested to see this after the rather poor showing in
Iceland, but unfortunately it was all rather disappointing. I arrived there to see lots of steam, but as
I got closer, everyone was leaving – It had just erupted ! Then I found out that it was about 90 minutes
till the next eruption ! At least the
Iceland one erupted every 8 minutes ! I
guess Old Faithful is just get older and weaker, like the rest of us ! So I went and watched a movie about
Yellowstone in the Information Centre, and wandered around looking at other
things. And then made my way back to Old Faithful about 20 minutes early – I
didn’t want to miss it !
Finally, it farted. There really
is no other word for it. Nothing
spectacular, nothing to go Oooh or Aah about.
It just farted, gave off a bit of steam, a couple of jets of water maybe
30 feet high, and that was it. We all
left ! Apparently it does sometimes do
really spectacular eruptions, but they are becoming less and less
frequent. So with that rather dismal
performance, I returned to the car, and after chatting to a couple from
Brisbane who saw my number plates, I headed up towards the West Entrance of the
Park, to get out. I stopped beside a
lovely river (the Madison River, of which more later) for a sandwich and a rest
– I was quite pooped after my early start.
The it was on out of the park, and I started to head kind of northwesterly
towards Butte Montana, with a view to going to Glacier National Park, which I
have never visited before and is supposed to be really beautiful. Maybe half an hour outside the park I came to
a lake that was full of dead trees – Still vertical !! It turns out that in August 1959 a massive
7.5 earthquake occurred here, and half the mountain slid down into the Madison
Gorge and blocked the Madison River (beside which I had just had my lunch !),
with catastrophic results. Within 3
weeks the lake was 190 feet deep !
Y
Later I passed through Virginia City which is just like an old cowboy
town, with wooden sidewalks and all the shops built in the style of the day –
But all functioning as a village in the meantime !! Lots of cars and motorhomes pulled up, and
people wandering the streets.
Okayyyyyy.
By now I was even more pooped, so followed signs off the main road and
up into the hills for about 10 kms, where I found a delightful, if rustic,
campsite right beside a little river.
Hopefully no earthquake activity tonight, although as I write this and
prepare for bed, there is lots of thunder and lightening and rain. Hopefully the river won’t rise too far during
the night !!
A good day in Yellowstone. I
really enjoyed the scenery, especially in the early morning
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