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Published: April 1st 2012
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Real life cowboy
A real life cowboy working on the range, along the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway Today is my first day in one of the United States’ great treasures,
Yellowstone National Park.
This wonder of geology needs to be on any road trip itinerary.
Unfortunately, many other people feel the same way, so the park is as well known for
traffic and crowds as geysers and waterfalls.
Parts of it feel more like Walt Disney World than wilderness.
I limited myself to three days, because that is all I figured I could take.
A visit to a place this large and varied requires a really good guidebook.
I used
Yellowstone Treasures by Janet Chapple.
It describes the features of the park and their history in almost obsessive detail.
I like through research, so I really liked this book.
Chief Joseph Highway
Before seeing the park, I had to get there.
I chose the
Chief Joseph Highway, which ranks as one of the most scenic roads in the United States.
Believe it or not, it connects with
two other
roads on the same list!
The road is named for a
chief of the Nez Perce tribe, who lead the tribe on an epic retreat along this route in 1877 with the United States Calvary on
Absaroka Mountains
The Absaroka Mountains seen from Dead Indian Pass their tail.
They were ultimately caught less than ten miles from the Canadian border.
The route starts by passing through open scrub north of Cody.
On the right is a large butte called Heart Mountain.
The Japanese internment camp mentioned yesterday was located at its base.
After several rolling hills, the road reaches the base of an obvious mountain ridge.
The road forks at this point and I started climbing the ridge.
The road passes over a series of hills, steadily climbing.
Snowcapped mountains in the distance steadily come closer.
The scenery at this point looked familiar from the Black Hills (see
Sacred Peaks) and Bighorn Mountains (see
The Highway in the Sky).
The early part passes through a private ranch, and I got a sweet sight.
An actual cowboy on a horse was herding cattle through the scrub.
I finally saw the classic western myth in real life.
Eventually, the road reaches
Dead Indian Pass.
The name comes from a dead Nez Perce the US Calvary found at the pass.
It has a parking lot with an enormous view
Pilot Peak
Pilot Peak outside Cooke City, seen from the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway. of the surrounding countryside.
A huge set of snow covered peaks appear to the south.
These are the
Absaroka Mountains, which I saw from the Bighorns two days ago.
Below them is a huge glacial valley, with more peaks beyond.
A close careful look at the valley reveals a thin ribbon of road.
The next stretch must be rather steep.
From the pass the road drops into the valley by a series of switchbacks.
The grade is steep, though not as bad as the Bighorns.
Every turn gave a huge long distance view.
Eventually, I was on the floor passing over more rolling scrub.
The road eventually reaches a bridge with a large parking lot in front of it.
This marks the much hyped Sunshine Creek Gorge.
The bridge is the highest in Wyoming.
It gives a view of a very narrow and deep canyon with a brown river at the bottom.
The view is impressive, but not worth the hype by this point in my trip.
From the gorge, the road passes over more rolling hills until
Crazy Creek Falls
Crazy Creek Falls at flood stage: more of a flooded hillside than a cascading waterfall. Note the clump of fallen trees on the left. it follows another canyon.
This is the Clark’s Fork of the Yellowstone, which the road follows all the way to the park.
The canyon has steep rocky walls on either side.
Some of them were covered in snow.
Periodically, it passed little ponds that reflected the mountains all around.
This is the perfect western landscape.
Along the way, the road merged with another scenic wonder, the
Beartooth Highway, for the final push to the park.
Near the end, the road passed by increasingly large views of a tall and narrow pyramid shaped peak.
This is
Pilot Peak, a landmark in these parts.
See it!
Just before the end, the road passed
Crazy Creek Falls.
My guidebook describes it as a sheet of water sliding over a steep wide cliff.
The road bridge provided a hint of the wonder to come.
The creek was a roaring ribbon of white froth.
The stream was so high, no rocks were visible at all.
The upstream waterfall had to be good.
A quick scramble up the trail revealed the falls.
So much water
Cooke City
Welcome to Cooke City, Montana. This is pretty much the entire town. was flowing this waterfall was violent to look at.
Rocks produced huge roostertails.
Water colliding at various points produced spray.
The force of the flow pinned big logs in rock cracks.
Part of the stream leaked into the surrounding trees.
This waterfall is a taste of things to come.
Thanks to record snowfall in this area last winter, waterfalls in Yellowstone are going to be epic.
Yellowstone National Park
Just before the park, the road passes through
Cooke City, which is all of three blocks along the road.
It looks like the classic view of a western town, all wooden mining buildings in an unbelievably pretty valley.
This is one of those towns were even the local Super 8 is required to look like a log cabin.
After Cooke City, the road passes through more pine trees until it reaches what looks like a cross between a log cabin and a toll booth.
It’s actually the
entrance station to Yellowstone National Park.
I can forgive the stereotyped look because this station helped create it, having been built in 1935.
After the entrance station, the
Historic Entrance Station
The historic Northeast Entrance Station to Yellowstone National Park, the most picturesque toll booth in existence. road passes through yet more pine forests.
It eventually breaks out into a wide glacial valley with rows of peaks on either side.
This is the
Lamar Valley, one of the park’s premier wildlife areas.
I soon came to a large white mound that looked vaguely like an anvil.
It smelled of rotten eggs.
This mound is the
Soda Butte, the only thermal feature in this part of the park.
The mound is made of limestone, which was deposited by a tiny hot spring over a period of hundreds of years.
Beyond the mound was a long line of cars on the side of the road.
This, of course, is a wildlife jam (see
Places of Reverence).
I took a look.
A grizzly bear was roaming halfway up a hillside.
Given what bears can do, that is about the place I wanted to see it.
Soon afterward, the sky decided to open up.
At this time of year, Yellowstone suffers from afternoon thunderstorms.
This one was a medium one.
The entire scenery turned gray from all the rain falling.
I pushed on as the
Grizzly Bear!
One of every Yellowstone visitor's rites of passage, a grizzly bear sighting. This is about the view I want to have of one. I took the picture with camera zoom. road slowed.
Eventually I came to a large parking lot next to an obvious but unmarked trailhead, and pulled over.
I waited out the storm here.
Fossil Forest Trail
The parking lot is the only sign for one of the park’s more popular trails, the
fossil forest.
The forest differs from the more common petrified wood in that these trees
fossilized standing up, so they appear to be stumps.
They were buried in the ash of the exploding volcano that created Yellowstone.
Petrified wood fossilizes in mudflows, so it appears as logs lying on the ground.
This particular mountain contains the largest collection of petrified stumps in the world.
I need to point out that the park service tries to avoid calling attention to this place, for reasons that will be discussed below, but every guide book has it.
The trail to the forest is brutally steep.
It is also almost completely exposed.
It goes directly up the mountain through open range, passes through a clump of forest, and then open mountainside.
At least it’s easy to follow.
At this time of year,
Petrified Stump and Lamar Valley
The picture every knowledgable Yellowstone hiker comes home with, a petrified redwood stump with the Lamar valley in the background. The black hump in the upper right marks the junction with the Yellowstone River. it’s surrounded by a sea of wildflowers.
It also has an incredible view of the Lamar Valley, which gets larger as it climbs.
Both of these were a nice bonus.
After half an hour my thighs were burning, and the trail kept climbing.
Near the top of the climb, the trail forked.
Working along the mountainside, the first stump appeared soon afterward.
It was hard to miss, right next to the trail.
The rock looked exactly like a tree stump.
Only touching it showed it was hard stone.
After this, the trail reaches the money shot.
A three foot tall redwood stump sits on the open mountainside, with a huge view of the Lamar Valley beyond that stretches all the way to the Yellowstone River.
I call it the money shot because a picture of this stump appears in most Yellowstone guidebooks.
Unfortunately, seeing it in real life perfectly illustrates why the park service prefers most people skip hiking here.
The reason is
theft.
For some reason, many people can’t resist taking some petrified wood home as a
Hike with a view
Care for some vertigo with that hike? This is the trail down from the petrified forest. The parking lot is near the clump of trees in the upper right. Note the wildflowers along the trail too. souvenir.
A matchbook sized piece seems inconsequential next to the huge stump.
Multiply that matchbook by the hundreds of people who come up here every day, and the problem should be obvious.
Indeed, the stump was visibly smaller than the one in my guidebook picture, and it was taken only a decade earlier.
When hiking here, leave the rocks alone!
After the redwood stump, the trail climbs the mountainside.
It passes more petrified stumps, many of them no higher than ground level.
It eventually reaches another trail junction next to yet another stump.
This is the other branch from the earlier fork.
The sun was low in the sky by this point, so I headed down.
The trail passed yet more stumps, including a two foot tall redwood.
On the way down, I had another Yellowstone moment, the kind that many hikers have mixed feelings about.
Remember earlier how the first buffalo herd is a transcendent experience?
Now I got to see my second
buffalo herd.
I saw them all walking directly toward the trail I was hiking down.
Overhanging Cliff
A view that only a convertible provides, Overhanging Cliff of basalt columns over the park road. I took this picture from the shoulder. This is a rather large problem.
I did what any knowledgeable hiker does, stopped a safe distance away and watched.
Thankfully, they crossed the trail and were on their way, and I could get back to my car.
Tower Fall
After the fossil forest, I drove to one of Yellowstone’s most famous waterfalls, Tower Fall.
The route follows the Lamar Valley to its junction with the Yellowstone River, and then follows the latter above a canyon.
First, it reaches a formation called the
Calcite Springs.
A highly acidic spring near the river is slowly bleaching the surrounding cliff white.
The viewing area is a good distance from the cliff because the area is both toxic and unstable.
The viewpoint also has a pretty view of basalt columns (see
The Sacred Tower) on the far wall of the canyon.
Just before the falls, the road passes next to a cliff made of basalt columns.
Some of them overhang the road.
This is a problem when the break off and fall!
Most people have to pull over to see them properly.
In my case,
Tower Fall
Yellowstone's famous Tower Fall, in really high water. The volcanic spires surrounding it gave the fall its name. Look for the cascade just upstream, unofficially known as 'Tower Cascades'. I slowed to the recommended speed, and looked straight up.
I love a convertible 😊
Tower Fall is directly after the cliff.
The road first passes over a narrow valley filled with spires of volcanic rock.
The spires give the falls its name.
The creek can’t erode the volcanic rock as fast as the Yellowstone River can, so a tall waterfall happens where the creek meets the river.
This feature is called a hanging valley.
The waterfall is directly next to a huge parking lot.
As noted earlier, all waterways in Yellowstone are very full right now, so the waterfall was wide and roaring.
As the singular ‘Fall’ in the name promised, it fell straight down in a single tall drop.
I had dinner and spent the night at the
Roosevelt Lodge.
It is named for Teddy Roosevelt, who camped in the area while President.
When it was built in the early 1900s, a lodge consisted of a central gathering room surrounded by dozens of cabins.
Other than adding shower houses, things haven’t been updated much since, making this the most authentic
Roosevelt Lodge Cabin
My cabin at Roosevelt Lodge. Welcome to the early days of Yellowstone tourism. accommodations in the park.
The cabins are still uninsulated little rooms made of rough boards, heated by cast iron stoves.
They are not luxurious, but they are certainly memorable.
They are also the cheapest sleeping place available with a roof.
Be sure to find the soap bars shaped like little teddy bears, which some people keep as a souvenir.
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