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Published: July 14th 2007
7/13/07
Having been out of internet range for many days, I will catch up with the first week’s highlights as we leave Yellowstone and head for Cody, Wyoming.
(Disclaimer - pardon the shift of tenses in the telling. I’m copying from some of my notes and writing from memory. Please excuse lapses in my grammar - especially my crit group. I’m on vacation!)
Day 1 7/6 Mile 0
To Bill’s satisfaction, we actually left the house at 6:30 am. We left I-90 at Vantage and took smaller roads towards our first stop in Pullman. Stopping for lunch in Colfax, we dined well at the Top Notch Café. Our waitress was 12 going on 40 and had obviously grown up helping her parents in the restaurant. Her self possession was remarkable - an old pro wearing sparkly blue eye shadow.
Pullman was hot enough to make our campus tour a quick one, but Bo liked what he saw. (It turns out that Pullman is home to the National Lentil Festival - who knew?) As we swung through Lewiston and Clarkston, we stopped to pick up the items I had forgotten to pack - nothing too severe really - and almost
melted in the 102 degree heat. We had to remind the kids of one of the foremost ground rules of the trip: no whining!
Climbing up from the river brought some relief from the heat, but heading down into Oregon in the Grande Ronde Canyon taxed the brakes of our fully loaded van, (now named Lurch for the full capacity handling). We had to stop to let them cool down - no runaway truck ramps on this road!
We finally arrived in Joseph, OR. At 7:30 pm. A long day’s drive! After dinner out and camp set-up, we weren’t sitting down in camp for beers until 9:30.
Day 2 7/7 Mile 456
Commending the children for their patience with yesterday’s long drive, Bill promises a shorter drive today…. Well, you’ve heard his version, but as any good storyteller would know, when I heard Bill say to Bowen “This short cut will save us at least an hour”, little alarm bells went off in my head. “Those are famous last words you know”, I said. Four hours and about 50 miles of twisty, gravel, one lane mountain roads later, (did I mention poorly marked?), we were finally spit out of
Grande Ronde Canyon
These are brake burning hillsthe mountains into Donnelly, ID, rather short of our goal of Stanley. To be fair, we enjoyed the scenery on the lost highway, and each time Bill asked if we should turn back I did a Thelma and said “Let’s just keep going”.
Day 3 7/8 Mile 643
Today’s modified goal is to get as close to Yellowstone as possible, foregoing our camp in Granite Hot Springs, WY. Now our sites are set on Rexburg, ID, via Stanley and Sun Valley. The high mountain meadow terrain near Stanley is gorgeous. In Ketchum, you can see the big money effect. Checking over the private jets in Hailey, just outside of Sun Valley, we saw evidence that plenty of the ultra-rich were in residence.
Heading east through central Idaho, we encountered the lava beds of Craters of the Moon. This area of peculiar crumbly black desolation is vast. At the Visitor Center we learned that the hot spot that created the successive lava flows over the past 20 million years in this area is the same hot spot that is now the caldera under Yellowstone. Geology and plate tectonics are so cool!
After our stop at C of the M, we
endured a long drive through ‘the middle of nowhere’, as Kate called it, to arrive in Rexburg. Having survived another very long day, we had decided to reward the kids with a motel that had both wi-fi and a pool, as well as dinner out. However, heavily Mormon Rexburg was buttoned up tight on this Sunday evening. We found out from a friendly local that Rexburg has a branch BYU campus and that a family event was in progress that weekend. No rooms available, no restaurants open, we headed down the road again. In Ashton, only one hour away from Yellowstone, we found a motel. The kids took over the computer for the evening, gleeful that some vestige of civilization in the form of free wi-fi awaited them. I ended up staggering into the lobby at about 12:30 am to tear Bowen away from his IM session with his girlfriend Allie. (He is suffering mightily from her absence).
Day 4 7/9 Mile 1058
Well, Mr. Bill snuck in an entry on the blog this morning, determined to defend his driving honor. You’ve read it - Enough said.
First stop: West Yellowstone for supplies, then - The Park! We wound
our way from one hydrothermal feature to the next on the way to Old Faithful, where we viewed the trademark geyser, as well as some optional crowd features (!) When we arrived at Grant Village to check into our campsite, we lucked out and were able to add another day to our Yellowstone stay. We were all looking forward to settling in for a while. While our camping kit has proven to function well, it takes about two hours to break down in the am - not something the kids are enjoying every day. A mother grizzly and her two cubs have been hanging around this area of the park. We hope to catch site of them, but have to run a very clean campsite.
Day 5 7/10
This proves to be the lazy day we’ve all needed. The only miles clocked on Lurch are to the ice machines and showers. Prowling Grant Village, reading and wading along the shores of Yellowstone Lake leave all of us happy relaxed campers. (Gin & tonic helps too - more lime dear!)
Day 6 7/11
This is the day for the North loop drive of the park. The day is clear
and in the 80’s. We encounter our first of the classic wildlife traffic slowdowns in Hayden Valley. No matter. It’s beautiful country along the Yellowstone River, and we bag our bison shot along with all the other tourists.
Along with various hydrothermal feature stops, we decide to see Yellowstone falls. We descended over 500’ and over 300 stair steps on Uncle Tom’s trail, leaving our quadriceps quivering. Bo used the ascent as a work out, while the rest of us paced ourselves. Since we were all pretty well toasted at the top, we decided to find a shady lunch spot near the fine views to be had at Dunraven Pass. As I was loading up the lunch debris, lo and behold, a girl ran up to me with a big grin on her face. It was Molly! Kate’s best girlfriend and her family were passing through Yellowstone, spotted the devil duck, (glued to the top of Lurch), and called out to her dad, “It’s Kate!’. Talk about synchronicity! After a short visit, they headed off to Cody and we continued in the opposite direction to Mammoth Hot springs.
Once there, having passed through many amazing terrain changes, the kids saw
the climb to the hot springs and began the campaign of groans. Our prodding, plus the promise of ice cream, kept them moving. Although the dryness of much of Mammoth made the formations less spectacular than photos we’d seen, the calcium carbonate structures are most impressive.
Starting back south on our loop, we again traveled through many varied and beautiful terrains; meandering river valleys, steep sided canyons, boulder strewn hills, burn scarred forests, wide mountain meadows and more. At about 6:30, we reached our last destination of the day - the Firehole River. Here, in a narrow steep serpentine canyon, thermally heated water mixes into the river creating a bath water temp mixture that flows in a swift current through a series of swimming holes. One simply walks out to the ledge on the farthest canyon wall, drops into the river, and is carried through the twists and washed downstream. Wonderful!
Back in camp, Chef Bowen served us chili Mac and we sat into the dark telling ghost stories.
Day 7 7/12
This is another lazy morning. The kids sleep in and we make a big fatty camp breakfast of eggs & bacon and more bacon! Today is to
be one of the Yellowstone highlights - our horseback ride in the Canyon area. We’ve been told that this is the best ride for wildlife sighting. We are longing to see a moose. Bison and elk have been plentiful, but no moose. When we set out in the afternoon on the drive to the Canyon area, the skies are threatening in the classic summer afternoon mountain thunderstorm pattern. Soon we are driving under rain, then a downpour, then staccato hail so loud no one can hear anything else. As we move northwards we watch the lightning and listen for the thunder, hoping to drive out from under the system. Alas, when we show up for our ride, we find it has been canceled. The metal tack on the horses is unsafe in lightning conditions. It takes Kate and me a while to get over our disappointment, but we take a walk on the canyon rim trail and drown our sorrows in hamburgers and BBQ sandwiches at the Canyon soda fountain diner.
Day 8 7/13 Mile 1440
Today we leave Yellowstone and head for Cody, where we’ve arranged to get the windshield on Lurch replaced, as a long crack has
bloomed right in Bill’s line of sight. However, when we arrive there, the wrong one has been delivered. After making arrangements to get the work done in Moab, we move on to Thermopolis, where I loose my Water Slide virginity at the Star Plunge. This place has been a fixture in Therm for ages and has the mineral deposits on the pools and soaking tubs to prove it. The slide, however, has been updated and drops a curving luge-like 500 feet down slope to plunge into the fallout pool. We went whooping all the way. I finally had to tear Kate away, who is now a real water rat. Thermopolis is the hot bed of hot springs in Wyoming, and a favorite erstwhile stomping ground for Bill from his days working at the Casper Star Tribune. We continue on to Lander.
Day 9 7/14 Mile1750
So here I am updating the blog while the kids sleep in. Today we head south. Moab on Sunday is our goal, where the heat, predicted into the 100’s, will surely test us.
That’s all for now folks. Thanks for all the comments - we love’em!
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marie
non-member comment
WOW
like I said, WOW! roll on!