Blogs from West Yellowstone, Montana, United States, North America

The plan for today was made around the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center, as we needed to be there for the 3:30 pm food hiding session. This worked out well as we always take the grand-kids out for 1 nice breakfast so we headed to Yellowstone for breakfast at the Old Faithful Inn. Grand-kids were on their best behavior, sitting up straight, napkins on the lap, using the flatware properly, no elbows on the table. Each kid acted as the etiquette police on the others. From breakfast 2 kids got the Jr. Ranger badges then watched Old Faithful and finished off with ice cream, this time from the Old Faithful Inn. We sat on the balcony eating our ice cream like we did with the older grand-kids many years ago. After one last eruption from Old ... read more

Today, thanks to the wonderful generosity of Pat and Jane Scanlon, I got to share in their exploration of Yellowstone by automobile. Without them, I would have missed 95% of the park. Yesterday, in my very brief blog, I mentioned that I met up with Pat and Jane at Lake Lewis, which is just short of Grants Village in the Center of the park. ( Coincidentally, Pat and Jane live in San Diego!) Prior to that my ride went right through Grand Teton National Park which is stunning as well. Pat and I rode another 60 miles yesterday to West Yellowstone, Montana, just 1/4 mile from the Park’s West entrance.. I’m in the Madison Hostel and Pat and Jane are at a RV park a couple of blocks away. Early this morning, the Scanlon’s picked me ... read more

The lovely little town of Jackson shuts down for a month in between the ski and summer seasons. But we were in luck, and when we left, it happened to be the reopening date for the aerial tram to the top of Mount Rendezvous from nearby Teton Village. So, we went up to the top to where the snow is. Others took skis. We wore runners. It was snow/hailing most of the time we were up there, and we had to take refuge in the waffle shop, which smelt sooooo good. But we saw the really good views from the top looking over the valley and in the other direction to more mountains that were obscured by the first range. We then headed north through parts of Grand Teton NP that we had not yet visited ... read more

There was frost on the car when I got up this morning. It was only 28 degrees here in West Yellowstone. What a difference from a week ago in Zion, where it was 102. We spent basically the whole day today in the national park and only covered half of it, despite driving about a hundred miles. Yellowstone is a big place. Barb and I have been to Yellowstone once before, 24 years ago, in 1993. Of course, memories have a way of sweetening with time, but our visit today didn't measure up to 1993. The roads and facilities were in better shape but there was far more people, and that is in the middle of the week and after Labor Day. The bigger disappointment was that we saw far less wildlife. Maybe it was due ... read more

QUAKE LAKE On August 17, 1959 an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale rattled through the Madison River Gorge near Hebgen Dam. Twenty-eight people camped along the Shore of Hebgen Lake and along the river below the dam were killed when an 80 million ton landslide fetched loose from Sheep Mountain and came crashing down on top of them. The landslide blocked the river and Quake Lake formed behind it until the backed up water could form a new channel for the Madison River. Hebgen Dam was a stout structure built in 1917 and it was damaged but held. The new channel will continue to eat its way through the landslide I suppose until it reaches its original gradient and then Quake Lake will disappear. The new gorge it carves will continue to be unstable ... read more