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Published: November 5th 2006
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Lewis River01
Lewis River near south entrance of Yellowstone Here it is; the report of the Oly Trio’s September 2004 Vacation and Photography trip to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park. The report is divided into four parts. This is Part 3. Some images of this photo safari are available for view and purchase at my online gallery
NW Exposures.
Thur 9/16/04
We departed the Teton Range for Yellowstone. Learning that bears are even more active in Yellowstone, we decided to stay near the small town of West Yellowstone and make day trips into the park. We entered Yellowstone from the south and made stops at waterfalls and creeks along the way for photos. We visited the hot springs area of West Thumb Geyser Basin and Paint Pots.
West Thumb.
We stopped off at the Old Faithful area. Click on the following link to take the online tour yourself.
Old Faithful.
I’m a little slower taking photos than Nancy and she soon sprinted ahead of me. At one point, I realized that one of the ear pieces of my glasses had fallen off, and I could not find it. I felt I had been googled and spent the rest of the afternoon askance. After a full afternoon of
Lewis River02
Lewis River cascade near south entrance of Yellowstone geyser hopping, we drove to West Yellowstone and found a Sheffield Inn to stay at for the night. We were happy with our spacious room and toddies even before we took showers.
On the way to dinner, we stopped at a local fly fishing shop and purchased a cheap pair of reading glasses in order to find an ear piece that would fit my glasses. Nancy was able to remove the paper from a twisty tie and use the wire to thread a fit for the ear piece to my glasses frame. Much better. We ate at a well populated steak house and returned to our room for a night cap and relaxation.
Friday 9/17
Friday morning we searched for a campground and located Madison Arm Resort on Hebgen Lake, about 9 miles outside of West Yellowstone, 5 plus miles of which included a gravel forest road in the wilderness. Madison Arm Resort.
We stayed here 4 nights and took day trips into Yellowstone National Park. It was a beautiful full service campground with a view of the lake and distant mountains. The nights were wet and cold. Our third day was a stay-at- camp day,
Geyser Yellowstone01
Georgious geyser north of Old Faithful area. relaxing, hiking about, doing laundry and taking showers and naps. The forecast for our third night was below 20 degrees. We drove into town and purchased a second heater to help our little ceramic heater which had begun to make wheezing noises during the night.
We had fuse problems trying to run the two heaters off of a single electric line. Fortunately, we had a second all weather extension cord and were able to operate each heater off of its own line. The night was teeth chattering cold. Shaddy dove under the covers and stayed there throughout the night. When I checked to see if he was still alive, he growled at me not to move him.
We saw all of the sights of Yellowstone. My favorite was the grand canyon of Yellowstone. You can retrace our steps and tour the canyon yourself at:
Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.
My favorite photo perch was Artist Point. I waited longer than Nan could bear for a cloud to block out the sun, and she headed back to the car with her walkie-talkie. Shaddy was not allowed on the trails and Nancy and I would take turns being with him while the other
Hot Spring01
Hot spring north of Old Faithful area. was on a walk about. When we could find a shady spot, he would sometimes stay in the car while we were both out with our cameras. Shaddow is a piner; he doesn’t love the one he is with, but pines for the absent one; he loves reunions when we are all three back together, and is lavish with his lickey, reunion kisses.
Returning to our campground in West Yellowstone from the grand canyon area, we encountered a stalled line of vehicles crawling a slow mambo along an undulating 14 mile stretch from Norris to Madison Junction. Our first impression became lasting lethargy as the minutes, then hours, dwindled by. Few cars trickled past in the opposite direction. We feared a catastrophe had occurred on this avenue, the least improved operating roadway in the park. After about two hours of treading pavement, we learned from a car going in the other direction that a herd of buffalo had decided to party in the roadway about 5 miles ahead. After almost 3 hours, bight tail lights dimmed and traffic resumed its normal speed. By the time we reached buffaloville, it had vanished.
Finally reaching West Yellowstone, we stopped off
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Hot spring in Yellowstone at the local Dairy Queen for burgers and blizzards. This DQ did not have indoor dining, featuring only an order in window and a separate order out window. Most of the patrons had been part of the captive audience for the buffalo roadblock and enjoyed debriefing. It was like revisiting a drive-in from the 50s where a temporary, curbside cuisine community was created, morphing as orders were processed like a visual Doppler of the center line of life’s highway.
Our visit to Mammoth Hot Springs was a bit of a disappointment.
Mammoth Hot Springs. Many of the hot springs we remember of our visit about 18 years ago have dried up. Most impressive, and still quite active, is Orange Spring Mound. A highlight of our visit to this area was a bull elk that temporarily held some tourists hostage in the community square. We have photos.
From the Mammoth Hot Springs we made a side trip east to Tower Fall. Backtracking through Mammoth Hot Springs, we noticed that the bull elk continued to stand its ground. Nearing Norris Geyser Basin, it began to snow on us. We stopped to grab some photos.
Norris Geyser Basin.
Tues 9/21
We broke
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Hot spring in Yellowstone trailer camp at Madison Arm and took Highway 287 north to Virginia City, Montana.
http://www.virginiacity.com/area.htm. This drive through high mountain valleys was beautiful, and tugged at a yearning for a misleading simpler life of a perpetual Indian summer. By the time we arrived at Virginia City, it had switched to its off season status as a poorly visited ghost town. We drove up main street and down a back street of shuttered, weather-worn, frontier establishments, scattering faint trailing echoes of summer time visitors beneath Hi YO.
Mindful that Nancy was due a R&R stop, we drove to Three Forks, Montana and booked a room at the pet friendly Sacajawea Hotel.
Sacajawea. After showers and toddies, we found a one spoon restaurant in Three Forks, named the Three Forks Café.
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