Yellowstone

We are now here at the holy grail of our great National Parks. Yellowstone. Most of you reading this have probably been here...maybe even more than once. Neither Brenda nor I have been here and were really excited to get here. We camped out at the Lewis and Clark Caverns the night before and barely slept a wink because we were so excited (Brenda actually didn't sleep because she was still freaked out because of the caverns we just went through and I didn't sleep very well because of the howling wolves that seemed awfully close to our camp...and because we were excited). It's one of the places that have been on both of our bucket lists for too long and now we are able to cross it off the list.

After day one at the park, all I can say is that this place is off the hook! We made the necessary stop at Old Faithful and watched the geyser spit right on cue up into the sky. We hiked around the area and saw the worlds largest predictable geyser, the Great Geyser, spray its massive spout right as a thunder storm rolled in. When the hail started to fall and the lightening started to crackle, we decided that it was time to bolt. We ended up running for dear life for about a mile down the trail back to the safety of the lodge with lightening striking all around us. Some of the lightening was way too close for comfort...so close that we could feel the electricity in the air and there was no discernible time between the flash of light and the roar of the thunder. It was scary and exhilarating all at the same time. We got to the lodge soaking wet and decided to wait out the rest of the storm indoors.

I know that I say that I saw the most amazing thing all the time...this time it was for real. We saw a pack of wolves take down a bison...yep, you read that right, a pack of wolves taking down a bison. We actually didn't stay for the final “kill” moment because it was getting dark and we didn't really want to be out with the wolves and bears when we couldn't see them coming (and Brenda didn't want to see the kill), but we watched the showdown for a handful of hours. I can't really describe how cool it was to see a bison stare down a wolf...nose to nose only a couple feet apart from each other. It's an image that will stick with me for ever. It's something that most people will only see in a National Geographic magazine and we got to see it in real life. Truly incredible.

We also saw a grizzly bear that was directly across the Yellowstone River from us, just about 50 yards away, that when it noticed us gawkers watching him, ran full tilt up a hill and into the woods. This guy was huge and amazingly fast. Anyone that thinks they can outrun a bear is dead wrong. I still can't believe how fast he moved, especially because of how big he was. It was really cool to see him in his element because we had the river as a buffer between him and us. After we saw him and how fast he moved, we were a little bit paranoid about hiking...we didn't go anywhere without our bear spray armed and ready.

The highlight for Brenda (other than all the hiking) was a buffalo stampede that we just so happened to be right in the middle of. We were driving back to camp on our 3^rd night when a huge herd of buffalo, between 75-100 of the hairy beasts, started running right next to us on the highway. A couple of them darted onto the road which made us slam on the brakes and stop. The rest of them followed and were running around our truck and onto the road. It was crazy. These things are huge, fast, aggressive, and smelly and they don't care if you are trying to get somewhere. We were loving being in the middle of it but pretty soon there was a huge line of cars behind us that didn't enjoy the wait as much as we did. We were stuck in the buffalo traffic jam for about 30 minutes as we followed them lumbering up the highway.

We stopped for dinner after the traffic jam at the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel (the food was terrible...don't eat there). When we were in line there were a few ladies in front of us that asked if we were in the middle of the traffic jam. We told them “Yes! We were the first car in the line up! Wasn't it great!?!?!” Their reply was “It was terrible...why didn't the rangers come down and do something about the bison in the road and all of the traffic?” All that I could think of to say was “we asked the bison nicely to move out of the way but they didn't seem to understand what I was asking.” She didn't think I was funny.

Yellowstone had more in store for us on the rest of our visit. We saw tons more geysers, loads more bison, antelope, wolves, elk, grizzly bears, dear, and some of the most majestic scenery this fine world has to offer. We hiked through prairies, down into the grand canyon of Yellowstone, and up to the high peaks. We hiked a little over 50 miles in the 4 days we stayed in the park (and yes, my dogs were barking). We talked with the Park Rangers and learned a ton about the area and the critters and saw amazing things. It is truly a magical place. Its one of those places that everyone should see at least once. The Yellowstone experience was as close to a religious experience as I have ever had. I was overwhelmed a couple of times by the beauty and magnitude of the place.

On a few of our hikes, there were signs at the trail head that read something like “DANGER – this hike is extremely difficult and steep. You should not attempt this hike if you have breathing difficulties, heart problems, are pregnant, have eaten more than one pound of bacon in the last year, blah, blah, blah....” After a couple of these hikes, Brenda thought they should just change the signs to read “this hike is going to make you sweat”. They did make us sweat and they made me pant for air. Being a Seattle boat boy for so long has made me used to the air at sea level. Up around 8,000 feet the air is a bit thinner and you can feel the difference. Up at 10,000 feet, I had a hard time catching my breath even on the “mild” hikes. Just walking on flat ground was more work than I was used to.

Yellowstone was everything and more than we thought or hoped it would be. We were thrilled to be there and really felt proud that some of our forefathers had enough foresight to preserve some of our great nation for future generations to see it in all it's majestic and wild beauty. Amazing.

We are now heading south to Mesa Verde in southern Colorado to see the ancient cliff dwellings. We did take a slight detour because we read about some great hot springs in southern Idaho that are calling our names. After all of the hiking that we just did, a nice soak in a great hot spring sounds like just the ticket. We'll report more as there is more to report.