West Yellowstone outside the park

West Yellowstone offered those civilized distractions we didn't know we missed until we landed there. Never have so few (1500) served so many (15,000) per night. While we visited Gardiner a few days earlier, the pulse here was closer to the pocketbook. All those denied lodging in the park washed up here and threw themselves at the open doors of those accommodations still available.



The Union Pacific Dining Hall is evidence of a longstanding assault on this gateway to YNP. The railroads exploited the National Parks and vice versa to create business for the newly built lines across the West when UP and the others weren't otherwise gainfully employed promoting homesteading to the unwary in the bruising plains north of YNP in Montana. This dining hall was designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood, the architect of the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite. Even though overlooked in the annals of wilderness architecture, this handsome "lodge" served masses of visitors before or after their YNP experience.


Hegben Lake expands behind a dam going back to pre-earthquake formation of it's partner lake sharing the same canyon. Carole plies the waters near Rainbow Campground, our home base for three nights after leaving YNP. Several would-be park campers were fellow neighbors when they were turned out of the park to look for a home for the night.


From Horse Butte on the peninsula, Lake Hegben stretches to the mountain ridges. Mosquitos here chased us back inside the truck even though far from the water and high on the butte.



In 1959 I learned of the earthquake creating a new lake at Yellowstone. That was an exciting event since I distilled from the dry school books that geology was something that was OVER and therefore something I had missed completely. Here was evidence that the world was more alive than I knew and might be attended greater respect. I took a 51 year journey to this shore to see what happened. On the way I diverted from a possible career in geology (and many other likely choices) to become a psychologist, but this might have turned the tide the other way.


The landslide crossed the canyon creating Quake Lake filled with trees preserved still standing in the cold lake water. In another 80 years, predictions suggest further pilgrimage here will go unrewarded, as the Madison River will erode through the landslide, returning to it's free running course of 1959. Got here just in time!

Three Weeks in the Park come to an end

Only YNP has it's own archive and library in Gardiner, MT. The Park Service mentions a museum, but on site, run by the Nat'l Archive, it is considered something of a storage facility open to tours on a limited basis. We went to see the building and inspect the holdings ( this is what happens when you have more time than the average visitor) and found an interesting selection of books on Yellowstone and a willingness by the staff to unearth documents from the archive for specific requests. A great place to hideout in a rainstorm with terrific views from the windows facing the northern edge of the park.


The Petrified Forest is in the national forest in Montana adjacent to the north of the YNP. Ralph got us a permit to collect petrified wood, dimension not to exceed 2.5 cubic inches. We failed to find anything that large that wasn't embedded in hard lava. A grizzly -bear-phobe complained more than we did about the arduous climb on an uncertain trail through certain grizzly country for such small evidence of petrification. It was a little disappointing for collectors and photographers of wood chips, but the views were grand and the grizzlies failed to put in an appearance!




On a hot day what's a
girl to do? Go to the local watering hole and splash around with your best friends. Along with a few dozen more lady elk, these three passed a pleasant day, but blocked the trail we had selected. After enjoying the refreshing water ballet we gave up the trail and headed for our own human designated water sport area.




On the way out of the park headed west, these three graced the last meadow in the park headed for the town of West Yellowstone, MT. It was good from start to finish!

This guy is a bonus to those curious in an entomological way about YNP's smaller fauna!

Seeds of a great idea

One idea I keep in mind is finishing the blog about the past trip before the next. It's not going to happen. We're headed for Dollarado (heard this over the summer) for a week to visit Ralph and Karen Roberts and see about the fall color.

"For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People:" Simple and direct; that's what the National Park System is about, though I would have to add that it's a great educational experience. How can you not learn earth sciences and history?

1872: Year of the first park anywhere in the world and the park was Yellowstone. This idea blew to the far corners of the earth and seeded parks and reserves for animals and habitats as often as for people. By the way, my friend Jeff Jones, wilderness photographer, is having a book launch for his celebration of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's 50th anniversary on Oct. 23rd at the Corridan Gallerly on Milpas in Santa Barbara. The title of the book is Arctic Sanctuary, a great photo journey through the seasons and ecosystems of the refuge.

Enter through this gate to Yellowstone National Park (N entrance) and begin to doubt the solid ground we take for granted as you contemplate the thin, floating crust over a molten mantle. It's a surprise why plate tectonics theory is such a recent idea, but I am no geologist, simply an admirer.

An aside: Click up these photos to see them large, then you can read the quote on the arch.




The two colorful photos below are from Mammoth Hot Springs. While the moving hot spots left some terraces drying and diminished, there is much beauty in the building step and flow with the original "infinity" pools. On the road-cut cliff approaching our camp is a cross-section of the old accretionary material laid down in a much earlier Mammoth expression of the flowing springs creating a travertine wall.
















That's Ralph's salute to Bunsen Peak named after the inventor of the ubiquitous Bunsen burner in all the labs through the period I was in school anyway. I looked, but found no eternal flame in his honor, though it might have blown out this day.



The final photo will reveal itself (click it) to be of the Roosevelt Lodge where Teddy took a a break from trust busting as a Republican....hmmm. He was a great supporter for national parks and was said to enjoy this lodge for it's rustic nature and access to wildlife.



Yellowstone was once again the most visited of all US National Parks this summer. Does that mean there were crowds? Absolutely! Does it mean you can't find solitude and opportunities to explore nature without being elbow to eyebrow? We found it possible to dip into the crowd and then out to the sparsely populated hinterlands to enjoy the peace of nature's song.