YELL Day 36

Thursday 08/01/2013

This was one of my field trip days so I headed back to Old Faithful for some unfinished business. I went on a ranger-led walk in the Upper Geyser Basin and learned so much! I can't even begin to tell you the fascinating things I learned. Anyway, the ranger said he had a secret to share and that he wanted to build suspense during the tour. Well. That didn't last. At the second stop he blurted out, "I can't stand it anymore!!! Steamboat Geyser erupted LAST NIGHT!!!"

Okay, if you're not a geyser gazer then you may not know that this is RARE. It was 2005 the last time it happened. We were told it could steam anywhere from 10 hours to 40 days after an eruption, so the Old Faithful rangers were spreading the news and telling us to head over there just to see the after steam. So I did. The road was closed off. Turns out no one got hurt (even though visitors were running pell mell toward Steamboat when it started to go), but the geyser is so big and usually spits out rocks to the point that cars in the parking lot get damaged. I could have hiked in (probably) from Norris Campground, but decided to go home knowing that K would have heard the news at work. He was already eating lunch when I arrived so I had a big smile on my face when I walked in. I didn't get a smile back. He just looked at me with a mixture of jealousy and disappointment saying, "Heavenly Father loves you so much. You get to see EVERYTHING! You get geysers and grizzlies and all sorts of happy surprises." I answered, "Relax. The road to Norris was closed--they wouldn't let me in." So we drove over there in the evening, together, after K got off duty. I packed a picnic supper and drove while he ate his chicken salad sandwich. I parked the car and he jumped out and ran off. I didn't see him again for another twenty minutes or so. He couldn't wait! This is the proof he really was so terribly excited: he REQUESTED to have his picture taken in front of it!!!

YELL Day 35

Wednesday 07/31/2013

My friend came to visit and brought two of her neices, both age ten! They were all so fun to play with! Sometimes K gets some pretty rowdy boys on his hikes. Boys just naturally try to fall off cliffs, throw sticks and rocks, and stomp on every log they can find in the forest. They seriously "tear the place apart!" Hiking with girls is so different. They went to the lakeshore and sweetly called back to me, "Are we allowed to skip rocks?" Yes, my dear angels, skip all the rocks you please. Later we went to West Thumb Geyser Basin, possibly my favorite thermal area in the park, and a ranger was explaining that an elk calf met its demise earlier this spring by stepping into that hot pool of water. You can see the white baby elk bones remaining. Let that be a lesson to us all!

YELL Day 34

Tuesday 07/30/2013

I was in the bathroom when I heard some curious noises. The walls are paper thin so I wondered, "Is that Eric snoring???" That didn't seem right because we've never heard him snore and besides...it was the middle of the day. Then I heard some other noises and thought, "Are there bison out there?" Yes, there were. They were walking right in front of our front door and right past all of our vehicles and they were grunting and grazing and doing what bison do. So, let's just say I was closer than the minimum 25 yards while still inside the safety of my own home. I've seen plenty of bison this summer but there's something a tad bit charming about them when they show up on your door step.

In other news, I finished the unabridged version of Les Miserables. All 1,463 pages, Baby! Every English word, French word, song lyric, Greek myth...you name it, I read every word. On page 985 it says, "To learn to read is to kindle a fire." Is that where Amazon got that?

YELL Day 33

Monday 07/29/2013

What a thunderstorm. It was LOUD and LONG (came in wave after wave) and it made the ground beneath my sleeping pad shake. There was so much lightning I kept thinking, "Stop the flash photography!" However, there was no wind, therefore, none of the lodge pole pines blew down to kill us. Our tent kept us dry and comfortable.

We rented a crawdad at Mack's Inn and paddled ourselves for about five miles down the Hentry's Fork of the Snake River. Oh JOY! It was a glorious morning and a soothing event. We saw fish and birds and moose! We laughed and learn to work better together as a paddling team. I think we should do it every year.

Back-to-School Stress Dream #3

Sunday 07/28/2013

I woke up from my third back-to-school stress dream this summer. The others were on the 4th and the 9th. This one was really bad. The stress dreams occur every year. What about you? Does it happen to you?

Anyway, we went to Church in West Yellowstone, Montana and again, the people were lovely. After that, we went on a little geology driving tour to learn about the Hebgen Lake Earthquake in 1959. Wowzers. We did the whole tour and all I can say is that I hope I don't have to do what some of those people did to escape. We camped in Idaho at Flatrock and enjoyed tacos for dinner since we had leftover tortillas from last week's fajitas.

Marmot Fortress

Saturday 07/27/2013

I went on the Storm Point hike this morning (my all time fave so far) and one of my favorite parts is about half way through when you come out at the beach where a community of yellow bellied marmots has taken up residence (for centuries?). There are some rock formations which serve as palaces to these R.O.U.S.'s On this particular day, no one was moving much. They were just all flopped out on top of their rocks, sun bathing. Seriously, zoned out. No movement, no chirping. Vegged. What I could do with a zoom lens...

YELL Day 32

Friday 07/26/2013

We took a dip in Yellowstone Lake. It was cold. People have died there very quickly from hypothermia. We thought we could get ourselves all the way under at least for a second, but we both failed. That is some mighty cold water! K's boss and the other rangers kept asking, "Are you CRAZY?"