Monday, July 13, 2009

Yellowstone National Park - Day One

The Yellowstone National Park lies in the northwestern corner of Wyoming. We entered the western entrance, with a friendly brown sign with yellow letters, "Welcome to Yellowstone." Within a few minutes the site was spectacular. A short drive lead to a full view of the enormous and pristine, Yellowstone Lake. The forest showed signs of a somewhat recent forest fire with new growth beginning to fill in. The rivers and surrounding lakes were clear and bright, turquoise in color and I felt thirsty every time I marveled at it.

“That must be some ice cold water!” I shouted up ahead to my driver.
“Glacier water,” my husband shouted back with the same excitement.
“Pull over! Let’s get out!” I pleaded.

The kids about fell out of the van they were so eager. Their flat, numb butts and bored minds suddenly perked up to notice the perfect rocks on the beach, the bear-proof trashcans and a mirror lake waiting for a ripple. Close to a thousand square acres, the winding road followed much of the shoreline, which also shared some bubbling hot springs and geysers. Wild animal warning signs were near us and we looked around at the rock-filled beach. Fionn noticed a dried up pile of poop near our picnic table.

“Is that bear poop?!” he asked.

We all studied it and then Liam stuck it with a stick.

“Any berries in it?” I inquired from the table.

“Nope,” I heard back.

We couldn’t figure out what it was then noticed the piles were everywhere. Whatever was here was big, and a lot of them. I realized then that my perfect beach was suddenly not the best place to sun bathe.

We followed the lake and came up upon a campground near Fishers Landing. We happened to catch a vacancy and made our reservation. Our camper is 26 feet long with a pop-out queen bed in the front. Due to the large number of grizzly and black bears, the park ranger advised us that we could not put that out for our protection. We agreed and they let us into the park.

We found our site and saw that it was heavily wooded and a little tricky to back up the trailer. We needed to drop it to make it easier to view the wildlife. Sean is excellent at driving forward but backing up he finds not so easy. I am the opposite: I hate driving through towns and such, but can back up like a trucker. So, I jumped out and brought it into the site, quickly unhitched, we all got out of the van to marvel at my talent when suddenly, "Mosquitoes!" we all shouted.

We wanted to take a walk to the camp store to buy some mosquito spray and we all started down the road, which turned into a slapping frenzy, which turned into a grabbing-and-picking-up-children-and-run-like-hell blur. We all arrived in the crowded store red-faced and panting--and still swatting.

Most of you know how we like organic, natural and non-synthetic stuff, but this night all I wanted was DEET.

"Spray me!" I yelled as I jumped around in circles, "Does it have DEET?"
"Yes," my husband replied while creating a fog of the good stuff.
"That natural crap you gave us back at the camp--the guy who developed that ought to be shot!" I yelled as I continued to jump in circles.

After we were all glowing with bug spray, I had a sane moment to look around and act normal. I noticed a bunch of onlookers checking in watch our family. It wasn't a good impression, I am sure, but a lasting one.

Finally, we were off to look for bears. We traveled north and came up upon a site of steam in the air.

Ready to investigate, Riley and I left the sleeping boys with dad and took a run to the steam. Around the corner of the path, we were quickly startled to find Bison grazing near a bridge. A continuous plume of sulfuric steam rose 50 feet beyond and sounds of a jacuzzi caught my attention. I could use a good spa.

Mud Volcano was what we found instead. Bubbling, thick and gray, this geyser was impressive. Such an odd site, too. I had heard that these geysers were all around in Yellowstone, but until one finally stands before one and witnesses it first hand, it is hard to anticipate. All the trees in this part of the park were dead and tipped over with their roots attached and exposed. An earthquake about 30 years ago stirred the gases within and the trees burned from the roots.

I turned to gather the rest of the family to see the site. I was intercepted by five bison who were crossing the boardwalk and jumping down to the other geyser field on the other side of the path. Onlookers did not know how to react so they stood in close proximity taking pictures. A park ranger quickly came upon us and ordered everyone to stand clear. The bison passed with indifference, heavy and slow. The late sun painted a golden hue over mountain backdrop. A thunderstorm was off in the distance leaving a spectacular rainbow across the scene. My husband got out of the van while holding our screaming little one oblivious to the rainbow overhead. I pointed up when he saw me and he turned and shared the site. The sound of hooves hit the dirt and the ruffle of their breath was growing further away. They moved their heavy bodies up a narrow cliff over another large, boiling geyser with ease. I couldn't have even climbed it.

That night we saw more herds of bison. The elk gathered by a low marsh along a river and were frolicking with their young in a playful game of tag. They, too, know a good joke and a night well spent with family. It was now dark and time to retire for the evening. Old Faithful was ready to blow for tomorrow's tourists so we needed to get some sleep.

That night we listened for bears until we dozed off and knew they lurked around as we slept.

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