lodge lady: Yellowstone to Grand Teton

Mammoth Hot Springs, Photo by Maya

You Say Geothermal, We Say Geysers

Friday was the day of geysers and Old Faithful Inn and the incredible Norris Basin chock full of spewing geysers, pastel colored mud pots bubbling and spurting and generally giving the grandkids a run for their money. There are over 10,000 geothermal features and 300 active geysers in Yellowstone, and we watched Old Faithful erupt twice along with about a thousand other tourists.

Old Faithful

Great Fountain Geyser and Jazz

The park is so full of surprises and our stop at Great Fountain Geyser was one of them. This huge mud pot geyser spewed water and steam with regular eruptions right in front of us. Kai had on his headphones and was listening to Kid Jazz as all of this was going on. “Isn’t Uncle Mark a jazz guy?” he asked when explaining how the music went with the eruptions. He’s five.

Dumb and Dumber

And those weren’t our grandkids or their grandparents.

OK, the geologic wonders and wildlife sightings (female elk and bison---five Grizzly bears) were just part of the Wonderland of the park. Yet, the big laugh of Friday was at Gibbon Falls trail. The pathway was lined with a rock wall along the cliff with the churning river and falls below, when Maya pointed out two teenage (or college age) boys who had jumped over the rock wall and acting like just plain idiots. Much to the embarrassment of Jackson, Nana walked up to the wall and shouted at them: “Hey, Dumb and Dumber, get over this wall right now. I am getting a Ranger and you will be out of this park!” Amazingly, they hopped back over the wall and sulked away. As Jackson said, how embarrassing to have a grandma yell at you. Maya and Audrey did Nana/Dumb/Dumber reenactments all afternoon.

Mammoth Hot Springs

What is amazing about the park is the diversity. (Seriously, I just wrote that sentence.) We passed over the Continental Divide and everything changed. Fire scorched forests now dense with new growth, massive granite boulder fields, meandering rivers and creeks.

It is estimated that there are about 24% more visitors to the park this year, and we believe it especially in the Upper Geyser Basin around Old Faithful.

We headed to Madison then Norris Basin and onto Mammoth Hot Springs. While I recall this as being crowded in the past, our entrance at Mammoth was smooth. (Maybe it was the seven miles of unpaved road now under construction.) We had two rooms in the original Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, sans private bathrooms (there are sinks in each room and shower/bathrooms across the hall). I would recommend this spot to anyone especially folks with kids.

(I will do a full roundup of lodges and hotels at the end of the trip.)

Chuck wagons rolling to dinner, Photo by Maya

Cowboy Dinner

Saturday’s Roosevelt Chuck Wagon dinner was our final planned event in Yellowstone. Rain was drizzling as we got into the car for an hour drive to Roosevelt Corrals, but as we piled into Wagon #4, the sun came out and the long process of dusk began. We chugged along behind Zach and Zeb (huge Belgium horses) with our guide, Alex, giving a commentary. Dinner: Sixteen ounce steaks and all the trimmings plus cowboy coffee and peach cobbler. Two veggie burgers were preordered for our veggies, and shock of shock, Kai ate his!!!

Hayden Valley and How Many Grizzly Can You Count?

On Sunday, we did a few diversions, but those brought us face to face with a gigantic Bison on the road to Madison then Grizzly bears. Allen Point: Two big bears staking out an elk killed by a wolf on Saturday. Scarface, the oldest bear in Yellowstone, was calling this kill his own with another Grizzly in waiting with the wolf just sitting around for what might be dessert. (I’m going with the Scarface story because an old timer and bear watcher told me. No documentation required.)

Another Grizzly sauntering along the road made three Grizzly and one wolf in one morning!

Clockwise: wolf (white), Grizzly, Bison, Scarface over the carcass. Photo by Maya

Photographer Sighting

A highlight for me was running into Fred Plughoft at the Fishing Bridge General Store where he was signing books. Fred and David Morris were the best couple of photographers any writer could work with. Check out his books. Gorgeous.

Grand Teton Finale

GRand Teton here we come!

We crossed over into Grand Teton National Park, checked out Jackson Lake Lodge, caught a garter snake, walked to Lunch Box Hill and gazed at the range. We sat on the log where Jerry took my “author” photo in 2007.