Aug 20: Our visit to Old Faithful. Steve and Anne and Jan and I drove over to Old Faithful for the true Yellowstone effect. “OF” gushed as expected but in the background another geyser behind it also spewed forth. Since Old Faithful did not shoot as high as was expected, it was thought that the other geyser may have taken a little steam out of Old Faithful (pun intended). There must have been close to 600 people watching this eruption. In the back of the crowd was an old interpretive ranger (another old geezer). After watching this for quite some time we decided to visit the Old Faithful Inn for a snack. This was truly impressive it was built early in the 20th Century. It was beautifully constructed, using wood with all sorts of curves and angles. The fireplace weighed over 100,000#. After this we decided we would walk the boardwalks to the hot springs and other geyser. As we started we saw that the crowd was gathering for the next show of Old Faithful. Since being on the boardwalk gave us another perspective we stopped and watched. Old Faithful did it right this time very impressive for an old geyser, in fact the spray came all the way over to where we were standing, not good for camera. Our walk along the boardwalk was interesting maybe not so much the hot springs and geysers but the people were interesting to watch. They dressed in everything imaginable and some not so much. Flip flops to hiking boots, long sleeves to spaghetti straps, long pants to short short shorts. After so long of looking at the springs and geysers, it was time to change the scenery, so we headed home (back to our covered wagons).
Aug. 21: Jan and I start to drive to the trailhead for Mt. Wasburn (elevation 10,232). We did not get but a couple of miles till we encountered a “buffalo jam”. This “jam” was not because there was a sighting of buffalo, but because this herd of buffalo wanted to use the road at the same time as we did. They have the right of way. We have seen so many buffalo on this trip that the next buffalo I see, I hope will be on my plate. As we got to the Mt. Washburn trailhead we notice a lot of vehicles in the parking lot. Since we are used to a single track trail we were a little concerned over the amount of folks doing this hike. Well it did not take long to figure that this trail had been an old stage road to take guest to the top of the mountain for the view. We started out like this hike would be over in just a short while; it did not take but about 100 yard till we realized that we were not at 1100’ of elevation. I had started out in front and soon pulled up laughing because there was not very much oxygen to be had (trail starting elevation around 8800’). As we climbed, we had several views into the vastness of Yellowstone. As several points we were able to see the mountains of the Tetons, over 110 miles away. I guess that is what you call looking forward. When we reached the top, we were greeted by 30+ mph winds. There is a lookout tower that has a viewing room built under it. It is a great place to get out of the wind and relax while enjoying the scenery. The station is manned 365 days a year and the ranger is changed out every 3 months. Being the top of the mountain someone has to bring up supplies to the ranger bi-weekly. I imagine during the winter this is the only physical contact with people. Other than fire spotting he maintains a weather station and all sorts of electronic equipment. Our hike back down was considerably easier than the ascent. It took us about 2/3 the time. From here we drove to Tower Falls (kind of a Falls Creek Fall look alike). As we drove back by where we had hiked cars were everywhere. People were standing all along the side of the road look to the field where we had hike about 1 earlier. I got a quick glance over the railing and saw at least 2 bears this called for pull over to do a look see. When we found a spot to pull into we hopped out and ran to the side, where we were able get a great view of a grizzly sow and 2 cubs. Just as we saw them the sow stood up and looked down hill into the woods. She was joined standing by one of the cubs (as to say “what are we looking at mom”). Really a beautiful sight. From there we came back to our RV to find that the house batteries were so low that we could not start the generator. After much distress and reading of our manuals (written in code) I thought that I might do some logical knob twisting. It worked and we generated for 3 hours to get our batteries back to the top. We have a steep learning curve as to how to use our off grid RVing, but by the time we get back home we will have a good idea of what we need to do.
Aug. 22: Success! We made it through the night without draining the batteries. We are allowed to use the generator between 8 am to 8 pm. That is just wonderful, during those hours we are out seeing the park. Jan and I are what some say “early risers” this does not work well here. They could easily allow the generators to turn on at 7 which is minimal, better if 6 am. We started the day hiking Elephant Back Mountain, NO, it was named before I got here. This was a good little trail that had some great views of Yellowstone Lake. We realize that even at 7800’ in elevation, we were challenged to breathe easily. We then drove up to the Lamar Valley in hope to see some different animals. The first animal we saw was my favorite, the buffalo. People stop in the middle of the road, not thinking about those of us who have seen their fill of bison, to make pictures and just ogle at them. I think these animals are having fun messing with traffic since when they mosey onto the roads, they do it with absolutely no purpose. We did see a black bear that had chosen a soft rock in the sun to take its afternoon nap. He was noticed by 25-30 cars even though he was in the woods across a river a good 75 yards away. On up the road we saw one of the fattest coyotes we have ever seen, in fact he would make two of those at home. On our way back to the RV we stopped when we found some bars on our cell phone and called the children. I tried to work the blog but was unable to get a solid connection.
Pictures Later.
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