dreadlock rasta

Missoula, MT – A warm summer evening in Montana, my hotel is not as hot as I was led to believe

The last few day have brought yet more other-worldy sightings. Yellowstone reminded me of the kind of planets Calvin & Hobbes would visit, with steam and bubbling ooze erupting all over the place. The days are getting longer and longer as I continue north. Last night, sunlight could still be spotted over the horizon at 10pm. I’m growing a bit weary again from all the driving and camping. I plan to mostly relax at Glacier NP. But I digress.

After checking out from the Motel 6 in Buffalo, I climbed in my car and noticed mountains in the distance. I was heading strait for them. From this point on, the Integra would be challenged a bit more. In the past, high elevations have a way of cramping the Integra’s style. We were ready.

I took Route 16, which zig-zags a bit across western Wyoming towards Yellowstone. There were dramatic canyon walls lining the steep inclines and declines. There were switchbacks and twisty-turny sloped curves. It was pretty fun to drive, I must say, and the car handled it all really well. I often to reved the engine much higher than usual. I would take third and fourth gears to 5000 rpm before shifting, and that seemed to do the trick. Every once in a while, I’d get slowed down by tractor trailer trucks, or monster RVs. The RVs sometimes had a car in tow, which made them pretty much useless on the steep hills. I’d get irritated behind them. Once the Integra is slowed to below 45 mph or so on those hills, it takes a long time to get it back up to speed.

Anyway, along the way I passed through a few towns along the way, including Ten Sleeps, Greybull, and Cody. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cody%2C_WY) In Ten Sleeps, I stopped at “PerCup Espresso” and picked up a big cup of coffee. The Motel 6 had only provided tiny cups of joe earlier. A bit more awake, I drove for another couple hours before reaching the Yellowstone outer limits.

Yellowstone NP is gigantic. Its area is larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined. Earlier on, I had decided to camp at the Mammoth Hot Springs area, which is in the upper left-hand corner of the park. Having entered the park’s east gate, I still had another hour and a half of driving ahead of me to get to my campsite. At first glance, Yellowstone reminded me of Yosemite, a beautifully adorned and preserved natural wonderland. With the $25 entrance fee waived, I had officially made back my money back on the annual pass.

As soon as I entered, I hit some bad traffic. The park was improving a seventeen mile stretch of road. As a result, I waited for a half-hour or so for my line to move. I was part of a fifty car procession which was lead by a special truck along the windy, now single-laned, street. It became clear that Yellowstone had suffered from some kind of forest fire years ago. The hills were covered with downed trees, and some still standing, charred beyond recognition. Amongst all the wreckage, there were thousands and thousands of five-foot-tall pine trees. I found out later that there had been a huge forest fire back in 1988. The forest fire had triggered the older trees to release their seeds, bringing about the newer generation of pines. (Thank you Mary Ann Melton)

Driving along, I next hit Yellowstone Lake, which was breath-taking. Seeming perfectly still, the lake took me twenty minutes or so to pass. There were hot springs and buffalo all over the place. The halfway past the lake, a strong smell of sulfur filled the car, and I turned the air-handler to “inside circulation.” It hadn't made much difference. Yellowstone is the world’s first national park. It was designated as a park not to preserve the wildlife, but instead to protect the area’s unique geology. Yellowstone sits atop a “hot spot.” A mere three miles above hot magma, the park resembles a pot of boiling water in places. Geysers are everywhere, shooting steaming water all about. Hot springs with funky colors and pungent smells attract a lot of attention from the park’s visitors.

However, the park’s most popular attraction is its abundance of apparent wildlife. As you drive along the roads, you see buffalo and elk lurking about. Often, they are only a few feet from the road. This causes the entire line of traffic to stop as everyone has to get out and take pictures. This was very annoying to me. It delayed my trip to Mammoth Hot Spring even further.

Now, to be fair, this wasn’t the first time I’d seen an American Bison. Golden Gate Park in San Francisco has a spot set aside for a dozen or so buffalo to roam about. I would often run past them, and wave. If I’d never seen a buffalo before, I very well might have stopped for some pictures as well. The traffic buildup did allow me to get some pictures of the buffalo anyway. I’d wave at them and get good shots. A little later, at yet another photo-moment-induced jam, I saw it. I saw my first bear. It was a black bear (I figured out later) and wasn’t as big as I thought it’d be.

I reached the campgrounds at Mammoth Hot Springs around 6pm and set up camp. After a seven-hour trek, I was exhausted. I could barely keep my eyelids open to watch the sun set and my firewood burn awhile. I ate broccoli and canned pasta and passed out just after the sun fully set, around 10pm.

In the morning, I awoke to an overcast sky and made a pot of coffee. I was still tired. I couldn’t shake it after two cups of coffee and spent the morning and early afternoon reading. I was in no mood to explore. After the clouds burned off, I eventually get off my keister and drove a quarter-mile to the Mammoth Hot Springs Center to run errands and get lunch. It was similar to Yosemite’s Village Center, although arranged differently. All the park buildings were lined up like in a military base. It reminded me a little of SF’s Presidio marching grounds, but smaller. There was a general store, a hotel, a restaurant, a visitor center, a museum, and countless administrative buildings. Not to mention all the elk. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elk) On that day, there were elk under every tree. Sometimes on hot days, the elk will take over this center area, stealing nearly every bit of shade from the visitors. Yellowstone has harsh rules concerning approaching the wildlife. And so, the elk would go undisturbed, napping the afternoon away. Keeping their distance, groups of thirty people, or so, would line the grassy lawns and take pictures.

I turned my gaze to the crowd for a while, and realized that everyone was mostly concerned with lining up that perfect picture. Kids would pose in front of the elk. No one seemed to be just watching and enjoying the moment. I was no different, I had taken a dozen pictures or so. But, after seeing the assemblage, I got a little disenchanted with my camera.

Sometimes, you just need to put the camera down. And I did.

Having spent an hour or so at the scene, I returned to my campsite and hid from the sun. I took a four hour nap and woke up to a violet sunset sky. Groggy, I made some diner and then attended the nightly lecture at the nearby amphitheater. The lecture that night was given by a zoologist park ranger and was all about bears. Black bears (which often aren’t black in Yellowstone) and grizzly bears were discussed. Yellowstone has had an interesting history regarding its relationship with bears. By the end of the lecture I knew how to tell the difference between black and grizzly bears, and how to interpret its mannerisms if I ever came face to face with one.

Then I went strait to bed.

On Saturday, I woke up late and very groggy from a long sleep. The sky was clear this time, and the air became hot quickly. It reached the mid-nineties by the afternoon. Determined to not waste another day, I hopped in the car and drove for an hour and a half to Old Faithful. At the very least, I thought, I had to see the great geyser. Yellowstone was much more pleasant enjoyed from the viewpoint of my air-conditioned Acura. I saw buffalo after buffalo and loads of elk, again.

Old Faithful was pretty cool. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Faithful) The “viewing area” is made up of several small geysers, and one really big one. When I arrived at the geyser perimeter, Old Faithful was emitting small plumes of steam. The plume would rise to three or four feet for a minute, and then settle down to less than a foot. I had about fifty minutes to wait until it would erupt. Contrary to popular belief, Old faithful does not fire at “set-your-watch-by-it” intervals. The timing of each eruption depends upon the magnitude of the previous eruption. It roughly goes off, on average, every ninety minutes. Although, at times, it can go off after only sixty minutes. I sat and read my book in wait.

About five minutes before it eventually went off, a park ranger stood right in front of me and addressed the large crowd behind me. So that everyone could hear her, she practically screamed her lecture and left my ears ringing afterwards. She was a geologist and originally from New Jersey. She explained how Yellowstone essentially sits atop the largest volcano in the world. Were it to erupt, no part of the earth would be safe from the devastation. She explained why geysers erupt the way they do and how Yellowstone holds the bulk of the world’s geothermic activity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geyser). She spoke for a little while about Iceland, which uses it geothermic heat as an energy source.

After that, the geyser went off. I was pleased.

I drove back to my campsite and stopped a couple times along the way to inspect some hot springs a little closer. Unlike some of the other hot springs I’ve visited, you can not bath in any of Yellowstone’s hot springs. They’re just too darned hot.

I returned to my tent and listened to the Red Sox get out-pitched by Texas. Matsuzaka just never gets and run support. Ever. I had dinner of soup and chili and went strait to sleep.

This morning I got up around 7am and packed up the campsite. The air was getting hot quickly, so I wasted no time in getting out of there. Someday, I may return to Yellowstone, and give it much more time in order to properly see everything it has to offer. Overall, I spent more time sleeping and hiding from the sun than anything else. Ah well.

The drive today to Missoula was pretty easy. Five hours passed by mostly on cruise control. The landscape was lovely. After nearly choosing the C’mon Inn, I decided to go with the Best Western across the street as the hotel clerk had told me they had laundry services. I had a bag of laundry that needed washing. However, I learned later that the “laundry service” was actually just dry cleaning pick-up and drop-off. There were no coin-operated machines as I hoped. On top of that, the wi-fi internet connection was awful. I couldn't upload one photo successfully. Luckily, there was a Starbucks across the street for blogging and photo management needs.

That pretty much brings us to the present. In general, I can feel that weariness creeping back up on me. I considered skipping Glacier NP entirely at one point, but ultimately I can’t pass up what everyone has told me is the best national park in the country. I will push on. I’ve made one change to the itinerary though. I will spent only three days in glacier NP (rather than four) and spent the extra day in Sandpoint, ID. The last movie palace on my list is there, the Panida Theatre. Looking forward to that. The rest of the schedule is the same.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have some mixed feelings about that, but mostly I can’t wait to get home and sleep in my own bed.

Pleasant dreams everyone.

More soon.

Andy

To see all the Yellowstone wackiness:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AcMnLVq3aN2Km