Buffalo or Bison?

Day Five

We got up today with every intention of doing a long hike. On the way to the trailhead we stopped by the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake to see a string of geysers and thermal springs right at lake’s edge. Some are even in the lake! One famous spot was Fishing Geyser where tourists used to stand to catch a fish, and then lower the fish still on the hook right into the geyser to immediately cook it. Cool, unless you’re the fish. Of course, it’s not allowed anymore. The thermal features in this area are more thermal springs than geysers, but they are vividly colored and make a great foreground for the deep blue lake and snow covered mountains beyond.

Next we went to Yellowstone Lake and the central part of the park, thinking of doing a hike out that way. The lake is huge! On the shore is Yellowstone Hotel – a turn of the century resort for the well heeled tourist. It still has some echoes of elegance on the inside, but the yellow, clapboard outside is very weathered, and, oddly, COVERED with mosquitos. From a distance, I thought the building had mild hail damage, but it was mosquitos from the roof to the ground. They were inside, as well. It was very odd, and kinda creepy. I had read that the park owned lodging was quite run down and unfortunately a lot of that turned out to be true. In the end, we decided against a hike due to the storm that was brewing and chose some exploring instead.

Hayden Valley, which used to be a shallow part of Yellowstone Lake, is now a beautiful marshy meadow with a river. Here we saw a pair of coyotes across the river from us – pacing back and forth about an 8th of a mile away from each other and howling back and forth. Now granted, we have coyotes at home, but these were cooler, because they were Yellowstone coyotes! Once more there were a lot of bison. Or buffalo. Mark insists that Bison is technically correct, and so we have an ongoing argument. I mean, it’s not the Bison Nickel, is it? Or the Bison Soldiers? I rest my case. We also saw a few elk, but too far away for my camera to pick them up. No bears yet!

Next we saw a mud geyser area (can’t remember the name of it) which was cool – just a little area, but it had a huge mud geyser (hands down the smelliest geyser so far). The best part of that stop was what they called the Dragon’s Cave. It is SO cool! There’s this ominous cave with steam billowing out from inside. Deep rumblings can be heard and waves roll out of the mouth. I should have taken a video of it. If there’s not a dragon or a demon in that cave, I’ll eat my hat. And I bought a hat, so I have one to eat.

On the way back (the long way, of course) we visited Artist Point. I will try to put up some pictures of all this when our internet cooperates. It is truly remarkable. There are the upper and lower falls, and both are breathtaking. We decided to go back to this area tomorrow on our way to our cabin, as there are some really nice trails along the cliffs above the rapids and falls. Artist Point is also the name of a restaurant Mark and I went to at Wilderness Lodge. It's been amazing how well Disney did with incorporating the colors and drama of the real location. Even Wilderness Lodge, which was modeled on the great national park lodges, nailed it. You would expect the original to be grander than the copy, but no so. The Old Faithful Lodge is beautiful but it is not as big or over the top as the Wilderness Lodge. But the lamps, woodwork, comfy leather chairs, floor to ceiling fireplace, and carpet are all elements we have seen at lodges here that were faithfully copies and enlarged by Disney. But the National Park Service has also copied Disney . . . there are gift stores and restaurants everywhere.

We are really ready for our three night stay at the cabin in Gardiner which begins tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a little more spacious than our current digs and give us “being” space. One of the downsides to the motel we’re in is that there’s really nowhere to sit other than on the beds or in one rocking chair. It will also be nice if the internet connection is better. Tonight we really have no internet, so this will probably be posted tomorrow (well, what do you know - it came up for a minute. There's no way pictures will go in tonight, though!)