A day off to see the sites

Today we took a day off to see a few sites in Yellowstone Park.  I have never been to Yellowstone, so I wanted to be able to see as much as possible in the short time that we had.  I had no idea how large this park is.  It is about 3,500 square miles of land in this park.  Compare that with the 5 square miles that I call home in Lakewood.  You could fit 700 inside Yellowstone!  Not that you would want to, mind you.  How many bars would that be?  Every bar in Yellowstone - that would take years to complete.  The weather was finally beautiful - mostly sunny and it hit the low 60's.

A sunny day to explore Yellowstone 

Our plan was for Pat and I to complete some work on Friday morning, connect with our offices, and then take a tour bus in the afternoon.  Of course, we would need to start out with a hearty breakfast, so we found the Running Bear Pancake House a few blocks away (notice the bear theme in most establishments here?  I think they might have an obsession with them).  After breakfast we called to get hooked up with the tour company that advertised the bus tours, but alas, because of the virus, they were only running morning tours.  Plan B went into effect and Pat rented a Jeep and we did our own tour of the northern parts of Yellowstone.  This actually turned out better because we were able to do things at our own pace, and go where we wanted.  Our bike trip would take us to the southern part tomorrow, including Old Faithful, so we would leave that alone today.  Jerry's car banter couldn't replace a real tour guide, but he did his best.  From the reports, Yellowstone is seeing about 1/3 of the normal visitors they normally have.  The lodges are closed, and that's likely a big reason.  Still, the park seemed full and most of the parking lots at the stops had few spots left.  I cannot imagine the chaos of a "normal" summer if there were 3 times as many people.  In that I think we were very lucky.  

We spent the morning visiting a number of geyser sites, saw a goat (or a sheep) on the side of the mountain which seemed to attract a huge number of people - perhaps they lack sheep elsewhere.  Most of the park was hit years ago with a massive fire, so most of the forest we saw had young trees growing in their place, and remnants of burnt trees towering above the new trees.  The forest floor was littered with burnt tree poles strewn out across the landscape.  You could see all at once the devastation of the fire, and it's renewal with new growth.  We visited Steamboat geyser, a bubbling cauldron that is known to erupt anywhere from every 4 to 60 days.  A guy sat there with his iPhone trained on the geyser, like he was going to catch it any minute now... It was interesting to see the differing amounts of Covid-avoidance today as there were people on all of the trails, but it was a breezy day and we were outdoors.  It was amusing to see isolated people on trails by themselves wearing masks.  Perhaps they were keeping the bison from getting sick(?)  Foreign tourists, especially from Asia, all were wearing masks.  The Americans, not so much.  The Americans did sport a lot more interesting T-shirts including a number of them supporting their favorite gun causes.

Touring Yellowstone

Not realizing how far everything is in Yellowstone, we had already traveled about 48 miles into the park, and were headed toward the Mammoth Hot Springs, near the North entrance, and we found ourselves mammoth hungry.  We hadn't planned very well, but were rescued when the park did operate a concession in the area, and we wolfed down fast food and ice cream.  Our calorie intake didn't wane today, even though we weren't on our bikes.  We did travel through the Hot Springs, but really they were mostly dry springs, as only a few spots had active springs this year.  I guess it varies from year to year, but what we did see was colorful and still pretty different from anything I've ever seen.  

Bubbling pools of geyser

Since parts of the "loop" were currently closed, we had to backtrack to get to the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone."  I'm really glad we did.  This was a tremendous waterfall, followed by I guess 20 miles of canyon (we didn't see the whole thing).  It was a beautiful site and I'm glad we had time for it.  An unforgettable place.  

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone 

We had to get on the stick to get our rental car back to Budget at the Yellowstone airport by about 6, so we scooted out of there to take the 48 mile trip back to West Yellowstone.  We got there late, but the very nice employees there still gave us a ride back to our hotel.  Everyone here has been incredibly nice and helpful.  Perhaps they do appreciate the 1/3 of us that showed up.  We ended the night at the Wild West, a local pizza joint and bar in town.  I was a bit dismayed to find that it was a haven for Steelers fans.  At least the place was decked out in yellow and black, Steelers posters everywhere.  The waiter said the owner is a big fan.  He said a visitor came in, impressed with the decor, and offered the owner and him tickets to a game in Pittsburgh.  He turned out to be the retired chairman of PNC and he flew them into town, hotel, suite at the game.  I think that might have solidified their support for the Steelers.  Oh well, at least the food was good and the country band was really good.  At least for the one song we enjoyed.  We had to get back and get ready for the next day.

Really? In Montana?

Tomorrow we will ride about 50 miles, see Old Faithful, and never leave the park.  Camping tomorrow because that's all that's open.  Of course, it just started raining again...