The
grave at Lake. This is just off the path that leads from the hotel to what
used to be the Hamilton Store, sort of up the hill from the old gas station.
When I asked around about it, the usual explanation was that it was a dog's
grave, but no one seemed to really know for sure. The book Death In
Yellowstone (one of my favorites) mentions graves with humans in them
in the vicinity of the old gas station, with this as a monument. A winter
keeper who died of a heart attack in 1906 is buried under the asphalt of
the nearby abandoned gas station, along with a skull thought to be of a
drowning victim found in 1907. For whatever reason someone is placing
flowers and rocks and sticks there.
A
foggy, wet, spring morning in Hayden Valley. Spring seemed especially wet
and green that year ('97). Usually Hayden Valley looks a bit drier, with
lots of sagebrush and wide open spaces.
Mystic
Falls on a summer day. I like Mystic because the hike isn't too long, but
long enough to keep 99% of the tourists away, and you get to hike through
the geyser basins to get there if you start from Old Faithful. Or,
you can drive to the Biscuit Basin and start from there. In winter
it is a nice ski from the Snow Lodge too, if the trail isn't closed from
avalanche danger. The several small hot springs on the canyon walls
around the falls give the place an otherworldly feel, especially when the
weather is cold and there is lots of steam.
The
Upper portion of Mystic Falls. This is what you see if you continue along
the trail as it loops around to the observation point above the Biscuit
Basin. The hike to the observation point is a little bit of a climb,
but well worth it. You get a panoramic view of the Upper Geyser Basin
from there, similar to the one from the observation point near Old Faithful
Geyser, but from the other end of the valley.
Dead
trees and blue sky along the Mystic Falls overlook trail. There are a lot
of fire killed trees in the area. The charred black stuff has mostly weathered
away leaving an almost silver wood. It looked really pretty against
the blue sky. The sometimes eye popping blue of the sky probably why Montana
is called Big Sky Country. The sky is not actually bigger than anywhere
else. If anything it is a bit smaller with the mountains blocking
some of it near the horizon. I think the intense blue comes from
less air than most of us are used to and less air pollution than most of
us suffer through.
Start
of a spring run type stream at Lake. This is near the start of the Elephant
Back Trail, not more than 100 feet from the trail. There is a big concrete
box around the spring with some broken pipes leading out of it and a stream
of water pouring out of one of them. It looks like this was (or is??) the
water supply for the Lake area. The area looked very lush, more like the
Smokies than Yellowstone. I found two kinds of orchids
blooming here on this day. Elephant Back is a nice trail with a spectacular
view of the Lake from the top. I knew one employee at Lake who hiked the
trail every day.
A
close-up of the edge of Doublet Pool in the Upper Geyser Basin. Doublet
looks like two round pools joined together, hence it's name. Besides
being a very pretty hot spring with the fancy scalloped edges, Doublet
has the peculiar habit of thumping. Sometimes, not always, if there is
no one walking the boardwalk nearby you can hear and feel a thumping noise
coming from Doublet. You can also see the water surface bounce up and down
in time to the thumps. This is from steam bubbles expanding and then collapsing
below the surface.
Of course, if you have young traveling companions you could tell them it is a child eating troll trying to get out that is causing the thumping, and if they don't believe you, tell them that the rangers at the visitor center have a video of the troll they will show them if you ask them nicely. Then, later, you can give them the alternative but less exciting steam bubble explanation.
I
am not exactly sure what this old building is. I thought it looked like
maybe an old ice house, all earth covered to keep it cold. Then I
noticed that there is a sort of chimney coming out of it. So maybe
it is a place for generators, earth covered so they don't make noise?
But it seems a bit large for that. Maybe it is a fallout shelter
from the '50s nuclear paranoia, or maybe even a secret dungeon. I
never did actually investigate it closely. It sits beside the Lake
Hotel, near the kitchens and dining room, toward the hospital.
A
view across Jenny Lake in Grand Tetons National Park. Grand Tetons Park
is certainly worth a visit while you are in the Yellowstone neighborhood,
even if it is only a quick half day driving visit. The Teton Range has
some of the most dramatic jagged mountain scenery in the country.
The word teton means breast by the way. I think some mountain men
were in the woods too long.
That last comment will probably get me filtered from half the computers in America, but hey, the rangers tell you that when you visit, so it's nothing bad. Rangers are wholesome.
Some
crystal clear water along the shore of Jenny Lake.
Marmots
in Grand Teton Park, off a lookout along Signal Mountain Road. Marmots
are also known as whistle pigs. I tried to start something by calling
them varmots, but it didn't catch on. They look a lot like giant
rats, but cute and cuddly. But probably they only look cuddly, I
wouldn't try to pet one or anything. Or maybe they look like dry
land beavers. We have them in Yellowstone too. See my sister's
version of a marmot.
Some
mountain in the Teton Range, Grand Teton National Park. I don't know which
one it is. I am a Yellowstone person, not a Teton Person. Grand Teton
National Park has some very pointy mountains as you can see. Yellowstone
has mountains too, but in the south central part of the park they were
destroyed by big volcanic eruptions about 150,000-160,000 years ago or
so, and that is the part of the park where a lot of the main attractions
are.
A
sandbar along the shore of Yellowstone Lake, between Lake Village and West
Thumb. There are several areas along the lake shore like this where
a sand bar forms sort of a dam from shore to shore. They usually
seem to be near where a creek empties into the lake, so maybe that has
something to do with their formation. Or, maybe creeks are emptying into
the lake at a lot of places and it is just coincidence. I read somewhere
that in the old days the park road ran along the top of one of them. On
this one there are several large lodgepole pine trees that had fallen over
because of unusually high lake levels earlier in the year.