 We
decided on our last day in Yellowstone to go to the West Thumb area.
On the way over we stopped at Kepler Cascades to see if it was still there.
It was, but the observation deck was closed off, so the picture looks a
bit different than it otherwise would. |
 My
sister wanted to hike to Duck Lake near West Thumb. I guess she had
read about it in some guide book. Naturally we had no guide book
or map along. In classic Johnson family style we found a trail head
and set off down the trail and wound up somewhere totally unintended.
We wound up on what is called the overlook trail. It leads up a small
mountain or large hill that overlooks all kinds of stuff including Duck
Lake and Yellowstone Lake. There was even a bench at the top of the
hill to rest on. The trail looked like it looped around, but as we
did not know this for certain (turns out it does loop) we came back down
the way we went up. Besides, we could see a bunch of elk in the meadows
along the return leg of the loop and wanted to avoid them.
Along the way were several small hot spring areas. They were particularly lush looking with all the wildflowers growing around them. |
 There
were wildflowers everywhere along the trail, not just near the hot springs.
This larkspur was one of them. |
 There
was this tiny little waterfall over a ledge of what looked a lot like old
sinter. I was surprised that the hot springs extended so far from
the West Thumb Geyser Basin itself. |
 There
was a big woodpecker in a lodgepole pine near the trail. As big as
he was he was pretty well camouflaged. I heard him long before I
spotted him. |
 There
were lots of these buttercup type flowers along the trail. |
 We
eventually made it back safely to the West Thumb Geyser Basin, and walked
the boardwalks there a bit. Fishing cone was nearly under water.
The lakes and rivers tend to be higher in the spring than in the fall
or winter. |
|
After West Thumb we drove north to Lake, stopping along the lake shore along the way. We saw ducks and some sort of aquatic mammal. We watched the swimming fur bearing critter for a while, trying to figure out what it was. It was too slow and short to be an otter. It looked a bit small for a beaver. Maybe it was a a muskrat or something. We ate at a nearly deserted Lake Hotel Dining Room, a very fancy place. I asked the waitress if the plates and silverware and glasses were complementary souvenirs. At those prices they should have been. She just laughed, which to me isn't a "no", but mom wouldn't put any in her purse. At the table next to us were a man and woman who I took to be location managers at the hotel having some sort of horrid training session about safety and insurance and stuff with some corporate trainer type guy. The man looked so bored and like he was desperate to escape, wondering what he was doing in this god forsaken wilderness. The woman was unreasonably attentive, taking notes, asking tons of questions, and smiling a lot. It was kind of interesting, but kind of rude to the paying customers I thought. It made me very glad I quit working there when I did. Then we returned to Old Faithful. |
 I
decided to hike up to see Solitary Geyser and to the observation area above
Old Faithful, something I hadn't done in a long time. Here is Solitary
having a fairly puny eruption. It is called Solitary because it sits
way up on the hill above the rest of the Upper Basin. Back in the
1940's and probably earlier they used to have a swimming pool at the Old
Faithful area. They piped in the water from what was known as Solitary
Spring. When they did this it lowered the pool's water level and
Solitary Spring began having fairly good sized eruptions. It had
probably had some small ones all along, but these were much bigger and
frequent. Even after they tore down the pool and returned Solitary
to it's former water level it kept having fairly good sized ( about 10-20
feet I think) eruptions for years. Now those 10 footers are kind
of uncommon, but occasionally in past years I would see some hefty six
to ten footers. Not this day though, just splashes a foot or two
high every few minutes.
After resting and watching Solitary for a while I continued on to the Observation Point. Along the way I saw some people looking intensely at something off the trail down the hill. They claimed it was a bear. I saw something that might have been a bear maybe 100 feet down the hill kind of behind some little bushy things. I had no reason not to believe them so I kind of walked quick to get away from the bear. |
 Observation
point is a bit of a hike, but it does give a good view of the Upper Geyser
Basin, at least the Old Faithful end of it. You can see the other
end of the basin from the observation point near Mystic
Falls. You can check out things like this eruption of Beehive
Geyser from a different point of view. Don't the people look like
little ants? |
 After
I started back down the hill from Observation Point I saw this very bold
coyote coming towards me on the trail. I stopped and started talking
calmly and kind of loudly to him, letting him know I was there and not
about to scramble up the hillside, but he just kept coming right up the
trail, totally unconcerned that a human was in the way. Right at
this point where he is in this picture, maybe ten feet from me, he decided
to step just off the trail, walked right by me on the other side of the
fence, and then got back on the trail as soon as he was past me and continued
on his way. I have seen some bold coyotes at Old Faithful, but this
one was especially bold. A ranger came along later asking about the bear
and I told him about the coyote. He seemed concerned that it had
been staring at me, but I told him that was not the case.
I suspect this coyote was some sort of supernatural sign. A few years previous to this I was walking around Geyser Hill one night and had a weird experience. It was right where this trail starts near Beach Spring. I got a peculiar feeling and then it seemed a ghostly panther (or mountain lion, or puma, whatever you want to call those big American cats) leapt out of my body and ran up the trail leading to Solitary Geyser. Needless to say it was a bit disturbing. I felt kind of depressed for a long while after that, like a sense of loss. I was also afraid to go on this trail even in the daylight for a long time. I would start to, I wanted to see if some ghost lion was waiting for me there, but I always turned back because it was too creepy. So I figure I lost some sort of mountain lion spirit back then, but gained some sort of coyote spirit on this day. Or, possibly it could have been just that the coyote was very used to people and in a hurry to get away from the bear down the hill. And the panther bit could have been from altitude induced hypoxia combined with a generally unstable mind. But then the world would be a bit less interesting with that boring explanation. |
 I
saw Castle geyser yet again. This time it looked all dramatic against
a stormy sky. There were storms buzzing about, but I didn't get rained
on. I wouldn't have let something as minor as thunderstorms get in
the way of my last few hours in Yellowstone anyway. |
 This
little wildflower was growing in the basin. I called it buckwheat,
mostly from intuition left over from long ago plant taxonomy classes.
It could easily be something else. I didn't examine the tiny flowers
closely or try hard to identify it. |
 From
Castle I walked to near Daisy Geyser. From there there is a trail
that goes along the river and through the woods and meadows to Biscuit
Basin. It's a more sylvan way to get there than the old road trail
that starts at Morning Glory Pool. It doesn't have so many up close
geysers and hot springs, but has lots of pretty scenery. I looked
up and this bird was flying overhead. |
 Here
we have yet another marmot picture. This little guy looked quite
contented all stretched out on a warm rock catching some sun. |
 Then
I ran into a bunch of these guys. They were all over the meadow on
both sides of the trail, so I figured I had better turn back. Come
to think of it, that was the second time this trip bison had spoiled a
walk for me. Well, spoiled is the wrong word. Induced a change
of plans maybe is better. We had wanted to visit the River Group
of the Lower Basin one day, but the place was infested with hordes of bison,
so we went elsewhere. |
 So
I hiked back to near Daisy, and saw that Oblong Geyser was erupting.
Oblong is not tremendously tall, maybe 25 foot, but it is a very wide eruption
from a very big pool, and throws out tons of water. I have always
thought that it would be especially fun to see up close, but I haven't
managed to do that yet. I was tempted to try and run all the way
up to Grotto Geyser, then circle back to Oblong, which would be maybe a
1/4 mile run to travel maybe 100 yards, but I figured Oblong would be done
by the time I got there. Even more frustrating is there used to be
a boardwalk between Daisy and Giant that would have let me run almost straight
over to Oblong, but it was removed years ago. |
 Daisy
Geyser was kind enough to erupt while I was close by. It does that
a lot for me it seems, unlike some others. Here it is looking more
slender than usual. |
 The
ever cool looking Punch Bowl Spring was the last thing I took a picture
of before it got dark.
I walked around a bit more, got cold, went to the Inn to soak up its ambiance and warm up and have a farewell drink at the Bear Pit, then returned to the Snow Lodge, all sad we had to return to the artificial world the next morning. I bet you thought I was going to say return to the real world. Nope, Yellowstone real, concrete jungle artificial. |
|
Our trip home was fairly uneventful till we got to the Bozeman airport. We had to wait in line for them to check our bags for explosives. Evidently Bozeman is a hotbed of terrorism or something. Then we had to go through another line to check our persons. By some miracle I did not set off the alarms. I routinely set off alarms at airports and stores for no apparent reason. It could be I have alien implants in my head or something. Maybe they weren't working that day. But that wouldn't explain why when I had forgotten to take a fistful of change out of my pants they didn't catch it. No hassles at all for looking all scruffy and unkempt or anything either. And, if I am not on some watch list for potential radical troublemakers then someone isn't doing their job. But, my poor gray haired mother didn't have such an easy time. She set off the alarm. They tested her shoes for explosives. Then they made her get into a sort of Plexiglas cubicle and did the handheld wand thing. They kept asking her if she had a belt on when it was apparent that she did not, unless she had one hidden under her clothes for some bizarre reason. Mom was getting a bit frustrated with them asking the same stupid question over and over. I thought she was going to slap the security lady. They couldn't figure out why she set the alarms off, so of course they let her get on the plane. It didn't make me feel any safer, but it was very amusing. |