 | "Buffalo Jams" on our Yellowstone vacation | | Larry Krouse, Smith Center KS |
Our Yellowstone vacation started last summer when the weather here in Kansas was so hot it was almost unbearable. After eight hours of driving we were in Casper, Wyoming, within sight of the first mountains my children (Misty 9, Daisy 4) had ever seen in their lives. Two hours later, we hit Shoshoni and turned north. I knew the girls were in for some kind of surprise when I looked down the straight-as-an-arrow road that pointed unwaveringly toward a huge mountain range! I was not let down!
The road through Wind River Canyon is about as impressive as any drive I have ever been on. Just when you think that there is no way that the road can do anything but run into the side of a cliff, you finally see a break in the mountains and, sure enough, the road heads right up that break!
My family, descended from generations of flat-landers, was in for a treat! After surviving the canyon and two or three tunnels through the mountain itself, we arrived in Thermopolis. What a beautiful town, situated on the north side of those mountains, with the Big Horn River running practically through the middle of it!
The Super 8 is a great place to recover from a long drive. My wife and the girls swam in their pool while I took a well-deserved nap. Later, we explored Thermopolis and ate at an A&W/bowling alley where you had a phone at every table to call in your order!
It sunk in hard that we weren't in Kansas anymore when, the next morning, I went out to the car to get something from the trunk and the 50 degree chill hit me, along with the distinctive smell of pine. The smell brought back memories of traveling with my parents and grandparents when I was a child, and the chill was so refreshing that I finally realized that I was on VACATION! No more 106-degree days for a week or so! Talk about a great feeling! And better yet, I knew the best was yet to come....
Meeteetse is a charming little town where we made our first "pit-stop" of the day. It is one of those places that the storeowner asks you if you noticed what the price of that bottle of water was when you picked it up and takes your word for it when you tell him!
Anticipation was building the closer we got to Cody where, after filling up with gas, we made an abrupt right turn directly toward another mountain. After spending some time at Buffalo Bill Dam, we wound our way up Sylvan Pass, and were greeted by one of the most impressive views on Earth.
We could see Yellowstone Lake, and it seemed we were completely surrounded by mountains. It felt like we were entering a whole other world. We were. Yellowstone is like visiting another country without really leaving home. It's enormous, but there are thousands of people there. On the other hand, if you get off the beaten path (all it takes is a turn signal), you realize that you are in one of the few true wildernesses left on this planet.
After checking in to the Lake Lodge Cabins and eating, we visited the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. My wife was astounded. It's one thing to see it in pictures, but that is a pale shadow of actually being there and hearing an entire river crashing over 300 feet of falls!
The second day, we toured Norris (we were soooo hoping that Steamboat would erupt while we were there, but no such luck!) It puts on a pretty good show though, acting like it would like nothing better than to blow off at any time. Then on to Mammoth. We were worn out after that and ready to call it a day as we drove back and checked into the Lake Hotel. My children had already coined a phrase for all the stops we had to make in the Hayden Valley as "Buffalo jams" because of all the cars backed up waiting for the bison to get out of the road!
I pulled up in front of the Lake Hotelto check in, and when we walked back out to the car, a buffalo was cruising the parking lot eyeing my car! I was wishing our car wasn't bright red, and hoping he wouldn't take exception to it! We just stayed back and watched the beautiful beast as he lumbered along, acting like he owned the place, which in a way he does! I pointed that out to my wife and she agreed. We are the invaders here, and this is his home! Luckily, he didn't have a problem with our car and soon moved on.
I had wondered how my family would take not having TV, but that never really came up. It seemed like the whole time we were in Yellowstone nobody missed television. Though we did bring a radio, for the most part we were too busy to listen, anyway.
Day 3: We moved to Grant Village. On the way, we checked out West Thumb. The worst thing about West thumb was all of the trout we could see in the water right behind the "No Fishing" signs! Then it was Old Faithful! After a day of touring the Lower Geyser Basin, we all were bright red! That surprised me because after living in the Kansas sun all summer I didn't think any of us were capable of getting sunburned. It wasn't a big deal though, it went away after a day or so. I suppose it was just a sign of the high altitude.
Day 4: I finally took the girls fishing! We rented a boat and didn't catch anything, we fished the Yellowstone River and didn't catch anything, even though we tried everything! I was advised by a ranger that one of the big hatches of the year had just happened, so it probably wasn't our fault -- the fish were probably full. OK with us! We still had fun. Fresh trout would have been great on the grill, but chicken wasn't bad either!
My advice to people going to the Park is to take your own grill. All of the picnic areas are awesome, and nobody goes there! Most of them are right off the road and very secluded. The only problem I had was that there is a certain type of bird that will do anything to eat your lunch! I don't know what they are called, but they almost look like a bluejay. [Ed. Note: they are robber jays.] The girls got a kick out of them coming down and stealing potato chips from them. I was not happy with them feeding the animals, but as they pointed out, the animals were feeding themselves! They would swoop down and make off with your chip before you would know what's going on! Then they would fight over it. To this day, if I ask my youngest what she liked most about Yellowstone she will say the "picnic birds," as they called them.
It was heartbreaking for me when we finally had to leave the Park. I think a part of me will always be there. I plan on going the year after this and maybe every year after. I can't imagine getting tired of Yellowstone National Park.
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