Tuesday, August 23 2016

Grey Shirt Boy…the backstory.  We checked in to our cabin last night.  After we had settled in, Quinn & Kira went out front to eat apples and peanut butter.  While they were chilling, the family staying in the cabin next to us checked in.  As soon as the door opened to their minivan a young boy, maybe age 7 got out of the car wearing a grey shirt.  Straight away, Quinn growled and said to Kira, “Grey shirt boy.  I hate him.”

And then the absolutely absurdity of his statement got the entire family laughing about how much we didn’t trust, didn’t like, hated the ‘grey shirt boy.’  Of course, by now, you know we are totally not like that and were totally kidding, but ‘grey shirt boy’ has become a running inside joke in our family.  For two days, anytime there was a ‘grey shirt boy’ sighting much banter ensued. Grey shirt boy and Bennie the Bison are examples of those precious inside jokes and experiences that weave the tapestry of memories for family or friends over the years.

Side note:  Grey shirt boy was the cutest little guy and the girls enjoyed playing with him very much.  I still don’t like him 😉

The altitude change is no joke! Yellowstone park sits on a plateau that is around 8000 feet above sea level (some of the surrounding mountains are as high as 11,000 feet).  Raleigh, NC (where we are from) is about 300 feet above sea level, so this was a big adjustment!

 On a side note, this reminds me of a cool feature my girls discovered on Snap Chat.  There is an altitude recorder and it will report, real time, your altitude and was fun to watch as we drove through some of the steep mountains and land features.

So, back to the story – In the morning, while we were all getting ready for the day, Kira passed out!  She was in the bathroom drying her hair and I was at the sink.  She looked at me and said, “mom, I feel weird…I feel hot…” and then, BAM, she went out.  She collapsed down and crumpled backward into our cooler.  It happened so fast and you would think from my years of critical care nursing instinct would have kicked in, but instead I grabbed the blow dryer trying to shut it off and must have yelled her name 3 times until I was able to register what happened.  She came to very quickly and said, “what happened?”  In addition to passing out, she had several nose bleeds too.  After that, Kira (and everyone) committed to drinking a ton of water and never had any further issues.

It is so difficult to say what was my favorite part of our vacation, because there are so many, but driving through Hayden Valley must be in my top 3.   Hayden Valley is a huge valley in Yellowstone that is in between Yellowstone Falls/Canyons and Yellowstone Lake.  We drove through the Valley on our way to the Lake, but went back three times over the two days because of the beauty and animals!  We saw so many herds of bison and parked our car and walked and just where in absolute awe of the views and experiences.  I found myself crying on more than one occasion at the enormity and beauty of it all.

winding rivers & tons of animals in Hayden Valley

After spending some time in the Valley, we continued our drive to Yellowstone Lake.  This drive turned out to be our first up close and personal experience with wildlife!   I was driving our minivan and all of sudden in front of me, in the distance, I noticed a dark band stretching across the road.  At first, I thought perhaps it was a road block of some sort but quickly observed it was moving…moving because it was a huge herd of bison!  We read in our manuals and guides to not stop and just keep driving slowly if this should occur, but they literally blocked the entire road and cars were backing up behind us so fast we were stuck.  We were the first car in the line and they bison were coming straight at us.  I would like to say I handled it calmly and embraced it with the spirit of learning and Laura Ingalls, but not so much.  I kind of freaked out for a few minutes.  Images of the cautionary movies we watched at the visitor’s center of bison ramming cars and people kept flashing through my mind…

My girls turned immediately into 3 high pitched super excited ‘girls’ and were squealing (and crying) so loudly I thought for sure they were going to freak out the bison!  Luckily, we realized very quickly they had no interest in eating us for lunch and just walked right past us and we got to witness the most amazing animals up close.  It was one of those memories and moments I know we will never forget.

After the bison finished, we were going to stop to hike a trail, but there were signs up indicating that bison were on the trail and we agreed we would pass – bison in our car was one thing, but on the trail where nothing would separate us…not this girl.

Yellowstone Lake is a huge beautiful spring lake that although will mostly freeze in winter will maintain unfrozen areas were water depth is shallow and heat from springs keep area warm.  This area of the caldera has filled with water and has a VERY active base.  There are areas in the bottom of the lake that are very active –  bulging and shifting and fault lines as well.  You will occasionally see the bubbling in the water of activity in various locations under the lake.  It is a trip! 

Along the rim of the lake there are also numerous geysers and bubbling mudpots to explore.  The mudpots were so cool!  The mudpots, like the geysers are a result of being on an active supervolcano and bubble not because of the heat, but secondary to the gases escaping from the mixture under the Earth.  Some of the mudpots smell like rotten eggs (due to the sulfur) and the flies were something new to enjoy!  These geothermal features were among our favorites.

Ok, so if the valley, the bison and lake were not enough, this just was like the icing on the cake!  As we were driving back we noticed a lot of cars parked on the side of the road and those infamous orange cones!  We pulled over and asked the park ranger what was going on and he informed us that a grizzly bear was in the middle of the river and he was eating a bison!  What?!   It was awesome.  It turned out the bison had died upstream several days before and as it was floating down the river 3 different grizzly bears had been fattening up on it over a total of 3 days!  We got so close and were able to witness first-hand the awesomeness and strength of a grizzly bear.  We were so glad we brought binoculars with us!  Some of the best pictures and video we got were taken through the binoculars!

We went to different areas of Yellowstone Canyon and were just so in love with the views and features.  We took so many pictures it hard to limit to just a few!

taking in the valley

winding rivers & tons of animals

Dab.

At the end of the day as the sun was setting, we thought…can you even imagine what the stars must be like at night in Hayden Valley?  There is NO light and it is enormous!  We heated up some hot cocoa in our electric tea kettle and set out for some star gazing.

Our family loved our minivan rental!  It had one of those back up cameras that we had just a little bit too much fun with!!

some fun with the back up camera on our minivan.

Do you remember the scene in the Pee Wee Herman movie when he is like outside in a jungle and its pitch dark and he is hearing sounds and seeing some eyes blink and then all of the sudden when the lights come on and he is totally surrounded by tigers, elephants, monkeys and hundreds of other animals??  Well…I couldn’t help but remember all the wildlife we saw in the Valley earlier in the day and was terrified we were going to be mauled to death if we got out of the car.  After noticing many cars parked along the side of the road, and about 15 minutes of calming my nerves, we enjoyed the most amazing view of the nighttime sky, ever. 

We could see the Milky Way, planets, constellations, satellites and shooting stars!  My oldest daughter saw her first shooting star that evening.  Quinn and Kira went up on the roof and watched the stars.  I would highly recommend this!  I would also highly recommend bringing blankets and/or sleeping bags from your hotel/cabins to lay on the roof and to cover you because it is freezing at night, literally.  We would have stayed much longer if we had not got so cold. 

We returned to our cabin for our second and last night in the cabin — while we were excited about our next adventures we were all very sad that our days in Yellowstone were winding down.  We all agree we wish to come back and our middle daughter has indicated she would like to come back here as a graduation gift when she completes high school.  We went to sleep and hoped for good sleep as we had a long drive to Devils Tower in the morning.  It is a 7 hour drive we want to leave early enough to drive into sunrise –

DAY TWO:  How did I not know this?

Kamiko wrote out our itinerary each day in her notebook.

Sunday August 21^st, 2016

Our vacation out West completely coincided with the National Parks 100^th Anniversary.  It was a very exciting time to be in the parks because there were many special events scheduled to commemorate this special occasion.  After learning about how the National Parks were created, I truly believe it is probably one of the best forward thinking decisions our government ever made. 

I have been to Europe and stood in awe of the Roman and Greek history – marveled at the beauty, stories and legacy of our civilizations.  And, now, I am in Yellowstone and bathing in the same feeling touring and exploring the history of North America.  It is incredible!  We are talking history that is millions, sometimes, billions of years old!  Geothermal features, rocks, land, water, ice ages, volcano eruptions…here, right before my eyes.  I am in love.

Walking, witnessing and simmering in the longevity and awesomeness of our planet – first hand.  Marveling at life, nature – our history.  I knew on our first day, I was never going to want to leave.

One of the programs created to honor the 100^th anniversary (thank you Theodore Roosevelt!) was The 4^th Grade Park Pass –  Every Kid in a Park Pass!  Kamiko, being in the 4^th grade was our ticket to the parks!  Any family with a 4^th grader can register on line FOR FREE for a pass to ALL (almost all) of the National Parks in the United States of America.  

It is simple. Go to www.https://everykidinapark.gov  and complete the quick application.  I did it with Kamiko. You will print up a paper voucher and when you visit the National Park, they will change out your paper copy for a very cool laminated card! Registration was easy and all we had to do was show our pass when we entered any of the National Parks and the park ranger would verify our 4^th grader was in attendance. 

 Kamiko thought this was pretty cool because everywhere we went the Park Rangers personally welcomed her to the park.  The perks to this pass need to be checked per park, but for our trip the pass covered our entire vehicle (2 adults and 3 children) park entrances for every park – FOR FREE.  It was awesome.  The program was such a success last year, that they have decided to continue the program and you can still register now until September of 2017.

 We could not say enough about our experiences in the National Parks.  We fell in love with the parks.  The Park Rangers are the BEST and so willing and helpful to provide exciting and meaningful experiences for guests of the parks.  If I had anything ‘negative’ to write, it would be our stay at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge.  The actual facility was awesome and in a fantastic location.  However, this was the only place where the customer service was less than enthusiastic. 

We came in late at night and were not greeted in a very welcoming manner.  The individual working at the check-in indicated where we could go to retrieve a cart to bring our suitcases and items in for the night.

Quick walk to Old Faithful and Geysers

The next morning, we wanted to check out of our room before going to do the geysers and Quinn went in to the same closet to retrieve the cart and were almost militantly stopped by the front desk to question him (literally, question him) about what he was doing and where did he get the cart?  “Didn’t he see the sign that said “employees only?”  After explaining that he had been told last night to go in the closet to retrieve the cart (and thought that was what he was supposed to do) he was informed that that cart was only for the bellman and he would have to put it back. 

Ironically, the bellman was nowhere to be found and my husband ended up helping several elderly men who thought HE was the bellman lift their heavy suitcases into their cars!  So, I swear, I am not a high maintenance hotel girl, but this was the ONLY place in our entire 2 week trip I was disappointed by the lack of assistance the staff provided. 

 The main visitor center for the geysers is a quick walk from the hotel.  As soon as you walk through the front doors you are greeted by a floor to ceiling glass view of Old Faithful!  Although not the biggest geyser in the park, it is impressive and erupts with almost 90 minute regularity.  They have the area so well designed that despite the huge number of visitors, there was excellent seating and viewing for all! 

view as you walk in visitors center

boardwalk to geyser

ERUPTION!

The park is huge and there are many amazing thermal features to watch!  We spent about four hours walking the boardwalk.  Luckily, while we were there one of the larger geysers named “Beehive” erupted.  This geyser erupts only every 10-12 hours.  While Old Faithful erupts every ninety minutes, some of the geysers erupt like every 25 years! 

Which brings me to the biggest AH HA moment I had on this vacation…Yellowstone is an ACTIVE SUPERvolcano.  How did I not know this?  There is a visitor’s center that has interactive museums and movies to help explain the phenomenon you witness. There is cool video you can watch prior to the eruption and then another after. 

I am not a geologist, but this was my take away – Yellowstone is a HUGE active super volcano.  And, by supervolcano I mean that if it were to erupt (and it will) the ash cloud would cover and reach most of North America!  The last time this volcano erupted (roughly 650,000 years ago) the cone collapsed and created an enormous caldera that filled with water and they have even been able to isolate the ‘hot spot’ of this volcano.  

Normally, magma flows deep under the Earth’s crust, but due to the collapsed volcano, Yellowstone is unique in that the magma flow is much closer to the Earth’s surface – magma flows only like 4-5 miles under the Earth’s crust!  Thus, it heats the rock which in turns heats the water and creates the amazing steam/pressure in the geysers we witness and the unbelievable mudpots and geothermal pools we will visit later in our trip.  To realize you are walking on an active volcano??  BLEW MY MIND.

To walk the entire geyser park took us about 4 hours and it was very hot!  This location requires guests to walk on a boardwalk for safety.  You will need sunscreen and water and some good walking shoes.  For fun, Kayah, our teenager, brought her ballet pointe shoes and we enjoyed taking pictures of her in them over the course of our two week trip.  I think this was something she really enjoyed and I would encourage anyone with kids to see how your children can find ways to personalize their experience and document it – be it through photography, journaling, blogging, video recording, etc.  Some of my favorite photos of our vacation are the artistic ones we took in the different locations.

Stay on the Boardwalk people!

Next stop? Grand Prismatic Springs!  OH MY GOSH.  So beautiful.  The parking was a little crazy, but well worth the hassle.  The springs are absolutely beautiful (and smelly).  There are these features called “bacterial mats” where the heat from the springs, mixed with the shallow run-off and atmosphere create this unique bacterial almost petri dishes – fascinating.  And, Momma Mia! – The lighting was so wonderful for photography. CAUTION:  Do NOT wear a hat!  There were hundreds of hats in the Springs (it gets very gusty up there).

hundreds of visitor hats remain at the Spring

The Grand Prismatic Springs took us about an hour.  After our experience at the geysers and the Grand Prismatic Springs, we needed to get rolling because we had about a two-hour drive to our next location – Mammoth Hot Springs.  We stopped and had a picnic lunch near a beautiful spot by the river!  Our meals were so good! 

By the time we would eat each day, everyone would be so hungry and it was so nice to just take our time, be outside, enjoy beautiful locations and eat delicious food.  We would pull out our tubs, coolers and throw a tarp down to eat! 

Kayah

Kamiko

Kira

On our way to Old Mammoth we enjoyed a beautiful ride through a lush valley.  The thing about your trip to Yellowstone (and the West) is the drive IS the vacation!  You will see the most amazing things along the way and have the best experiences.  Here are some of my personal favorite photos of us in the Valley.

Mammoth Springs is a quaint little town with a lot of history.  As we were driving into the town we noticed straight away the orange cones – which ALWAYS signify the park rangers are near and SOMETHING cool is going on – promise!  The cones were along the sidewalk near our hostel we would be staying and we quickly discovered there were a large number of elk eating grass in front.  We could not believe it.  We checked in our hostel (which I will discuss shortly, we LOVED it) grabbed a couple glasses of wine and hot chocolate for the girls and sat on the hostel patio and just watched the elk make their way through town. 

Quinn did such an awesome job of booking us lodgings at all different kinds of places.  In Old Mammoth we stayed at the Mammoth Inn.  It was a hostel, which meant we shared a bathroom with a floor of guests.  It was the COOLEST place.  It contained a lot of history and they had many old photos of the hotel and location as it looked a hundred years ago. 

Due to the fact they were getting ready for the National Parks Centennial Celebration there was a lot of excitement and preparation. Our rooms were simple but comfortable.  We had a sink in our room and fans for air conditioning.  It gets so cool at night, heat was not an issue for us.  It was a little dim in the room, there were only two lights and very few outlets, but had such a historic older feel we loved it.  The service was OUTSTANDING in this hotel.  Everyone was so informative and helpful. 

Kind of a cool story – before we went to Yellowstone, we read a book called “Death in Yellowstone – Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park” by Lee H. Whittlesey.  It was a great book that basically tells the stories of how people foolishly die in Yellowstone.  99.9 percent of the time it is because of poor judgement by people to not abide the rules posted in the park! 

Book that shares the many foolish ways tourist die each year in the park.

As we were in the lobby talking to the bellman, a young girl walked up and joined the conversation.  She was so cool and obviously had enormous passion and knowledge of the area….it turned out her name was Jessa and she was the DAUGHTER of the author of the book, Death in Yellowstone!  We were a little star-struck and she was so kind to indulge us with a photo!

Jessa!

Mammoth Inn is also the National Park Service headquarters so there is A LOT of activity going on in this location!  This is one of the only hotels/motels/hostels that the front desk is open 24 hours!  There was no T.V and no internet, but your park rangers are like your own personal ‘walking talking google.’  You could approach them so easily and they were happy to share their knowledge.

They had cool maps at the desk that the Rangers updated everyday with information on fire activity in the park.  While we were there, there were four active fires underway, and only one that was becoming a fire of ‘concern.’  We learned much about how fire is a vital role in the vibrant ecosystem of Yellowstone.  The forests depend on the fire to help it grow!  For example, there is a tree in Yellowstone (I cannot remember the name) that has pinecones.  The only way these pinecones can open and release their seeds to grow new trees is by extreme heat (from fires).  When you drive around Yellowstone you can clearly see where fires have ravaged an area.  The longer you stayed you could also begin to determine how long ago the fire occurred by the number or lack of ‘baby trees’ that were growing in under the burned areas.

Some photos of the smokey days

Depending on the winds and weather, some days we were very aware of the fires.  Some days you could smell the smoke and the sky would have an orange tint and other days not at all.  While we were there, the park did end up closing one of the entrances to the park due to concerns over safety.

 After a delicious dinner in our hotel, we iced up our coolers, everyone showered and we called it a night.  This hostel had such sweet quaint touches, like the white robes left for us on the hooks in the room.  We would highly recommend this location to anyone that doesn’t mind sharing bathroom facilities and being ‘unconnected’ from the world.  We loved it.   THEN & NOW – the black and white photo was a vintage photo taken over a 100 years ago on our hostel patio – the one on the right was mine today….cool, right?

THEN

NOW

The next day we planned to explore Mammoth Springs, See Roosevelt Arch and then to Yellowstone Grand Canyon.