Monday 13 August 2001 - Sunday 19 August 2001

Well, here we are at Yellowstone in the alphabetically last but politically 44th state of the USA. Arrived at dusk, shattered, found our site, hooked up and went to sleep.

First day: slept a lot, updated web site, wrote to people, shivered. We're now at nearly 9,000' and you can tell by the temperature: in Switzerland at this altitude you can ski all year round on Crap Vorab. In the evening we went to a Ranger talk on how Yellowstone became the world's first National Park and the horrendous mistakes that were made before everyone realised what ecology was all about; for instance, the bears were positively encouraged to feed at the garbage dumps at the lodges so that the tourists could watch (oh, aren't they cute - just like people etc.). Later, they shot them.

Second day: up at 6:15am to take in the Ranger talk on wildlife 10 miles up the road.  She was great, but the mist didn't lift until around 8:30am so she had to improvise with chat about local wildlife for quite a while. In the meantime our friends from England - Jackie, Mark, Jocelyn and Alan - turned up: we'd agreed to meet up with them in Yellowstone in a day's time, but had sort of expected that this was the kind of event where we were likely to spot them and we were right. Ten points to us. Here is Jocelyn and Alan's joint interpretation of a grizzly bear ...

... although Alan as a dead pronghorn was the high spot.

For the rest of the day we toured round geysers including Old Faithful ...

... mud pools and hot springs ...

... and fumaroles (steaming holes in the ground).

At the centre of the park is Yellowstone Lake, a vast volcanic crater about 30 miles in diameter. The magma here is still only 3 - 8 miles below the surface which is why the whole region is so thermally active. One of the great things about it is that the features are always changing: geysers appear and disappear, springs open up or dry out, within days temperature changes can alter the colonies of algae and bacteria which make the features so colourful ...

The only down side is the pervasive stink of sulphur compounds.

Third day: went to the early morning talk again in the hope that the mist wouldn't be there and more animals would, but it was even worse. A different and duller ranger did the chat, the mist lasted almost until the end, and all we saw in the way of wildlife was a tiny dot in the distance which the ranger was 90% convinced was a wolf. Probably. Most of the talk was about identification of scat (dung) which seems to be a subject of fascination to all park rangers, but at least you're guaranteed to be able to see some anywhere you go.

Afterwards we visited Yellowstone Canyon, which they advertise as a smaller version of the Grand Canyon. It's not even close, I'm afraid, but nonetheless quite impressive in its own way ...

... including two good waterfalls.

In the evening we cooked for and fed Jackie and Co., and shifted Mark's pictures off his digital camera onto a Zip disc so he could take some more.

Fourth day: Ranger walk in the mud volcano area, including an excursion into an area not normally open to the great unwashed to see a relatively new one ...

When originally discovered a few years ago it was about two feet across, and has since grown to a seething 30' pit accompanied by disgusting glurping and bubbling noises.

Afterwards, went round another of the thermal regions we hadn't seen yet; not quite such spectacular spouting, but great colours ...

This hot spring at the edge of the lake ...

... is known as the Fishing Cone. Earlier this century, fishermen used to stand on the cone, catch fish, dunk them in the hot water until they were cooked, and then eat them. However, the fish had the last laugh: studies later revealed large traces of arsenic, lead and other unpleasantness in the cone's water.

Excellent communal evening meal at Canyon Lodge. On the way home we got held up because a bison had been hit by a minibus and killed; it didn't do the minibus much good either.

Fifth day: saw a herd of bison, some fairly close ...

followed by our first mooses (meese?) ...

... on our morning excursion to Fort Yellowstone. FY was built when the army had the task of looking after the park between 1886 and 1916, prior to which the public could and did shoot the wildlife and trample the natural features at will. As you can imagine, it was a pretty popular posting. Also saw our first and only vertical petrified tree ...

... which got that way by being covered in volcanic ash while it was still standing. Most petrified trees fall over, get carried down river and are then covered in sediment, so this one is something special.

In the afternoon yet more interesting natural features. First, the Liberty Cap ...

... which is a column of rock deposited over many years by a geyser and which gets its name from its apparent similarity to the knitted caps worn by participants in the French Revolution. Next, Canary Springs, a cascade of mineral-laden water which runs down a hillside and deposits calcite over all the terrain and vegetation in its path ...

Finally drove to Norris Geyser Basin, an expansive plain which has yet more different squirty things and some interesting formations left when springs dry up ...

... and a nice graphic warning not to walk where you aren't supposed to, featuring a child about to be boiled alive ...

Quite right too.

Sixth day: Had final breakfast with J, M, J and A. They'd been up wildlife watching in the Lamar Valley since 5.00am and had seen grizzlies, moose, badger and pronghorn and so were suitably smug. They set off for Colorado and a luxury condo, while we went to the Fishing Lake Visitor Centre and Museum followed by a bit of relaxing.

While at the Centre we asked Jessica, the Ranger who did our first talk, where we might spot some beaver and she suggested a few places and recommended trying them at dusk. So, in the evening we set out, more in hope than expectation, but in fact we were lucky at the second site: Christine spotted a head swimming down the river, shortly after which the attached beaver came in to the bank and frolicked around, ate some grass etc. Too far away for a photo, but another great tick in our book.

Monday 20 August 2001

Took our leave of Yellowstone. Decided not to head up to Glacier National Park in Montana after all as it's an awful long way and in the wrong direction; we'll save that for next time. Instead, carried on eastward and ended up at Absaroka Bay RV Park in the town of Cody, named after and founded by Buffalo Bill Cody. BB had a varied career, including being a buffalo hunter supplying the US Army with meat, but really came into his own as a showman when he created the Wild West Show which toured all over the world and helped form many people's view of the American West. The main attraction in Cody is the Buffalo Bill Historical Centre, comprising the Gallery of Western Art, the BB Museum dedicated to portraying his life and career, the Plains Indian Museum ...

... and the Cody Firearms Musem, all well worth a visit.

In  the evening we chatted with our neighbour on the campsite who is a peripatetic art teacher. He and his wife spend the winter in Apache Junction near Phoenix, Arizona, so we'll put that on our list of places to look at.

Tuesday 21 August 2001

Headed south-east to Thermopolis, a small town with its own substantial hot springs. No impressive geysers etc. but plenty of extensive colourful terraces to rival those in Yellowstone ...

... together with a modest sign on the mountainside pointing visitors in the right direction ...

After lunch we visited the local dinosaur museum created recently following a find about ten years ago, which has a number of excellent exhibits ...

... and more specimens to process than it can possibly hope to deal with for the foreseeable future.

Stayed in our smallest campsite so far: the impressively named Rangeland Court Motel and RV Park which has precisely five sites. Toilet facilities were available at the bait and tackle shop next door, courtesy of a key hanging from a nail in the porch of the motel.

Wednesday 22 August 2001

To Devil's Tower National Monument, famous from its central role in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It's the central core of a volcano from several million years ago; the surrounding terrain has slowly eroded away leaving the hard centre standing up from the otherwise nearly flat landscape. A very eerie sight; not quite as spooky as Ayers Rock but not far off ...

Saw a couple of mad climbers attempting an ascent. This is permitted even though it's a National Monument, which seemed daft to us. Also, like Ayers Rock, the Native Americans really aren't very keen on people climbing all over one of their sacred places.

Saw our first prairie dog colony on the way in, each dog with its own little mound which it stands on and scans the horizon. They're plump, ungainly and entertaining creatures, and there's now only a tiny fraction of their original population left as they've been trapped and poisoned close to extinction due to their tendency to dig tunnels in prime agricultural land and eat the crops in order to improve their view of potential invaders. When they spot a possible danger they emit a series of high-pitched squeaks whilst wagging their little tails in perfect synchronisation, making them look like mechanical toys.

Off again, past a good example of the nodding donkey oil wells which you see scattered all over the country wherever there's a few barrels fairly near the surface ...

... and into our next state, South Dakota.