Last Monday Van and I were up early. And if you know Van at least a little from this blog, you'll know that early is not something he relishes. Nonetheless, there we were, getting up well in time to meet our guide. It wasn't even fully light out when we woke up, though the valley and mountains around the resort still looked good.
It promised to be a cool, damp day for us to travel down into and about Yellowstone National Park, and it was true to its word. We got our lunch from the hotel cafe to take along, and Nate met us out front. Within an hour or so, we were inside the west gates of the park. Actually, we had already passed through part of the park - some of the drive south took us through the western edge that bled into Montana.
Nate was an awesome guide. Let me establish that right away. He was so knowledgeable and very easy to talk with. He asked what we wanted to see, and we told him we trusted him to show us the things he thought we should see. And that was a good decision. I mean, Van and I both agree that we would have stopped the very first time we saw bison and taken photos. Nate bypassed that little traffic snarl and told us that we would have many more opportunities to see bison, and right along us on the road at that. He was right.
What else was he right about? Hmmm... How about
- Taking us to see harlequin ducks, which, unlike most other ducks, are found on or near rapids. Beautiful birds.
- Finding wolves. When we told people at the hotel and elsewhere that we had seen wolves thanks to Nate's keen eye and telescope, they were blown away. A rare thing.
- Seeing Old Faithful, as is almost obligatory,
but then taking us to Cliff Geyser and the surrounding pools and vents for something more interesting
(Old Faithful may be faithful, but it wasn't especially impressive). - Stopping at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (yes, that's the actual name and how it is written), which was had an impressive waterfall and gorge.
- Driving out of the way a little to see if we could spot a bear. No luck, but hey, look at that cute marmot.
And hey, look at that great vista of Yellowstone Lake.
And curse you, weather - just imagine how this would have looked if we could have better seen the mountains in the distance. - Getting up early to go. Old Faithful was busy, but everywhere else was not crowded, and we managed to see a lot without having to endure lines and throngs.
Other stops and highlights included seeing the Old Faithful Inn, a gorgeous old national parks lodge that, based on the tourist traffic inside (including us, eating lunch there in a common area and then buying souvenirs) we were heartily glad we didn't stay at.
There were also the Gibbon Falls, another handsome park formation.
He pointed out a forest that was killed by the flooding of chemically toxic water from the geothermal action.
He drove us past yet more bison, this time with calves in tow.
We were back at the hotel around about 4:00 that day. We unwound, and then headed to the hotel bar for a nice dinner, sitting in the window. A very successful Monday of our escape, and we both slept well that night, indeed!
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