Yellowstone National Park

31 July - 4 August 2019

It was one of those bucket-list items: a visit to Yellowstone. And this midwesterner enjoys watching the terrain and vegetation change as we travel west. Our route, which took us to the park from the south, led through the Wind River Indian Reservation and Grand Teton National Park.

29 July: Our car was loaded with camping equipment, and we missed the much easier trips we took in the small RVs we owned over a decade ago. This day we drove around 13 hours, ending the day in North Platte, Nebraska.

While anticipating the drive, I checked some web sites for the Wind River Reservation, and learned that Sacajawea (or Sacagawea) is buried there, or so some folks, including the Eastern Shoshone who inhabit the reservation, believe. The cemetery is only two miles off our route, so we stopped there.

Sacagawea—the most accepted spelling—is mentioned seventeen times in the Lewis & Clark journals. It’s spelled differently each time, but always with a letter G.

I read long ago that Sacagawea died during childbirth in South Dakota at the age of 25, and that’s consistent with Wikipedia. But since Native Americans didn’t keep written records, it’s difficult to be certain. In any event, an effort by suffragists to locate her remains was undertaken in the very early 1900s. Sacagawea captured their attention because she was allowed to vote during the Corps of Discovery’s expedition. A Dakota Sioux physician was hired to find Sacagawea’s remains. After visiting numerous tribes, he learned of a woman who had once lived on the Wind River Reservation, whose great granddaughter said spoke of a long trip with white men when she was young, and who had in her possession a Jefferson peace medal, which Lewis & Clark handed out to Native Americans they met. So it was concluded that the woman was Sacagawea. We figured that whether Sacagawea was indeed buried on the reservation, it was still a memorial to her and worthy of our visit.

On to Yellowstone National Park: We’ve seen videos and photos of geysers, bears, Bison, Elk, and other wildlife, but our initial impression of the park was a surprise. It is not nearly as open as the photos seem to imply; rather, the roads travel through forests composed mostly of Lodgepole Pine, and vistas are limited.

In the portions of the park we visited, which were in the southern half, open areas were found only near geysers or other thermal features and a few valleys. Herds of Bison and Elk can be found in two valleys: Hayden and Lamar Valleys although the latter species can be seen elsewhere such as within a few yards of our campsite in Grant Village.

The park is huge—the caldera alone is the size of the State of Rhode Island—and the maximum speed limit is 45 mph, probably to safeguard wildlife as well as other visitors. As a result, a visit to the park results in a lot of driving, and it takes time to get where one’s going.

The first day, 31 August, we set up camp, and then enjoyed one another’s company for a while. We visited the nearby West Thumb Geyser Basin, which offered our first look at the park’s thermal features. Since the best time to see large mammals was at dawn or dusk, we drove to Hayden Valley where we watched a herd of a hundred or more Bison.  Some of them crossed the road, blocking traffic and creating long lines of stopped vehicles. A while later a herd of over 70 Elk emerged from trees across the valley.

Cold Water: Bathrooms in our campground, and I suspect others as well, offered cold water only. Hot water was available in the shower building, but the sinks in the same facility had only cold water. Twice I washed my hair and shaved in cold water. It wasn’t fun but not nearly as uncomfortable as I imagined.

Weather: During the course of a typical July or August day the temperature varies around 40-degrees, dropping from a high in the 80s in afternoons to overnight lows in the low- to mid-40s, and lows in the 30s are common. Because the atmosphere is thinner in the park—our campground was at 7800 feet in elevation—the sun feels more intense than at lower elevations. Sunny afternoons were uncomfortably warm, but around bed-time our sleeping bags were welcome sources of warmth. All of us were cold overnight even with sleeping bags rated at 20 or 30 degrees. Apparently such ratings are only reference points. I awoke several times because my head was cold, but eventually found that wrapping my poncho liner around my head kept me warmer. My wife and I took along yoga mats that we placed beneath our air mattresses as a form of insulation from the ground. The tent floor beneath the yoga mats was colder than above the mats (between the mats and our air mattresses) so it helped a bit.

Brochures and web sites advise carrying lip balm and plenty of water, and we found that to be valid advice; the air is dry at Yellowstone.

The next morning, 1 August, we made breakfast in our respective campsites, then convoyed to Old Faithful, which was erupting as we arrived. While waiting for the next eruption, I spotted a female Mountain Bluebird, and a male Western Tanager in a tree before us. I’d seen both species only once before. About a thousand visitors lined a semicircular walkway with benches to view the next eruption.

While in the vicinity we watched Old Faithful erupt four times. We also had lunch in the nearby cafeteria, and explored the area including the historic Old Faithful Inn. 

Cell Phone Service: We were warned that cell phone service would be spotty or poor, and we found it to be nonexistent. It was both a hindrance and a convenience. We noticed that a lot fewer folks had their heads down staring at their phones, and in restaurants, people looked at one another.

Bears: We didn’t see bears, although our son and family who arrived a few days before we did saw a mama and two cubs. But we obeyed regulations governing the cleanliness of our campsites. No food items, coolers, or even water containers—I guess to bears they look like food containers—were to be left in unoccupied campsites, so each day we loaded everything except our tents, luggage pack packs, sleeping bags, and lawn chairs into our cars. That meant that we didn’t have room for back-seat passengers, and each time we left the campground we traveled in a three-vehicle convoy. Communication between cars would have been nice. In hindsight, FRS (Family Radio Service) two-way radios, at least one per car, would have been nice to have.

2 August: We left the campground after breakfast, heading to the Grand Prismatic Spring, the most colorful thermal feature of the park. We hiked the provided boardwalk, and marveled at the colorful hot spring.

Crowds and Parking: The most popular attraction at Yellowstone is Old faithful, and the area offers plenty of parking. But other attractions had a lot less such as the Grand Prismatic Spring, which may be among the next most popular park features. Waiting in line to enter the parking lot, and then finding a parking spot once there was not fun. Plenty of folks parked along the main road, then walked in. Perhaps these areas are less busy once school starts, but then the nights can be much colder. During these times when NPS budgets are shrinking, this is something visitors have to deal with.

The next stop was a swimming hole, where the kids spent time in the water. Autumn spent time with 7-year-old Miranda, and they seemed to bond during their time in the water.

3 August: This was Casey’s birthday, and he was given the opportunity to pick out the day’s adventure, which consisted of hiking the Elephant Back Trail. It led through woods and up a mountain with a crest near 8500 feet. The top provided a great view of Yellowstone Lake. 

4 August: Our day of departure. We began the 1600-mile trip back home, passing once again through Grand Teton National Park and the Wind River Indian Reservation. Lonnie and I stopped that night in Sidney, Nebraska.

5 August: Continuing the drive through Nebraska, thirteen miles of Iowa, and into Missouri, where we checked into a room in Columbia.

6 August: An easy drive back home.

I can’t leave this topic without mentioning our trusty, old Coleman Camp Stove. I bought it in 1978, and used it quite a bit over the years including making tea and preparing meals at Yellowstone.