Letters from... Yellowstone (part 5)

 (text in ENG)

Mammoth Hot Springs

  On the fifth day our destination was Mammoth Hot Springs. We moved from the western, mountainous, lake covered side of the park to the “real” Yellowstone, the land of geysers and hot springs.

   However, before departing towards Mammoth, getting excited from our good luck the previous day seeing two bears, we took a round early in the morning looking for wolves or moose. As for the moose, unfortunately we haven´t seen one in the whole trip (why is it that you can´t see one even in zoos?), and we just  missed the wolves as well… we still saw the crowd and the park ranger, but seemed that the wolves had already left. But it seems that it is not rare to see wolves in the park, as we were told the other day that the bison the bear was finishing off was taken in the morning by wolves. And the next day they show up again! But it seems you have to be an early bird to catch the “wolf” – later we heard that the wolves showed up around 6:30, and we went to Lamar Valley at 7am… what a pity!

   With a bit of disappointment we returned to Roosevelt Lodge as at 10am I had a horseback riding reserved. (As my husband still had a catheter inside, he could hardly walk, not to mention riding, so it was only me going.) It was a one hour ride with about 20 people (plus 4 guides). As it was for beginners, there was no need to be able to ride – the horses were already used to the route and the pace, the ride was very peaceful and easy. We took a loop at the hills nearby Roosevelt Lodge. It was interesting as we could take a route with the horses that we´d never take on foot – we saw bison bones and skulls, evidence of the very existence of the bears and wolves nearby. Then we saw a pronghorn family and had a bit of adventure with a bison: there was a small bridge over a creek that we had to cross, but also a bison found his place there to rest. So, our tour guides showed their cowboy skills, maneuvering the bison out of the way with good horse handling and shouting, waving. After the bison was gone, we could follow our route to climb up a hill and turn back to the village. 

 

horseback riding in Roosevelt (unfortunately camera on the horse was prohibited...)

   Although there was not much excitement (except of the bison, which was quite spectacular adventure), it was a good to experience how the cowboys and trappers were traveling in the old days. Today it is 20-30 minutes to go around an area here, but on horseback the pace and so the view is completely different. Although, I have to mention that even the bison are fond of the improvements of the civilization – I am sure they walk big distances on the fields as well, but whenever we saw one near the road, it was without exception walking on the asphalt rather than next to it on the soil. It seems, they also noticed that the smooth road is easier to walk on.  There was even one who followed the yellow line in the middle (just like Dorothy in Oz) making the cars stop in both lanes. 

 

"Dorothy" bison following the yellow line

   Not to mention the herd that found the road easier to get back to Lamar Valley from the Tower Falls on the paved road rather than in the woods. 

bison family on the road

   After the horseback riding, we checked out of the lodge and headed to Mammoth Hot Springs, which again was quite close (about 30kms away). On the way to Mammoth, we were now hunting for animals to see. And we found a badger! It was running across the road so we pulled out at the next stop (fortunately there was one close) and went hunting for it – the badger was about 40-50cms long, brownish with white stripes on his face and white spots on his back. As it run into one of the many many holes these animals dug into the ground among the short bushes, we first only saw the badger´s face which was something like of a squirrel-mouse-cat mix. As we were just standing a few meters from the hole, the badger was a bit shy, but came out of the hole and ran into others many times, so we could “chase” it for several minutes. When it got fed up with us, just jogged away under the short bushes. I was amazed during this trip from time to time, how fast the animals really are and how much human is fragile and vulnerable without its gadget (cars and so). I couldn´t even chase up with a little badger in the wild, not to mention a bear or a wolf!

badger in the bush

   Anyway, happily to see such a badger in the wild, we drove directly to Mammoth. Arriving to the “village”, our jaws dropped. Got used to the moderate villages on the east of the park, Mammoth was like Monaco after being in Albania. Green, smugly cut lawn, huge, colorful houses and hotels after the brown little cottages and lodges we´ve seen so far in the park. As we have descended from the mountains, the weather was extremely hot, making the whole place a real tourist paradise. Also, the main entrance of Yellowstone Park, the North Entrance is very close, only 10 miles. According to this, the people were different here as well – tourist-like, with skirts and high heels, something that definitely wouldn´t serve at the Lake or Canyon Area.

the nicely arranged Mammoth Area

   As it was past noon when we arrived, we first went to a restaurant, the Mammoth Dining. As everything here, this dining was as well posh and more elegant than the diners we had eaten in the other areas. It was however a great change to eat “normal” food after the sandwiches and burgers and French fries. Although the price was a bit high, the quality of the food was excellent! Not only compared to a dining in a national park, but such quality could be sold in any place.

in the Mammoth Dining

  Happily and full after the delicious lunch, we went to see the Mammoth Hot Spring. This huge hot spring/calcium-carbonate hill is only a few minutes’ walk from the diner. We made a bad decision walking from the diner and right after lunch, as it turned out we had chosen the hottest time of the day and the boardwalk around the spring is huge, so even without that few minute´s walk, this can be quite a hike (especially with a freshly operated person). There are 2 main attractions here, the first is the Liberty Cap. This 11ms tall column is the symbol of this area. It is the remaining of a once was geyser. As it stands just right before the Mammoth´s terraces, I first thought it was fake and was put here, but turned out to be real, showing that Mother Nature has a style as well. 

Liberty Cap

   Just as we finished taking pictures of the Liberty Cap (actually, a good name as the shape of the column looks like the mushroom named after), we could still catch a glimpse of a snake disappearing in one of the holes that can be seen around here in the ground. 

   Right behind Liberty Cap is the other attraction of this area, the terraces of spring. There were 2 or 3 different names to it, the one I liked most was “Devil´s Thumb”. The hot spring apparently delivers 2 tons of calcium carbonate every day, which slowly accumulates on the ground, finally making a hill of minerals – or terraces as in the case of Devil´s Thumb.

 Although the mechanism might be different, such hot spring terraces can be seen in Turkey or Hungary as well. But it was really spectacular to see this monument that is hard to believe to have been formed naturally – the top of the terrace is flat with a small pit to collect the water so from the top it would all down as a waterfall. During the centuries, the minerals have accumulated creating the white terraces that transforms the hot spring waterfall into a natural fountain, allowing the hot water to descend from the height gently to the ground. Thanks to the white calcium carbonate precipitated from the water, the ground and the terraces around are smooth and with the water flowing, it sparkles like diamond. To make it more interesting, the different microorganism feeding on the eutrophic water the calcium carbonate are colored to orange, brownish or greenish, yellowish at places. 

   After the Devil´s Thumb, the boardwalk continues up and around the hill to see more hot springs, but with my husband hardly walking, we had given up on look around. Rather we decided to look around later by car – there is a driveway going around the “outer side” of this huge hot spring “monument”. As it was so hot, we decided to cool down in the car and drive to Gardiner, the entrance town on the north. The north entrance seems to be the “main” entrance with the huge, chancel arch-like Roosevelt Arch showing the way to the park from far away. 

   The way to Gardiner from Mammoth Hot Springs is about 10 minutes, going downhill all the way – the climate and scene is again so different here from the other parts of the park! It is hot here and the vegetation is shorter, poorer, with desert-resembling snakes and cactuses. 

the landscape around Mammoth area

   Gardiner is again a pretty little “park-entrance” town, its main street facing the entrance of the park. We had seen here many tourist offices planning rafting and other activities, as the Yellowstone River is just passing here, providing a great opportunity for extreme water sports. The souvenir shops were extremely interesting here – many “polished” (meaning not mass souvenir products) souvenirs, paintings, pottery, professional photos, shops with huge variety of fossils and stones from the surrounding mountains as well as from all around the world. We even saw shops selling anglers, bear or wolf claws or animal fur. 

Gardiner

    After strolling around and buying some souvenirs (I found some nice square plates with bears and bison burned into the plate), we headed back to the park and took the drive around the Mammoth Hot Spring. Actually there is an upper terrace where you can walk around from the parking lot or you can take another road to drive around by car. The drive took us around nice mineral formations and strange, extraterrestrial places where trees grew among the snow-white calcium carbonate covered ground. 

orange spring mound in the upper terrace driveway

   As we still had time in the afternoon, we decided to go down to the nearby hot spring that people can actually use. This hot spring is on the way to Gardiner, just about 5 minutes from the village. The guide book said to be 10 minute´s walk from the parking lot, but even without an injured person (my husband) it would take at least 20. Now, it seemed to take forever…but we´ve seen elks and freakishly big, black cricket, so it was fun. Eventually we arrived to the hot spring. Actually, the hot spring comes up from the ground and merges into the close by Gardner River, creating a great spot to bathe. This hot spring was the highlight of our stay, and even the high maintenance Japanese, it is an absolute recommendation. My husband loves hot springs next to the rivers (you can find several in Japan), but this one was even better: this hot spring is actually IN the river. 

Gardner River hot spring

    As the almost boiling water mixes with the clear, cool water of the river creates hot spots for the hot spring. There were stones put around the hotter places to slow down the rivers flow and create small ponds to relax in the water. The water here was just perfect, not too hot, not too cold (actually, you could adjust the temperature by slightly changing your position as the temperature in the running water was slightly different in different places). 

 

the hot water flowing into the river from the rocks

   And the view was just in a dream – not only that there was a beautiful river just in front of us, nature and mountains around us, but even we´d seen wildlife while relaxing in the hot water! Just on the other bank of the river there were an elk family having dinner and later we´d seen another elk female passing. Just on the other side, a few meters from us! It was simply amazing!

amazing view from the spa

   Totally warmed up from the core, and full with great experience, the way back to the car hadn´t felt so long. As it was around 7 o´clock (dinnertime for the animals), it was no big surprise to see another elk on the roadside walking home (wherever it was). Turned out, the “home” was Mammoth Hot Springs. As we arrived back to the hotel, we saw 5-6 elks grazing on the fresh lawn. Later, as the night had fallen there were more and more gathering and by night we counted 13 at one block of lawn. Apparently the village is a paradise with the fresh green grass to these animals (to the great delight of the tourists).

elks gathering in the village

    For dinner we again went to the Mammoth Dining and later just watched the elks grazing from our window (it faced right to the front, where the elks gathered). The hotel was again very posh, especially compared to the one we had stayed before at Roosevelt. The Roosevelt Lodge was nice and cozy, but it was with a shared bath and toilet which made it a bit uncomfortable. The hotel room in Mammoth was again with a shared bathroom, but it was in the same building (didn´t have to walk outside) and was more comfy and elegant. Overall, it felt like getting back to the civilization. I loved the eastern part with its wilderness, but thinking about it, it was good that at Mammoth and the next day at Old Faithful we got back a bit to the “civilization” so getting back to Jackson and later to Mexico it wasn´t that big a shock.

For more pictures, click on the link!→Yellowstone (part 5)

Letters from... Yellowstone (part 4)

 (text in ENG)

Tower falls

   The next morning after getting up early in the morning, I left to look around in the Canyon area. It turned out, the saying “early bird catches the worm” is true, because just outside of the village, I saw two young elks grazing in the still foggy hillside and only a few minutes-drive from there, I found two another – but these two were well-grown, 6-7 years old elk bulls with beautiful anglers.

Elk bull in the morning

   I drove to Hayden Valley (about 10-15 minutes from the lodge). The scene on the way was mystical as the fog that had been formed from the precipitated water during the cold night hanged over the valley. At Hayden Valley the bison just started to gather together around 7am, coming from the warmer parts of the park close to the geysers.

morning fog near Canyon

   After driving about 30 minutes, went back to the lodge to warm up (it was freezing in the mornings, while hot in the daytime – mainly because the park is about 1800-2000meter over sea level. )

   We checked out and headed to the final destination of this day, the Roosevelt-Tower area without any rush, as the distance from Canyon is only about 30kms. First we drove around the Canyon drives again – there we saw a mule deer family (a buck, a doe and 2 fawns). The fawns were like Bambi, white-spotted back, huge eyes and ears…

Bambi!

   As we had time (and I haven´t had breakfast) we stopped at a picnic area on the way to have breakfast (blueberry muffin).

breakfast in the nature

   Not far from the Canyon Village, we found a nice overview, where almost all of the crater of the super-volcano could be overseen (the Heart of the Caldera). In the visitor center of the Canyon Village there was an amazing and educative exhibition and videos about the volcano, but it was still hard to imagine that all these unlimited forests stand in the heart of a crater.

the heart of the caldera

   Driving forward, the scene has changed and after the water filled Lake Area and the pine woods of the Canyon Area, we encountered with a prairie like scenery: soft hills with short bushes and grass. As we stopped at a pullover to take some pictures, suddenly a coyote showed up: it appeared from the side of the parking space jogging calmly on the other side of the road to go back to the prairie on the other side of the parking space. The coyote was very slim but fast. Just as the tourists. Just in one minute 5-6 cars (that´s many considering the poor traffic around here) stopped spotting the coyote. Fortunately we were the winners here, as when it came out, it wasn´t further than 20ms from us, so even with a compact camera´s zoom we could take pretty good pictures. (Not to mention that we could observe the coyote without people shouting and “ooh”-ing around.)

   After our next “camera-trophy”, we headed forward among the soft, grassy hills. Before entering the Roosevelt-Tower Village, we stopped by at the Roosevelt-falls. The 40ms tall waterfall resembled to the Horsetail waterfall in Yosemite National Park. Both fall into the river below in one jet, without breaking on a rock or wall. Moreover, at the top of the waterfall you can see strange, pinnacle shaped rocks. To me it seemed like comb of a cock, but apparently to someone it looked like a tower. That´s why the name: Tower falls. Anyway, the rock formations around here are very interesting – probably due to the latest eruption (600,000years ago) of the super-volcano, there are many basalt rocks around here, like these pinnacle shaped rocks. Or, going a bit further from the falls, the road passes next to octagon-shaped columns – just like the “Prismas Basalticos” in Mexico, these columns are shaped from the sudden cool-down of the lava.

Tower falls and the pinnacle like rocks on the top

   The road around here (from Tower falls to the Roosevelt-Tower Village) was under construction, so there was a bit of waiting (about 15 minutes), but nothing serious traffic jam. It seemed that there will be some pullovers and overlooks at the back of the waterfall, where one can admire the unique view of these granite rocks and walls.

   Arriving to the Village, after check-in and a short break, we headed to Lamar Valley, the paradise of the animals in Yellowstone. First, we stopped by at the “Petrified Tree” just a few 100 meters from the village. This redwood tree was petrified millions of years ago, standing here as an evidence of the vast redwood forests from California to Wyoming in the old days. It seems there were 3 such giants, but the stone collectors have chipped down 2 trees completely…that´s the reason why this last one is behind fences now.

petrified redwood at Roosevelt

   Well, the petrified tree was interesting, but took about 5 minutes, so we turned back and continued our way to Lamar Valley. Just as we passed the first hills, we have encountered a pronghorn family. These antelope like mammals were one of my wishes to see. The pronghorns are native in North America, and although they are not literally antelopes, they look and run like them. Also, just as their (far) relatives in Africa, these animals are also extremely fast: can run as fast as 110kms/hr. However, they can only run about 10kms at once. As during running they can´t sweat, they have to stop or they get overheated.

pronghorn family

   This herd seemed to be a family with one male (the males can be distinguished easily for their strange shaped, black horns) and many females and babies.

On the way further in Lamar Valley, we´ve seen again herds of bison. The guidebook says, there are deers, bison, moose, even wolves and bears in the valley. Compared to Hayden Valley at the Canyon Area, Lamar Valley is huge. The road crosses the meadow in the valley so the grazing animals and those coming down to the river from the woods that spread on both sides of the valley can be well seen. However, as the valley is vast, a good zoom or binocular is definitely needed. We were lucky to encounter with a bear not too far (about 200ms), so we could see through the camera quite well.

grizzly having lunch in Lamar Valley

   It is easy to spot animals from the road as there is definitely a smaller traffic jam (and pulled over cars) around. The bear is a big “trophy”, so there were about 20 cars stopped on the roadside and some people had telescopes used for watching the stars. There was a park ranger as well, who told us that this bear is feasting on the carcass that the wolves left from the morning. We could see the bear first only lying and eating but after a few minutes it stood up so we could well see that it is a grizzly and even could see the tracking collar around its neck. After eating for a while, the bear came down to the river to drink – as bears and other carnivores are supposed to be approached no more than 100ms, the park ranger immediately ordered everyone what to do in case the bear would cross the road. However, it went only to the river to drink and later returned to the carcass to finish his lunch.

the grizzly coming to drink from the river

   My husband got very excited to see a wild bear – and not only a bear, a grizzly, the king of the bears!

   However, as it was lunchtime for us as well, after a while we drove further. Lamar Valley has continued for a while followed by 4000m tall mountains as we got close to the eastern entrance.

Barronette peak near the east entrance

   The closest town to the entrance is Silver Gate and only a few kms away is a bigger city, Cooke City. We had planned to eat in Silver Gate, but getting there, we had to find out that this town is really like a small village, only with a few houses. So, we continued to Cooke City. It wasn´t much bigger than Silver Gate, but here we could find some cafes and diners. We picked one called Beartooth Café. My husband had elk burger and I had smoked trout. Trout seems to be famous around here (well, must be as trout is delicious where the river is clear), and I didn´t regret my choice. The smoked trout was very delicious! The elk burger was as well delicious, but it had a bit particular, strong taste as every game meat.

smoked trout

   As there was not much to see in Cooke City (near the café, we found a stone shop with interesting stones and fossils from the nearby mountains), after lunch we returned to the park.

On the way back to Roosevelt-Tower Village, we stopped by at the Soda Butte. This lone calcium carbonate mound - according to the sign - was formed about a century ago by a hot spring nearby. Today it is very rare to erupt, but bison around is not – we found a lone bison enjoying the water/mud at the back of the Butte.

Soda Butte...

...and the bison

   A bit further away, we found a picnic area where first we only had wanted to take some pictures of the mountains, but soon turned out to be more interesting than only the view of the mountains. Nearby there was a river flowing and there was a boardwalk going to the river. Suddenly we found out why the boardwalk: around the picnic area there were small mounds rising from the ground. It turned out this is the home of a ground squirrel colony. These squirrel/marmot-like creatures are brownish, their tails are not as big as their tree-relatives but also their bodies are bigger. They were got used to people (actually some of them were even feeding them), so we could take pictures without any precaution.

ground squirrel

   As it got late, slowly we headed back to the village. On the way we found another pronghorn family (the herds of bison I don´t even mention any more) and just a few kms from the village, we found a couple staring at something. We immediately stopped and were told that there is a black bear! Although the bear was quite far away (about 5-600 meters) and receding to the woods, we could clearly see the bear´s brown nose standing out from its pitch-black color.

   Back in the village we had a nice dinner and in the night we took a night-tour to Lamar Valley to see the stars. Yellowstone Park is a great place to see the stars as even in the village area there are only a few lights. So, in the Lamar Valley, kilometers from the lights of the village, the spot was perfect. Unfortunately, the moon was quite bright, but even so the stars were beautiful. Staring out to the sky from the car, listening to the growling of the bison in the night was mystical. I even thought to hear far howl of wolves, but again, at night people hear many things. Although, I might not have been mistaken, as next day we just missed to see wolves in Lamar Valley. But about this, I´ll tell in my next letter…

sunset over Lamar Valley

For more pictures, click on the link!→Yellowstone (part 4)