To the Roots

woke up in bozeman, montana, at around 6am on sept. 10th. i gave it half-a-thought to stay in the town. until gillette the previous night, bozeman was clean and quiet. montana state university was a pretty awesome campus. the women were beautiful, the days were warm. yet, i had priorities. namely, driving down rt. 191 into west yellowstone.

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it was a more subdued ride to west yellowstone, to take an entrance not a lot of people probably see. one enters yellowstone officially about thirty miles to the actually entrance.

but this entrance was widely used for early settlers and explorers (and, of course, the natives who have been in yellowstone for over 11,000 years) because it’s “easier.” the river above was explored as early as 1863 by gold seekers. stagecoaches took this route from 1880 to 1917. in 1907, the rail came to west yellowstone.

automobiles were first admitted to yellowstone on august 1, 1915. roads were obviously rudimentary - dusty, muddy, cramped. one of the placards notes that horses and cars got along at first - the rules of the road favoring the horse. around the 1920’s, horses were no longer allowed on the main roads.

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after west yellowstone, you get into the park and i was on my way to old faithful. funny thing happened along the way. a bison had broke from the herd close-by and was slowly meandering the road.

you can see the onlookers following it, despite the warnings

about as close as you’re going to get

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steam rises

unstable ground

celestine pool

smoke from the red spouter

spasm geyser

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took a path outside of the little geyser pathway that didn’t allow rv’s or buses. to firehole lake.

small geyser (firehole spring) that would burp every thirty seconds

great mountain geyser, set to go off around 6pm to 10pm, which don’t work for me

the white dome geyser, however, did go off just as i pulled up (video later)

one of my favorite pictures - firehole lake

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after the small geysers, you start to see the signs for old faithful. i didn’t realize it was going to be such a thing (i know that sounds weird). separate highway. big complexes.

perhaps i had a skewed vision of old faithful in my mind - surely it couldn’t live up to the expectations…

but i wouldn’t find out for an hour, as the park ranger was letting people know i’d go off around noon. so i walked a short little trail around the geyser, surveying possible spots to see it.

blue star spring

the crowd gathers…

decided to take video (to post later), so here’s its dying breaths

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the continental divide

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now i’m leaving yellowstone and heading into the grand teton national forest.

drive-by

view of the mountains from my car

teton lake is the fixture to the park and driving around it, heading south and dipping west, you get a fantastic view of the mountains.

from afar

through the trees

the definitive view

the definitive view, closer

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now i’m headed south.

driving along these mountains, from 191 to 89, on my way to salt lake city, i find myself behind a crazy driver. it’s a two-lane road and yet, this lady, who turns out to be like a hundred, drove the shoulder the entire way down (almost hitting cones, road barriers, concrete barriers, etc.)

i’ll post the video when it’s edited. for now, here she is when i passed her and she’s in my side mirror:

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drove through plenty of run-down town, farm towns, little oases in the idaho foothills. towns i can’t recall: afton (ex-girlfriend’s name), montpelier, etc. i did stop in paris, idaho on my way to bear lake.

the beautiful paris tabernacle

didn’t know gutzon borglum was born in st. charles, idaho

miniature of mt. rushmore at borglum memorial

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utah

bear lake from high

and then, driving into the darkness, i make it to salt lake city.

the drive from cody to the east entrance to yellowstone took some time. but when i finally got there, i was excited.

we’ll let the geriatric speak for me…

the first thing i noticed was the stalks of evergreen trees…

…and the general desolation about the place

turns out there was a fire that happened the week prior. i also learned about the 1988 fire that destroyed two-thirds of the park, some of which still hadn’t recovered.

and it spread all the way down to the epic yellowstone lake

last one, i promise

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fishing bridge, sans fishermen (closed to the public since 1973)

yellowstone river

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mud volcano

dragon’s mouth spring

bison just hanging out

bison relaxing

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lookout point

upper falls

“one seems suspended ‘tween heaven and earth” - robert strahorn, 1881

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the grand canyon of yellowstone

french tourists and the canyon

better view of the canyon

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woods not recovered from 1988

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almost to mammoth hot springs

which could be nothing but disappointing when they weren’t flowing

not that there isn’t a natural beauty to the place

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all of these events, these amazing and iconic sights, were all shared with more people than i figured for early september. i think the foreign tourists come later in the year after the peak june-july-august season: i saw lots of germans and french walking about.

after mammoth, i contemplated rolling down to ole faithful (about 50 miles) and then driving back north to bozeman for the night (closer than idaho falls). but i realized how stupid that was and took 89 out of mammoth and toward bozeman.

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but it wasn’t over yet.

welcome

45th parallel

people freakin out about the mountain goats!

the yellowstone arch (narrow enough for only one car) at the north entrance

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goodnight bozeman

after leaving 1880 town, i headed to the badlands. these were a staple in my childhood and i’ve been since, most recently in 2007. this time, i’d be come from the west toward rapid city instead of east from mt. rushmore. i’d also be doing this alone. which may be appropriate as time is indelible in the badlands and i could do nothing but remember old times, past memories. it wasn’t wholly a bad thing. it was just a different experience.

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mako sica to the lakota. les mauvaises terres to the french explorers. the badlands to us.

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if you’ve never been, go. the $15 dollars is worth it in the way other state and national parks are not (i bought an $80 annual pass for all national parks, so i got in for “free”). just look at the first thing you see.

then,

and

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the roads in the park are well designed and not confusing or roundabout. some parks don’t provide good vantage points but the badlands does this, provides ample parking as it’s a long drive (and thus, worth the money) and highlights its features well, giving you many chances to venture into the scenery, to experience it instead of just witness it.

i got out to take a little hike. bring lots of water, etc. i only had a redbull. i had finished my last jug of water and forgot to buy some when i left sioux falls that morning. oh well, i contented, i’m young.

rattlesnakes don’t care if you’re young or old

so off i trek into the badlands, following (and making my own) paths and coming to incredible vistas, not able to be seen from the road.

expanse of crags

the rim of this summit

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this time i decided to take backroads, to see if i could see a different picture of the park. i turned right off 240 onto national park road.

then turned around as i was leaving the park. i drove back to a lookout.

to where the flowers bloomed

to the views i remembered from four years ago

with the colors

and the heights

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here’s me in 2007:

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then, the highlight of the entire trip to the badlands - sagecreek rim rd. no one was on this dirt road and it took about six or seven miles to pay off. yet, when it did…

mountain goats feeding next to my car

i thought it’d be a joke…

until you see all the black dots and realize they’re all bison

this guy was rolling around the dirt for about two minutes as i pulled up. i was the only one here watching this

and you drive for another mile and you get another huge field of bison

but when they’re gone, you just got dirt road ahead of you…

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i took a convoluted back way out of the badlands. i rested in rapid city. i took rt. 44 west out of rapid city to merritt. then i jumped off to country road 261 (which turned into co. road 616 and 306, along with rochford rd…). then onto rt. 85 to newcastle, wyoming and north to meet up with good ole i-90.

highlight of the country road… loose cattle

i slept in gillette, wyoming. wasn’t a fan.