Thursday, June 21, 2007

Day 14: Yellowstone Day 3

Today is a nice bright day with a 20% chance of thunderstorms, so most of us wore shorts. Today, our itinerary is the Middle Geyser Basin, then onto the West Thumb area of Yellowstone lake. We'll see what happens after that. Today, we'll try swimming, because after the thunderstorms, the weather is supposed to turn much cooler.

Firehole Canyon Drive
On way in to the park, soon after Madison, the Firehole Canyon drive loops off from the main drive. Today, we're going to take it to see what's there. The road is a narrow one-way paved 'trail' that follows the left-hand wall of a canyon. Sometimes next to us, sometimes below us is the Firehole river, which is geyser fed, and very picturesque in the bright sun. The car windows are open and the rushing and chuckling of the river is fun to listen to. The road at times has a very steep grade; always upwards.

About half-way there we come to a 30 or 40 foot waterfall and stop to take some pictures. we meet the Becky-eating chipmunks again (they are failing at their task!) and something we haven't seen yet -- one of the park's kangaroo mice. I had to lean over the ledge to get the pictures (boy was Kelley pissed!)

A little farther along, the road becomes even more tortuous (Kelley is firmly grasping the panic handle on the dashboard :-) and about two-thirds of the way to where the 'trail' rejoins the main road we discover a swimming area. The area is a slightly wider area in the river between two steep and rocky walls but there are steps leading down. Humans are the only ones using the swimming area.

There are actually two parts to the swimming area; the upper is a rapids, and after two 90 degree turns the river widens into a slower pool with a rocky rim just under the water. For now, we just do some wading on the rim. The water is a little cool, maybe high 60's, low 70's (F). [Later we find out that the current water temperature in Yellowstone lake is in the 40's, so the geyser water is definitely having an effect.]

Midway Geyser Basin
We skipped this area the previous day because we were on a schedule to see the geysers. We were intrigued by the small, multi-colored waterfalls we could see from the road. Today, we discover that this part of the park includes one of the most spectacular pools, the Great Prismatic. This is the one that you see in the postcards with an aerial view.

Ya' know what? There's a reason why you see it that way -- from the ground it's big enough that you can't see it all at the same time. So taking pictures of it is ... difficult. And it's steamy. And the clouds have rolled in (Kelley's pissed again :-). So ... we took pictures of the steam and the kids. Deal with it. It has some very cool colors, tho.

On the path up to the Grand Prismatic, we passed the Excelsior Geyser. This geyser is not active and hasn't been for a while. This is a good thing -- it erupted so violently the last time that it carved out the 10-foot rock cliffs that you can see here.

Continental Divide
On our way to Yellowstone lake, we pass the Continental Divide, twice. The divide meanders through the park. The last time we saw this we were someplace in Arizona? Along the way, we convince the kids to watch out the windows -- we're going through rougher territory in the mountains, winding back and forth, up and down, and they're going to get paid in M&M's for wildlife they see. Immediately after, there's a break in the trees to the left with a small lake/pond and we spot a moose. Unfortunately, by the time Dad gets the car turned around, it's gone into the woods, so no moose picture; however, M&Ms were awarded to both kids.

We stop for lunch at Grants, a very small area along the way with a (closed) campground, it's own post office, and (thankfully) a place to eat lunch. Not bad food, and it's decorated with very pretty wood (no antlers like the Inn!); has a nice view of the trees.

West Thumb Geyser Basin of Yellowstone lake
The West Thumb portion of Yellowstone lake is a (mile wide?) volcanic crater that has filled with water, become part of the lake. Right next to the water, there is a nice area to park and see the geyser basin. It is home to the Abyss geyser, one of the deepest, the Black pool (which is beautiful blue), and one of the most unusual, the Fish Geyser. There are more, but these are the most interesting.

The Abyss geyser is 54 feet deep (16.5 meters) and quite hot. As a geyser, it doesn't do much, in fact none of the geysers here are very active -- as such they look more like springs or pools. When they erupt though ....

The Black Pool used to actually to be black. If I remember right, the 1959 earthquake caused this pool to get hotter, which killed off the bacteria that gave the pool it's color. Today, it's a cerulean blue, one of the indicators of very hot water -- nothing lives in it.

Finally, the Fish Geyser became famous because fisherman could actually stand close enough that they could catch a fish and without removing it from the line, cook it in the geyser. Can't do that anymore because 1) some fisherman boil their feet instead of the fish, and 2) the rim of the geyser was getting damaged. Depending on the level of the water in the lake, it can be in the lake like it is today, or along the edge. The average water temperature is just shy of boiling (199 degrees F, 93 degrees C). A vista of the basin area is to the right.

Yellowstone Lake
Finally, we drove along the Yellowstone lake 20 miles to the marina. Here they rent boats and have boat rides to Steven's Island. They have row boats and power boats, but the ranger puts the kibosh on swimming -- the water is 40 degrees F (4.4 degrees C, brr!) -- and suggests the Firehole canyon swimming hole. We look at sky (cloudy), the conditions (windy), and the 4:15 boat ride (just leaving the dock), and decide to head back to Firehole Canyon. Ok, we'll just have to be satisfied with the scenery. The geyser basin area was fun, though.

On the way we stop for ice cream at the general store, and see some really, really, tacky clocks. The moose and bear heads with the tongues wagging back and forth are probably the worst. The funniest part was the tourist couple looking at the moose clock with the clock face stuck in the middle of it's 'moose' face (and tongue wagging) opining that it looked good except the antlers weren't 'realistic'. Yep, we see moose running around all the time with clocks embedded in their faces and their tongues hanging out, going back and forth, back and forth. I accidentally paid for Corey's ice cream twice. Outside, the wind is picking up and throwing sand, but the air smells good.

Back in the car, back across the divide, past the exit to the Firehole Canyon drive, double back along the drive to the swimming hole. We have just about 2 hours of light (sunset at around 8:30pm), and it's just warm enough to swim, maybe 83 degrees F.

Along the way, we run into several cars parked in the road (no way to get around) and see that folks are taking pictures of an elk and here fawn (?) in the river below us. So, we shrug and take pictures too :-)

We get to the swimming hole, park and change into our bathing suits to swim. Everyone except Mom, though. She's going to take pictures. Becky is the first, brave soul that she is, Scot decides to jump in (not too bad!), and Corey followed.

Corey immediately tries to swim upstream, which convinces him he really needs to stay near the sides as he (and Dad) can make no headway. After a while, we all do some exploration of the upstream part of the swimming area. Where the river takes two right-turns, the current is swift, but by clinging to the rock walls we make it upriver -- twice. The second time is so that we can ride the rapids.

Um, now that we have some experience, I can suggest: life preservers are a good thing :-) There are eddies and whirlpools that are really a lot of fun unless you're getting tired and somewhat cold! Next time we'll be smarter. It still was fun, but after struggling against the current we were pooped and getting chilled. Making our way back downstream to the swimming area was an adventure all on its own, but we made it, safely, and dried off to finish our trip for today.

Later, we found out that we were in a tornado watch. No worries, but you should have seen how big Becky's eyes got when she heard (back in the hotel room). I suppose we won't hear the end of that for a while.

Oh, and tonight we went to Outpost something or other to eat. Forget it, blech.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i thought the pic of corey by the geyser was him getting sprayed in the head.

Trombly-Freytag said...

If it is the picture I think it is, he's only being hit in the head by the steam from the pool :-)

I didn't get a picture of the kids in the geyser water -- I don't know why.

The geyser steam is _really_ moist, by the way. The steam condenses on you really well.

-Scot