Dave & Margie's Yellowstone / Denali National Park Summer: WE’VE DECIDED TO STAY

Last weekend after doing our usual shopping in Cody, on Sunday we decided to take a short hike. After going through our hiking book we decided on Lone Star Geyser Trail. This was 5 miles round trip to a geyser that only goes off every 2 to 3 hours. You don’t know when it last erupted until you get there and check the log. According to the log book it had a major eruption at around 10:00 am and then a small one at 1:00 pm, it was now 1:30 and we weren’t sure if it was going to go off or not. We waited around for about 30 minutes to see if anything was going to happen, it’s now about 2:00 pm so we decided to call it quits and go back down the trail. The geyser is about 100 yards from the trailhead and we were almost there when Dave heard something and turned around. He saw that it was erupting and was about 5 feet in the air. Now we both turned around and headed back to the geyser to get pictures. What an awesome site, the erupting went on for about 20 minutes and probably reached heights of about 70 feet or better. You can’t believe what a site this was, there were about 15 people watching the erupting versus 1500 watching Old Faithful. It’s special and not something that everyone gets to see when coming to Yellowstone. The pictures just don’t do it justice.


Me in front of Lone Star Geyser


Geyser erupting


Trail out

I have included some bison jam pictures that I though you might enjoy.


Right in front of the Jeep


Calf licking car


they like to block the road

Business has been slow this week, so we were asked if we wanted an additional day off. That day ended up being Wednesday, August 24. It just so happens that this is the day of our Christmas Party, and you know who is the chairperson. You wonder why Christmas if August, well this is a tradition in Yellowstone since about 1925. The story goes that there was a snow storm that stranded guest, so the employee’s decided to throw a party since it looked like Christmas outside with the snow and all. The saying goes Christmas comes but twice a year, once at home and once up here.

We had a party on the evening of the 24^th, we decorated they store, had entertainment from the store employees and Dave played Santa Clause. We had a flute player; a bison rap and the Taiwanese kids sang jingle bells in English and Mandarin. We all had a great time and Dave really enjoyed being Santa.

Reindeer,


Santa Dave and Elf Jim


Celeste and Elsie

We have really enjoyed our time here in Yellowstone, this is just a beautiful place and tons cooler than Texas. On Thursday, we found out that they wanted us to stay until the store closes on September 26, so, since it’s still so hot in Texas and we couldn’t make it back in time for the Labor Day campout, we’ve decided to stay. Now our departure day is September 27, which should put us, home around 5 days later.

This weekend we didn’t do much of anything, I wanted to go up to the Yellowstone Association archive and read some information about the Lake area building. We drove all the way to Gardiner and then found out they are only opened Tuesday thru Friday. We decided to look around a bit, had lunch and did some shopping, then headed back. On the way up we saw either coyotes or wolfs, from the distance I’m taking pictures I can’t tell. You be the judge.


We were a long way away

This morning (Sunday) we heard there was a fresh kill up in Hayden Valley, so we loaded up the scope, cameras and headed out. What a site to see the cycle of life in the wilderness. The area was packed with tourist wanting to view the same thing. We saw about 3 or 4 wolfs feeding as well as a lot of ravens. We waited around for about an hour and a half, hoping that a bear would appear, no such luck. I guess it just wasn’t our day to see a bear. But one did walk past the front door of the store this morning. We’re never in the right place at the right time to see them. Don’t know if this is good or bad.


Wolf's feasting on a bison, ravens waiting there turn

This afternoon we drove down to West Thumb Geyser Basin. The basin overlooks Yellowstone Lake and it is a caldera within a larger caldera. It has active hydrothermal features that exist on the lake bottom here in this area and elsewhere in the lake. Take a look at some of the pictures.