Yellowstone. ....

[Ken Fitzgerald]

A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I spent 3 days touring Yellowstone National Park and Teton National Park. The signs very plainly warn people to stay on the boardwalks. The tour guides more than once warned not only their customers but others to stay on the boardwalks and at least 25 yards from the animals. The rangers have stopped their search for the body of a 23 year old Portland man who walked 225 yards off the boardwalk at Norris Hot Springs, breaking through the crust and falling into the hottest acidic spring in the park. They found a few articles.

[Rich Riddle]

Ken,

There are very idiotic people who visit parks. Didn't they just have to euthanize a bison because someone wanted to turn the young bison into a pet? And there was a family that didn't watch their child get into a gorilla pit in Cincinnati after the child repeatedly told the parent his intentions? That one also ended with an animal being destroyed. Many people chase the "Darwin" awards.

[Lee Schierer]

We talked with a ranger while we were in Yellowstone and he had some really wild stories about what some visitors try to do around the wild animals, including one guy that tried to put one of his kids on the back of a Bison for a photo. We witnessed people walking right by signs warning that Bison were dangerous to get a close up of a Bison with their cell phones and tablets.

[Curt Harms]

Remarkable area. I didn't know what the thin parallel lines on road maps meant. I learned (dirt road). The thing I remember best seemed pretty unremarkable. There was a small stream running alongside the road. I'd guess the water temperature was around 50^o. Walk downstream about 100 feet and the water temperature was about 120^o. There was no sign of any spring or vent between the cooler water and the warm (there obviously was).

Life is gonna be 'interesting' when that puppy blows again - and it's about due in geological time. From Yellowstonepark.com:

Yellowstone Supervolcano

The term “supervolcano” implies an eruption of magnitude 8 on the Volcano Explosivity Index, indicating an eruption of more than 1,000 cubic kilometers (250 cubic miles) of magma. Yellowstone has had at least three such eruptions: The three eruptions, 2.1 million years ago, 1.2 million years ago and 640,000 years ago, were about 6,000, 700 and 2,500 times larger than the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens in Washington State.

[Robert Delhommer Sr]

"You can't fix stupid"

[Prashun Patel]

Ken, how was the trip?

My sister's visiting this summer. This past winter Nat Geo had a wonderful issue about Yellowstone. Check it out.

Also, there was a fantastic podcast about a particular wolf in Yellowstone that almost made me cry.

http://snapjudgment.org/06-female

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Prashun,

It was a good trip. It always is.

15 years ago or so we took our first guided tour of Glacier National Park with my wife's parents. Previously, when we toured, I drove and kept my eyes on the road. My wife kept her eyes on me to insure I kept my eyes on the road. Neither of us saw much. With a tour guide, you learn so much about the plants, animals and history plus you can look at the scenery.

Our latest trip, we took 3 guided tours, the North Yellowstone loop, the South Yellowstone loop and the Teton National Park tour. Each tour is 1 day long. They really aren't that expensive, less than $100/person and that includes a really good sack lunch. It's usually in a 14 or 16 person tour van.

With this last trip, we have been on all the winter tours and the summer public tours. I don't know that we'll go back as we have other parks and parts of the country we want to see.

We caught the park before the public schools got out for the summer. They did get out while we were there and the increase in traffic through the park and in the parking lots was incredibly noticeable from Monday to Thursday.

We saw all the wildlife you would expect to see except moose. We watched bison, black bear, a sow grizzly with twin 1 year old cubs, elk, deer, coyotes and at a distance, even saw a wolf kill a marmot. The guide said it's extremely unusual to see a wolf as they are very reclusive. Interestingly at Mamouth Hot Springs, we saw a large bull snake curled under a tree next to the boardwalk. You would not expect to see snakes at that elevation as they won't survive the winter. Discussing it with the guide we decided the warmth of the ground due to the closeness of the hot springs to the surface of the earth might support the snake's survival of the winter.

The winter tours are pretty special. You generally see more wildlife (except that which hibernates) because the deep snow drives the animals down to the roads. You can't see all of the park in the winter because they close some of the roads. You are limited to travel by "tracked devices". The tour vans they use in the summer get converted. The 4WD vans get tracks mounted in place of wheels and the 2WD vans get skis on the front and tracks on the drive axle.

In the winter, the hot springs close to the surface will keep the snow melted back and you will see bison lying on the warmed bare ground with several feet of snow just a few yards away.

[Rich Riddle]

Ken,

In a few more years you will be able to tell your grandchildren you remember a time prior to when the glaciers melted. Then they will think you are really old. The wife is thinking of Glacier this summer (that's just when she gets vacation). Does it have noticeably fewer visitors than Yellowstone in the summer?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Life is gonna be 'interesting' when that puppy blows again - and it's about due in geological time. From Yellowstonepark.com:

Yellowstone Supervolcano

The term “supervolcano” implies an eruption of magnitude 8 on the Volcano Explosivity Index, indicating an eruption of more than 1,000 cubic kilometers (250 cubic miles) of magma. Yellowstone has had at least three such eruptions: The three eruptions, 2.1 million years ago, 1.2 million years ago and 640,000 years ago, were about 6,000, 700 and 2,500 times larger than the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens in Washington State.

Curt.....we live about 300 air miles from Yellowstone. If she blows again in my life time, it won't matter. We will be collateral damage.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Ken,

In a few more years you will be able to tell your grandchildren you remember a time prior to when the glaciers melted. Then they will think you are really old. The wife is thinking of Glacier this summer (that's just when she gets vacation). Does it have noticeably fewer visitors than Yellowstone in the summer?

It does get fewer visitors. According to our guide, Yellowstone had 4 million visitors last year and this year they are expecting 6 million.

If you go to Glacier and are interested, book a tour with the company that uses the old 1930's "White" red tour vans. (IIRC, White is the company name like GMC or Ford) The tour buses were made in the 1930's IIRC. They have canvas tops that everybody wants rolled back. They take you over Logan Pass to a chalet on the east side of the park for lunch and then return. The tour buses have suicide doors but what is really neat about them is if you want to shoot photographs (and most people do)with the canvas top rolled back, you can stand up through the roof of the van to shoot photos with no glass window to effect the photo. We used this company and the old buses when we went there with my ILs. They couldn't easily get parts to keep them in good repair so they went to new tour vans. The new vans weren't nearly as popular with the customers. They found a company to make custom parts and they returned to using the red 1930's buses.

Here's a link Rich: http://www.glaciernationalparklodges.com/red-bus-tours

I would plan on going sometime after June...say mid-July. Often if they have normal snowfall, Logan Pass on "Going To The Sun Highway" won't get plowed open until July. My FIL and MIL drove out to visit us and see Glacier 5 times. They couldn't see that road and pass as it wasn't plowed open yet. Finally, the time we scheduled our trip it plowed open on July 2 IIRC. We drove over and stayed at the motel in the park at the west end of Lake MacDonald. It's modest, built in the early 1900's but it quaint and enjoyable. It's more reasonable than the lodge built in the middle of the lake!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Ken,

In a few more years you will be able to tell your grandchildren you remember a time prior to when the glaciers melted. Then they will think you are really old. The wife is thinking of Glacier this summer (that's just when she gets vacation). Does it have noticeably fewer visitors than Yellowstone in the summer?

Rich, in 2007, our youngest son and his wife hiked into to the Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand. 2 years ago with a guide, 8 other people, my wife and I hiked in to Franz Josef Glacier. Comparing photos between our son's and my photos, it's amazing how rapid that glacier is receding. The guide said it's estimated at the current rate, in 40 years it will no longer exist.

[Wade Lippman]

30 years ago I was in Denali. There were dall sheep about 1000' up a hillside. I went up to their height and then slowly moved to them; first a few feet at a time, but at the end a couple inches every couple minutes. I got within 10' of a group of them. A little lamb laid down right in front of an old ram; spectacular picture. Just as I as about take it, a ranger screamed up that I should stop harassing the sheep. They got spooked and scattered.
So, they didn't care at all about me, but were very disturbed by her. Which of us was harassing the sheep?

[Mark Blatter]

Remarkable area. I didn't know what the thin parallel lines on road maps meant. I learned (dirt road). The thing I remember best seemed pretty unremarkable. There was a small stream running alongside the road. I'd guess the water temperature was around 50^o. Walk downstream about 100 feet and the water temperature was about 120^o. There was no sign of any spring or vent between the cooler water and the warm (there obviously was).

Years ago I worked the summers in Yellowstone Park. I had a number of customers to call on and set up service for, so starting in April I was in the park every couple of weeks, then as summer approached was there more often. I know of one stream that went under the main loop road where the temp was about 105 degrees. I would take advantage of my trip and stop to soak my feet in the stream. In April and May you can get away with that as there are so few people in the park.

One of my customer's husband worked the park during the summer months, his 'off season' as he owned a snow mobile rental business. During the summer of 1988, when all the fires were raging, he was able to make his normal rounds driving a milk delivery truck. Those working the fires had to eat and drink too. He would stop on his way out of the park, in the closed off areas, to fish on the various rivers. He said it was the best time since he was the only there fishing. No body else to worry about. Then the rangers spotted him and told him to knock it off. He could come and go with his deliveries, but no fishing. Spoil sports.

Yellowstone is a truly unique area and I still love to visit. If you haven't been there, you should stop and see Quake Lake which is about 30 minutes outside the park. Fascinating story about how it formed in 1959.

[Michael Weber]

We were fortunate to stay a few days at the historic Yellowstone lodge a couple of years ago. I had a buffalo steak in the restaurant there. Ken, from there we drove the road between Lewiston and Missoula on the way to my daughters. That is one AWESOME road. Been wanting to include it in a long wanted motorcycle tour of the western states.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Mike, when I got out of the Navy, I took a job and ended up in Bend, OR. for 20 months until I got promoted to management. My In-laws came out to visit us in Bend, and then drove to Dayton, WA to visit some Army friends they had been with in Texas during WWII. The friends advised them to drive the 200 mile drive on US-12 from Lewiston, ID to Missoula, MT as it was the prettiest drive in the country. Later I got promoted to management in Chicago. Hated it with a passion, stepped down and requested a transfer back to the NW. 2 1/2 years after I put in my request, a competitor offered me a management position in Casper, Wy and magically, after 2 1/2 of years of "Sorry no positions open out there" my employer found a position for me in Lewiston. We moved here in 1982. I have made that 200 mile drive dozens of times. It never, never gets uninteresting. There is beauty there winter and summer.