Wyoming - Day 8 - to Yellowstone

Grant Campground, Yellowstone National Park

Wednesday, 8 September 2021

I'm sorry to report that I woke up at 12:30 AM and never got back to sleep.  I finally gave up trying and got up at 2:30, but I figured I might have trouble on today's drive.

today's route

Gasoline in Cody cost $3.14/gallon for regular paying cash.  That's the cheapest I've seen in a while.  And I had started early enough to leave the gas station for the road at 7:00 AM.

Only a few miles west of Cody on combined highways US 14/US 16/US 20, I found a series of 3 tunnels.  These had concrete entrances but were lighted well enough for me to see the rock walls they were carved out of.  None of them showed a clearance level, but I had to assume I'd fit because this is a primary route into Yellowstone, and trucks and campers use it all the time.  The 3rd tunnel seemed very long.  Just past the tunnels was the turn for the Buffalo Bill Dam Historic Place.  It sits on the Buffalo Bill Reservoir, a very large lake surrounded by mountains.  The lake is huge and a pretty pale blue.

That historic place business turns out to be pretty interesting.  I didn't stop but was curious enough to find this article online   https://www.wyohistory.org/buffalo-bill-dam that explains the town of Cody (named for Buffalo Bill himself, who lived here), the dam (the highest in the world in 1910 when it was finished), the immigrant laborers (who staged Wyoming's first labor strike), the unusual Shoshone River that was being dammed, and the work by the nearby Japanese-American Internment Camp to help irrigate this land.  

Signs warned me of "Elk - Next 2 Miles."  And (less reassuring): "Bear Use Area - April-October."  And (still less reassuring): "Beware of Bears - Even On Highway - Please Slow Down."

A sign said I was entering Shoshone National Forest.  The road parallels the Shoshone River and it's all very scenic.

Then another sign: "BEARS ARE DANGEROUS!  Don't Approach.  $5000 Fine."  (I find it incomprehensible that people apparently believe all bears are as cuddly as Smokey and Yogi and Winnie (who was, after all, a Bear of Very Little Brain).)

I passed entire trees - as opposed to just a few leaves - that have already turned yellow.

The road passed odd eroded rock formations on the tops of hills and mountains, such as Chimney Rock.

Chimney Rock (in an internet photo) stands 125' tall.

Lots of s-curves, lots of lodges and ranches and dude ranches.  I passed the Sleeping Giant Ski Area, which I understand is very popular at (fortunately) another time of year.

This highway is designated the Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway.  At first, the hills were nearly bare, but as I drove farther west, I saw more trees and by the time I got to Yellowstone, the hills were thick with trees.

Yellowstone National Park

I reached the East Gate of the park at 8:05.  My Senior Pass got me around the $35/vehicle entrance fee.  The pass I was given originally called for a one-time payment of $20 or $30 or something low like that, and I've never had to pay a renewal fee or anything.  The country's best bargain for seniors.

At the gate I got the National Park Service brochure and map for the park, which I found very helpful when my AAA map couldn't give me the detail I wanted.

The road continued to climb and my ears popped.  I felt lucky I was on the mountain side of the narrow road full of s-curves, because I could see a steep valley on the other side.  It was steep enough that my stomach dropped when I first saw it.

I came to Sylvan Pass, where the elevation was 8,530', so yeah, the road was climbing.

At a designated Viewpoint there was a mob scene, with vehicles parked everywhere and lots of people out, many with binoculars.  I assumed there was some wild critter in the valley below the pull-out and would have liked to see whatever it was but not enough to brave that (unmasked) crowd.

I began to see Lake Yellowstone, so big and afflicted by (possibly wildfire) smoke so heavy that I couldn't see the other side.  The map told me the lake has a maximum depth of 410', an elevation of 7,733', and covers 136 square miles.  Meaning, it's big and I drove by it for a long distance, as you can see on my route map at top.

I soon discovered an oddball fact of life in Yellowstone: the ground seethes with energy that escapes in the form of steam.  Steamboat Point, which I came to soon after I passed the gate, was an example.

The jet of steam was coming from a point below the edge of the bank.
I was being held behind a fence and not inclined to jump it to take a look.

This sign was nearby.  The text is enlarged below.

As I continued down the road, I saw jets of steam leaking from many places in the ground and from around the edges of ponds.

I think that pond on the left must be a hot spring, which
the brochure says are "the most common hydrothermal features in the park."
I know steam was coming from around it.
Those jets of steam you see are separate.

I crossed the Fishing Bridge, where the elevation is 7,792'.  Nearby there was a General Store and facilities for gas and auto repairs.  There were several places like this scattered around the park.

I saw large areas of downed trees - whole hillsides sometimes - and in places it looked like avalanches had been through.  I also saw lots of young trees that had been planted.

Because I'd gotten so little sleep last night, the sun coming in from the east through the trees started having a strobe effect, making it really hard for me to drive - and stay awake.

I saw that large bird again, the one with long legs like a stork or an ibis.  This one was by the water.  Once again I wasn't able to see it well enough to have a hope of identifying it.  The bird book says Sandhill Cranes are in western Wyoming during breeding season, which September isn't.  But I can't find any other bird that looks like this that should be here at all.  Wish I knew.

Even though it was only a little after 10 AM, I went straight to Grant Village, where tonight's campsite is.  When I'd made the reservation, I wasn't allowed to choose a campsite and I wanted to be first in line when the assignments were handed out, especially because a sign said the campground was full for tonight.  As it turned out, the office staff let me check in early because the space she was giving me had already cleared out, so I was lucky.  It wasn't an ideal location but good enough that I thought we could make it work.  She warned me that the elk are rutting right now, and 2 had been fighting each other just over the way, and others had been heard bugling.  My reaction: great for wildlife viewing but not for dog walking.

In fact, she also gave me a little handout that said: "Pets are in danger of being preyed upon by Park wildlife."  Not a reassuring statement.  It warned pet owners to not leave food and water bowls outside, to not leave the pet unattended, and to stay outside with them if they were leashed outside.  It also warned not to be more than 100' from roads and parking areas and not to take them at all on trails.

I suppose they've reason for these warnings, considering they claim the Park is "home to 67 species of mammals, the largest concentration of mammals in the lower 48 states."  And considering that some of those mammals include bears and wolves, which eat meat when it's available.

After I took the dogs for a walk, I decided to go back on the road to the nearby visitor center.  I'd hoped for some exhibits or other visual aids, but the center was closed and 2 rangers stood outside to answer questions and hand out information.  That's where I learned that we're actually inside a volcano here, and back down the road I'd traveled, at about where I started to see Yellowstone Lake, is the rim of the caldera.  The ranger said there's about a 1% chance of a massive eruption and that all these small eruptions let off heads of power as a pressure release.  

He said the real risk is frequent earthquakes, that they were usually at the 1 - 2 level but a 3.3 was recorded recently.  That's not the level that would knock a wall down but does show the underground instability in this area.

I decided to head toward Old Faithful, which I planned to visit early tomorrow morning when I expected fewer tourists.  In fact, I chose Grant Village for that reason - it's the closest campground to the geyser, being only 20 miles down the road.  But I thought today I'd see what the drive was like and maybe go on past it to the Grand Prismatic Spring, which I'd learned about at the Wyoming Visitor Center I went to when I first came into the state.  Here's the sort of picture I was seeing of it.

Grand Prismatic Spring (internet photo)

Those colors are apparently real, the result of bacteria in the water.  Do you believe it?  Well, I wanted to see it for myself, so off we went.

This 20 miles to Old Faithful crossed the Continental Divide twice, once at 8,391' and the next at a mere 8,262'.  The road was narrow and, because it followed the mountains, was a series of s-curves.  It didn't take long for me to become too sleepy to drive even that 20 miles.  In fact, I could barely stay in my lane.  I turned around and went back to the campground, and felt lucky to make it in safely.

Grant Village provided no hookups anywhere.  Here and there were water spigots for a quick fill-up, and I think there was a waste tank dump somewhere, but no electric plug-ins anywhere.  Campground rules said no generator use after 8 PM, and I hadn't planned to turn mine on.  But the day got warm and I couldn't open the door because of Dexter's idiocy.  And without electricity I couldn't turn on even a portable fan.  All we had were the 4 windows and 4 skylights, and they just weren't enough.  The dogs were panting.  So I started up the generator and cooled the place off.

I was so sleepy I was in bed not long after 6:30 so, of course, I turned off the generator but left all the windows and skylights open.  I worried that other campers might be noisy, but we got lucky.