YELLOWSTONE AND BEYOND!

Our next BIG event after Seattle was going to Yellowstone Park. But you can not just get to Yellowstone from Seattle in a day unless you want to drive FOREVER. So we chose to divide driving FOREVER into two days. With part of the second day actually driving through the park to get to our cabin in the Wyoming mountains near the East entrance of the park. To do so, we had to drive aross the remainder of the state of Washington, Idaho (scene of the Snakepit lunch Pat refers to in his last blog) and part of Montana in one day and then drive through part of Montana, into the park from the North Entrance of Yellowstone, which takes you to Wyoming after a few miles in the park. It is only a little over 100 miles from that point! At this point, Pat thinks 100 miles is nothing. But seriously, it was a great way to get an introduction to the beauty of this park. Speaking for myself, I had no thorough knowledge of Yellowstone until the days leading up to our trip. I picked up two books in Bellvue on Yellowstone and had been reading them on our two day trip to the park to get a better aquainted with it. One was geared more toward photographing in the park which ended up being as helpful as the basic guidebook. It is a huge park...2.3 million acres. Yellowstone Lake alone is 14 by 20 miles in size. There are 100 miles of shoreline on that lake alone. And it took us a little over 100 miles to do part of the figure 8 loop of the park roadways to get from the North Entrance to the East Entrance. The first day, as we drove through, we did not stop to take any photos. We were worried about making it to our cabin and the dinner hour there. They served breakfast and dinner but for limited times since it was a smaller venue. The park is gorgeous. And we were lucky to catch several great views of Bison along the one stretch of the roadway that I later learned was the optimal place to see Bison (I will look up the name later and insert it in this post). We were hoping to get a glimpse of a bear (from the car and at a very safe distance!). But no such luck either day. But we got to see the lake, the river and Sylvan Pass where we passed large patched of snow that had still not melted from winter. I can now verify that there are Pelicans in Yellowstone! I had always thought they were saltwater, ocean or bay dwelling creatures.

We arrived to the Elephant Lodge Inn and Cabins with enought time to get settled in and have dinner at the lodge. It is a lodge opened by Buffalo Bill Cody's niece in the early 1900's. It is registered in the historic registry as the cabins are all from that era. They have been modernized wsith plumbing and heat. They were charming but did lack some of the things I personally like (but Patrick said he was happy to go without) to have handy, like cell phone and internet service. There was no TV, but that did not bother me as much. I do like emailing people. And call me crazy, but I like the idea of having some sort of phone service when there are bears, rattlesnakes, mountian lions and various other potential emergency situations. And just in case someone has an emergency...I like that link to civilization. I am not a phone person so it is really for that sense of security in the event of an emergency.

Anyways, I digress! The meal was great and they allowed us to bring things back to our cabin (mainly the rest of the bottle of kendall Jackson chardonnay that I got with dinner!). They had a cozy bar/lounge area off of the front office that had a flat screen tv, along iwth board games, cards, books and any other activity like that that you can think of. There were critters hanging on the wall, photos and paintings of critters on the wall and skins of critters draped over the sofas. There was the standard Jackolope hanging in the bathroom which Fiona really loved (jack rabbit with antelope or some kind of antlers on it...a mythical critter that westerners like to get city folk to believe exists). Pat and I went to the lounge the first night and chatted with another couple staying in a cabin and the young buck bartender. All the help stay on the premises. WE later learned that they have a girls cabin and a boys cabin and a few other facilities like RV's and in one case, one of the employees chose to stay in a tent (oh to be young again!). I have to admit that the wine by the glass being Almaden boxed wine was not my favorite, but I had already had some of my Kendall Jackson so it was not as hard to drink. I know, I am a coffee snob and a wine snob in my older years. But if this is my worst problem, I will give thanks to the good Lord!

We met another nice couple staying in the cabin next to us and they had the good fortune to see a bear both days! We ended up talking to them several times and found out they were origianlly from the East coast as well (Boston). They were very friendly and Patrick has already received an email from them. Between talking to both of these couples we learned about what they liked or did not like about South Dakota. One couple swore we should see Mount Rushmore breifly and then go see the Crazy Horse monument. The other couple said to take a photo of both from the road and save the entry fee! The one couple we met in the bar had attempted to see the fireworks at Mount Rushmore and described the insanity involved with that. They knew one familhy that arrived at 5 AM to get seats in the pavillion for the 9PM fireworks which ended up being fogged out! I will blog about Mt Rushmore later....but will let you know that we opted to go to Mt Rushmore and take the photo of Crazy Horse from the road because we wanted to see Badlands National Park and Custers State Park. WE figured the kids could only handle seeing one mountain carving exhibit in one day!

The Elephant Lodge was located 11.7 miles from the East Entrance to the park. So the next day we headed back to the park and our fearless driver drove another 200 plus miles so we could see some of the highlights of the park. And of course the headliner to Yellowstone is Old Faithful. And Old Faithful was better than I think any of us expected. I will post some photos in the necxt few days. I think Old Faithful was pretty amazing not only with respect to seeing steaming water shooting up into the air between 140 and 180 feet in the air for several minutes, but also the cordial way in which the crowd waited for this to occur. There was no pushing for the front, or people trying to wedge their video camera in front of us or that sort of thing that is so common on the East Coast. Everyone chatted pleasantly while we waited. The gal next to Fiona (because Fiona must talk to everyone - human or dog at the parks!) ended up being 17 and from Loudan County VA and was on a similar family trip. And as Old Faithful lost power, every one kind of wandered away with their cameras and memories.

We saw a group of geysers and thermal pools as well. Some we actually got out of the car and walked around the perimeter of and others we saw from the car. It really is surreal to see steaming water flowing into a river of lake. I will post some photos later but like the Grand Canyon, they probably won't do it justice.

Speaking of loosing steam (like Old Faithful!), I am loosing steam. I will have to pick up from here when I make a new post! I can only say that we are less than one week from being home again and it is so strange! I recall brishing my teeth the morning before leaving, thinking that I would not be brushing my teeth in our bathroom for 6 weeks and it seemed so wierd. I don't know if I have ever been away from home this long at any point in my life with the exception of college. And since I went to school so close by, I probably never went 6 weeks away from home ven then! And Patrick and me and the kids were thinking of the Caulfield Clan and the big Horse Shoe Tournament that occurred today. It is an event we hated to miss and have always enjoyed! WE hope someone can email us with all the highlights of the day (and night!). Who won? I suspect that Joe might be singing Danny Boy about now! We hope the weather was good and that the games were exciting!