Yellowstone Days

Day 1
Travel was rather uneventful. We started our audio book pick - Wild - and pretty much blazed through. However, just before leaving Washington, we encountered a strange looking cloud far off on the horizon line. My mom asked me what sort of cloud that could be, its average auto cumulous fluff touching all the way down to the ground. "I think its just a normal auto cumulous...but there is something come down...or up...or around from it..." Even as the highway took us closer, it appeared to be so still that I couldn't imagine what it would be. It almost looked like a dust storm frozen in the sky. Finally though, we were close enough that I could detect a reddish hue escaping from the top lining of the clouds. "That's so weird, it doesn't look like its moving...but that's a fire!" The road ended up curving us right past the exit - Fishtrap Lake - where a bit of googling informed us of the "Watermelon Hill" fire that had been burning, yet to be contained, since 3pm that afternoon (a good few hours) Now that we were close, the scope of the smoke was impressive. Over the span of the week, it would go from the 3,500 acres we saw to about 10,500.

Set with a hotel in Coeur D'alene, we arrived that evening to discover that they had given us a smoking room that reeked of cigarettes. While I have planty of friends that smoke, I've tried bathing in a smokey room overnight before and it does not bode well for my throat or my stomach. So after trying a few other hotels in the area which were either booked up or inanely overpriced (Coeur D'alene is apparently a resort locale) we finally found a camp at the next town over and called to learn we had about 25 minute to get in and register at the office. We made it just in time, off an exit that consisted solely of a large lake and the campground/inn area. It was a rather nice camping set up and the plethora of family activities and playground space they offered brought back childhood memories of family reunions in the Berkshires. We got the tent up with the last smidgeon of light we had. There was no fire, due to a ban because of how dry things had been lately. After exclaiming on all of these items I'd failed to bring earlier, mother once again breathed a sigh when I told her I didn't have our lantern. Fed up with being acknowledged for everything I'd failed to do or not brought, I indulged in a brief bitter streak, finally sharing my displeasure with her and then ending the night with cans of ginger cider and a small taste of heart-to-heart where I disclosed a bit about my qualms with relationship and came more to terms with the fact that she was not 24 and this would not be a trip of two 24-year-olds (after she declared herself woozy on half a cider and I lightheartedly declared a strategic solution of "geez, just be 24!")

Day 2 
We took our time in the morning, making tea and breakfast and talking over our route. Still, we were on the road fairly early since we had quite a bit of ground to cover to make our camping reservation in Yellowstone that evening. We did find time to stop in Missoula where we returned to the romping grounds of our previous visit and checked some items off the mental shopping list she'd been making as she'd taken note of everything lacking. This took quite some time because one of the items was a cooler to replace the many cold sacks we had, which then meant we needed ice and needed to move over all of the food. Also getting sidetracked by a nice sponging couple who talked to me about crocheting and their "pet" deer and squirrels at their camp, we were not on the road again until early afternoon. around 5 or 6 we were approaching the entrance to Yellowstone and I think we were both envisioning a relaxing evening at camp. But upon entering the park, we learned it would be another 47 miles through the slow, winding roads to reach the southern side where we were staying. Once again, we would be arriving at camp rather late. Even so, we made it with light to set up and get some soup on the stove and then we built a fire, cracked open another cider and cheered to our first night.

Day 3
We'd had to pass by many a steamy field to make it the night before and so mother was all too eager to get back to Old Faithful, the vast stretch of geysers and hot springs in that area being the most apparent from the drive. It was a good place to start anyhow, since the most well-designed visitor's center was there to introduce her to the thermodynamics of Calderas,volcanoes, geysers, mud pots, hot springs, fumaroles, and the whole of Yellowstones lively ecosystem. I'd been fascinated by the underground workings when I'd first come through in 2011 and it was good to get a refresher.

A brief Yellowstone 101:
The area is a giant friggen volcano. It's been bubbly for over 2.1 million years now, when it first erupted and left a giant dent in the planet. This dent is called a Caldera its like a giant inverse pus bubble of hot. The volcano did its explody thing again 1.3 million years ago and then most recently 640,000 years ago, growing the Caldera every time. Yellowstone also contains the largest freshwater lake in North America which is a giant caldera within a caldera. All of this bubbly hot stuff moving around inside causes a lot of movement outside, like a water balloon morphing and bulging in different places. Except unlike a balloon, the latex surface is an earthy surface of rock and land with fissures and cracks which consequently shift when the bubble shifts. Through these cracks, falls rainwater which is then heated in all its inner hotness and spewed back out in various forms depending on where and how the cracks decide to let it go. Geysers are like constrained water guns, focusing all the pressure in one place. Fumaroles and Mudpots are the result when there is not enough water to mix with the heat so the heat either creates steam or mixes with hydrogen sulfide and melts rock into clayish mud buckets. Other snazzy things happen when various chemical compounds pop into the mix, such as Travertine formations which result from calcium carbonate and lime. the coolest bit though, is that all this shit is happening all the time. 

After her intro, we went out to take a seat and wait for Old Faithful to erupt. We had to wait around a while cause the predicted time did not quite allow for us to get far on the loop trail through the other formations but also left us feeling like we should have gotten up to get that extra popcorn before the show. Bang, splash, pow and then it was done. cool and all. But I'd seen it before and I think mother would say she had many more exciting highlights to report on from our time there. Before lunch, we walked around and stopped at most of the more vibrant and exciting formations, reds and oranges of tiny little microbes making lacy frames for the crystal blue waters.

Chinese Spring

Blue Star Spring. By far my favorite. No matter how long you look at it, it looks like glass. 

Castle Geyser. Wonder why? This Geyser has eaten up trees!

When you have only three days in Yellowstone, remember to account for driving time. To get from one end of the park to the other could easily take most of your day between the windy roads, the distractions and then unexpected animal crossings and sightings that halt everyone in their midst. After Old Faithful area, we decided just to drive and see how far north we got up the west end of the park. It wasn't very long before we hit our first traffic jam - a bison grazing but the side of the road - and then shortly after, one smack dab in the road itself taking a stroll by the cars. Such amazing sights more than worth it, we weren't feeling too lacking in our day's activities by the time we made it to Norris Basin which covets a less known but most impressive Steamboat Geyser. We'd happened right in on the beginning of a ranger talk in which it was explained that while its large eruptions can be anywhere from 5 days to 50 years apart, they are at their peak, the largest "spray" known. Apparently, Steamboat had just had some significant action back at the end of June when it sprayed water over 300 feet in the air and let out steam that rose over 1,000 feet. Because pressure builds up so long for this one, he explained, that water is probably from before America was even a country!

The talk finished up just in time for the precarious storm in the distance to begin to reach us and we headed back to the car to drive "home". The intermittent rain was still making up its mind whether to stay or go and so we stopped at some mud pots briefly on the way back.

By the time we made it to our campground, it was apparent this was no passing thing. We drove straight to the camp store but as we were getting ready to go in and bunker down with some cards or something, we realized our cooler's ice supply was melting. Not wanting to deal with it in the morning, we noticed a break in the rain and begrudgingly went to go get it over with. As we were loading up ice under a pavilion near the store, the rain came in full force sideways, and we were soaked. Cold and miserable, we went back to the larger store/restaurant where many more tourists had the same idea and I miserably tried to make due with food from the car, the restaurant unable to satisfy my longing for some hot soup or meal. With the store closing in less than an hour, we prepared to face what we'd eventually have to: our tent. I wasn't sure it would even be standing, let alone dry. I'd not had a good track record with tents and heavy storms. Fortunately, it was both (go, tent!!) and we got enough of a break in the rain to get ready for bed and crawl in for the night. Plus, there was this in the parking lot:

Day 4
Our last full day of Yellowstone consisted of a lot more driving and animal yielding (that was the fun part) since the two areas we wanted to see were somewhat on opposite sides from each other. First, we headed Northwest to Mammoth Hot Springs to walk among the alien landscape of Travertine sculpture and vast sulfuric terrain. The most exciting animal stop along the way happened upon a ridge, where we joined a cluster of folks peering through scopes and binoculars to enlarge the small specks of three wolves and a bear out in the meadows beyond. From the ridge we could see further down the road where a ranger car had come to control traffic and monitor one of the wolves who was coming closer to the road to make a crossing. But we could not see the wolves. "why don't we have binoculars?!" we lamented. To ask someone for a peek through their binoculars is like asking someone to carry your hiking gear or to drink from their water supply; it is just not kosher. I did it anyway and a woman annoyingly allowed us to glance through for a minute. The man with the scope though, noticed we were without and kindly made a public offer for "anyone that wants to come take a look." On our way to Mammoth after that, we purchased some binoculars.

The entourage on account of the wolf.

bear!

The walk through Mammoth was hot and muggy but the gorgeous structures of Travertine made me feel I was walking through a foreign kingdom and it was worth the heat and the smell. Still, it would have been nice to have more time at our last stop: The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. This was a place the two of us agreed that we would spend more time at if we came back. I at least wanted to walk her to one of the overlooks but afterwards, I realized it would be so easy to just linger in this environment, following the curve of the rim along the expanse of the cavernous valley. Next time, it will be our first place to go. I thought I was taking her down the same overlook I'd experienced on my visit but instead, we ended up directly over the falls, looking into its deep overpowering waters as it crested the cliff and tumbled into an eruption of white, rolling mist and rapids. It was like no other view I'd ever had of a waterfall...and it was a bit dizzying!

Feeling fatigued from the day and the driving, we got back to our camp early enough for a decent meal to be cooked and for a decent fire to be built. For my second time our stay, I managed to revive a kindle-less fire that almost collapsed into smoke. I was pretty pleased with myself. As the sky darkened, we sat upon cardboard seats with a Huckleberry Ale (I having once again fallen for the deceptive fruitiness only to remember duh, its still friggen ale) and chocolate.

By this point in our journey, we'd had our ups and downs, but no blow-ups. None of the unraveling altercations that left me desperately asking "who am I being? where the hell did this come from?" It felt nice, secure. We'd also gotten a ways into Wild, which suitably featured a strong mother-daughter element. Mother chimed up "So, we've been listening to a lot about mothers and daughters. Do you have any thoughts about that?"

"well, you must."

She asked me what I thought of her as a mother. The first thing that came to mind was a piece of the book we had been listening to earlier that day where the main character is feeling like an asshole as she reminisces about her mother's death and how she had been so arrogant and ungrateful until it was too late. "well, I don't want to be that" I started. I shared a mix of gratitude and inner resentment and then I asked her what she thought of me as a daughter, to which I beat her to the punchline of the obvious part of me being difficult. It was a moment that symbolized a significant difference between this trip and others.