On every journey, there is danger and risk. Today was a series of near death experiences, all of which we found our way out of successfully.
We woke up in the morning at the “Bates Motel” still alive, a feat in itself, and then set out up the Bighorn Mountains. Though it is mid-May, it is still the dead of winter through the high mountain passes. We had to divert from our intended track due to road closures We seemed to be the only car on the road for extended periods, and were thankful not to have any car trouble, because we were really not prepared for that weather. But we made it through alive, descended the mountain and emerged to cross the Wyoming plains.
Next up was entering Yellowstone itself, which also was experiencing a bout of winter. It was on again, off again whether or not we’d be able to get in to the park at all. The big spring storm that had been hitting the region for the past week had let up, but there were snow tire requirements in the park and only some roads were open at all. The East Entrance, or direction of entry, was only just opened Friday, and in jeopardy of closure due to snow conditions. But as fortune would have it, we were able to pass. Interestingly, we made it through a little before 1 o’clock. Sometime around 2, they ended up closing the East Entrance due to an avalanche on that snow-laden pass heading in to the park. A near miss, but again, a survival story.
Once in the park, it was better, but no picnic. Our first challenge was a run in with an angry bison who refused to let any cars pass on the road. We entered into a test of wills, and surprisingly won, as we were able to continue on to our destination of the famous Old Faithful geyser.
Old Faithful erupted on schedule, if not perhaps a few minutes late, and was enjoyed by all. For those that aren’t aware, Yellowstone is actually a 60 mile wide caldera of a still active volcano. All of the geothermal activity that occurs there is due to the near proximity of hot, molten earth near beneath our feet. So, you can see, even entering the park, watching the geysers erupt, and making it out alive is yet another show of our fortunate day of staying alive through the many challenges thrown at us. Granted, it hasn’t erupted in 60,000 years, but we all know its coming sooner or later (2012).
We also visited the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and saw the falls there. The trails were snowy and iced, so we couldn’t hike too far down and viewed the canyon and falls from the rim trail. It was very slippery, and we got really close to the edge, but nobody fell off. Survival.
After a long, exhausting day we left the park and headed towards our hotel for the night. Jack was pretty clear in his request for a Hotel (H) not a Motel (M) like we had last night. He seems to have connected the cheapness of a Motel with less than par rooms and no pool- a cardinal sin in his view of temporary accommodations. Anyway, on the road out of Yellowstone we had a beautiful twilight drive into Montana. Twilight around Yellowstone is dinner time for all the bison, elk, bighorn sheep and deer- and we saw plenty of them on our drive. Of course, on two separate occasions, the deer and elk decided to play chicken with us as we were driving, forcing us to take evasive driving maneuvers to narrowly avoid the proverbial deer in the headlights experience.
But of course, we survived.
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