August 31, 2008 - Yellowstone NP Day 2

Note: Photos for this day have not yet been posted.

Mass
I went to Mass at Our Lady of the Pines Church in West Yellowstone, MT. This church does have a small community but is primarily supported by visitors to Yellowstone National Park. Before the Mass the priest asked everyone to name the state where they came from. Almost every state was represented. I was sitting next to people from Delaware (one of the few states I have never visited). The Mass was very nice.

Entering Yellowstone, leaving Montana for the last time
After Mass, I went back to Yellowstone National Park. It was the final day of my National Parks Annual Pass for 07-08. As I drove further into the park, I crossed into Wyoming and left Montana behind for the final time in this trip.

Elk and traffic jams
I began to notice a slow down in traffic. Obviously, animals were out and posing for photos. I began to see the cause of the congestion. Elk does and babies were eating and bathing in the river. They basically mixed with the people. Visitors are advised to stay twenty-five feet away from wildlife. But, some little children got right up to the elk does. The does just kept eating and completely ignored them. One of the does had a collar with a transmitter on it.

One of the elk does really put on a show. She was in the water with a baby elk They were pointed away from the crowd. But, the mother kept slowly turning her head and neck back to look at us. She did it in such a way to allow all kinds of profile photos. I think in some cases, perhaps she was even admiring the traffic jam the elks caused.

Waterfalls and geysers
My primary goal with this visit was to see the geyser areas I skipped the day before. But, I had some time so I went to an area I had not explored at all yesterday. There were geysers and huge waterfalls along the way. In the case of the waterfalls, I couldn't get very good pictures. The parking areas came out of nowhere on twisty roads. In most cases they were filled.

In one of the geyser areas, I noticed another area of bubbling mud like the Fountain Paint Pots. It reminded me that I ought to videotape these things. Photos alone don't do them justice.

Norris Geysers
I later went up to the Norris Geyser section. This is an area with numerous geysers. I believe one of the geysers in this section had the highest calculated eruption in all of Yellowstone. A park ranger was telling people of an eruption that took place there on her first day as a volunteer in 2005. She said that everyone parked in the area left with a "souvenir" on their cars: a sandpaper-like substance that was very difficult to get off. The Park Service designates this area as one of the most likely places to expect the unexpected at Yellowstone.

There were more places I could have visited, however, this was going in the opposite direction of my destination for the evening: Cody, WY. So, I headed back towards the areas I missed the day before. It was becoming overcast and I was worried about whether I'd be able to get the Fountain Paint Pots on video before it rained.

Drive to the Fountain Paint Pots area
On the way to the Fountain Paint Pots, I saw a geyser I had missed. This one had a pool on the ground level and a hole in the mountain with steam coming out. It had noises that seemed like something one might expect from a movie.

Large pool with lots of steam
Thankfully, I was able to videotape the Fountain Paint Pots area. After that, I went to an area I missed the day before with really large pools. Due to the cold weather, vast amounts of steam were coming out of the pool. It was to the point where a person could not see ahead of themselves. I was concerned about steam getting into the videocamera. But, I noticed it was already on. So, I began videotaping to demonstrate how much steam was present. At some points, it seemed so cold that the steam was a relief and warmed me up.

Biscuit Basin
I went back to the Biscuit Basin area. By then it was cold and starting to rain justa little bit. At first I wasn't going to videotape. I was almost not going to get out of the car. But, I decided to just videotape the area and be ready to shut it down if the rain became a problem. The camera battery was really low. So, I videotaped until it finally wore out. I chatted with a couple who lived in Billings, MT. They talked about how fortunate they are to have Yellowstone so close to them.

The long drive out of the park
Once the battery died, I decided to make my way towards Cody. This would be about a three hour drive. I crossed the Continental Divide twice. I saw lots of interesting trees. Unfortunately, by the time I saw them, the rain was so intense that I did not want to take pictures and risk getting my Nikon D300 wet. Some of the trees were very scrawny. They looked like drawings of thin Christmas trees you might see in a Charlie Brown cartoon. It was very interesting.

Yellowstone Lake
I saw Yellowstone Lake as I was driving through. This was quite large. It reminded me a bit of the Great Lakes. Perhaps if I ever get back to Yellowstone, I'll be able to spend time at the lake at that point.

Switchbacks
The drive had lots of switchbacks. It was quite long and very slow. There were many occasions where I was the only one around for miles. I did get some photos of thin trees when the rain subsided a bit. On the radio, I heard that the road from Yellowstone NP to Cody, WY was reopened after wildfires.


View Larger Map

I wanted to have dinner and was expecting that once I got out of the park it would be like the West Yellowstone where there were lots of restaurants and souvenir shops. However, when I finally reached the entrance to the park at the eastern end, there was nothing for a little while. I did see a restaurant/store/gas station. It didn't seem interesting, so I kept driving.

Wildfire warning
I drove a few more miles and then saw an electronic sign warning about wildfires ahead. The sign simply said to drive with caution. I had around 50 miles to go. I was nervous about driving into an area where there might be fires on one or both sides of the road (the radio had indicated the road itself was open). I decided to turn around. I went to the restaurant for dinner. I asked the hostess about the wildfires. She said they wouldn't be a problem, particularly since it was raining. I had dinner, bought postcards, and got on my way. Thankfully, I did not see any evidence of wildfires.

Arrived in Cody
The rain became more and more intense. As I got into Cody, it appeared this was an old west-themed place. They had a huge museum for Buffalo Bill and of course the city was named after him.

Intense downpour and damage to my cell phone
By the time I got to the hotel, the downpour was intense. When I got inside, I was already soaked. An elderly couple told me it looked like it was going to rain. As I brought more of my stuff inside, I tried to take as much with me as possible. That was a big mistake. I stuffed my cell phone into the same pocket as my wallet. That was a terrible idea. Once I got into the hotel room, I looked for my cell phone. I couldn't find it. I looked around the hotel lobby, hoping I just dropped it there. When I couldn't find it, I figured I dropped it outside. Sure enough, it was laying in a puddle.

Once I got to my room, I was able to make a phone call with the cell phone. However, dialing was difficult. This is a PDA phone so the numbers are on the touchscreen, not on a number pad. It was difficult to keep the number screen in place. Due to water damage, the screen continuously changed. After I was done with the phone call, it kept trying to dial all sorts of numbers and did a number of bizarre things. I pulled the battery out and tried to dry it on the inside as much as possible. That didn't accomplish much.

Battle with the phone insurance company
I pay a monthly fee for insurance on this phone. I recalled that if anything happened to the phone, the insurance would replace the phone for a small deductible. When I called the insurance, I found they wanted $50 up front to file a claim. They would then have to approve the claim. Once that was done, they would then mail a new phone to me. Of course, being on the road this was not a good option. I needed a cell phone that worked just in case I had any more incidents of rocks hitting the windshield or deer collisions, etc. They absolutely would not allow me to just go to a store and get a new phone of equal or lesser value to my previous phone. Finally, after much frustration I decided not to file a claim. I wasn't going to give them an extra $50. I could not just have them deliver a phone to me whenever they felt like it since I didn't even know where I'd be in a few days. As Monday was Labor Day, they could not even ship the phone out until Tuesday. This was definitely frustrating.