37 Frames : The Mother Park – Hello again, Ms Yellowstone (USA – The Roadtrip 7)

“May all your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you.” ~ Edward Abbey

Not to keep you in suspense any longer… but in response to the questions posed at the end of our last post here are the short answers; yes, no, no, lots, accidents to the right, yes, mad, mad taxidermy. So that’s everything in a nutshell – a rather icy trip back down to West Yellowstone. After a delightful night amongst the incredible taxidermy of the Stagecoach Inn (much to the horror of our Vegan/Vegetarian traveling companions…sorry girls…). We tried to find the Grey Wolf Inn to meet our snow coach into the park. YAY! Yellowstone here we come again… The Grey Wolf Inn that the Navi tried to take us to was some 800 miles away. Luckily for us we also had a local printed map which said there was one 400 meters round the corner and down the road. So that’s the one we went with. We eventually found it and tucked into coffee 8 of the day.

Sadly there was only room for 3 of us on the early express bus/bombardier, so I waited for the next bus a few hours later and tried to catch up on some emails. Goodness knows what the 3 early-birds would get up to in my absence. My only instruction was to have a fabulous time and “please don’t fall down..” Yes, yes, yes. But crickets for the last bit of advice. So off they went and here’s how they spent the morning. Intrepid explorers, going where we hadn’t gone before…in winter.

The historic Yellowstone bombardiers are said to fit 10-12, but it’s more comfortable with about 8 people or less if it’s us. With a minimal luggage request, we soon understood why as everything was piled up on top. There are 2 main types of transport in the park, the coaches/bombardiers and the snow mobiles. Both all kinds of wonderful. Mid way along the road there is a warming hut for a quick rest-stop and drinks and the current prediction for Old Faithful is on display plus some rather graphic photos of wolves and their prey.

Upon arrival at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge the girls checked-in and tobogganed our luggage to our cottage.

While I was still back at The Stagecoach firmly in the depths of my inbox, T,E and E set about exploring the Old Faithful area and were in geyser heaven. Still not sure how to pronounce it. It was always a toss up between geyser/geezer for most of the trip. For we are elderly. Either way the landscape was a beautiful white canvas tempered with those amazing natural hot springs, bubbling away masking the massive super-volcano barely below the earth. They made it just in time for a grand eruption of Old Faithful herself. And here she goes. Off like clockwork.

Interestingly I later learned after seeing this pic that I was ahead of the curve. Under strict instructions they were not to fall over or get boiled to death in the bubbling cauldrons. Because the sign now said so. There was awareness. Of sorts.

AND so of course it wasn’t too long after that Trace fell hard on the ice and almost slid into a nearby geyser to be lost forever. Luckily there was a barricade. Luckily. She is still with us. To tell the tale. Please ask her about it. Often.

With names like, Rocket Geyser, Grotto Geyser, Daisy Geyser, Comet Geyser, Splendid Geyser, Giant, Sawmill, Castle, Beehive Lone Star and so many more… add us girls to the mix and all bets are off.  It was steam spouts and eruptions everywhere. And just a vision unlike anything we’d seen before.

Doublet Pool just gorgeous and one of the faves. The colors so magnificent, the beauty intense. Certainly nature as art.

And if that wasn’t enough then we all witnessed Bald Eagles flying overhead. Icons in flight. The photos not very clear… but we so wanted to try to capture some of the atmosphere of the park. And it’s kind of representative.  Kind of. To get them in full splendor we really needed to hire that 600mm to do any wildlife photography justice. Next time for sure. FOR SURE.

Eagles above and geysers below. Sawmill Geyser was really going off when we got there. And going off to the MAX because Erin got some rogue sulfur on the camera. Oh. Dear.

And then Trace, Em and Erin were lucky enough to be in the right place a the right time. For one of nature’s most amazing spectacles – the eruption of Grand Geyser. Right in front of them. An epic natural phenomenon. Just epic.

And this little anecdote from Trace:  About halfway through the eruption, a photographer came over and set up his gear to shoot nearby. He was as enraptured as we were and just so taken with what was happening in front of us. Her turned to me (Trace) and said “You are witnessing the most beautiful geyser in the world. Just take it all in.”  Trace kind of recognized him – but not sure if she could place his face. But she assured him that she was indeed deeply in awe of what they were all seeing.  It wasn’t until the next day that she realized that that photographer was none other than Tom Murphy – world renowned nature and wildlife photographer, his books and images some of our absolute favorites of Yellowstone National Park. And in many ways the inspiration for us to visit in winter. So glad we could share Grand Geyser with you, Tom. He does spend at least 100 days per year in Yellowstone so we’re sure he’s seen Grand before… but seemed to be as much mesmerized by it as if it was his first time.  Trace just kept clicking away… So love this series…

And with a few last spurts and gurgles it was over. Just like that. And it was time to head back to the lodge and make this party 4 again.

On the way you wander past Heart Spring…

And around Castle Geyser…

And back to the lodge.

Meanwhile in my world… I was put on a snow coach. Kind of like a little yellow school bus with triangle wheels. And here’s my journey while the others were having their hot spring exploits. It was bumpy and noisy but you kind of got used to it after a while. Because the beauty seriously cut through the noise.

We tended to stop a little more to take in the sights along the main/only open road to the lodge. It started off riverside checking out a muskrat which everyone was secretly hoping was the much rarer otter. The ranger came along and said it could be whatever we liked. Kind of looked like a log at this distance. Ahhhh…600mm where are you?

And then it was time to take in a few bald eagles. The pairs beautifully mate for life.

Next, up was the very sick bison. Roadside. The girls had passed him earlier too. And the rangers kept an eye on him. We didn’t stop as he was not in  good shape but was at least looking for food and trying to eat for the first time in a while, apparently. After the bison, were deer. Pretty little deer here and there riverside. Just posing.

And then…the fiery bison – foraging for food. Not liking to be interrupted… I know how you feel. I think these could be in the running for our most favorite Bison images so far… It was as frosty as it was going to get on this day. We were expecting the temperatures to be well below freezing, into the many minus’ and below. But it hovered around 0 degrees for most of the trip. And as such we didn’t get the really frozen buffalo photos we had hoped for. But pretty happy with this set. Fierce.

And further up the road a blockade of sorts…And for the second time we have bison-stand-off. And this seriously went on for a good 20 minutes. And then his friends joined the party. And I took this opportunity to have my own bison moment. And then until we couldn’t stand it any longer the snow-mobile slowly edged through and bison nap was done. We were one our way again. Until of course our coach overheated and we crawled the next 7-8kms.

But finally we made it. The lodge was in the distance. Back together again and just in time for dinner. We were whisked off and enjoyed the most divine meal. Fabulous food. Loved every morsel. There was catching up to be done on the days activities. Some falling reports to sheepishly relay and then it was pretty early to bed after some wine and yoga. Although if we’re keeping it real we were way more serious about the wine than the yoga. Sorry Erin, sorry.  A full day of photography was planned for next day. So with dreams of of bison and geysers it was lights out in the cottage.

Morning came and loaded with our gear and following a delish brekkie at the lodge and we met our new friends for the day Joe and Marie and our guide, Rachel, in the lobby. We all set off in the small coach. Bumped into some bison to start off the day just outside the lodge. And got probably Trace’s  favourite bison shot of the trip. Ohhhh….it’s so hard to decide at this point. Nice and snowy.

It was snowing lightly, a lovely delicate cover. Just adding a little somethin’ somethin’ to the already spectacular scenery. And the morning was simply teeming with wildlife. Take a peek.

We went off road for a bit, to a secret hot spring. Named, of all things, Tomato Soup Spring… And yes, it’s pretty literal. And pretty amazing.

Next up was Bobby Socks Forest… The heavily mineralized water drawn in by the roots ultimately petrified the base of the trees killing them. The “white sock” on these standing trees earns their name. Could have played here forever. The lines were sublime.

And check this out… a sweet little detail shot of the snowy pine cone. And BAM! A an incredible snowflake caught in motion. Every element a study in perfection, a lesson in nature’s endless magnificence.

Back on the road we reveled in the path of the river, reflections and the grandeur of the park with it’s snowy top.

While on the prowl for mountain lions and wolverines we found a chipmunk. OK. We’ll settle for that. And he was just chilling. Taking us all in. As we were taking everything in. The whole day was just fabulous and one intake of breath after another. So LOVED hanging out the top of the bombardier at any photo op. And these were endless. More bison and then some. Wild coyotes just frolicking around. Beautiful elk & deer. And some super cute golden-eye ducks and ducklings. Just have a ball heading downstream/upstream. Not sure, it was comical either way.

Some ducks.

And another coyote. (Althoughweswearitwasanotherwolf). NO DOUBT.

And before you know it was the end of the day. And the images featuring in this post are honestly, honestly, honestly just a sample. It was heartbreaking to cull for this purpose. As we took sooooo many. We have simply hundreds and hundreds of favorites. Although perhaps not quite as many as our bison/coyote lovin’ friend Emma. Are the numbers in yet? What’s the final shutter count Em? So excited to see all your photies and relive the madness from your perspective.

And so back to the lodge and the ubiquitous group shot. Such wonderful people and a pleasure to spend a photo safari with.

Then with still some daylight it was time to see if we could make it to Morning Glory. We’d been so excited about this one. She was a bit of a hike. But it was worth it as a massive herd of bison decided to entertain us by grazing right at Old faithful on our way to the pool. For sake of brevity we have omitted any more bison imagery from this post… You can thank us later. So off we went, a hike over snow, past more hissing, spitting geysers. Some on show, others having a sleep.

Then there she was… In all her glory…In the afternoon. Wasn’t so literal for this one. But stunning all the same.

We were probably a bit bisonfied by this stage, hyper and perhaps a little over tired. So much so that on the ways back Emma’s tracking skills were heightened… She was pretty sure I was nearby (my snow boots had pretty snowflake tracks on them… Thank you North Face).

Our route back took us past Chinaman Spring… Named in the 1880s when a Chinese laundryman pitched his tent over the spring and used the hot water as a clothes boiler. The clothes were suspended in the boiling water by a wicker basket. When laundry soap was added the spring erupted for the first time and a column of water ejected the laundry and collapsed the tent. Good background, Trace.

And the onto awesome Blue Star Spring. This spring has had a history of vandalism. In 1946 during cleaning, a pile of debris three feet in height by six feet in width was collected. A bison calf fell into the pool in the mid 1980s and the bones can still be seen on the bottom. These kind of facts are what happen when Trace gets in here.

Arriving back at Old Faithful it had been overrun by bison. Sorry, we lied. There’s always room for one, two, three or more bison images.

And as the sun set it was a truly fitting finale as Old Faithful went off one more time. Dramatic in the sky. Our last hurrah. A most appropriate end to our unforgettable Yellowstone adventure…

Wearily we dragged ourselves back to the lodge for more divine food (which wasn’t as dreadful a task as it sounds when anything gourmet is involved)… And drinks shouted from across the room. Thanks Joe. More local ales sampled. And bed was beckoning. We were fully sated and satisfied. It would be an extra early morning with a 6.30am shuttle snow coach out of the park. We would be on our way again. This time an 800km journey to Twin Falls Idaho. Evel Knievel territory here we come. Yellowstone – although not the frosty -30 degree weather we were expecting was certainly still a complete dreamland. Everything and more than we imagined. And we weren’t quite done yet…

Catch up here:

Part 1 – USA the Roadtrip : On the same Page

Part 2 – USA the Roadtrip : The Wave and All things Epic

Part 3 – USA the Roadtrip : Moab & Canyonlands… magic & more milestones

Part 4 – USA the Roadtrip : On the Salt Road

Part 5 – USA the Roadtrip : Life, ain’t it Grand

 Part 6 – USA the Roadtrip : Yellowstone, on the Northern Road