Day 10 - Beartooth and Chief Joseph Scenic Byways Part 1

Just the post title alone intrigues me to want to read further! There is some much to talk about and pictures to prepare I have to break this up into parts. 

Today was one of our highlights of the adventure. Cindy really did her homework and earned her A+ from the Master's class in logistics that I eluded to in an earlier post. This 245 mile loop road trip was one of the most scenic and very open (much above treeline) road trips that we have done together. 

All of this started with an alarm clock going off at 5:30 a.m. That's right we were on vacation and getting up before the sunrise. But it was something we had to do in order to travel almost 250 miles to ensure that see what was on on our itinerary. We left Wapiti and the Trail Shop Inn and made our way back to the east entrance to YNP. Our first stop was in the Lake Village and Bridge Bay area (headwaters of the Yellowstone River)

for breakfast before heading in the Hayden Valley. Our expectation of seeing wildlife was granted very early, yet somewhat unexpected as it was very foggy following the Yellowstone River (see photo above) that early in the morning. As it turned out there was a herd of Bison walking along the road or plopping down in any available dust bowls. Here are a couple of the big fellows who could honestly careless that we were there!

We drove past Canyon Village (lots more to come from there) and up and over Dunraven Pass at 8,859 feet. This area will come back into the discussion during our hike up Mount Washburn. Here is a view from one of the many turnouts with some back country geysers that are all over the Park.

Further up the road we got to the Tower-Roosevelt junction. We took a small detour into the Roosevelt Lodge, but were not impressed, so we moved into the next well known wildlife areas called the Lamar Valley.

Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park

This VERY LARGE and open valley is teaming with Bison, Antelope, and birds of prey. The picture above does not do justice for the thousands of Bison that were  grazing in this area. I'm sure you have figured out by now that you can click on each picture to expand them to full size. In this photo you can see all the black dots --those are all Bison way off by the Lamar River that flows down through this valley. This went on for miles. Many wildlife photographers with there very expensive telescopic lenses and spotting scopes were posted along every turnout -- not for the Bison, but looking for Wolves and Grizzlies. Unfortunately, we did not see any, but these enthusiasts will sit there for hours waiting for maybe a 30 second glimpse of a Wolf. Some people, including us would say --a bad day of not seeing a wolf or grizzly in Yellowstone National Park is much better than a good day at work! -- 

Stay tuned for Part 2 as we drive along the Beartooth Scenic Byway and on our way into Montana.

Day 9 - Old Faithful and Geyser Basin

Our day 9 adventure brought us back through the east entrance of Yellowstone National Park (YNP) from Wapiti to explore Old Faithful and other geysers in this thermal area. More to follow, but first a short geology lesson:

The geology of Yellowstone is fascinating at so many levels it's not possible to capture this history in a blog. But a couple facts that we picked up on is that many locations around the world like New Zealand and Iceland are well known for their geysers, but nowhere are there as many as in Yellowstone. Additionally, three major volcanic events happened during the history of this area. The first one was 2 million years ago, then 1.3 million years ago, and the last known event was only 640,000 years ago. In geology time that is like a snap of your fingers. This last event spewed over 640 cubic miles of debris and the inward collapse of the volcano formed a 30- by 40-mile caldera. In comparison, the Mount St. Helen's volcano eruption in May, 1980 spewed only 0.67 miles of debris and the caldera left behind was 1.2- by 1.8 miles. It's hard to imagine this type of destruction at the Yellowstone site and knowing that this area is still an active volcano with multiple earthquakes very day that could easily trigger another eruption! 

Over half of the caldera is now filled in by Yellowstone Lake. Active hot spots are still being generated by the magmatic heat from the volcano that erupted 640,000 years ago thus causing today's geysers to erupt with steaming hot gushes of steam and water (like Old Faithful) to simple boiling springs like you will see with pictures of the Grand Prismatic Spring.

Here are a few pictures and videos from the our drive from Wapiti to the Old Faithful area.

Rock formations as seen just east of Wapiti, Wyoming and near the east entrance to Yellowstone National Park

A Raven's fan should always take a photo of their favorite bird, especially when seen in the wild! This guy was posing at one of the scenic turnouts near Yellowstone Lake.

Here is a video taken of Lake Yellowstone from Lake Butte Overlook.

One of many hot springs in the Old Faithful geyser basin

Historic Old Faithful Inn. Notice the burned out trees behind the Inn. This is from a lightning induced fire in 1988 several weeks after we visited the park. The Park boundaries that are in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho encompass 2.2 million acres. The numerous fires that flared up that summer burned 37 percent of that acreage.  It's hard to imagine how difficult it was for the fire crews to contain this fire so close to a world renowned and historic structure like this Inn.

Old Faithful geyser starting to erupt

About 30 seconds into the eruption

Reaching  full strength

Here is a video clip of Old Faithful erupting!

Steam vents along the Firehole River near the Old Faithful Geyser Basin

The Old Faithful area is one of the most scenic locations in the Park and sought after by visitors from around the world. We were impressed by the traffic control and parking lots, but the hordes of people (okay we were there too) was way too much for us to handle for more than a couple of hours. So we moved on to another area called Grand Prismatic Spring. As we drove into the parking area, the Park Rangers were closing the area down due to safety reasons. We did not hear directly from the Rangers but we expect the wind changed direction and the sulfur smell from the hot spring was blowing directly into the viewing area for the visitors. We looked at a map and saw a trail on the opposite side of the hot spring, so we maneuvered over to another parking area and decided that an unscheduled hike might get us a better look at the spring and one that the Rangers would unlikely close off. Our hunch paid off. Look at the colors of this spring! We don't think we would have gotten a view like this from the deck that you see on the other side of this photo. BONUS!

Grand Prismatic Spring

Thunderstorms were moving into the area from the west so we decided to drive back to Waipti and then another 30 miles to Cody, Wyoming for a look around the town and dinner. Cody is your quinteessential western cowboy town and appeared to be a base camp for many Recreational Vehicles and bikers. Based on the t-shirts and overheard conversations many of the bikers had just gotten into town from a rally in Sturgis, South Dakota and were heading into Yellowstone. There was no lack of RVs and Bikers in Yellowstone!

The biggest attraction in Cody is their Cody Nite Rodeo. Although we did not stay long enough, they showcase this well known Rodeo http://www.codynightrodeo.com/ every night at 8:00 p.m. 

    

Day 8 - Travel Day from Goosewing to Wapiti

Saturday, 27 July 2013, was day 8 for our adventure in Wyoming. Unfortunately we had to bid a fond farewell to the Goosewing Ranch. It was a lot of fun with great horseback riding in the Gros Ventre National Forest mountains that surround the ranch, crystal clear waters teaming with cutthroat trout, relaxing atmosphere promoted by the weather, outstanding hospitality of the ranch hands, general manager, and with out a doubt the owner of this magnificent piece of property. We could not have asked for anything better.

We gathered our belongings, stowed them into our rented 2013 Subaru (very nice car) Outback, and headed back down the 17 mile dusty rock road towards the Grand Tetons National Park (GTNP). 

Here is one of many National Forest employees (others were Pronghorns, Trumpeter Swans, and Whitetail Deer) who said goodbye to us.

Bald Eagle about 2 miles from the gate to Goosewing Ranch

The grandeur of the Tetons greeted us as we drove out of the Gros Ventre National Forest. Here is a picture of the Snake River with the backdrop of the Tetons. It's hard to explain but these jagged peaks above 13,000 feet just seem to rise out of know where.

As luck would have it while I was snapping the above photo of Cindy at Oxbow Bend in GTNP a female Elk or possibly Mule Deer decided to swim across the Snake River over my left shoulder. I'm glad I got (1) the picture of Cindy (2) the picture of the Elk/Mule Deer, and (3) the picture of Cindy before the waves from swimming activity disturbed the reflection of the Tetons in this photo.

Possible Elk or Mule Deer swimming across the very deep Snake River in the Grand Tetons National Park

For the time being we left GTNP to our south and made our way into Yellowstone National Park (YNP). We finally made it back to Yellowstone after vowing to do so after traveling through this park 25 years ago with Michelle during our assignment change from Kelly AFB, Texas to Wheeler AFB, Hawaii. Look at the beginning of this blog to see Chris' picture near a similar YNP sign.

Here is one of many waterfalls we saw throughout the park. This is Lewis Falls.

We drove around the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake, with stops at Grant Village, Bridge Bay, Lake Village, and Fishing Bridge. The Yellowstone River headwaters (flowing due north) are here at Fishing Bridge with the Yellowstone Lake as its source.

Yellowstone Lake with Grand Tetons to the south

What you see here is the caldera leftover from a volcano - now the Yellowstone Lake. It's a very impressive body of water, bigger than you can imagine and freezes over solid every winter.

We continued our journey through the Absaroka mountain range to our south and the Absaroka Wilderness to our north and finally out through the east entrance of YNP. 

One of many alpine lakes along the way and before we left YNP were Sylvan and Eleanor.

Sylvan Lake west of Sylvan Pass at 8,530 feet

Here are a few pictures (more to come) of the very distinctive geography of the high desert of east central Wyoming. This is in the Shoshone National Forest and very near Wapiti where our Trail Shop Motel was located. Wapiti, Wyoming (population of 177) was our base camp for the next three days.

   

  

Day 7 - Cowboy Butte and Fly Fishing

It is now day 7 and our last full day at the Goosewing Ranch. I must say this has been a very relaxing and fun experience. We met a lot of nice people, all with very interesting backgrounds. The staff here has truly made our time enjoyable and a place that I would highly recommend to anyone wanting to just get away from whatever rat race you have to deal with on a daily basis. Word to the wise - make reservations in advance.

For today's adventures Cindy and I went our separate ways. She decided to sign up for another 2-hour trail ride up and over Cowboy Butte. Her Wrangler on this trip was a Frenchman named Ramon. The group she was paired up with all had a wonderful time. Here are some of the pictures from that ride. 

Take a ride with Dixie up Cowboy Butte in the Gros Ventre National Forest

A view from Cowboy Butte looking due west towards Grand Tetons National Park

These are Willows trees down through this valley and prime location for Moose

I took the low road (if you consider 7,400 feet the low road) for my adventure and took some Fly Fishing lessons from the owner of the Goosewing Ranch. His name is Francois. By trade he was a pharmacist back in France. He purchased the Ranch 17 years ago after a vacation to the Jackson Hole area. He fell in love with the scenery, weather, and Cowboy way of life. He did not have a clue about the hospitality industry, but decided that the Pharmaceutical life was not his cup of tea so he jumped head first into purchasing a Hunting Lodge that was failing measurably at the time. Although I did not see what the Lodge and surrounding area looked like 17 years ago, I did have some discussions with him and what I gathered it must have been a dump. Francois certainly has remodeled it into a beautiful place.

Here are some pictures from inside the main lodge. The theme was obviously all about hunting and Francois liked that aspect of it, but he has certainly changed the outside image and activities to horseback riding and fly fishing.

Now back to the fly fishing. Francois was very knowledgeable regarding the native cutthroat trout that live and breed in the tributaries, like the Gros Ventre River, that feed into the Snake River. Fly fishing was a learned activity for him and one that he got really good at. Being a proprietor of a Ranch in Jackson Hole afforded him some unique opportunities to join many guided trips on the world renowned trophy trout waters of the Snake River. Anglers come from around the world specifically to the Jackson Hole area to fish for the elusive and fighting behaviors of the native cutthroats. Several tournaments are held every year for these fisherman in their attempt to catch 20-30 inch monsters. 

Francois took a group of us out to the lawn beside the main lodge and showed us some proper fly casting techniques, which I learned a lot from. He also showed us some typical fly's that hatch throughout the season and how to identify them. The only thing that he could not do was actually take us down to the river to show us the best holes and techniques that he uses. Why? That would be called "guiding" and that was illegal on Gros Ventre River that flows through the National Forest. I did pick up on a few hints and took it upon myself to jump in the UTV and make my way down to the general area that seemed ripe for some good fishing. Here are a few pictures.

On my way to the River

Better than any day at the office!

Fish on!!!

We finished off the evening with a brisket BBQ down by the river. The Goosewing staff already had a pit campfire going and the guests sat around on logs. Dinner was great with some Cowboy songs being sung and the sun setting over the Tetons. Life is good! While we were sitting around the campfire Cindy and I were presented a very nice bottle of wine in celebration of our 30th wedding anniversary. This was a classy gesture and appreciated by both of us. Here is a picture of the guitar/mandolin player and typical sunset.

Day 6 - Soda Lake Trail Ride

Up through the Goosewing Creek Valley in the Gros Ventre National Forest on our ride up to Soda Lake

Day 6 opened up with a 4 hour trail ride to Soda Lake. Our Wrangler on this ride was James. He was a very interesting young man from New Hampshire who pretty much grew up on the back of a horse. Besides narrating the sights and sounds along our ride he also filled us in on much of his life's ups and downs. A very colorful life I might add. Here are some of the pictures on our way up to and around Soda Lake in the Gros Ventre National Forest.

Cindy getting Dixie ready for our ride up to Soda Lake

Soda Lake

James and Cindy during our lunch at Soda Lake

The remainder of the day was filled with some more pool time, hot tub, and yet another beautiful sunset over the Tetons as seen from the Goosewing Ranch.