Day 1: Long 12 hour travel day. Flew into Jackson Hole, Wyoming, picked up our Toyota Sequoia, and drove the 2.5 hours up to Island Park to find “Will and Di’s Resort”. This would be the only completely sunny day we’d have until days five and six, our travel day back to Jackson Hole.
Di greeted us and we joined her and two guests for dinner.
Larry and Di grew up together in Fort Worth, Texas, so they had tons of
childhood stories to share.
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| Apartment upper level, garage lower |
The “resort” is really the apartment Will and Di built to
enjoy the winters in Island Park, because the main cabin took 24 hours to heat
up before it was renovated in 2012. Now the main cabin’s upstairs has two bunk
beds, a twin, two queen beds and a lovely bathroom. The main floor has a
fantastic kitchen, huge living room with fireplace, pocket bathroom and master
bedroom/bath. The main cabin and apartment are both comfortable during the
winter. Amber, a colleague I worked closely with at Chief Sealth
International High School, offered the “resort” (her parent's vacation home) when she discovered Yellowstone
was our first retirement trip.
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| Apartment living room |
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| Apartment living room |
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| Apartment kitchen |
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Marie on apartment deck
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| Main cabin |
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| Park Map, locations referenced in daily narratives below |
Day 2: Rose early for our first foray into Yellowstone. It
was raining buckets, but by the time we drove the 15 miles to Yellowstone, the
rest of the day was cloudy with only occasional sprinkles.
We divided the park by the south loop one day, the north
loop the next, and then returned to additional sites our third day. The first
loop took us to Midway Geyser Basin, Upper Geyser Basin, Old Faithful, and Old
Faithful Inn, built in 1904, a truly amazing structure.
After lunch we drove over Craig Pass across the Continental
Divide to West Thumb Geyser Basin overlooking Yellowstone Lake, America’s
largest high-altitude lake that’s 20 miles long and 14 miles wide. At West
Thumb, geysers line the lake and some occur under the lake at Grant Village. As
you can see it was stormy this day, but the visibility was good. Note the steam
rising off geysers lining the lake.
Headed north from Lake Village north to Hayden Valley, a
beautiful shrub and grassland populated by bison, elk, and moose, which attract
bears, coyotes and wolves. Waterfowl, including white pelicans live along the
Yellowstone River that runs through the valley, but all we saw were grazing
elk.
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| West Entrance |
Finished our first day with some stunning views of the upper
and lower Yellowstone River Falls. (We returned to the south rim on Day 3 to walk Uncle
Tom’s Trail along the south rim, because the canyon and both falls are so
stunning.)
We drove around to the north canyon rim and hiked down a
switchback to the top of the 109 foot drop of the upper falls. Took a video to
capture the sound. At 7500 feet the hike back up required one short rest on the
many benches provided at each turn.
Finished our first day in Yellowstone and managed to get
back to Will and Di’s Resort by 6:30PM after a brief stop at a West Yellowstone
grocery store.
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| Ubiquitous bison |
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| Upper Geyser Basin |
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| Upper Geyser Basin |
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| Upper Geyser Basin |
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| Old Faithful, cloudy and rainy |
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Upper Geyser Basin, geyser run off into river
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| Old Faithful, not much contrast with clouds and rain |
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| Old Faithful Inn, 5 tons of rock used for fireplace |
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Old Faithful Inn upper three floors
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| Lower Canyon Falls, Artists Point |
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| Lower Falls at Artist Point, 308 foot cascade |
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| West Thumb Geyser Basin overlooking Yellowstone Lake |
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| Yellowstone Lake—shot taken in color believe it or not |
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| Hayden Valley looking north |
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| Hayden Valley looking south |
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| Gull Drive approaching West Thumb Geyser Basin |
Day 3: Raining buckets again at Island Park, but only cloudy
with occasional sprinkles in the park all day again. Today we took the north
loop, beginning our day at Norris Geyser Basin. It was really windy on the
basin, but the walk around and through it is primordial as you can see.
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| Norris Geyser Basin |
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| Norris Geyser Basin |
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| Norris Geyser Basin; it's other worldly |
Drove north to Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces where we took the
Upper Terraces Area drive. Great views over Mammoth and mountains. Parked the
Trooper at the Lower Terraces Area and walked them. Got some nice shots. Really
blustery, about 30 mph, winds here.
We also walked around Mammoth, had some ice cream and gawked
at some elk resting on the lawn of the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel.
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| Mammoth Hot Springs Terrace |
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| Hot Springs close up shot |
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| More terraced hot springs |
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| Lamar River Valley |
One of the prettiest drives ever was the one out of Mammoth Hot Springs to Tower-Roosevelt and over Dunraven Pass where the road links to Canyon Village and the 40 mile drive back to the west entrance.
The road south and east out of Mammoth is stunning. We enjoyed sunny breathtaking vistas of the Lamar River Valley, Mt. Washburn, and Tower Fall for 20 miles. It’s a winding road, but the lava formations along the cliff faces, and the fall colors on this sunny drive dazzled us.
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| Lamar River Valley |
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| Lava formations near Tower-Roosevelt and Tower Fall |
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| Lava formations adjacent Tower Fall |
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| Lava formation (close up) adjacent Tower Fall |
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| Tower Fall, 132 foot drop |
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| Dunraven Pass |
We really lucked out because the next day an early snow closed Chittenden Road and Dunraven Pass.
Day 4: Pouring buckets in Island Park, so we hung out and
read for a few hours before leaving for Yellowstone. True to form, the weather
dried out by the time we reached the park. Hiked along the south rim of
Yellowstone Canyon, spent some time at the Canyon Village Visitor Education
Center, and took the short .5 mile hike to Artists Paintpots before heading
back to IP.
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| Foliage along South Rim Canyon Trail |
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| Foliage along South Rim Canyon Trail |
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| Foliage along South Rim Canyon Trail |
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| South Rim Canyon Trail |
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| Lower Falls from South Rim Canyon Trail |
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| Lower Falls from South Rim Canyon Trail |
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| Yellowstone Canyon |
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| Artists Paintpots |
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| Moss ground cover at Artists Paintpots |
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| Artists Paintpots |
Enjoyed Di’s homemade tomato basil soup and cheese and crackers for dinner after this last stop of our day.
Day 5: It was sunny and cold this morning and we headed out
early for Yellowstone where we got trapped in a three-mile (at least) traffic
jam along the Madison River. At first we thought it might be tourists stopping
to take pictures of the elk along the river, but at the bend, we could see it
was volume. We calculated it would take us two hours to get to Madison
Junction, and who knows how long for another look at Old Faithful and a hike
along Firehole River to Grand and Castle Geyers and Geyser Hill.
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| Henry's Lake foliage |
So, we turned around, headed back to Island Park, and spent
a lovely sunny fall day at Henry Lake State Park, where we strolled along the
lake and ate lunch before driving about 12 miles to Harriman State Park. This
park has tons of hiking/biking trails and they’re all well marked. We
investigated two of the historic buildings overlooking the lake on the Harriman
Ranch before taking a hike through an aspen grove and along the lake.
One of the buildings was the main dining hall and the other
was the Harriman residence. Ya, think Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; it’s
that railroad Harriman family.
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| Henry's Lake State Park, a fisherman's paradise |
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| Harriman Park |
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| Harriman Park, dining hall of Harriman Ranch |
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| Dining Hall kitchen; checking what's in the pot |
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| Harriman Ranch main house |
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| Harriman Ranch main house |
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| Trail maps are posted around the park |
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| Lake Loop trail at Harriman Park |
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| Lake Loop trail at Harriman Park |
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| Lake Loop trail at Harriman Park |
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| Trumpeter swans on Lake Loop Trail |
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| Big Springs, headwaters to Snake River |
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| Marie and Di at Big Springs |
Di prepared dinner where we had our second
helping of her fabulous homemade apple pie and ginger ice cream. And if that
wasn’t enough, she gave us two yummy slices of pear cake for our Saturday
breakfast.
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| Us at Big Springs |
Day 6: Rose early for our drive back to Jackson Hole. Di told us to be sure and take the Mesa Falls Scenic Byway, and are we glad we did. As you can see, like everything in this part of the country, it’s beautiful.
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| It was a chilly morning at Mesa Falls |
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| Mesa River |
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| Mesa River |
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| Mesa Falls |
Arrived in Jackson Hole several hours before our flight, so we strolled around town, found some ice cream, and stopped in at the visitor center for some advice about possible walks. Ended up driving a loop to Kelly, where we strolled around a Mormon homestead, and then to Antelope Junction and back to the airport, arriving 45 minutes before our flight. Perfect.
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| Grand Tetons |
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| Grand Tetons |
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| Mormon homestead |
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| Pronghorn antelope near Antelope Junction, how appropriate |
