Tuesday July 2, 2013- Take me to the River

Left: Grant Village at 8:42am MST

Arrived: Grant Village Visitor Center at 6pm MST
Arrived Grant Village Campground: about 7:30pm MST
Our route is in purple. The green arrows show direction. The green Xes show some stops. The green O is where the Obsidian Cliff is.

Total time on road: 7 ½  hours
Miles driven today: 235.3
Total miles driven: 2843

Our first destination was the Visitor’s Center in Fishing Bridge. Each area of Yellowstone comes with its own Visitor’s Center and usually a campground, a gas station, usually a lodge or two and a restaurant or two. Each of those Visitor’s Centers has a theme and a ranger or two to answer questions. It was important to me to stop at FB VC because their theme is birds. On display, you'll find taxidermied specimens of almost every bird you could see at Yellowstone.

Before I was a bird watcher, I would have just thought the specimens were nice to look at. As a birder, an exhibit like this is vital. I can read the field guide and I can see the birds but while I am at Yellowstone, I don’t have an experienced birding friend to confirm what I think I’m seeing. The bird exhibit lends perspective to what those birds really look like. (Oh! That wasn't a Mountain Bluebird, which looks super-blue compared to our Eastern Bluebird. It really could have been a Lazuli Bunting, which, by the way, would be a real score!) Oh, no. I really have become a bird geek. Did I mention that my field guide got misplaced/mispacked since I purchased a Rocky Mountain folding guide that I've been using? Crap. It’s here somewhere, buried. Double crap.

The awesome ranger (a graduate in film studies) answered some questions. This is his 2^nd summer.  We probably won't see moose in Yellowstone as there are only about 100 in the park. However, the chances are much higher as we approach the Tetons tomorrow. You might find obsidian (black volcanic glass that makes up a cliff and a creek/river bed in Yellowstone) on the lakeshore, but it won’t likely be round and dull. It will still probably be sharp. (Yeah, it wasn't obsidian I found. Probably just regular prehistoric lava.)

This day was already getting off to a fabulous start!

Today’s trek took us back through Hayden Valley (Helloooo bison!) to the Mud Volcano. At MV, our first photo was of an iron grate of a storm drain. The iron grate had a sawhorse over it because of the thermal activity going on in the drain. Not only was it steaming furiously, but the gas had eaten half of the drain away. The features at MV are some of the most acidic in the park.

We learned that not all of the “steam” you see is actually heat. Some of the vapor may be because of the gases in that spot. Hydrogen sulfide gas is deep down in MV. Microorganisms that use hydrogen sulfide for energy help convert the gas to sulfuric acid, which breaks down the rock to wet clay mud. The gas keeps the mud a poppin’ and the crowds entertained.

MV is close to one of the major vents from which the lava flowed during the spectacular eruption 640,000 years ago. After the eruption, the land collapsed and formed a caldera. The lava flowed from the vents at MV and Old Faithful and created a volcanic plateau, which makes up a lot of the park. MV is near the greatest uplift and sinking of the caldera floor.

Fun stuff here:

Dragon's Mouth Spring

Dragon’s Mouth Spring- its surging action has decreased since 1994 for unknown reasons. In 1999, its water temp. dropped 10 degrees and the color changed from green to chalky white.

Sour Lake- looks like a lovely swimming hole, but the water is so acidic it would burn your skin like battery acid. Looks are deceiving, huh?!

Black Dragon’s Caldron burst onto the scene in 1948. In Yellowstone prehistoric speak, that’s practically yesterday! It uprooted and coated nearby trees in mud and has since migrated south 200 feet. Sour Lake was much more active before Black Dragon Caldron came around.

An added bonus to this feature is the way the bison just roam in and hang around. We got some awesome natural photos and towards the end of the visit we found a bison extremely close to (but not dangerously so) the visitors’ walkway. How close? So close we could smell him. Fun!

Grand Canyon Falls from Artist Point

Thankfully, Isaac was also in a much better mood today. That meant that he really enjoyed himself at the Mud Volcano and he got out of the RV to walk the South Rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. We walked to Artist Point, the most highly photographed area of the 308-foot Lower Falls. As you view the canyon walls, you can steam venting from the sides.

There is some construction going on in that area of the park, so traffic can be a bit congested here and there. At one point, we encountered heavy traffic in an area where there were no sightseeing features. After a quick debate, Pete encouraged me to jump out of the RV with the camera and begin walking while he sat in the traffic. Good thing I listened. The reason for the traffic and crowds was a grizzly bear swimming in a stream in the valley below. I got some awesome photos. I also got to see how crazy people can be. A female ranger with the patience of a saint had to come along to handle the crowd, including the family of four who literally parked and turned off their car on the two-lane road so everyone could get out and watch! The ranger was havin’ none of that! Back in and move along! I’ve enlarged the photo as best I can. The grizzlies can be confused with the black bears in this area because the black bears of Yellowstone can sometimes be brown. The grizzlies however, have an unmistakable hump on their shoulder blades and their rump is smaller than their shoulders.

The Grizzly was swimming with only his nose out of the creek...at first!!

After that excitement, we continued driving the loop. We didn't get out of the RV much more. Our energy was wearing thin. Recognizing and heeding that is becoming a skill we’re more and more proud of. We wanted to visit Petrified Tree but there was no room for us to park. We could barely make it in and out of the parking lot! We drove through Mammoth Hot Springs but did not get out to visit.

Obsidian Cliff

Large Obsidian Boulder

It seemed to be “Indulge Julie Day”. I really wanted to see Obsidian Cliff. As a rockhound, I did not want to pass up the chance to see an entire wall of volcanic glass. It’s not heavily marked, so we missed it at first. Pete drove a mile out of the way and turned around just so I could see it. I’m so thankful. It is gorgeous.

Stars of our own beer commercial!

I did make one outright request of Pete. I said, “Honey, if you see a peaceful stream that looks accessible and there’s a place you can park, will you pull over so I can just stick my feet in?” I kept seeing these picnicking people frolicking in these glassine streams with mountains behind them and it just looked like a beer commercial that I wanted to star in.

He didn’t forget. He pulled up along the Firehole river and he grabbed the camera. When I said, “Oh. You have the camera!” He replied, “Yes. I want to get pictures of you flopping around in the water.” Many of you know that there are not many things that I love more than water. So this was a lovely opportunity. As I went into the back of the RV to get a foot towel, it occurred to me to actually change into my swimming suit, just in case the water was even more accessible than it looked. Boy, was it! Before I knew it, I was in up to my neck. I bent at the knees because it wasn't very deep. There was a gentle but insistent current. It was like my own natural lap pool! When Millie saw me swimming, she quickly changed into her suit. We called Isaac to bring the smaller lens. When he saw us dipping it, he was next. (The top picture of us swimming is what I see when I tell Pete I am going swimming. The bottom photo is what Pete sees when I say I am going swimming.) Our five minute warning was extended another 10 minutes by my indulgent partner. Pete let me swim with my babies until I was satisfied without pressuring me to get out. I was swimming in crystal clear water of 87 degrees with mountains beside me. Not only was it the best day of vacation, it was one of the best moments of my forever.

Take me to the river. Drop me in the water. Dip me in the river. Drop me in the water. The water.Words and music by Al Green and Mabon Hodges

Millie Quelly, Jr. Ranger!

We drove around to the Grant Village Visitor’s Center where Millie turned in her Junior Ranger book and earned her Junior Ranger Badge from Ranger Ali. It was a proud moment. We'll iron the patch onto her girl scout vest.

Our Vacation Pet, "Sparky"

Dinner: Overpriced but decent hamburgers from the Grant Village Grille and a stroll through the gift shop. Pete suggested we avoid dinner clean up by eating out and I was happy to agree. When we got back to camp, Millie played with her friends while Pete and I had a drink and fed the mosquitos. We retired early, plumb tuckered out!