Wednesday, August 18, 1982 (continued)
US 89 merged with US 26 as we turned to follow the Snake
River east to Jackson, WY. We drove down a main street with lots of traffic and
people. Outside a saloon, cowboys and dancing girls in frilly skirts were
putting on a preview show to entice you inside. Up ahead there was whooping and
hollering, and we had to detour around a Western gunfight.
We found a motel of cabins next to a AAA motel that had no
vacancy, and got a half-cabin at Snow King Motel for about $34. It had no air
conditioning, but it was getting cooler.
We decided to go to the rodeo, and headed down that main
street that was now emptied out. We could see the arches made up of thousands
of elk antlers, leading to the town square. We had dubious directions to the
rodeo arena, but we found our way and paid the $5.50 general admission to the
amateur rodeo. It began to rain and we could see lightning flashing in the
distance. We had our raincoats and so were protected from the rain. It soon
passed and the clouds cleared for the rest of the rodeo.
The first event was bronco bareback riding, and only a
couple guys managed to stay on the required 10 seconds. A few kids were called
down and they had to tie a ribbon on a goat’s tail. The bigger goat wouldn’t
stay still, but the little goat stood perfectly still! It was funny to see the
kids try to straddle the bigger goat to tie on the ribbon. One winner managed
to tie a ribbon on the bigger goat when he lifted his tail to do his business!
We saw bronco busting with a saddle; some of the horses
looked really mean as they galloped past us. A couple teeny kids rode bucking
sheep. There was the calf-roping event, the cowboy had to rope the calf with
the lasso and with the horse holding the rope taut, the cowboy jumped off to
tie at least three of the calf’s legs together with three loops and a half
hitch. If the calf didn’t get loose in 6 seconds, the cowboy’s time was
counted. There was bull riding with a rodeo clown in there to help out. One
bull didn’t want to leave the arena and turned on the horse sent after him. A
dummy sat in the middle and the bull upended him.
Another bull went after the clown and really got him in the
seat of his pants with one horn. There was a team calf-roping event. One guy
had to lasso the calf’s horns, and the other his two hind feet. They were
rarely successful. Another kiddie event was when every kid in the stands was
invited down, and they had to chase two calves to grab the ribbons tied to
their tails. A mad scramble!
There was only one event with girls/women, the barrel
racing. On horseback they had to race around three barrels in a cloverleaf
pattern.
They had an injured cowboy routine where the clown was
testing the cowboy’s reflexes and kept getting kicked. To revive the cowboy,
the clown has his secret invention that looked like a vacuum cleaner. We were
shown the secret, which was a skunk inside the canister! At one point the clown
ran with the canister and threw a “skunk” into the audience. It was just the
fur; the skunk in the canister was real, however!
After about an hour or so, the rodeo was over and we
returned to the motel for the night.
Thursday, August 19, 1982
Set off shortly after 8:00 and headed the wrong way on the
main drag and found ourselves at the
National Elk Refuge.
 |
| Teton mountain range from National Elk Refuge |
We drove in on the gravel roads in search of elk, but didn’t see a single one! We did get our first good view of the Teton mountain range. We backtracked after coming to a closed gate on the one hand and a farm on the other.
We got back on US 89/26 heading north, and found the other side of the Elk Refuge, but still no elk. We did see lots of
Pica hudsonia/Black-billed Magpies. We continued through Jackson Hole, the depressed valley alongside the Tetons. The Teton mountain range seemed to just poke up through the relatively flat land. They were tall and impressive; all over 10,000 feet and some over 12,000 feet. We passed through
Grand Teton National Park, being on a flat road running parallel to the mountains. We stayed on the main highway rather than take the local road. We stopped at Cunningham Cabin Historic Site which had a restored dog-trot style cabin, two box rooms covered by one roof with open space between the two rooms. It was made of logs with a thatched roof. You got a small guide for only 15 cents showing why this location was chosen, for the land and the stream. There was a typical fence and foundations of other ranch buildings. The machine wasn’t working, where you were supposed to hear Mrs. Cunningham read a letter. There were
Cynomys ludovicianus/Black-tailed Prairie Dogs all over the place, with many coming to us and begging.
 |
| Snake River |
Before we knew it, we were in
Yellowstone National Park, full of forested mountains. We rounded a curve and found all the traffic had stopped and people were leaping out of their cars with cameras. We crept along, until we saw the moose ambling in the woods and pulled off the road to take a photo. A real moose! Or at least one in the wild!
 |
| Alces alces/Moose |
 |
| Moose watch |
As we rounded another curve, more stopped cars. Yep, more meese! The moose were eating along the marshy sides of a river.
 |
| Moose |
 |
| More moose |
A couple moose here, another farther along, another on our side of the road. We continued climbing slowly. The river (Lewis River) was in a small gorge and back on our left I saw some tumbling waterfalls. We came upon Lewis Lake with people fishing from rowboats. Up near West Thumb Lake we stayed with US 89 heading towards Old Faithful. We appeared to be on a flat plateau, and passed a lily-covered Isa Lake. Later up ahead we saw a flat sandy area with a few trees and steam rising. The steam was from Black Sand Basin on the left side of the road, but we headed to Upper Geyser Basin on the right side. The parking lot was said to be full, but we found a spot. We hurried over to the steaming mound where the geyser, Old Faithful, was supposed to blow, and were worried about our timing. But we only had to wait five minutes when Old Faithful blew! It is said to spout water 100-180 feet in the air, but you mostly saw steam, and it lasted for several minutes.
 |
| Old Faithful |
 |
| Old Faithful |
 |
| Old Faithful |
 |
| Old Faithful |
Old Faithful erupts roughly about once per hour.
 |
| Upper Geyser Basin |
We went to the visitors center to check on other predicted eruptions, but all would be several hours later. We went to walk around Old Faithful which was still steaming and spitting water.
 |
| Old Faithful from behind |
We passed Old Faithful’s runoff and I tested the water which was already cool. There was a faint sulfur smell in the air. We followed a wooden walkway and were warned not to step out on the ground, which might be only a thin crust over boiling water. We saw a couple holes in inch-thick crust. We came to a couple pools of clear light-blue water that boiled and bubbled. An interesting sight!
 |
| Chinese Spring? |
 |
| Blue Star Spring |
You could occasionally see the deep dark holes where the water originated. We crossed Firehole River, a seemingly normal river running through this hot bed. But every once in a while you saw steam at an edge, or bubbling where there weren’t rapids.
We walked around the crusty yellow Geyser Hill with more pools and bubbling springs, and spitting and bubbling geysers. I leaned over to feel the water near one geyser, and this time it was really hot!
 |
| Upper Geyser Basin |
We sometimes heard rumbling, which at times was obviously thunder (a storm with lightning was passing in the east), but otherwise seemed to come from beneath us. Many of the pools were crusted around the edges.
 |
| Small geyser |
 |
| Pool edge |
The edge of the Doublet Pool looked like fancy architectural gingerbread, or rough filigree.
 |
| Crusted edge of Doublet Pool |
 |
| Arum Geyser |
We passed the Lion Group of four small geysers set up a little off the ground. We followed the river through the woods before coming back to the geyser area again. We saw the Liberty Pool, which seemed to have reddish and white crust with blue water, the colors of the U.S.! The Sawmill Geyser was almost continuously spouting, spraying water all over and up to 20 feet.
 |
| Sawmill Geyser |
We felt we were awfully close to the spray, but the water cools quickly in the air.
The Spasmodic, Grand, and Turban Geysers were all bubbling and spitting. The Grand Geyser erupts fully twice a day. We continued to the Beauty Pool and Chromatic Pool; truly beautiful.
 |
| Beauty Pool reflection |
 |
| Chromatic Pool |
Clear blue water with rings of color around the edges, which is algae. Next were the Giant Geyser and its neighbors, now dormant, although they were spewing bubbling water from fairly big cones.
 |
| Bijou, Mastiff, and Giant Geysers |
 |
| Giant Geyser |
As we approached the Grotto Geyser, we saw the skin and bones of some large elk-type animal. We sometimes saw cloven hoof prints in the crusty earth, and several little squirrels were running around.
 |
| Elk skeleton? |
The Grotto Geyser had a lumpy cone full of holes, and it was steaming and spitting water.
 |
| Grotto Geyser |
The crust was formed around trees that are now gone, leaving the holes.
We discovered we were a mile from the car. Even though danger of the storm had passed and the sun was out, we decided to head out. We followed the bike path patrolled by a ranger on a bike. Earlier we had seen a ranger on a horse. We passed a steaming field and a couple more pools. We came to the Castle Geyser with its giant cone; it erupts twice a day.
Next to it was the Crested Pool, which was boiling away. We found a couple holes where we could hear bubbling below the earth; if we waited the water would bubble up out of them. Looking back at the Crested Pool, it was now boiling over, bubbling up a couple feet!
 |
| Crested Pool |
We stopped for some groceries and film, and at the post office for stamps, then returned to the car to drive onward on US 89. Passed another steaming area of Midway Geyser Basin, then stopped at the Fountain Paint Pot. That was really something!
 |
| Fountain Paint Pot |
 |
| Fountain Paint Pot |
 |
| Fountain Paint Pot |
 |
| Midway Geyser |
 |
| Midway Geyser |
A huge hole in the ground full of a slowly simmering substance that looked like paint, in shades of white to pale pink. You could watch a bubble form and then burst. We saw a fumarole, which is a dry geyser. Steam was hissing out of the ground, but there was no water. We saw more hot springs, an active spray geyser, and another animal carcass whose skull was farther along the path.
Back on the road, we saw stopped cars and looked for the herd of elk grazing in the woods on the other side of the river. At Norris, WY we left US 89 to head east to Canyon, WY, where the thick forests opened up onto open grasslands. More stopped cars indicated a herd of bison way off in the distance. Saw a lone bison laying on a grassy hill, later a couple more, then one standing in a marshy area.
Passing through Canyon, we followed signs to Inspiration Point to look straight down into the Yellowstone River Canyon with its yellow stone walls!
 |
| Yellowstone River Canyon |
Much narrower and simpler than the Grand Canyon, but impressive. Kathy and I were out of breath from our little hike up the stairs, and Kathy asked me to take over driving. I continued along the canyon and pulled over at Lookout Point where we were supposed to see both the upper and lower falls. But Kathy had understood that we had to go farther, so we went too the next lookout. We could see into the canyon, but the lower falls just below us were blocked by a jutting rock, and the upper falls were around a bend. Oh, well.
We continued along the Yellowstone River and at one point the smell of sulfur was very strong. We were passing the steaming bubbling Sulfur Cauldron. We crossed the river at Fishing Bridge. Fishing is not allowed at Fishing Bridge!
Drove along Yellowstone Lake which was enormous. On one side of the road was the normal lake. On the other side was the eerie landscape of steaming and bubbling in the streams and pools. We were on a winding road in the mountains again as we left Yellowstone National Park, following US Rtes 14, 16 & 20 along the West Fork Shoshone River.
 |
| Bison herd |
We were in a fairly wide canyon when we noticed a rainbow. It became more intense and complete, arching from one side of the canyon to the other!
 |
| Rainbow |
 |
| Attempt to Photoshop entire rainbow |
Then we saw the second rainbow; a complete
double rainbow! We pretty much had it in sight all the way to Cody. WY when it
got dark.
We checked into the AAA Mountaineer Motel for about $32.
After unpacking, we decided to take in another rodeo. This time we got the more
expensive Buzzard’s Roost tickets for $6.
 |
| Cody Rodeo ticket |
We had to walk all the way around the
arena, past a big ugly Brahmin bull-like animal on display, and past all sorts
of penned cattle, calves, and horses. We even saw a bison! We had to climb
stairs to take a catwalk over the pens to reach the Buzzard’s Roost stands. The
other stands were across the arena, but the clowns played to our side. We were
behind the chutes and could watch them “chuting” the animals, “saddling” the
animals, and see the looks on the cowboys faces as they mounted!
First the bison was sent in, and he rolled a bit in the
dirt, then stood patiently as the loudspeaker recited Wyoming and bison history
and memories of Buffalo Bill Cody. Then on cue he trotted out again. The U.S.
flag was saluted and a girl sang the national anthem in country-western style.
The show began with bronco bareback riding, then with
saddles. The animals tonight performed really well; several near-crushed
cowboys… Kids had to grab a ribbon from a calf’s tail, and there was a hobby
horse race. There was calf-roping, team calf-roping, and calf-wrestling where
one cowboy would crowd the calf and another leaped off his horse to grab the
horns and pull the calf down on its back.
Next the bull riding. There was quite the commotion below us
as the bulls were not cooperating in going into the chutes. One guy got to ride
the ugly Brahmin-bull animal. The clown here had a hat cleaning invention where
he put his hat on a balloon and blew it up until it popped. The puff of air
cleaned the hat. He grabbed a cowboy’s hat and put it over the balloon, and
blew the hat to pieces.
The girls did the barrel racing. The Jackson rodeo was
smaller, but they had an electric eye for timing the race!
After the rodeo, we went to Dairy Queen: I had a chicken
sandwich and Kathy had a barbecue sandwich, both with fries and a shake. We
took them back to the motel to eat. The Dairy Queen, like several souvenir
shops we have been to, have this composite stuffed animal called a “jackalope,”
a so-called mythical creature that looks like a jackrabbit with antelope horns
(or deer antlers) and sometimes a pheasant tail.
Next: South Dakota.
No comments:
Post a Comment