Elk encounter, last night in Yellowstone

9/24/11

Today we over slept. Thanks to that we saw the horses that came to roam at our campsite.  We went to do the Beaver Pond Trail hike which was marked in the pamphlets as a 5mi loop. Unfortunately at about 1/5 of the way the trail ended. We decided to turn around. Before we headed back we found a pleasant surprise. An elk bull was resting in the forest, he stood up before us and did his mating call. As we headed back we looked at the trail sign which marked the hike as a 0.5mi. We never asked if there was a typo in the hikes pamphlets but we suspect so.

We did the harlequin hike at the Madison area where we were able to find campground, unaware the hike was in crowded forest, a feature to avoid when avoiding bear. We sang in and out so bears could be aware of our presence. I enjoyed (m) this hike a lot because it was different from what we had seen. This area was -landlocked pine forest- that had just started to grow and some pines were shorter than us. The forest is "short" because 22 years ago a massive fire happened at the Madison area which is still recuperating from it. 

We went for the short hike because we needed to go into Old Faithful area to prepare for the Grand Teton tomorrow. In town we got food and were lucky to see the famous Old Faithful geyser go off. On our way back we stopped at the Midway Geyser Basin to see the spectacular Grand Prismatic Spring. 

Today we came to the realization that even though there are hundreds of people in the park most of them have not gone and will not go for a hike. We were surprise to see most of the hiking trails have 0 or very few traffic of people. We reason this could be good for the preservation but also wonder how can people come here and not experience the beautiful hikes. 

2nd day at Yellowstone

9/23/11

We started today with a hike at Yellowstone River Picnic area. The hike was a 4 mile loop that took us along a  ledge that overlooked the river about 5 to 8 hundred feet below. There were some really spectacular views. We saw a buffalo from a large distance but otherwise did not see much wildlife.

After the hike we spent a while trying to find a campground with space and finally decided on a place outside of the north entrance of the park located in Montana.

After setting up camp, we returned to the park to explore the swimmable hot springs at Boiling River. Here there is a remarkable site where people can bath in the hot tub like conditions where the scalding geothermal water mixes with the frigid river water.

While we were in the park, we also went through Mammoth Springs which is sort of like a small town on the northern edge of Yellowstone. At this time of year, the elk are in their rut and they descend upon Mammoth Springs to gather. Apparently within the town they are out of the reach of predators such as wolves. As we were passing through, we saw a magnificent bull following a cow through the middle of the town. It was a very bizarre scene.

At camp site we met a Harvard trained particle physicist turn journalist for NPR. He could not get his stove to work so we offered our fire.