Yellowstone!

8/25/09
Road delays were not too bad and soon I was in Yellowstone National Park! I considered stopping at Lewis Lake Campground, the first one along the way, but it seemed too early to stop, so I kept driving. I skipped the infamous Grant Camp Facility but did stop at West Thumb Geyser Basin when a sublime scene of steam, bright colors, misty shadows and broad blue lake caught my eye. The half-mile boardwalk trail was hot and smelly and pretty fascinating, tough at noon despite a cooling breeze off Yellowstone Lake.

West Thumb Geyser Basin

Yellowstone Lake

For no real reason I was aware of I decided to drive all the way to Norris Campground. The leg of the Grand Loop from Norris to Mammoth was closed, so I continued up along Yellowstone Lake and then the Yellowstone River through Hayden Valley. Loads of cars were pulled to the side of the road to see even greater loads of bison up close, but it was too hot, too sunny, too crowded, too much of a scene for me.

When I arrived at Norris Campground, 71 miles from the South Entrance, I saw that I had made a lucky decision. The Gibbon River meandered gently through a golden meadow alongside the campground, and while the riverside sites were mostly taken, the nearby woodsy loop was almost empty. I picked a relatively isolated spot on the outer loop, meaning my site went on forever. My nearest neighbor was the campground host. $14.

As is my way when I arrive at a national park, I hunkered down in the shade, ate lunch, and read the Yellowstone National Park newsletter. The big story at Yellowstone of course is the charismatic megafauna: grizzlies, wolves, bison, elk, moose, bighorn. No, not snowmobiles.

I started off with wolves. The Yellowstone population had dropped from 171 to 124 in 2008 alone! Pups had been dying from disease and adults had been killing each other over territory. The former is bad, the latter good, sort of, as it indicates the wolves had filled in the entire habitat. As of May 4, 2009, wolves had been taken off the endangered species list (delisted) in Montana and Idaho. Wyoming wolves were still listed. This was the beginning of a long complicated story I would grapple with for the next six weeks.

Next I turned to fire: "Each year, lightning starts an average of 22 fires in Yellowstone; most of them go out before burning one acre…”, but my education was interrupted when an enormous bison wandered into the outer extension of my campsite and began grazing. A male. Male bison are the largest land animal in North America. They weigh up to 2000 pounds. This one was maybe 40 yards away. And I was all alone with it. I presumed it was aware of my presence but it certainly paid me no mind. I didn’t quite reciprocate, but I did maintain a respectable distance as I took my first charismatic megafauna photos. Later the campground host came by and seemed jaded to my excitement. This bison was a regular around the campground, he told me, and even had a name, though I dismissed this. I would not acknowledge a pet name for a wild bison.

campground bison

In the late afternoon I set off to nearby Norris Geyser Field and ended up spending two hours there, my first extended "fun" since I got sick. The walking wasn't strenuous but was by far the most walking I'd done in a while. The geyser plain was a wide open expanse with great light under sunny blue sky cooled by large drifting clouds. The autumn temperature was perfect - I don’t think I’d want to be here on a hot summer day - and the light was magnified by the reflective mineral residue called geyserite that covered much of the open ground. There wasn't much actual geyser action, just a lot of steam and bubbling water. It was a terrific landscape. I was pretty tired by the end, which I feared might not prove a good idea but I had to find out.

Norris Geyser Field

Norris Geyser Field

I got back to the campground just in time for sunset over the Gibbon River, a transcendent sight. I spotted the bison grazing in a patch of woods. A (human) mother and her young son were hanging around while Dad fished. I pointed out the bison and we sighed over the afterglow. What a fine start.

Gibbon River