This is the real “back to school” week, as my new job started this morning. I have to get used to getting up at something like 6 am weekdays, which is early for me! (It’s early for anybody, I think.) I naturally woke up earlier than that because I was stressed. In any case, we had some technical glitches this morning, not due to anything I did, and only half my class showed up but it went well for what we had. Mondays are one of my busiest days with 7 hours of teaching! I have one new college student this week and several returning students, and it should be a fun week.
This past week was kind of crazy: I had three different playing jobs which was so weird! I was actually kind of stressed about it, because I have gotten used to only teaching and not having to worry about what to wear and when to be places other than, in front of my computer. But I did a recording for a church service, played at a retirement community (outside) and then played an orchestra concert, outside, in a park, with Leonard Slatkin! Which was awesome—it was with the Metropolitan Orchestra of St Louis, which is a group I play with quite often. The conductor of MOSL, Wendy Lea, set up a whole program and really went above and beyond. I don’t know if we were safe playing together, but we followed the best practices we could: everybody was on their own stage, spread out six feet or so, we were outdoors, and everybody who could play their instrument wearing a mask did so. The flute players had these weird caps on their flute heads that blocked their breath from going too far.
The audience may or may have been safe, I can’t be concerned about everybody. It looked like maybe only about half were wearing masks, which is concerning, and makes me NOT want to go back to St Charles (that’s where we played, at Frontier Park in St Charles) but they were pretty well distanced from one another. I don’t know if I would agree to do another large event like this one during the pandemic, but getting to play Beethoven’s Symphony no. 7 with Leonard Slatkin was pretty much well worth it!
The masked violinist!
It was really nice to see some colleagues…I hadn’t seen any of those people in six months or longer. It doesn’t feel like we’ve been doing this isolation thing for so long, yet it feels like forever, doesn’t it?
Other weekend happenings: baking zucchini muffins with the last of the garden zucchini! I made a recipe that made over three dozen muffins, but since I only have two muffin pans, rather than do in two batches I decided to make 24 muffins and a small loaf with the rest. I added some coconut and chocolate chips to the recipe because I had them on hand and wanted to use up the chips.
I think the next time I’m baking quick bread it’ll be pumpkin time! I can’t believe it’s almost fall and we are still in this pandemic with no end in sight. I read an opinion article recently talking about how we are in the risk mitigation part of the pandemic: we can’t stay at home all the time and avoid risk completely, but we have to make decisions about what to do and how to live our lives in the least risky way possible. Louie is off to the classroom today, but he is hopeful that the safety protocols the University has implemented will work for him (I think if he and those in the classroom follow the rules they will work).
Miles joined this little stuffed cat for a catnap in the kitten hammock. He barely fits but he makes it work.
I was excited to see two of the reviews of sheet music that I had written in the past year were in this month’s American String Teacher Journal.
We moved this green chair to make room for something else and Muriel immediately started sitting on it. She loves when furniture is in a different place.
I have done some serious meal planning this week, hoping to stay on top of things. We don’t have the option of running out for a quick meal out after a long day (whether or not we technically do, my risk assessment says no) so that means lots of cooking. I prefer to cook dinner after work and then have leftovers for lunches, so that means we often eat late, but it’s been working well. I have thought about cooking and doing dinner leftovers but it’s just not as fun. Louie and I tend to do our best chatting about the day while cooking so it is a good bonding experience as well.
I’m reading two books right now, switching back and forth between them. The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson, and The Broken Heart of America by Walter Johnson. Both are good reads but heavy.
When you visit Yellowstone during a pandemic, you try to avoid the busiest parts at the busiest times. Louie and I decided that we were visiting, rather than the best of Yellowstone, either the worst or the least of Yellowstone. And we still loved it! Sometimes you think of Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic, but there are so many other magical and beautiful places to go.
I was checking my notes now and I had thought my previous blog post finished up our time at Madison, but NO we still have the Bunsen Peak day to go!
We had decided for our last full day in the Madison area that we wanted to hike up Bunsen Peak and perhaps also to Osprey Falls after that. Well, Louie definitely wanted to add on Osprey Falls but I wasn’t sure, so we decided maybe we’d split up at that point. Bunsen Peak was back north along the Grand Loop Road where we had driven quite a bit the past few days, so it was in familiar territory.
We got to the trailhead easily, but then realized there weren’t any bathrooms nearby and needed to double back to find one. I was worried we’d lose our parking spot but nature was calling! We visited the Sheepeater Picnic area (note to readers, picnic areas always have vault toilets, which aren’t great but ARE useful at times) and one of the most delightful things was that several marmots were out playing around. Another delightful thing was that the toilets had just been cleaned.
I don’t have a zoom lens like Louie does—these were just from my phone. So the picture isn’t that clear, but trust me, marmots are really cute. Don’t get close to them and feed them please, don’t do that with any wild animals.
We headed back to Bunsen (about ten minutes?) and found parking again easily (unlike some National Parks, Yellowstone doesn’t get really crowded until after 10 am, maybe even 11, because it is just so big). And we headed up the trail. It was only about 2. 2 miles up to the top of Bunsen Peak, and you could just go back down, but you can also continue down the back way, and then to Osprey Falls. So we got to the top probably in just over an hour, I can’t remember. Maybe slightly longer. It was fairly scenic on the way up with particularly nice views of the Mammoth area from way up high. The trail was partly shaded, which was nice because it was quite sunny. We got passed by a few people but it wasn’t too crowded at all.
The white part you see towards the middle of the photograph is, I believe, part of Mammoth Hot Springs.
As it seems with many mountains in Yellowstone, there was a radio tower on top of Bunsen Peak as well, along with a little building. You had to walk up though, you couldn’t drive up like Mount Washburn.
At the top we did the usual, reapplied bug spray and sun screen, ate lunch, took pictures, checked email (yes, actually, because you get service up at the top of mountains, ha!)…
Another couple offered to take our picture and I was a bit hesitant, but we wiped down the phone after. Look at that view!
After we spent some time at the top, it was time to head on. The back side of Bunsen wasn’t as well traveled, but still seemed to see plenty of action. There were parts that had obviously burned at some point in the not-so-distant past.
Going up is always tough for me, but going down has its own challenges. I decided I wasn’t going to continue to Osprey Falls because of the elevation change that would be required (it was only about 3 more miles but down and up about 950 feet which I just wasn’t feeling). Louie and I decided to split up at a point when there was a turn. The route back was about 3 very flat miles, so I could easily walk that alone, except for the bear worries.
We got the turnoff and ended up seeing another couple. I asked them if I could tag along on their return trip and they readily agreed, so I didn’t have to walk alone. Louie headed off on his own (the couple were affiliated with the park, naturalists, and they didn’t think he should worry too much about doing that part of the trail alone) and I walked back with them. We stayed a bit apart but chatted: they lived in Gardiner and she worked as a naturalist and he was an engineer working online who also loved taking pictures of birds. They had been out birding on their hike, trying to get good pictures of an Osprey nest.
This part of the hike was doubletrack, an old road of sorts I suppose. People can bike on it as well.
It was nice chatting with people who weren’t Louie (no offense to Louie, simply that we had been spending all of our time together for days and weeks!) and the last miles flew by.
I got back to the car and made myself comfortable to wait for Louie. I read and drank cold water for another 1 1/2 to 2 hours until he got back. He said he really enjoyed the hike and the falls were beautiful, so I’m glad we did our plan.
What next, we thought? Well, we had gone north so many times…it was time to head south and visit some geysers. The south part of the part is where most of the geyser activity is, and as a result, most of the traffic. But it was nearly 4 pm when we got far enough south, and our first stop was Firehole Canyon Drive.
We did a quick stop at Fountain Flat Drive, where there is a picnic area and supposedly loads of wildlife at certain times of day. It was quite hot still so nobody was around, but we enjoyed this small hot spring. It was really neat because well…it was just this one tiny spring on the side of a perfectly normal looking river.
Then we visited the Fountain Paint Pots, which were fantastic. It must have been pushing 5 pm by then and the traffic was really clearing out. We got prime parking in the lot, and though the boardwalks weren’t empty, they weren’t bad, and we wore masks.
(In case you are unfamiliar with Yellowstone’s boardwalks, there are pretty much boardwalks everywhere you are walking over hot spring or geyser areas. It is great to see all the features from a safer setting.)
Then we hit up Firehole Lake Drive and saw more amazing hot springs and thermal features. Geysers erupt occasionally, hot springs are hot, paint pots bubble, there are all of these different technical terms, but the gist is: they are amazing with all the various colors and textures and smells.
Firehole Lake Drive is fun because you drive and park and drive and park and get out a bunch, and we kept running into the same people at each stop. I imagine during busier times of day the parking might be more difficult, but it was after 6 pm and for Yellowstone, that’s the end of the day and so many people have left.
We didn’t catch any eruptions really, but we weren’t worried about that. Maybe another time, when we feel like just sitting and waiting, but Louie and I aren’t that into geysers so much as just seeing all the different weird pools and run offs.
Anyway, after that we decided to head back to have dinner and relax.
It was our last night at Madison Campground, and we weren’t too sad about it either. You can see how crowded things were, and it had been some time since we had had showers.
We decided to visit the Old Faithful area early in the morning. We got up very early the next day and headed over—it was probably only about 20-30 minutes drive.
We definitely beat the crowds. It was around 7 am when we got there and hardly anybody was around. We wandered the boardwalks looking at the dozens and dozens and dozens of geysers in the area. I believe one could spend all day just at this one stop, but we never do! We had seen Old Faithful erupt on a previous visit so that wasn’t our goal this time.
Grotto Geyser above
Hmm, this might have been Castle Geyser?
A sign for the times, for sure!
We were lucky enough to catch Daisy Geyser erupt but we were a little bit away and I didn’t take any good pictures. Next we made a quick stop back to Fountain Flats Drive and did a short hike to Ojo Caliente, probably about 1/2 mile each way. And then we went to pack up our tent and go to West Yellowstone.
We are kind of experts at tent camping now (haha) and got packed up quickly. It was about a 20-30 minute drive to the West Entrance of the park and West Yellowstone, and I wanted to do laundry before we did anything else, so we found a laundromat first. We decided to eat lunch while we were doing laundry so we got takeout from a nearby place called Ernie’s. It wasn’t crowded but the people in the kitchen weren’t wearing masks we could see, but we decided to risk it anyway as it was right within walking distance of where we were and we didn’t want to try to find something else. Sigh. I enjoyed a nice salmon sandwich, if I recall, with potato chips and a Diet Coke.
After lunch and laundry (it’s always nice to start fresh again with clothes on a long trip!) we headed a bit north to visit the Earthquake Lake area. I’d read it was an interesting place to visit to learn about the Hebgen Lake Earthquake from 1959 where 28 people from a campground died. I didn’t realize there was a whole driving tour with various stops, so we started making the stops and had a nice afternoon learning all about the earthquake. The scenery was beautiful, the stops were interesting, and the story is just tragic and awful. To me, it always seemed particularly terrible to die while on a vacation, and there were just some awful stories from the survivors. And here we are, on vacation during a pandemic…I found it all very emotional and difficult but I’m really glad we made the stops.
The trees are where the lake took over: there wasn’t a lake there before the earthquake.
We took a slightly different route back to West Yellowstone after finishing the tour (it ends at the Visitor’s Center about 30 miles from West Yellowstone) and I didn’t realize we would go into Idaho! This was exciting for me because I didn’t think I had been to Idaho before, so we made sure to stop and get out of the car briefly.
Then we headed to our hotel for the night in West Yellowstone. I’d reserved a historic room at the Historic Old Madison Hotel. The downside was that our room only had a tub, but the upside was that there were showers in the hall one could use. That was our first stop the showers!
After we got ourselves presentable, we went to walk around town and get dinner. We had dinner from the Taco Bus, a place where you go into a bus to order your food…it’s sort of a Taco Truck but a little different. We sat at a picnic table outside to eat. Then we had ice cream after dinner, and then hung out on the lovely balcony upstairs at our hotel and enjoyed watching the traffic go by and the nice air.
There was another woman outside as well, and she was friendly enough, but we overheard her on the phone with a friend complaining that the hotel didn’t even have TV and that she didn’t like Yellowstone as much as the Black Hills because all they did was sit and wait for Old Faithful to erupt and it was super boring.
I think that’s a good place to leave you for today! Looking ahead: wolves and bears and more hot springs!
This has been a far less busy fall than usual, but I’ve managed to fill my days enough that writing blog posts has fallen by the wayside. Partly because I don’t actually think anyone is reading, but if you are, I am going to write more about Yellowstone soon, I promise.
I can’t believe we’ve been back a month! So much has happened, yet so little. I applied for, interviewed for, and accepted a new teaching position. It’s just in addition to my other positions but in the early morning. And it’s online for now, so it doesn’t seem terribly real, but it pays decently, I’m excited (it starts next week) and I figured in today’s world it wasn’t a good idea to turn down jobs because they are too early (7:15 am). It’s a before school strings position.
I have often said I don’t love teaching groups, but I haven’t tried it in awhile so I have probably grown enough to be fine with it. I have taken the attitude towards my career that when things fall into my lap I should take advantage of them, and it has mostly worked out well. Worse case I end up being entirely too busy and have to quit something at the end of the school year, but since performing isn’t really on the table, and I’m not even sure I want to return to the level of performing I was doing before, taking on more teaching makes sense.
The more I think about it, the more I realize I don’t actually miss performing that much. I do miss the warm feeling afterwards, but I don’t miss the stress before, worries about getting places (even a wedding can be quite stressful, would you believe) and being in the right place at the right time. Rarely was I able to perform with people where I felt I was having a transcendental musical experience….my true performing love is playing with a full orchestra, and since I’ve only done that about three times in the last 10 years, I have already said good-bye to it and made my peace (mostly) with not having orchestra in my life anymore. (The wash of sound around you and the feeling of contributing to something so much bigger than you are, in addition to the amazing repertoire.) So leaving more performing wouldn’t be a big deal at all. I attempted to fill the orchestra void with chamber music, since so many others seem to love that more, but my experiences have never been the same as those people. I do enjoy playing in the pit because it’s a fun time (and the stress of actually performing is a bit lower, with the camaraderie bumped up) and will continue to play Broadway shows when I am able and when they come back, but I’m just not sure about the rest.
I have been working on my teaching, as I’ve mentioned, and been really going over everything and reevaluating my methods. I’ve also been taking a lot of online workshops and getting even more ideas. My teaching lately has never been so good (I hope my students are appreciating it, honestly!). Just last night I participated in a wonderful seminar about tension release and the teacher leading it was so wonderful and creative. I have also been learning more about improvising and teaching improvisation and am planning to do a twice monthly online class for my students (and others) starting in October, so yesterday I spent an hour working on those ideas.
It’s a lot to do, actually, even if I just feel like I’ve sitting around. I’ve also been practicing viola to make a recording to do a little bit of online Suzuki teacher training on viola. I don’t have any formal viola training at all, and though occasionally I think of trying to take some lessons I’m not sure with whom (perhaps my sister Carrie, online!) and I also figure I would be better off at the time simply attempting to practice the instrument more and figure things out by practicing. Unlike the kids, I know that learning an instrument isn’t a magical experience and it really does take hard work.
So there’s my brain dump. I do feel like I mostly just think about teaching. We also have had a few socially distanced gatherings with a few friends here and there, and my sister Leslie and her family stopped by for less than 48 hours while they were driving cross country back home to Phoenix from their summer employment home. (Unemployment in this case, since they are musicians, but that’s another story).
I made an excellent zucchini cake with zucchini from the garden. I made black bean burgers, baba ganoush. pasta salad, roasted eggplant and pickled beet sandwiches, and potato salad. I have become a much better cook during the pandemic though I still mostly follow recipes. I was talking with someone the other day who was saying they get blue apron but don’t really follow the recipes, they just cook using the ingredients. Which seemed weird to me, because while it IS nice having the precise amount of ingredient to use, it is the precise amount for the recipe on the card, so why not follow it? Sure, use your best judgment on how long things should take if the numbers don’t work out, but it makes more sense to attempt to make the actual dish, otherwise you might not have the right amount of ingredients, which defeats the whole purpose.
Books: I never write about what books I’ve read, but I recently have been working hard trying to catch up on my kindle. Lately I’ve read “How to Be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi, “Hood Feminism” by Mikki Kendall, “The Night Watchman” by Louise Erdrich, “Stony the Road” by Henry Louis Gates, Jr, and a decent amount of books from the cozy mystery genre that I will list only if somebody asks me to. (Email me or comment below for recommendations, I guess!).
Okay, it’s time for me to get going. Work out next, then get cleaned up and do some teaching.
I am finally ready to write about the next few days of our trip. We are back home and work is crazy…I’ve been teaching about 22 hours a week and adding more. I’m also taking advantage of a variety of online seminars and workshops to improve and inspire my teaching (since, that’s all there is here. Hopefully someday there will be live performances again but it should be known that the live music and live theater business is currently dead and numerous family members and friends are completely out of work and scrambling to make ends meet.)
So, part 1 here. We drove from St Louis to Yellowstone National Park. I was not under the impression that Yellowstone would be less busy than in normal years, because I knew that visitation was slightly UP but I also knew there wouldn’t be large tour buses of tourists and I knew that it was easy to avoid people if you avoided certain areas at certain times…plus the park is outdoors.
We spent the night camping at Buffalo Bill State Park (normally in my head I substitute “bison” for “buffalo” but don’t do that in this case.) We left and headed west to Yellowstone National Park, only about 1 hour away.
The trick to a park like Yellowstone is to be eager to stop and get out of the car. Along the drive there are numerous small pull offs and each one is there for a reason. It’s easy to want to just sit in the car, but if you get out and look at the sign and admire the scenery (or take pictures) you’ll really get a lot more enjoyment out of it.
Before officially entering the park we had to stop for a bathroom break (have I mentioned how often I have to stop? I never think of it until I can’t just go, like on road trips…also it’s important to hydrate when at high altitudes, which Yellowstone is.)
Our general plan for this first day was to get to our campsite at Madison Campground by late afternoon. We were entering the park at about 11 am, and decided we would do a short hike at Storm Point on our way. This was a hike we’d done the previous year, but it was both easy and really beautiful so we thought it would be a nice “stretch your legs” hike. It was! Even though we made a few mistakes at the beginning…we decided to do the loop hike the opposite direction from the previous year, but we didn’t realize maybe the hike had been slightly rerouted due to a creek crossing and the reverse direction we took wasn’t actually the official trail and we had to do a little bushwhacking to find our way(this is a bit of foreshadowing….this turned out to be an error we made again later). Not very smart! It was also a bit buggy, which wasn’t my favorite, but hey, still better than Missouri, right? The views at the farthest point of the trail, Storm Point, are really gorgeous. You can see Lake Yellowstone and all of the mountains around. We also got to walk down to a little beach by the Lake, which led to Louie asking my favorite question of the vacation: while gesturing at a medium-sized group of ducks he asked, “why are there ducks here?”.
You can see some “thermal features” along the water there. You might think that all of the geysers and such are well labeled and in popular areas such as Old Faithful, but there are thermal features all over, and I love being on a hike, hearing something gurgling and saying “aha, a thermal feature!” Or seeing some “evidence of thermal activity”, another favorite.
This was the little beach area where Louie questioned the existence of the ducks.
We ate our picnic lunch along the way as well, but I think we didn’t enjoy this hike as well as last year because there were a lot of people on it. Normally that wouldn’t bother me, because a lot for a Yellowstone hike means maybe you see 20 to 30 people, but in these COVID times that seems like a lot!
We headed on our way then, just stopping at little things along the way to Madison Campground.
This was Beryl Springs, which is one of the hottest springs in the park. It’s a little pull off, but you see the steam before you park.
We checked into Madison Campground, our home for the next four nights. We hadn’t stayed here before. I had reserved a small tent site, and let me tell you, emphasis on small. Normally I have poo-pooed people who complain about National Park Campgrounds being jammed in too close together. That was my mistake. This site was outrageous. We were basically next to neighbors on both sides, just crammed in the middle of two campsites, with no sense of privacy (not even the pretend privacy of a campground). This was, other than the location being in Yellowstone, possibly the worst campsite I have ever had. For the record (again, the record), you don’t get to pick your campsite at Yellowstone. I’m not sure how they are assigned, but I definitely got unlucky. I have been lucky many times in the past though so I guess it evens out.
In any case, as we pulled up to our site, it started raining. We thought, let’s get the tent down before the ground gets wet. Which in theory might work, and we did it, we put the tent up in record time, but then it started pouring rain, even tiny hail, and it was a horrible storm and of course the ground was wet anyway. That always makes dinner difficult, so we though, hey we are only 30 minutes from West Yellowstone, let’s go there. So we did, but in these COVID times, you can’t just go get food. It was cold, rainy, and nothing appealed and it all just seemed too difficult. The only drive-through, McDonalds, was backed up a block down the street, so we decided to go back to the campground and eat in the car. We drank beers in the car (we decided with the keys out of the ignition there was no one who could argue we were intending to drive) and had hummus and pita chips.
The next morning we got up early. Luckily the rain had stopped by the time we went to sleep so it wasn’t too wet around…it was time to hit the trails and the Grand Loop Road again. We decided to start “easy” with a short hike up to Monument Geyser Basin—2 miles RT which seems easy, but it was very steep! I was definitely feeling the altitude and huffing and puffing but at least it wasn’t too long. The hike was lovely, with conifers all around and lots of rocks. Monument Geyser Basin has some dormant geysers but lots of huffing and puffing from them, with cone geysers, some mudpots and plenty of gurgling and steam. All in a private setting, no boardwalks or fences, just a few branches blocking off where is likely safe to walk and common sense (that you don’t get close to geysers because the ground around them can be very thin).
We enjoyed a little snack while watching the action. We probably only saw about 3 or 4 other small groups of hikers on this hike.
The hike DOWN was much easier, and soon we were back at the car. We decided to continue heading north and just do stops along the way, so that’s what we did. I have a book called “Yellowstone Treasures” by Janet Chappelle which tells you every pull off and what there is there, so that was quite useful on this trip.
Chocolate Pots—unmarked pulloff with some cool brown thermal features.
Frying Pan Spring. This has a boardwalk to it. I was entertained by passing a woman holding a large bag of Bugles for her trip to the Spring. To be clear: these springs tend to stink, and aren’t the sort of thing you want to snack while watching, but to each their own.
This was the kiosk at the pulloff for Obsidian Cliffs, which is the oldest of its kind in the park. It was built in the National Park Service Rustic style, also called “Parkitecture.”
We decided to go all the way to Mammoth Hot Springs and do another hike there, the Beaver Ponds Hike. It was busy when we got there around 2:30, but we found parking eventually (just be willing to walk more!). We masked up and headed for our trail head. The hike was a 5 mile loop and had some elevation at the beginning but wasn’t too bad throughout, according to the information I had.
The view of Mammoth Hot Springs as we were going by.
We climbed a bit and ran into a couple of teenagers coming back towards us asking about the trail…they had lost it further up and wondered if we knew. We did not, but said we thought we were on the right trail and that was that. A bit later we saw what we thought they might have done wrong (there was a turnout one way to an overlook, the other way to continue the trail) but weren’t sure how they could have missed it. In any case we followed along, enjoying the hike, and even saw a few coyotes (I think?) at one point (which we realized were hunting a marmot…which yes, it’s the circle of life but I don’t enjoy watching animals try to kill other animals.)
If you look closely you can see the coyote. Louie probably has better pictures from his DSLR.
We got to the Beaver Ponds (two of them, I think? ) and kind of followed around.
Suddenly we found ourselves on a trail that seemed less traveled and started to worry we had taken a wrong turn. It didn’t seem super wrong, just a little wrong, so we kept going, and found ourselves going up this steep trail on the side of the trail that was just covered with animal poop (elk, likely) and that’s when we thought, this doesn’t seem right. I had a picture of the map and we looked at it, but it didn’t help. I started panicking. I think I may have started saying, oh my god we are lost in Yellowstone and we are going to die out here and nobody knows where we are and was really starting to have a panic attack. We should have turned around, but we thought we could find the trail. I thought I didn’t even have a topographic map and it was just frankly, really terrifying. I knew if we headed east we would eventually hit the Old Gardiner Road but I didn’t know how far that would be nor if it would be easy to get to, but that was all I could think…
Louie stayed calm and tried to get me calm, and we were on a sort of trail, because there were footprints here and there, but we just couldn’t get going the right way. Finally he got some cell services and could see our location on the maps, and he was able to see where the trail was compared to where we were! Unfortunately, it was up a very steep hill, which had a variety of ways up but they all seemed to be absolutely terrifying (to me) paths made by the elk. I kept having to stop and was really on the verge of absolutely full on panic, but after some harrowing minutes (maybe even an hour, I don’t even know, I couldn’t think straight) we made it up this horrible hill and over the ridge and then finally back on the trail.
Here’s the thing you should know: before the trip I downloaded two apps on my phone, and both had the complete trail system of the park on them, one with the trails marked, one with topographical maps. Both of them show your location in real time on the map, and neither require cell service, only GPS. But in my panic, I didn’t think of trying them out. I also didn’t think of using the GyPSy app we had been using, which ALSO knows our location, and incidentally, has trail maps on it. So I had my phone, with nearly full service, but didn’t have the calm mind to use it to try to help ourselves. Louie did want to sit down and just regroup but I just couldn’t do it.
I will tell you, I was never so happy to be back on a trail. I don’t know why I got so absolutely panicked but it turned out okay and I definitely overreacted. I think it was because the pandemic has just left me so constantly stressed that I didn’t have anything left.
We were both incredibly happy when the town and the Hot Springs were in view!
We passed by (carefully) some elk in town (this is super normal, it is weird if you DON’T see elk in the town of Mammoth. And then decided to take a look at the Upper Loop Drive. There was a place where normally you can drive through but for some reason was closed to cars, so we decided to walk it instead. After that we visited Canary Spring, one of our favorites from the previous year (we stayed a night in Mammoth). It’s an amazing spring going down over the terraces. We did notice some parts that had been active the previous year weren’t this year, but I can’t believe that apparently now Canary Spring has gone dormant! Although I think it was a bit drier from my pictures, it was still really amazing. (They say the only constant in Yellowstone is change, and that one spring will go dormant but another will start up again).
Finally we decided we’d better head back to the campground to make dinner. It took over an hour to drive back—we saw a few more elk along the way but nothing too crazy. We made a fire and made dinner and hung out a bit before going to “bed.” Oh, and I think it HAD rained/stormed at the campground but luckily we had a rain free day—the clouds looked menacing on our Mammoth hike but luckily it held off: we had enough challenges there already!
The next day we headed north from the campground again, and just figured we’d make a lot of stops as well and do a hike or two later in the day further along. First we made a quick stop at Terrace Springs and enjoyed being among the first there.
Our next stop was Gibbon Falls. It was a very busy parking area especially for the early hour so we kept our distance.
We did manage to get a selfie with the falls.
Then we decided to hit Artists Paint Pots. It was already a fairly crowded area but we got a space. It wasn’t too crowded other than the parking lot (which is quite small.)
There are a ton of thermal features here and a gorgeous mountain range for the backdrop.
We visited Sheepeater Cliffs (we almost didn’t do this because it seemed to just be a picnic area, but it was awesome.)
We drove past Mammoth then, and decided to leave the park to go into the town of Gardiner to check email and such. (Also Louie hoped to see Elk in the river along the way.) It was very exciting to get LTE service in town (which is only 5 miles from Mammoth).
Terrible picture, but the lions outside of the Post Office are wearing masks, you can see.
Elk near the Roosevelt Arch, which is at the North Entrance.
We got a fruit smoothie in Gardiner at a sort of food truck and walked around a bit. Then we headed back to the park, and on the drive back in we did see a bunch of elk down near the river—it was a hot day and there were dozens of them enjoying the water. I wondered if some of the trails we were accidentally or on purpose following during our hike the day before would have led us to the river?
We watched for awhile and then headed on.
We drove the Blacktail Plateau Drive which was pretty but had no wildlife sightings other than a strange bird. I think it was too hot for the animals, but we figured we’d try it anyway.
We had decided to do the Lost Lake/Petrified Forest Loop Hike. I’d thought we could start from Roosevelt, but it really was closed (COVID) so we started the Petrified Forest instead. This was a 3 mile round trip hike with some elevation. What I didn’t realized was the second half was mostly uphill and ALL in the sun, so it was less pleasant. I also should have had my hiking sticks in places, because I got a bit scared and cranky. The first part of the hike was lovely, by a beautiful lake, down through a wooded forest, into the Roosevelt area, full of cabins, and not much else.
(The lake wasn’t lost at all, very easy to find!)
A few people were around working, and we asked directions to get to the other side of the hike. The area seemed a bit post-apocalyptic with all the buildings being completely abandoned. The next part of the hike was not my favorite and was lots of climbing with not much shade, and it was the heat of the day. I don’t remember Yellowstone being so hot, but this visit it was!
Anyway, we did check a few times to make sure we were still on the trail, using my excellent maps with my GPS, and it was uneventful in that way.
After the hike we had time to visit Lamar Valley briefly and see the bison. There are just hundreds of them, and I always enjoy seeing them.
We thought we might have a 2 1/2 hour drive back home (I think it ended up being about 2) so we had to leave before too long. We did get in a nice bison jam, and at one point a bison was walking down the road right in front of us. We’d heard they can travel up to 35 mph, but this guy was just going about 3 mph…finally he got over into the other lane and Louie though it was safe enough to pass. He wasn’t actually sure about it, and it is a little nerve wracking driving by the bison but the fellow didn’t seem to mind us slowing driving by.
We made very few stops on the way back, but did stop at Apollinaris Spring. It was a place that you used to be able to drink the spring water and had this amazing stone work around it. Now it’s all overgrown, but it was beautiful in a haunting way. Yellowstone has natural beauty, and also quite a long history (and before it became a park too, you’ll read things about Native Americans living on this land long before, but then you’ll also read about how “nobody lived here” which is…GRRRR.)
Don’t mind Louie being on the edge of my photo.
It was just off the road, not well marked, and we initially didn’t stop because we didn’t see anything there. Another random Yellowstone find that we really enjoyed (and NOBODY was there except us and the mosquitoes).
Then it was dinner time, and campfire time. The good thing about having squeezed into our tiny spot was that it was easy to bring things from the car to the picnic table. And luckily, each night the people right by us were perfectly nice and not too loud (other than one night when were near a snorer, who I was convinced was a bison briefly).
I’ll stop there and you can wait a few weeks (maybe not that long!) for the next installment of our trip! One more night in the Madison area, then a night in West Yellowstone, and then over to Bridge Bay campground. Check out the map of Yellowstone to get a sense.
I wanted to write more blog posts of our trip but I’ve been struggling with how to get my photos from my phone into a format that I can use on this blog program. I normally have been emailing myself photos (yes, tedious) but the other that just stopped working. I guess I was trying to email too many photos at once, but instead of my phone saying that, it just said okay and then did absolutely nothing! I then tried another thing, uploading all my photos to google photos (they are in iCloud already, but my computer is a PC and I’ve not had any luck in the past with having that be helpful) and then I finally got that done after a few days, and then I just went to try to add one to the blog here, and nope, didn’t work. It looks like those photos are in a different format (HEIC) and I’ll have to do another workaround. I could just plug my phone into my computer directly and transfer photos that way but that would seemingly require me transferring all my photos as there are like ten different folders of photos and they don’t necessarily seem to be organized by date in any way (this is the only way I want my photos organized.)
Any suggestions, readers? I will figure this out eventually, but it is causing me to be annoyed.
It still works to email one photo to myself! This is Louie and I on top of Bunsen Peak in Yellowstone.
It has been a busy week. I’ve had a full teaching schedule (I’ve added a few more students this fall, just squeezing people in!) and have been hard at work on a project I set myself up as well. I’ve taken so many teaching pedagogy courses and such over the years and so I am reviewing the material I’ve been given over this time (it is all organized in binders by level) in a methodical way. I’m making an outline of my personal teaching ideas and really working on it. I have decided that since this is what I’m doing, I want to do it really well…I’ve always considered myself a pretty decent teacher, but I think I can be more methodical (often an issue I have). In an online seminar I was watching this week the teacher said something about how you can give the student a lot of bricks but you have to have a plan for the house or it’ll just be a pile of bricks. I’ve been working through all my students and determining what more I need to be doing for them. This has been fun and time consuming.
Now sometimes, it’s on them. Some of them just don’t practice enough, no matter how much I cajole. But others DO and I just need to make sure they know specifically what they should be practicing. Easy as that
So that’s where I am, busy teaching, busy reading, doing a bit of practicing, getting ready for a little band livestream this weekend. How are you doing?
Sometime in early May, when we were all really stuck inside the house, I saw something on Facebook about camping in Yellowstone, and I thought, yes, why not! So even though at the time I actually thought there was no way we would even be allowed to travel cross country in late July, I booked several nights camping (with fully refundable reservations) and then I started to plan out a two week road trip getting there and back.
I titled the document, Yellowstone…or not. Because I didn’t want to get too excited about it, and well, because I didn’t think it would happen. But planning the trip gave me something to do, and something to think might maybe happen. As it got closer, I started to worry that even though we COULD go, maybe we shouldn’t. Would it be a stupid thing to do? After all, there are people that don’t wear masks and go out to eat as if nothing has changed, when still most of my friends are unemployed or underemployed, and entire sectors of the country (the arts and music in particular) have completely shut down, with absolutely no end in sight. (It is worth noting that this week alone I have lost four weeks of theater work that I would have had in the fall.)
But we decided to go. Louie and I decided that yes, maybe it was a stupid thing to do, and yes, we were upping our COVID risk, but we would do our best to be safe, we would always wear masks inside, near people, and we would never eat in a restaurant or spend any significant amount of time inside near people. Additionally, we planned to try to social distance outside as much as possible and avoid the busiest places at the busiest times. I was under no impression than Yellowstone wasn’t busy at this time: I had read online that that visitation from UP from normal years, and that the area was completely slammed, but I also knew if we set out on foot, perhaps 50 yards from our car, crowds would dissipate and I knew that the Park was huge and we could get away from people no matter how busy it was.
We set out on the morning on a Saturday and headed west. We had packed a good amount of our food for the trip though we planned to get takeout here and there and do a few drive-throughs along the way as well. The first day we had about an 11 hour drive planned, from St Louis to Bridgeport, Nebraska. It was a long day driving, but we listened to the 1619 Podcast and enjoyed the scenery. If you let yourself enjoy the scenery, Missouri is nice and Nebraska is actually quite beautiful with the cornfields and the open skies.
We stopped a few times along the way, lunch at McDonalds (did the drive thru, ate outside out of car), snacks and cold drinks from the cooler. We got to Bridgeport around 8:00 and first ended up at the wrong motel! Somehow in inputting the address I had put the Meadowlark Motel instead of the Meadowpark Hotel and we ended up about 1/2 mile from where we wanted to be (at a motel that didn’t look like I thought it should, nor was it very nice, plus no reservation..then I realized, oh, this is entirely the wrong place yet somehow the name is so similar, which frankly is just really weird.) Nonetheless we ended up at the motel I had booked which was perfectly nice. It was part of an RV Park as well, so we were in one of a small amount of very decent motel rooms which overlooked a nice grassy area. We relaxed outside of our room enjoying the fresh air for a bit before going to sleep.
The next morning we found a nearby Taco John’s for breakfast. Last year we had inadvertently discovered Taco John’s and their Potato Ole’s and fallen in love, and we made a point a few times to visit this summer when possible (there are none near St Louis.)
We drove about an hour west in Nebraska until we reached our first quasi-destination for the day. Chimney Rock! Now, there wasn’t much to do, but last summer we had driven by in the night and this summer I wanted us to see it during the day.
Chimney Rock was a famous landmark for people on the Oregon Trail back in the day. There’s a lot of Oregon Trail history in this area (and really, the land is very beautiful) which is both cool to read about but then you start feeling kind of weird and awful about the idea of settlers and all of the colonization taking place back then…being taught all of this land was open and nobody lived on it, when in fact, there were tens of thousands of Native Americans already living there.
But it is a kind of cool landmark. There was an RV Park right next to it which looked like the place to stay if you really liked Chimney Rock.
Next we drove on into the empty space towards Agate Fossil Beds National Monument. I thought we should see a different National Monument in Nebraska than last year and as always the National Parks Service did a good job. The drive north from the Scottsbluff area was really beautiful, full of nothingness and cell towers and farmland, but gorgeous (in an understated way, not in an obvious Montana way). At one point the birds were really on the road and didn’t like to get out of the way of the car and that led to a rather upsetting moment and after that we honked the horn every time. Finally we arrived at Agate Fossil Beds, and not a moment too soon as I really had to go the bathroom by then. The tough part of road trips is that you never realize how often you use the bathroom until you can’t just go whenever you want.
The visitor’s center was closed, but they had nice portapotties out front and there was a ranger there as well giving out maps and information. We did the two trails there and learned about the area and why it is a National Monument. The first trail we did was the Fossil Hills Trail which is about 2.7 miles. Back closer to 1900 men found a lot of the fossils in the area and excavated them (with horse and wagon) and took them to various museums further east. Nowadays we tend to leave the fossils in place for further study but back then it was thought to collect them for museums for people to visit more easily. Many of these fossils were of animals that are now extinct but that lived long after the dinosaurs, bear dogs, giant pigs, small rhinoceroses, and land beavers. We had learned about some of these animals at the museum in Branson the year before as well, so it was nice to see them again in a more reputable source.
This was part of where the fossils had been. It was a neat hike up a large hill.
Doesn’t this just scream “America” at you? Of course some of us know that America means more than wheatfields and cowboy hats, but it’s very “Americana” I guess.
The first of many selfies we took on the trip. Hardly anybody was around, though we did pass a few people on the hike. We had our masks handy, though I don’t know if taking it in and out of your pocket is actually that effective?
The Ancients Beavers made these spiral burrows. This was on the second trail we did called the Daemonelix Trail, only about 1 mile. The heat of the day was getting to us by now (it was noon or so by now) and the sun was hot! We really enjoyed our visit to the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument. It’s too bad the visitor’s center/museum was closed because we peeked in and saw some nice looking displays, but we doubt we will go back—it wasn’t too out of the way, but it was a bit out of the way from anything!
Next we were headed to Wyoming. Our destination for the evening was a campsite at Boysen State Park’s Lower Wind River Campground. We drove about 4 or so more hours, many of them on roads that were under construction, but Wyoming is so beautiful we hardly even minded.
We got to Boysen around 5 pm and found our campsite easily. It was a small campground, with water and vault toilets (that means, they don’t flush, they sort of compost and are totally decent when they aren’t used very much). We had a nice site near the river, but the downside was that the campground was right near a highway. I’d thought the traffic would die down overnight but I’m not sure it did.
We set up our tent and then explored Boysen State Park further. There is a gorgeous reservoir formed by a dam in the Canyon. I think the Park is mostly used for water recreation, but it was really gorgeous.
Right near our campsite.
I loved our campsite. We weren’t right by the water (I’d had a hard time deciding which site to reserve and possibly should have picked the one over, but we were Site 13 and it ended up being quite nice.)
Just a cool rock formation with the Forester. And below, the sun over Boysen Reservoir.
An excellent selfie by the Wind River, in the possibly better campsite (which was unoccupied). We were right near a few tunnels as well, a couple for the road and a couple for the train, which was neat to watch coming in and out of the tunnel.
We made our first camping meal of mac and cheese with tuna and canned peas (what can I say, we eat like kings while camping) and made a fire. They didn’t actually sell firewood at the campground which is unusual but we found a bit to burn and the camp host said we could have a few logs and we took her up on it. We would have enjoyed the evening more with a few less biting flies though, and turned in on the early side.
The next morning we had to pack up the tent. We were off to nearby Thermopolis next to visit Hot Springs State Park.
The town of Thermopolis feels like a throw back from the 70s or 80s. Lots of independent motels and in the park there are two privately owned hot springs play areas which feel very 80s with music, water slides, pools and more. But our destination ended up being the public baths, because you get a free 20 minute soak, it was outdoors for the most part and it wasn’t crowded at all. We hit the jackpot because we could also shower for free while there!
The hot springs in Thermopolis are formed differently than the hot springs in Yellowstone but I have already forgotten the difference. The park was lovely, not crowded and was nice to just wander around. There is also a scenic drive and a bison herd!
We walked across this bridge.
The colors caused by the various organism in the hot waters are really gorgeous. The round building in the background is Hellie’s Teepee Pool, one of the privately owned pool/bath places.
More hot springs.
One of the neat things is when you find evidence of the CCC, the Civilian Conservation Corps. These stairs were built to help people get to the hot springs here and soak in the water I guess. Back in the day (1920-1950’s) people went more crazy over hot springs and would even camp in the area in order to take advantage of them. (Sometimes I feel like I’m failing a test when I am trying to remember what we saw in order to tell you. I do write some things down, but not everything. I don’t recall exactly what these steps were to, but I do recall they were built by the CCC and that I always enjoy a good set of stone stairs).
We drove up the scenic drive. There was also hiking to be done, but it was hot and we didn’t feel like doing more than just walking around after having showered and cleaned up! We also found the bison herd but they weren’t too close to the road so we just said hello from the car (not really, but yes) and moved on, knowing there would be more to see in Yellowstone!
We had to stop for pictures by this crazy thing. It was called the Teepee Fountain and what will blow your mind is that it is sort of man-made.
This sign shows how it initially looked and the water has done the rest over the years! It was built in 1909 to vent steam and over the years the mineral deposits from the water have built it up.
Our last stop in Thermopolis was just down by the river again.
After that, we hit the road again, headed to Cody, Wyoming. People on Trip Advisor love the town of Cody, and the one thing we would like to do someday but we didn’t want to do this time was visit the museums. Cody has what they call “5 museums in 1” about the west: history, art, weapons, and more, and supposedly the museums are Smithsonian quality. I didn’t think a pandemic was the best time to visit a museum that they say you should devote the whole day to, so we just stopped by and then had camping reservations at nearby Buffalo Bill State Park.
When we got to Cody we saw a sign for Mexican Tacos from a Truck (living the dream) and so we screeched to a halt and quickly ordered. We ate outside at a picnic table surrounded by a parking lot and it was glorious. You had your usual suspects, the people who didn’t wear masks when ordering (the people in the truck were wearing masks) and then the guy who left his truck idling the whole time he waited on his order (there was nobody in the truck and no, it just doesn’t take that long to cool your vehicle back down, but eating next to an idling truck sure is less comfortable). Perhaps this is why we didn’t like Cody that much: the people. After our late lunch we picked up a few supplies at the grocery story, which thankfully had a mask requirement, and then we walked around the downtown area a bit. We didn’t feel terribly welcome for the most part because we saw just a few too many t-shirts about how the current president was the best, and so after an hour or wandering or so (and wondering if it would rain) we continued on our own way.
We stopped at the Buffalo Bill Dam next. It was just starting to storm when we got there, so we stayed in the Visitor’s Center a littel longer than I might have liked, but it wasn’t too busy and there were some very interesting exhibits and a short movie telling you how the dam was made. (Hint: it was very difficult to make and went way over budget). One thing I noticed was how many casualties were acceptable—these days people don’t expect any casualties during construction jobs but back 100 years ago dozens of people would get hurt and/or die, no big deal, seemingly. Nowadays we only expect that for school children from gunshots, I guess.
The storm passed fairly quickly and then it was hot again. I didn’t get many pictures for two reasons: fear of heights, and being a little too close to the dam for good pictures.
Our next stop for the day was our campground at Buffalo Bill State Park. We had a site booked at the North Shore Campground, and it was a beautiful location! The weird thing about this campground was that the water was centrally located in one place that wasn’t really walking distance from the site. Our site was a walk-in tent site and was an absolutely gorgeous location, though. (The next morning we had a bit of a miscommunication and I regret not understanding that Louie thought we should stay longer, whereas I was in “go-go” mode and wanted to get to Yellowstone. This ended up with us having an argument and both feeling bad..it’s hard for me sometimes to just be in the moment and relax when I know so many places the early bird gets the worm and waiting too long means that you end up with huge crowds, but this wasn’t that case and we should have stayed longer…vacations can be hard, especially camping vacations! But I digress…well, one more digression is that I was super stressed going into this trip about COVID and whether we even had the moral right to go on vacation, and that was hard to deal with also…)
The view of where we parked versus where our campsite was. Now, we have learned over the years to always stake the tent down. Children, let me tell you, you must always stake your tent down as well as you possibly can. Never say, oh, it’s very pleasant now. It could storm or be windy at any point and you will regret it if you don’t tie your tent down the very best way you can. We have learned though, so we did it, and we were very glad later, because the wind picked up tremendously and this was one of the windiest sites we had ever had!
But it was gorgeous. Right by the Buffalo Bill Reservoir, and very private too. There were wooden fences around it too.
For this campground they did sell firewood but we weren’t sure if they would so we bought some in Cody, just in case. You never know, and it usually turns out if we don’t have wood it isn’t there but if we do we shouldn’t have bought it and would have gotten a better deal at the campground.
After unpacking the tent we went out to do a little exploring in the area but realized truly the best view was from our campsite (Tent Site 4), so we went back. That’s when the wind had really picked up and we knew if we hadn’t tied everything down as well we easily could have lost the tent! But it was totally fine and we made a dinner (in the wind, it was tough!) and again went to bed early to finally get out of the wind.
I’ll leave this blog post here. Next stop: Yellowstone!
