January 17, 2009
Today is our last travel day. We leave the tiny Bozeman airport with it's 5 gates and fly to Denver. I've always heard to avoid the Denver airport because of all the weather issues slowing down flights, but I have to say that this is a very well put together airport. There is free wifi which is always good. Plus there is a lot to eat and do. The signage here is wonderful. It's not such a bad place to have a layover. We're here for 6 hours, but so far we've stayed pretty busy. After all our flight delays traveling to Tulsa back in December, I was well prepared for delays for this trip. We traveled through 3 different airports that receive freezing temperatures and snow, but haven't had a single delay. All our shuttles and flights have been as scheduled.
When we were checking into Southwest at the Denver airport I was reminded of checking in with Delta at the Hayden airport a week ago. Delta, or at least Delta at Hayden had the most inefficient way of checking in baggage that I've ever seen. We arrived with a short line and they told us to put our luggage down in the line, leave one person standing with it, and the other walk over to the kiosks to check in. Since we were checking bags, they needed to see our ID. Well, Mark was over standing with the luggage. So, the Delta attendant found Mark and checked his ID. Then, I had to go to the ticket counter to actually get the luggage tags and they had to come get the luggage. It was insanely inefficient. Luckily at the time we were in no rush, but just shook our heads and laughed. Later, after walking around a bit, we saw the the line to check in to Delta was a mile long and there were piles of luggage stacked up in the zigzag part of the line blocking everything. What a mess.
Tomorrow we'll be getting back to normal life. It's been a very long vacation for us and we are thankful to be able to use it to travel. Though Monday will be hard, I think we're probably both ready to get back to work and sleep in our own beds for sure. Thanks for reading our blog and stay tuned for pictures.
http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Winter Wonderland
January 16, 2009
Well, our vacation is coming to an end. We've been having a great time. I'm actually getting used to the snow now and bundling up to go outside. I love Yellowstone in the winter time. The views are just breathtaking. The landscape changes every day making taking photographs so much fun. I just can't get enough of this place. I would estimate that I've taken about seven gigs of photos in Yellowstone alone. That's approximately 1400 photos. And I could still take more. Plus there are so few visitors in the winter that we feel like we have the whole park to ourselves. We don't have to fight the crowds to see the mud volcano. The geysers and hot springs are so much more impressive in the winter as the steam billows out in the freezing temperatures. Plus you can see exactly where the ground is hot due to the brown patches surrounded by snow. The rivers that are fed from thermal waters run freely in the snow covered wilderness and steam as they travel. There is no traffic on the roadways except for the guided tours, so there are no traffic jams and less vehicles for the park to worry about. The number one killer of all animals in Yellowstone is the cars. You can find complete silence almost anywhere. The animals are much easier to spot with the snow on the ground. Not only can you see where they've been due to their tracks, but also they stand out against the white backdrop. Besides the wildlife, my next favorite thing to photograph and marvel at are the ghost trees. These are the trees that are covered with ice and frost formed from the thermal steam. They are white from afar and when you are close up, you can see all the ice crystals forming.
In fact, as we woke up today we saw that the whole park was covered in ghost trees. It was a perfectly sunny day and the clouds were low in the morning freezing to the trees in the form of hoarfrost. Or at least I think that's what happened. Beautiful. We took our last walk around Old Faithful and covered a much larger area seeing many of the hot springs and geysers in the basin. It hasn't snowed in several days and the snow is well packed along the boardwalks and pathways that foot travel is not a problem. The hardest part was not tripping in the holes caused by the bison crossing over the boardwalk.
Sadly it was time to go and we took the express Bombardier out to West Yellowstone. It was a quick ride. Along part of the way we traveled at the same speed as an eagle flying by. We watched the trumpeter swans swim in the Gibbon River and we even saw Elk grazing in a meadow. i definitely recommend visiting Yellowstone in the winter time. It is an amazing experience and a wonderful vacation.
We had about an hour to kill in West Yellowstone before we were picked up by the Karst Stage Shuttle, so we walked over to the Grizzly Discovery Center to watch the wolves howl in song and the Grizzlies play with tree limbs. (Grizzlies don't need to hibernate in the Center because there is enough food for them) The Discover Center was empty except for only a couple other people. It was a perfect way to end our journey.
Our Karst Stage Shuttle picked us up and we traveled into the night to the tiny town of Belgrade. Belgrade is the tiny town next to Bozeman that holds the airport. The Country Kitchen next to our hotel was still accepting dinner guests, so we didn't have to eat only potato chips and Cliff Bars. =) Tomorrow we will leave and encounter the normal world full of people and the bustle of life.
Below you'll see pictures of a plant covered in hoarfrost, Canadian geese, Mark and Joanna with some ghost trees, and a wolf at the Discovery Center.
http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com
Well, our vacation is coming to an end. We've been having a great time. I'm actually getting used to the snow now and bundling up to go outside. I love Yellowstone in the winter time. The views are just breathtaking. The landscape changes every day making taking photographs so much fun. I just can't get enough of this place. I would estimate that I've taken about seven gigs of photos in Yellowstone alone. That's approximately 1400 photos. And I could still take more. Plus there are so few visitors in the winter that we feel like we have the whole park to ourselves. We don't have to fight the crowds to see the mud volcano. The geysers and hot springs are so much more impressive in the winter as the steam billows out in the freezing temperatures. Plus you can see exactly where the ground is hot due to the brown patches surrounded by snow. The rivers that are fed from thermal waters run freely in the snow covered wilderness and steam as they travel. There is no traffic on the roadways except for the guided tours, so there are no traffic jams and less vehicles for the park to worry about. The number one killer of all animals in Yellowstone is the cars. You can find complete silence almost anywhere. The animals are much easier to spot with the snow on the ground. Not only can you see where they've been due to their tracks, but also they stand out against the white backdrop. Besides the wildlife, my next favorite thing to photograph and marvel at are the ghost trees. These are the trees that are covered with ice and frost formed from the thermal steam. They are white from afar and when you are close up, you can see all the ice crystals forming.
In fact, as we woke up today we saw that the whole park was covered in ghost trees. It was a perfectly sunny day and the clouds were low in the morning freezing to the trees in the form of hoarfrost. Or at least I think that's what happened. Beautiful. We took our last walk around Old Faithful and covered a much larger area seeing many of the hot springs and geysers in the basin. It hasn't snowed in several days and the snow is well packed along the boardwalks and pathways that foot travel is not a problem. The hardest part was not tripping in the holes caused by the bison crossing over the boardwalk.
Sadly it was time to go and we took the express Bombardier out to West Yellowstone. It was a quick ride. Along part of the way we traveled at the same speed as an eagle flying by. We watched the trumpeter swans swim in the Gibbon River and we even saw Elk grazing in a meadow. i definitely recommend visiting Yellowstone in the winter time. It is an amazing experience and a wonderful vacation.
We had about an hour to kill in West Yellowstone before we were picked up by the Karst Stage Shuttle, so we walked over to the Grizzly Discovery Center to watch the wolves howl in song and the Grizzlies play with tree limbs. (Grizzlies don't need to hibernate in the Center because there is enough food for them) The Discover Center was empty except for only a couple other people. It was a perfect way to end our journey.
Our Karst Stage Shuttle picked us up and we traveled into the night to the tiny town of Belgrade. Belgrade is the tiny town next to Bozeman that holds the airport. The Country Kitchen next to our hotel was still accepting dinner guests, so we didn't have to eat only potato chips and Cliff Bars. =) Tomorrow we will leave and encounter the normal world full of people and the bustle of life.
Below you'll see pictures of a plant covered in hoarfrost, Canadian geese, Mark and Joanna with some ghost trees, and a wolf at the Discovery Center.
http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Day of the Bison
January 15, 2009
We had a full day canyon tour today from 8 to 5 that took us around the lower loop of the Yellowstone roadway system. We were excited to get off the road between Mammoth and old Faithful as we've now done that road a number of times. Unfortunately, the full day tour was in a Bombardier which is less comfortable than the snowcoaches. There were 5 of us paying customers, 2 employees taking the tour with us, and our guide. In addition to our vehicle, another Bombardier set out on the same tour.
Today was the first day that we got into some bison traffic on the road. The first time we encountered bison on the road, there was a park ranger on a snowmobile near us, so he gave us some info while the photographers like me popped out of the 3 hatches on top of the bombardier so we could take close up photos of the bison. The bombardier's are pretty neat because they have these hatches so we don't have to get out to take photos or look around. The second time we encountered bison, there were 2 on the road galloping towards us. Thankfully we were in our tank-like vehicle, but I've heard from snowmobiliers that in a small snowmobile the bison are quite intimidating up close. It is odd to see the bison running in the winter. While they can run pretty fast, in the winter usually they limit all their body movements to conserve the much needed energy they need to survive the winter. In fact, it is very important, especially in the winter, to not get so close to the wildlife that they are forced to move away unnecessarily and use those extra calories just to get out of our way. Our third roadway bison encounter included another herd of bison crossing the roadway. In this herd we saw a bison with (for our UT friends) it's horns pointed down. Apparently it's not so rare to see bison with other than the normal two horns pointed up. The employees with us have seen bison with more than 2 horns and horns pointed all different directions.
Our most exciting wildlife encounter was as we were driving through a typical meadow and found 3-4 wolves napping in the distance. We stopped and pulled out the scope to view them. We figured they had probably eaten recently as they were lounging around. They were close enough to show up in my 200mm zoom as wolf-shaped pixels and close enough to notice with the naked eye. So, that was neat. We spent a lot of the trip searching for otter as we drove along a river that had otter in it. In fact we saw many many otter tracks along the river, but never did spot those otters. We saw some eagles, lots of bison, trumpeter swans, Canadian Geese, and other birds. I don't think we saw any elk. The most exciting part was when the sun came out for a good percentage of the time lighting up the landscape with interesting patterns. Sunlight and the shadows that result change the snow-covered landscape drastically. All of a sudden the snow has definition. During a cloudy day, it is so hard to determine what is going on with the snow. Many times we can't even tell if the snow in front of us has a footprint hole or a slope or what. It's like walking on a lumpy blanket in the dark.
We did get to see both the lower and upper falls in the Yellowstone Canyon. The lower falls were about halfway frozen making interesting ice patterns on the sides of the canyon. Actually, when it "freezes," it is really just an ice cover on the waterfall that freezes, at least at these falls. The mist from the falls freezes underneath the falls as a huge snow-covered lump of ice. It is really quite amazing that a force so strong can freeze over. The upper falls had ice cover on the two sides of the canyon, but the majority of the falls in the center was still moving.
We made a stop at Yellowstone Lake, which covers 136 square miles of area and is the largest body of water in Yellowstone. In the winter, the whole lake freezes over! It's incredibly to look at. The difference between Yellowstone in the summer and Yellowstone in the winter is amazing. It's like a whole different park. Shortly after our stop at Yellowstone Lake, and while the sun was setting in the distance, our Bombardier made a strange noise.....emitted a burnt rubber smell....and then stopped. Hmmmmmm. We are still over an hour away from Old Faithful on a road that is not traveled very often. Luckily we had just seen the second Bombardier in front of us a minute ago, so we radioed them to turn around. After a good thirty minute break, they determined that one of the fan blades was breaking off, and the mechanic on the radio told us they'd send a vehicle out to tow us in. Meanwhile, all us paying customers jammed into the working Bombardier and we went back to Old Faithful just a little late. Later in the evening, we saw the employees that had to be towed in arrive about 2 hours after we did. Over-snow-vehicles do not travel very fast, but we guessed that we got all the way up to thirty miles an hour coming in to Old Faithful in the Bombardier. The snowcoaches only go around twenty and many times we are going about ten miles an hour. I think that these slow speeds are the best way to see the park because there is time to look around and watch what is going on outside. I never did get tired of riding in the snow vehicles and just looking outside the window.
Pictured below, you'll see a few of the Bombardiers, bison, and a view of one of the creeks we passed over.
http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com
We had a full day canyon tour today from 8 to 5 that took us around the lower loop of the Yellowstone roadway system. We were excited to get off the road between Mammoth and old Faithful as we've now done that road a number of times. Unfortunately, the full day tour was in a Bombardier which is less comfortable than the snowcoaches. There were 5 of us paying customers, 2 employees taking the tour with us, and our guide. In addition to our vehicle, another Bombardier set out on the same tour.
Today was the first day that we got into some bison traffic on the road. The first time we encountered bison on the road, there was a park ranger on a snowmobile near us, so he gave us some info while the photographers like me popped out of the 3 hatches on top of the bombardier so we could take close up photos of the bison. The bombardier's are pretty neat because they have these hatches so we don't have to get out to take photos or look around. The second time we encountered bison, there were 2 on the road galloping towards us. Thankfully we were in our tank-like vehicle, but I've heard from snowmobiliers that in a small snowmobile the bison are quite intimidating up close. It is odd to see the bison running in the winter. While they can run pretty fast, in the winter usually they limit all their body movements to conserve the much needed energy they need to survive the winter. In fact, it is very important, especially in the winter, to not get so close to the wildlife that they are forced to move away unnecessarily and use those extra calories just to get out of our way. Our third roadway bison encounter included another herd of bison crossing the roadway. In this herd we saw a bison with (for our UT friends) it's horns pointed down. Apparently it's not so rare to see bison with other than the normal two horns pointed up. The employees with us have seen bison with more than 2 horns and horns pointed all different directions.
Our most exciting wildlife encounter was as we were driving through a typical meadow and found 3-4 wolves napping in the distance. We stopped and pulled out the scope to view them. We figured they had probably eaten recently as they were lounging around. They were close enough to show up in my 200mm zoom as wolf-shaped pixels and close enough to notice with the naked eye. So, that was neat. We spent a lot of the trip searching for otter as we drove along a river that had otter in it. In fact we saw many many otter tracks along the river, but never did spot those otters. We saw some eagles, lots of bison, trumpeter swans, Canadian Geese, and other birds. I don't think we saw any elk. The most exciting part was when the sun came out for a good percentage of the time lighting up the landscape with interesting patterns. Sunlight and the shadows that result change the snow-covered landscape drastically. All of a sudden the snow has definition. During a cloudy day, it is so hard to determine what is going on with the snow. Many times we can't even tell if the snow in front of us has a footprint hole or a slope or what. It's like walking on a lumpy blanket in the dark.
We did get to see both the lower and upper falls in the Yellowstone Canyon. The lower falls were about halfway frozen making interesting ice patterns on the sides of the canyon. Actually, when it "freezes," it is really just an ice cover on the waterfall that freezes, at least at these falls. The mist from the falls freezes underneath the falls as a huge snow-covered lump of ice. It is really quite amazing that a force so strong can freeze over. The upper falls had ice cover on the two sides of the canyon, but the majority of the falls in the center was still moving.
We made a stop at Yellowstone Lake, which covers 136 square miles of area and is the largest body of water in Yellowstone. In the winter, the whole lake freezes over! It's incredibly to look at. The difference between Yellowstone in the summer and Yellowstone in the winter is amazing. It's like a whole different park. Shortly after our stop at Yellowstone Lake, and while the sun was setting in the distance, our Bombardier made a strange noise.....emitted a burnt rubber smell....and then stopped. Hmmmmmm. We are still over an hour away from Old Faithful on a road that is not traveled very often. Luckily we had just seen the second Bombardier in front of us a minute ago, so we radioed them to turn around. After a good thirty minute break, they determined that one of the fan blades was breaking off, and the mechanic on the radio told us they'd send a vehicle out to tow us in. Meanwhile, all us paying customers jammed into the working Bombardier and we went back to Old Faithful just a little late. Later in the evening, we saw the employees that had to be towed in arrive about 2 hours after we did. Over-snow-vehicles do not travel very fast, but we guessed that we got all the way up to thirty miles an hour coming in to Old Faithful in the Bombardier. The snowcoaches only go around twenty and many times we are going about ten miles an hour. I think that these slow speeds are the best way to see the park because there is time to look around and watch what is going on outside. I never did get tired of riding in the snow vehicles and just looking outside the window.
Pictured below, you'll see a few of the Bombardiers, bison, and a view of one of the creeks we passed over.
http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com
Skiing on a Lake
January 14, 2009
The snow-covered landscape never ceases to amaze me. Each day can be completely different from the day before depending on how much snow was added, or how it was packed or groomed. Plus, visiting a feature on a cloudy day versus a sunny day is like visiting two totally different features. Even more interesting is the story the snow shows giving me information of what has been here before me. It's very easy to see where the bison were, or where a rabbit had fun hopping around. I can see where a fox or a coyote has been. I can see where a squirrel played happily in a tree. I can tell where people skied or where they walked. Each day brings new tracks and new things to watch and look at.
So, even though we've walked around Old Faithful before, walking around it again is still interesting. This morning we took our rented snowshoes up to Observation Point that overlooks the Old Faithful area. It was only a .6 mile hike up the side of a hill, but in snowshoes, we travel about 1 to 1.3 mph depending on how long we stop for photos. It takes longer to get anywhere in the snow. Even in shoes, it is harder to move around because the surface can be slippery, uneven, have deep bison footprints in it, or have deep places where your foot sinks down to your knee every so often. We followed a well-beaten path up to the point cutting switchbacks every now and then just because we can. With the snow on the ground, we aren't limited to the trail. We can pretty much go where we want. It's so much fun to break new snow, too. At the top we watched Old Faithful erupt from a birds eye view and then headed back to the lodge for the start of our ski trip. Just before we hit the lodge, we nearly walked into a herd of bison moving our way. Luckily they were not on our trail, so after some pictures, we could keep going.
We skied along DeLacey Creek out to Shoshone Lake for our first cross country (x-c) ski. Our group was around 10 people total and all the rest were well-seasoned x-c skiers. Our guide was amazing, though. She was a x-c ski instructor as well, so she was able to help us out on the more technical parts. We had asked the day before if first-timers could make the ski and were assured that we could. Well, the very first thing we had to do was side step up a small hill, and then go down a longer hill. Down should be easy, right? We just came from downhill skiing and this would be a flat downhill if we were on our downhill skis. Well x-c skis are like toothpicks compared to downhill skis. Only the toe of our shoe was attached and the ski was as skinny as the boot. We had no control. Or at least not the control we are used to. So, that downhill felt long and I fell over multiple times getting down. Luckily snow is soft. =)
It was a beautiful day for skiing. We started out in a forest of the logdepole pines. The pines looked like they were sprayed with snow. In fact, to me, they looked very similar to sprayed concrete. Mark didn't relate to that description either. The wind is usually very strong in this area, so the snow is mostly on one side of the tree as it was blown that direction. We fell pretty far behind the other skiers, but that made it neat because it was only us in the middle of nowhere in the snow. It was so silent when we stopped and the landscape was gorgeous. the creek was mostly frozen over, but we saw some wind-blown cornices along the creek every now and then. We didn't see any wildlife except for a few birds and that made it feel even that more remote. Our group had split into about 3 groups and our guide went back and forth between all of us. She gave us a lot of information about snow. We learned that snow is warmer next to the ground and hovers at the 32 degree mark while on top it is the temperature of the air. The small rodents like mice make tunnels along the ground in the snow staying warmer and scurrying around. Then, the foxes walk along the top, listen to the mice and make that signature jump to collapse the mouse tunnel system briefly trapping the mouse, so it can serve as a meal for the fox. We also learned that on a frozen lake, there are 3 layers of snow on top. On top of the ice is snow, then a slush layer, then more snow. So, if you are skiing on a well frozen lake (2 inches or more), you might see that slush layer behind you and become concerned that you are about to fall in. In fact, there is snow under that slush. We did make it out to Shoshone Lake and actually ski around on the lake itself.
We both had a lot of fun on our 6 mile ski adventure. I know why more people ski in the backcountry rather than snowshoe. You can get further faster. However, we definitely need more practice on x-c skis before we go off on our own. We arrived back much earlier than our eight pm dinner reservations, and they were nice enough to seat us early. We had been quite amused at setting dinner reservations months in advance of our trip. we were told that it was needed, but while at Mammoth Springs very often we were either the only ones there, or one of maybe two or three groups. It turns out that many people had canceled their vacations recently due to the recession. At Old Faithful, the dining room was very often filled, so, yes the reservations were needed. Apparently, though, if we showed up at 5:30p, we could get seated early. any other time would have been hard.
We bumped into our friends from our Mammoth Springs and found out that he keeps a travel website too. He's over at johnwise.com. When their vacation is over it'll be interesting to see what kinds of pictures they managed to get.
http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com
Below you'll see a picture of us at Observation Point and also one of us on Shoshone Lake.
The snow-covered landscape never ceases to amaze me. Each day can be completely different from the day before depending on how much snow was added, or how it was packed or groomed. Plus, visiting a feature on a cloudy day versus a sunny day is like visiting two totally different features. Even more interesting is the story the snow shows giving me information of what has been here before me. It's very easy to see where the bison were, or where a rabbit had fun hopping around. I can see where a fox or a coyote has been. I can see where a squirrel played happily in a tree. I can tell where people skied or where they walked. Each day brings new tracks and new things to watch and look at.
So, even though we've walked around Old Faithful before, walking around it again is still interesting. This morning we took our rented snowshoes up to Observation Point that overlooks the Old Faithful area. It was only a .6 mile hike up the side of a hill, but in snowshoes, we travel about 1 to 1.3 mph depending on how long we stop for photos. It takes longer to get anywhere in the snow. Even in shoes, it is harder to move around because the surface can be slippery, uneven, have deep bison footprints in it, or have deep places where your foot sinks down to your knee every so often. We followed a well-beaten path up to the point cutting switchbacks every now and then just because we can. With the snow on the ground, we aren't limited to the trail. We can pretty much go where we want. It's so much fun to break new snow, too. At the top we watched Old Faithful erupt from a birds eye view and then headed back to the lodge for the start of our ski trip. Just before we hit the lodge, we nearly walked into a herd of bison moving our way. Luckily they were not on our trail, so after some pictures, we could keep going.
We skied along DeLacey Creek out to Shoshone Lake for our first cross country (x-c) ski. Our group was around 10 people total and all the rest were well-seasoned x-c skiers. Our guide was amazing, though. She was a x-c ski instructor as well, so she was able to help us out on the more technical parts. We had asked the day before if first-timers could make the ski and were assured that we could. Well, the very first thing we had to do was side step up a small hill, and then go down a longer hill. Down should be easy, right? We just came from downhill skiing and this would be a flat downhill if we were on our downhill skis. Well x-c skis are like toothpicks compared to downhill skis. Only the toe of our shoe was attached and the ski was as skinny as the boot. We had no control. Or at least not the control we are used to. So, that downhill felt long and I fell over multiple times getting down. Luckily snow is soft. =)
It was a beautiful day for skiing. We started out in a forest of the logdepole pines. The pines looked like they were sprayed with snow. In fact, to me, they looked very similar to sprayed concrete. Mark didn't relate to that description either. The wind is usually very strong in this area, so the snow is mostly on one side of the tree as it was blown that direction. We fell pretty far behind the other skiers, but that made it neat because it was only us in the middle of nowhere in the snow. It was so silent when we stopped and the landscape was gorgeous. the creek was mostly frozen over, but we saw some wind-blown cornices along the creek every now and then. We didn't see any wildlife except for a few birds and that made it feel even that more remote. Our group had split into about 3 groups and our guide went back and forth between all of us. She gave us a lot of information about snow. We learned that snow is warmer next to the ground and hovers at the 32 degree mark while on top it is the temperature of the air. The small rodents like mice make tunnels along the ground in the snow staying warmer and scurrying around. Then, the foxes walk along the top, listen to the mice and make that signature jump to collapse the mouse tunnel system briefly trapping the mouse, so it can serve as a meal for the fox. We also learned that on a frozen lake, there are 3 layers of snow on top. On top of the ice is snow, then a slush layer, then more snow. So, if you are skiing on a well frozen lake (2 inches or more), you might see that slush layer behind you and become concerned that you are about to fall in. In fact, there is snow under that slush. We did make it out to Shoshone Lake and actually ski around on the lake itself.
We both had a lot of fun on our 6 mile ski adventure. I know why more people ski in the backcountry rather than snowshoe. You can get further faster. However, we definitely need more practice on x-c skis before we go off on our own. We arrived back much earlier than our eight pm dinner reservations, and they were nice enough to seat us early. We had been quite amused at setting dinner reservations months in advance of our trip. we were told that it was needed, but while at Mammoth Springs very often we were either the only ones there, or one of maybe two or three groups. It turns out that many people had canceled their vacations recently due to the recession. At Old Faithful, the dining room was very often filled, so, yes the reservations were needed. Apparently, though, if we showed up at 5:30p, we could get seated early. any other time would have been hard.
We bumped into our friends from our Mammoth Springs and found out that he keeps a travel website too. He's over at johnwise.com. When their vacation is over it'll be interesting to see what kinds of pictures they managed to get.
http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com
Below you'll see a picture of us at Observation Point and also one of us on Shoshone Lake.
Back Home
We are back in Houston. It's warm here at 61 tonight and there is no snow on the ground. The air smells like a city as well. I guess we got too used to the clean mountain air. It's good to be home, though. The bunnies had a great time with the bunny sitters, but they were happy to see us again. It looks like everything in Houston stayed the same, pretty much.
I've got a few more journal entries to post and I'll add some pictures to them tomorrow. Hope everyone has a good MLK day.
I've got a few more journal entries to post and I'll add some pictures to them tomorrow. Hope everyone has a good MLK day.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Old Faithful
January 13, 2009
Our time in Mammoth Springs was short, but sweet. Today we took a snowcoach tour back to Old Faithful. I would have loved to spend at least one more day here in Mammoth, but many of the tours we want to take are out of Old Faithful. For the third tour in a row, we were joined by the couple we met yesterday. In fact we were the only four people in the snow coach again today. We left Mammoth behind in the early morning and actually had partly cloudy skies all the way down. This meant that the sun came out often to give us photographic light and we took advantage shooting off many pictures again today. The wildlife was not as abundant today and we only had a few spottings. However, for most of the way we traveled along the Gibbon and Madison Rivers providing many opportunities to photography the trumpeter swans, dippers, and Canadian geese. Also, the river, fed by thermal water, created many beautiful cornices over the water. A cornice is the shape the snow makes as it hangs over the water with it's shape defined by the wind, water, and steam coming past. Our tour guide quizzed us on information we had learned on the other tours and also provided additional information. Each guide is expected to do their own reading and research for the tours so each guide provides a new tour.
We arrived at Old Faithful at noon, put our luggage on the provided sleds and trekked out to check out our cabin. We are the last cabin in a long row of cabins, so we've got a great view out the window. The summer time accommodations at Old Faithful are not insulated, so we are in the snow lodge and snow cabins. The cabin is surprisingly large. I was expecting a tiny cabin much like the one we stayed at in Mammoth Springs when we were there in 2002. However, we've got a nice long room with a table and dresser even. After lunch we took a small siesta before heading out on our rented snowshoes. The snowshoes here are very different from the ones we rented in Steamboat. I'm not sure which are better for which kind of snow, but these worked great here. The snow is very different than Steamboat as it compacts more and is not the powder that Steamboat has. As a result, we did not sink quite as much into the snow as we snowshoed into the forest on a trail looking for a little hot spring. It was fun to go off road through the trees and we often did. We were out until sunset blazing new trails through the snow chasing animal tracks. The animals were surely long gone, but it was still fun.
Tonight was the first clear night we've seen and we took advantage. After dinner we hiked out to Old Faithful to see it go off in the dark. It turns out that we were 2 of 6 people that decided to go out. Unfortunately the almost full moon did not make a presence (we were too early for moon rise), so I couldn't get a shot of the geyser going off, but it sounded amazing in the dark. I was able to get some star pictures, though.
Be sure to visit http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com/
Our time in Mammoth Springs was short, but sweet. Today we took a snowcoach tour back to Old Faithful. I would have loved to spend at least one more day here in Mammoth, but many of the tours we want to take are out of Old Faithful. For the third tour in a row, we were joined by the couple we met yesterday. In fact we were the only four people in the snow coach again today. We left Mammoth behind in the early morning and actually had partly cloudy skies all the way down. This meant that the sun came out often to give us photographic light and we took advantage shooting off many pictures again today. The wildlife was not as abundant today and we only had a few spottings. However, for most of the way we traveled along the Gibbon and Madison Rivers providing many opportunities to photography the trumpeter swans, dippers, and Canadian geese. Also, the river, fed by thermal water, created many beautiful cornices over the water. A cornice is the shape the snow makes as it hangs over the water with it's shape defined by the wind, water, and steam coming past. Our tour guide quizzed us on information we had learned on the other tours and also provided additional information. Each guide is expected to do their own reading and research for the tours so each guide provides a new tour.
We arrived at Old Faithful at noon, put our luggage on the provided sleds and trekked out to check out our cabin. We are the last cabin in a long row of cabins, so we've got a great view out the window. The summer time accommodations at Old Faithful are not insulated, so we are in the snow lodge and snow cabins. The cabin is surprisingly large. I was expecting a tiny cabin much like the one we stayed at in Mammoth Springs when we were there in 2002. However, we've got a nice long room with a table and dresser even. After lunch we took a small siesta before heading out on our rented snowshoes. The snowshoes here are very different from the ones we rented in Steamboat. I'm not sure which are better for which kind of snow, but these worked great here. The snow is very different than Steamboat as it compacts more and is not the powder that Steamboat has. As a result, we did not sink quite as much into the snow as we snowshoed into the forest on a trail looking for a little hot spring. It was fun to go off road through the trees and we often did. We were out until sunset blazing new trails through the snow chasing animal tracks. The animals were surely long gone, but it was still fun.
Tonight was the first clear night we've seen and we took advantage. After dinner we hiked out to Old Faithful to see it go off in the dark. It turns out that we were 2 of 6 people that decided to go out. Unfortunately the almost full moon did not make a presence (we were too early for moon rise), so I couldn't get a shot of the geyser going off, but it sounded amazing in the dark. I was able to get some star pictures, though.
Be sure to visit http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com/
Yellowstone Wildlife
January 12, 2009
I'm not sure which was the more exciting event today, seeing a bull moose up close, the clear skies, or meeting other travelers similar to us. Our first tour this morning was called Wake up to Wildlife and it was wildlife we saw. We met at an early 6:45am so we could be in the Lamar Valley when the wildlife were out at dawn. The sun doesn't rise enough to provide light for pictures until about 7:30, so the first part of our journey was in the dark. We had a very knowledgeable guide who talked the whole time giving us all kinds of information while we drove around stopped for various animals. The first animals we saw were 2 bull elk laying right next to the road. It was too dark for pictures, but they were wonderful to see. One of our wildlife sightings included stopped to talk with Bob Landis on the side of the road as he was out shooting his next video. He's very famous for many of his wildlife videos in Yellowstone mostly about wolves. He's working on a bear video now, but he's out there every day with his video camera just shooting hoping for anything to come along. He had radio contact with some of the wolf watchers and directed us across a turn to a group of wolf watchers. All of them had their scopes out pointed at a very distant group of hills. our guide set up his scope, but while we waited we used someone else's scope who was nice enough to allow us to have a peak. This was definitely nothing I could see with my bare eyes and the scope put the wolves right in front of me.
We left the wolves in search of a moose that someone claimed to have spotted. our guide mentioned that moose were moving down to the Tetons and out of Yellowstone over the past several years so even he doesn't see moose in Yellowstone very often. So, when we rounded a bend and found a moose right next to the road, our guide could not contain his excitement. Well, the whole car load was pretty excited. Not only was it a moose, but it was a bull moose, and it was right next to the road. All the photographers in the van were taking millions of pictures. It was actually pretty funny to hear the click click click click of all the cameras going off. Our guide who is into photography himself was kicking himself for not bringing his telephoto lens, but we were close enough that his wide angle even worked. We parked around a bend, all jumped out and fired off more shots as the moose walked towards us, then crossed the road, then moved into a trio of bison lounging on the side of the road. What an experience! Our guide said, okay, tour over. =) Not really though. The sun was coming out and we found many more places to stop and watch wildlife. On the way back we even found the bull elk next to the road and posing for us as well.
We weren't sure if our afternoon could top our morning. As it turned out, another couple that was on our morning tour was also on our tour to Norris Geyser basin for the afternoon. It was only the four of us, so we were able to cater the tour to our liking. The other couple was very similar to us. He is an avid photographer and they both love to travel as much as possible mostly to national parks to hike, take pictures, and enjoy as much of the vacation outside as possible. They also tend to take advantage of every second of their vacation time to do anything and everything. Sound familiar? =) They were very happy to meet us as they had been scoping out all the guests at the hotel to see who would be on the tour with them. They wanted other active people so that we could all take a long tour of Norris. And that we did. We had time to see just about all of the Norris Geyser Basin with its multiple geysers, hot springs, boiling mud, and thermal activity. There were many ghost trees here too (all iced up and white from the steam drifting through the trees and freezing.) I think next to the wildlife, ghost trees are my favorite subject to photograph. Much of the trail was still unbroken snow, so we almost needed snowshoes. We were hiking on boardwalks that were covered with a couple feet of snow. At one point our guide pointed out a mound of snow and said, "Don't trip over the park bench." We walked over it instead.
It was another wonderful day in Yellowstone and we are still just getting started. I love this park in the wintertime. We find ourselves very lucky to be visiting in a week where the highs are in the 20s and sometimes near 30 as opposed to some of the typical winter weather that gets down to 30 below zero! There aren't many people here at all which makes the park and it's popular spots all that much more enjoyable. The silence and solitude of winter here is amazing.
Be sure to visit http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com/
I'm not sure which was the more exciting event today, seeing a bull moose up close, the clear skies, or meeting other travelers similar to us. Our first tour this morning was called Wake up to Wildlife and it was wildlife we saw. We met at an early 6:45am so we could be in the Lamar Valley when the wildlife were out at dawn. The sun doesn't rise enough to provide light for pictures until about 7:30, so the first part of our journey was in the dark. We had a very knowledgeable guide who talked the whole time giving us all kinds of information while we drove around stopped for various animals. The first animals we saw were 2 bull elk laying right next to the road. It was too dark for pictures, but they were wonderful to see. One of our wildlife sightings included stopped to talk with Bob Landis on the side of the road as he was out shooting his next video. He's very famous for many of his wildlife videos in Yellowstone mostly about wolves. He's working on a bear video now, but he's out there every day with his video camera just shooting hoping for anything to come along. He had radio contact with some of the wolf watchers and directed us across a turn to a group of wolf watchers. All of them had their scopes out pointed at a very distant group of hills. our guide set up his scope, but while we waited we used someone else's scope who was nice enough to allow us to have a peak. This was definitely nothing I could see with my bare eyes and the scope put the wolves right in front of me.
We left the wolves in search of a moose that someone claimed to have spotted. our guide mentioned that moose were moving down to the Tetons and out of Yellowstone over the past several years so even he doesn't see moose in Yellowstone very often. So, when we rounded a bend and found a moose right next to the road, our guide could not contain his excitement. Well, the whole car load was pretty excited. Not only was it a moose, but it was a bull moose, and it was right next to the road. All the photographers in the van were taking millions of pictures. It was actually pretty funny to hear the click click click click of all the cameras going off. Our guide who is into photography himself was kicking himself for not bringing his telephoto lens, but we were close enough that his wide angle even worked. We parked around a bend, all jumped out and fired off more shots as the moose walked towards us, then crossed the road, then moved into a trio of bison lounging on the side of the road. What an experience! Our guide said, okay, tour over. =) Not really though. The sun was coming out and we found many more places to stop and watch wildlife. On the way back we even found the bull elk next to the road and posing for us as well.
We weren't sure if our afternoon could top our morning. As it turned out, another couple that was on our morning tour was also on our tour to Norris Geyser basin for the afternoon. It was only the four of us, so we were able to cater the tour to our liking. The other couple was very similar to us. He is an avid photographer and they both love to travel as much as possible mostly to national parks to hike, take pictures, and enjoy as much of the vacation outside as possible. They also tend to take advantage of every second of their vacation time to do anything and everything. Sound familiar? =) They were very happy to meet us as they had been scoping out all the guests at the hotel to see who would be on the tour with them. They wanted other active people so that we could all take a long tour of Norris. And that we did. We had time to see just about all of the Norris Geyser Basin with its multiple geysers, hot springs, boiling mud, and thermal activity. There were many ghost trees here too (all iced up and white from the steam drifting through the trees and freezing.) I think next to the wildlife, ghost trees are my favorite subject to photograph. Much of the trail was still unbroken snow, so we almost needed snowshoes. We were hiking on boardwalks that were covered with a couple feet of snow. At one point our guide pointed out a mound of snow and said, "Don't trip over the park bench." We walked over it instead.
It was another wonderful day in Yellowstone and we are still just getting started. I love this park in the wintertime. We find ourselves very lucky to be visiting in a week where the highs are in the 20s and sometimes near 30 as opposed to some of the typical winter weather that gets down to 30 below zero! There aren't many people here at all which makes the park and it's popular spots all that much more enjoyable. The silence and solitude of winter here is amazing.
Be sure to visit http://markandjoannatravel.blogspot.com/
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