Central Wyoming - Flaming Gorge

Hello Everyone,

After we left Yellowstone NP on Thursday, Aug, 29th, we drove over 230 miles South into central Wyoming.

Our first stop was in Pinedale, WY, a very nice town with a visitors center where we stopped to gather information for the next leg of our trip. Out front of the visitors center, there is a great statue of a "Mountain Man", one of the brave explorers who helped pave the way and settle the West before us.

We stayed in a very friendly hotel that had the following sign in the lobby.

The next morning, Friday, Aug.30th,  we took a hike after breakfast. Pinedale has a great public park where we found a young moose grazing on the young willow trees at the edge of the river that runs through the town's park.

After that, we drove another 100+ miles to Seedskadee Wildlife Preserve near Green River, Wyoming. There we found several animals we have been hoping to see and capture them on digital media.

We found White Pelicans in the Green River soon after we entered the preserve.

We stopped at the visitor's center for a visit with the Ranger and I made friends with him, while Dad and mom asked him questions. When we returned to our car we found a young bull moose near the river's edge.

Then as we were leaving the preserve a Pronghorn Antelope stood at the edge of the road and posed for us to take a picture for our blog. He is a pretty handsome fellow, right? Mom said she would send him a portrait release form in the mail later?

Then we drove another 65+ miles to Rock Springs, Wyoming to rest overnight for our next adventure.

On Saturday, Aug. 31st, we first drove to Green River, WY, where we explored Wild Horse Canyon. There we found several wild horses as promised, but we also found very nice scenery as well. Some of the buttes were beautiful in the high plains desert.

Dad and I were walking up a box canyon when Mom took our picture.

Then we drove down the West side of Flaming Gorge to Manila, WY. This sixty-mile gorge has reddish colored cliffs that are the source of its name.

At the southern end of the canyon, there is a dam that creates a man-made lake.

Near the lake, there is another very picturesque canyon called Sheep Creek Canyon that we explored while we were there. These sheer cliffs are several hundred feet high, and many thousands of years old.

Tomorrow we are going to explore the East side of Flaming Gorge Canyon and move on to Vernal, Utah 😄.

Geyser Valley-Old Faithful

Hello Everyone,

On Tuesday, Aug, 27th we moved into a cabin behind Old Faithful Lodge. They are small but comfortable and give easy access to the upper geyser valley where many of the best geysers can be found. There are well over one hundred geysers in Yellowstone Park, the largest concentration of geothermal features in the world.

The Old Faithful Lodge, as its name implies is right in front of the most famous and most predictable geyser in the world. That's right, "Old Faithful" is the geyser that erupts regularly about every ninety minutes, give or take 10 minutes. Generally, it erupts about 90 to 110 feet in the air and has a duration of 90 seconds to three minutes.

 As you can see the geyser draws huge crowds of visitors each time it erupts and the park rangers post the approximate time for each eruption in numerous places around the park complex, so visitors will know when to congregate on the boardwalks around the geyser to get the best viewpoint.

On Wednesday, Aug. 28, we spent the day trying to view as many of the big geysers in the upper geyser valley as possible since many of them are somewhat unpredictable.

First, we viewed Daisy geyser at the end of the upper geyser valley. Daisy as a bit smaller than Old Faithful but erupts regularly and draws a fairly large crowd considering it is nearly two miles away at the end of the valley.

From there, we walked across the valley to the other side and watched Riverside Geyser erupting. This geyser is placed on the side of the riverbank, as its name implies, and it erupts from 5 to 15 minutes each time, which is longer than many of the other geysers. It erupts approximately 75 to 90 feet in the air, making it a favorite among visitors to the park.

For the finale, we hiked up the valley toward Old Faithful to see Grand Geyser, one of the premier geysers in the park. Grand Geyser, when it erupts, can rise as high as 200 feet and lasts as much as 15 minutes. After Old Faithful, this is the geyser that draws the most crowds, even though it has a much longer wait-time and is less predictable.

 Those are full-sized Lodge Pole Pine trees in the background, some are 90 feet tall and they are sitting on top of a ridge about 80 feet high above the geyser. The following pictures give you some perspective on how high this geyser really erupts.

As you can see, the water spout and steam clouds are far above the tree line.

It is very spectacular! When it ends the crowds usually erupt into applause out of habit for something they have observed that really stimulated them.

At the end of the day, Mom took some pictures of  Old Faithful as the sun went down. I think you will like them.

Tomorrow we are leaving the park to head South into central Wyoming😉.

Cooke City and Lamar Valley

Hi Everyone,

On Sunday, Aug. 25, we got up early to go to the Lamar valley where we hoped to be able to see the wolves that inhabit that area. We spent the night at the Alpine Inn in Cooke City, Montana so we could get up and only drive a few miles to the Lamar Valley.
Cooke City is a remote but very unique town on the north-eastern edge of  Montana that has the dubious distinction, that it cannot be accessed from anywhere else in Montana, only from Wyoming. The Bear-tooth pass byway is closed many months of the year due to the harsh winters and the only way into Cooke City is through the Lamar Valley which is in Yellowstone National Park, in Wyoming.

Here is the street that the local school is situated on.

Here is the school, where there are six students K through 8 attending this year. The older students have to go to high school in Livingston, Montana over an hour away.

Never the less, the town was very nice with friendly, helpful people who went out of their way to make us comfortable and feel welcomed. I met several people and made friends with everyone we met.

Here's a picture of my Dad clowning around again with a statue in the town.

Well, our trip was worth it! We were fortunate enough to see three grizzly bears and five wolves taking turns having breakfast on a recently deceased Bison carcass. Unfortunately, they could only be viewed through binoculars and were too far away to be able to photograph them even with Mom's long-range lens. I did my best to be quiet while everyone around us was very excited to watch the bears and wolves quarreling over their breakfast (the grizzly bears won).

We drove further down the valley and found a Bison roadblock.  These huge animals are very effective a stopping and slowing down vehicular traffic.

The day before we entered Yellowstone some unlucky visitors to the park had their rental car rammed by a Bison. Someone who was stopped observing the Bison herd accidentally set off their car alarm, which caused the Bison to stampede and one of the animals rammed the car amid the confusion.

On Monday, Aug. 27th we drove back to the Lamar Valley as early as we could to see the wolves again. This time we watched six grizzly bears and eight wolves battling over two Bison carcasses for breakfast. Everyone around us, dozens of tourists, were very excited, but I kept quiet so no one would be bothered by me barking. Again, they were too far away to get decent pictures of them.

Later we headed for the North entrance of the park where we found yet another Bison roadblock.

On the way there we stopped to view a petrified tree that has been there since the last eruption of the Yellowstone volcano. Yellowstone itself is a giant volcanic caldera, over thirty miles across, and is the largest recorded volcano in the world. It is estimated that the last time it erupted the volcanic ash covered the West from Montana to New Orleans, Louisiana.

Then we drove to Mammoth Hot Springs to explore that area and hopefully find some Elk.

This is the remains of a lava tube from an earlier eruption. Wind and water have eroded it and the surrounding area at differing rates, leaving much of the tube intact.

These are pictures of us at the North Gate to Yellowstone NP, also known as the Teddy Roosevelt arch near Gardiner, Montana.

Tomorrow we will be heading into Geyser Valley where we will spend the next two days exploring the big geysers😊.