Driggs

October 4 ~7~2021

 One of our dream wishes during of our fifty-years together was to road trip to Yellowstone National Park and see the regal eruption of the Old Faithful Geyser.  She did not disappoint; her predictability is nearly to the minute.  After arriving just minutes after an earlier display of power we found rock-star parking and ambled to the seating area provided by the park directly in front of the geyser. Although it was off-season on a Monday, there were a few hundred visitors mingling around for the next one hour and twelve minutes before OF’s next performance. I am not sure what I expected… maybe hawkers selling ‘geyser water’ or geyser steam hermetically sealed from China. 

 

However, I was impressed by the naturalness of the area; the inconspicuous attendance of the park rangers; especially those stationed on the boardwalk nearest to the three humongous bison who had rambled their way to the meadow nearest the geyser.  These big hulks of hamburger weighing about 2,000 pounds were not bothered by strangers taking their picture nor by the rumbles of the ground as the geyser was getting ready to steam skyward.  One guy seemed to preen and pose as he heard the ooohhs and aaahhs of strolling tourists.  I would have called him a ham, but I didn’t know if he would take that seriously!  Interestingly is that bison and buffalo are one-in-the-same; over the centuries buffalo has become the acceptable synonym for bison.  One impression I did have as I watched these lumbering beasts was the remembrance of the bison head imprinted on a 1959 ca nickel.  The resemblance was uncanny!

 

Be prepared to spend a lot of time in the car.  There is a massiveness of Yellowstone National Park that one can see by looking at a map. But when following the fingerprint of this park on the roadways it is quite remote to access this 4,000 square mile park...which is larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined.  The splendidness of this park is the scenery- it is spectacular; topographical beauty of mountainous high peaks that drop to deep canyons and meadows. Sadly, we have yet to see roaming wildlife, but we have a few more days to traverse the beauty of our American west.

 

During our navigating the two-lane asphalt road winding through Yellowstone we saw hundreds of acres of blackened, seared forest floors, survivors of fires are spindles of lodgepole pines that are being reforested and offering new growth and life to this national forest.

 

The Continental Divide weaves its way through Yellowstone as it delineates the drainage flow of the east and west of America. If not for the signage you would not realize its significance as you stepped over what looks like a dried creek bed.  No neon lights or banners or flags. But worth the pull-over to stop for a pic. 

What is amazing about the landscape is that no matter where you are traveling there are glimpses of mountain vistas and bucolic valleys north, south, east, and west. I am sure professional photographers have found their go-to photo op spots, just as Ansel Adams did on the Snake River in 1942.  His critically acclaimed black n white stirred so many to revisit that site and re-make as near as perfect sans some trees.

 

Today is Thursday, October 7^th; it is the first un-sunny bright day; temp is nearing 48 with scattered drizzly showers.  During a brief weather break, before the storm clouds moved in, we shot up to the Grand Targhee Resort.. only 12 miles up the road but in Wyoming.  We climbed to nearly 9 thousand feet following a mountainous two-laner that gave us depth views hundreds of feet down to meadows and glades and break-your-neck-looking-up-views of the mountain. On the way down the mountainside, we met up with the rainstorm front and a quick glance at a grazing mule deer.  Above is a snow-bound winter day of Grand Targhee.

 We settle into the coziness of the condo we are staying at in Driggs as the cloudbursts pass over and hope the weather breaks to a nice sunny day tomorrow.