Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Big Sky Adventure Day Three - Yellowstone, Old Faithful and Upper Basin.





I woke up before the sun rose and had great photo opportunities with the clouds remaining from the storm and looking like it could be rainy day. The morning also was one of many cold mornings which required socks, actual pants, and my heavy wool sweater and it was still August. After a hotel room hiking breakfast special of Cap’n Crunch, and a bagel with peanut butter and banana, we headed back to Yellowstone and up to Old Faithful. It was the goal to have a slow day after being in the car so long the day before. So with that in mind, we took a few small hikes on the way up to the Geysers.

One of the walks was remarkable because the hike consisted of walking a bit along a stream and then heading down hill for 100 feet for a pretty little waterfall named Moose Falls. It is actually just north of the South Entrance on Crawfish Creek and passed over by the majority of visitors. It is kind of nice to have a waterfall just off the road all to yourself. I shot a lot of photos, rambled around and watched the storm come in a bit.

After that we settled in for the 45 mile drive to Old Faithful with a few stops along the way. The geographer in me was lucky enough to cross the Continental Divide three times. There is a striking lake that is filled with lily ponds that runs on both sides of the road. When the lake floods, the water in the lake flows in two different directions, the first going towards the Pacific Ocean and the other flowing to the Gulf of Mexico. They tell me that this is one of the few places that do this.

As we approached the Upper Geyser Basin, we drove past two Bison near the edge of the road. We continued on and just made it to Old Faithful Inn five minutes before Old Faithful went off. From the reading I have done, Old Faithful is popular not because it is the most frequent, nor the tallest, nor the prettiest, but it seems that it stood slightly away from all of the geysers in the area. Old Faithful teased the viewers by starting to go off and then fizzle down for about five minutes. And then when it went off it just shot straight in the air. I imagine if I had gotten closer to the viewing area I may have been wowed, but I just wanted to get a hot cocoa afterwards because damp misty mountain moisture is just plain cold.

After my hot cocoa, we then went out to the Geyser Hill and the walk behind that. We took loads of photos and then it started to rain, but only sporadically. With the overcast skies, the odd precipitation and the cold temperature the pools and springs were very steamy and hard to see.

We decided that our main meal (the one we pay for each day) would be a lunch in the restaurant. After lunch we went to a few more geyser areas which were less crowded and more impressive. On the road the two bison from the morning were now on the shoulder and caused quite a traffic jam. I am just glad that we have a nice zoom lens which kept us a safe distance and off the road.

As we were driving back to the ranch, the sun came out and we decided to detour by less than a mile and revisit the West Thumb Geyser area again, and I was equally impressed and it officially became my favorite part of the park. As we got on the road we said goodbye to Yellowstone and thought our two days there was sufficient to see the Park and get a feel for what it has to offer. If I were to come back, I would probably do some real canyon hiking.

Dining
I am going to go off target and say that in most National Parks the restaurants, tours, lodging and camping are not run by rangers, but by concessionaires. Some are very good and others are average to say the least. The company that has Yellowstone has several other parks in their portfolio and while I have to say that they meet expectations, I found the food in the Dining Room of the Old Faithful Inn for lunch a bit ordinary just like I would find a reliable steady chain restaurant that overcooks your food for fear of bacteria.

So with that in mind, I will instead discuss the magnificence of the actual building itself.

The concessionaire has several tours of the building which everyone should take if they have time. The buildings architect Robert Reamer used his unique “parkitecture” style on the building where he studied and found inspiration through by the natural surroundings of the area and then started to design a building. Parkitecture is reflective through many of the National Parks and it is a shame that many of the new hotels remind me of garden apartments in the suburbs.

The construction took just a year and the first class hotel opened for the 1904 tourist season. The main chimney which has hearths on all four sides and is over 76 feet in height was made of rhyolite and is the main part of the soaring wood lobby. The interior lobby is made of lodge pole pine which grows perfectly straight and a consistent width. Font size

The lighting at the time was electric and was top of the line, but those fixtures continue to be used today, which makes for a very dark inn at noon. Reamer was inspired by the forest, and used local woods to create the building including the railings and decorative features from branches of trees to create a forest feel for the lobby.

This building is a treasure and the scale is so large that it is almost difficult to imagine a seven story lobby as you are standing in the middle of the room.

Photos taken 216 Hours in Car 2 1/2

No comments: