Bambi !!

 

Aww!  Twins!  Aren't they sweet?  And such a good momma!

We were driving around Mammoth Hot Springs absolutely not expecting to see any wildlife because of the swarms of cars and people, when what to our wondering eyes appears...

That reminds me!  We saw baby elk, too, and they're spotted just like these baby deer!  When was that?  Oh, yeah!  Our "Jackson Hole" day:

We were watching a nature program on PBS last night.  They were talking about wildlife in Scandinavian countries, and they kept calling what we know as moose, they called them elk.  How weird is that?  Why would they not be called by the same name?   But they also called what we know as elk, they called red deer. 

I call them all magnificently beautiful !!

Blog Email

I have been hearing from friends that they are having problems leaving comments from our blog posts, so I have created an email that can be used, too.

TheTravelersTwoblog@gmail.com

Now there are no excuses!  And this will be directly to us - not through blogger.com.  Looking forward to hearing from you!

Yellowstone Hot Springs

Our first day in Yellowstone was actually spent in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and the Grand Teton National Park.  Our second day in Yellowstone was literally in Yellowstone.  We saw so-o-o-o many cool things!

Of course, Yellowstone is one humongous volcano - which is why there are all these hot springs and geysers everywhere.

The last eruption was 640,000 years ago, and it left a caldera of 34 miles by 45 miles.  MILES!  That was one SUPER volcano!  Most of Yellowstone National Park is inside the caldera.  A caldera is formed when a volcano spews its lava so fast that the solid land mass above the lava bed collapses inward.

Think about this: in volcanic terms, Yellowstone is over a "hot spot," and the surface features are floating on magma, or molten rock.  That's kinda spooky.  It's like camping on an iceberg - only the ocean is a gazillion degrees hot!

The atmosphere around any of these springs or geysers is of sulphur.  It's really awful.  But again, we're talkin' volcanos here. Within the past 17 million years, 142 or more caldera-forming eruptions have occurred from the Yellowstone hotspot.  Just a mere 10 or 12 million years ago in southern Idaho a caldera was formed over the Yellowstone hotspot, and it blew ash all the way to Nebraska (1,000 miles).  Take a trip to Ashfall Fossil Beds there and see evidence that large herds of rhinoceros, camel, and other animals were killed as a result of the foot deep covering of volcanic ash.  (Rhinoceros and camel?  In America?  I knew camels were brought over by the cavalry in the 1800's to be used out west, but I didn't know they were in America before that.  And rhinoceros??)  Who knew..

From mid-summer 2004 through mid-summer 2008, the land surface within the Yellowstone caldera moved upwards as much as 8 inches at the White Lake GPS station.  Read that again:  the Yellowstone caldera - the surface ground - moved upwards as much as eight inches!  That's really spooky - and did anyone tell the folks that were vacationing there then?  They certainly never told us, and we were there!

By the end of 2009, the uplift had slowed significantly and appeared to have stopped.  

Far away earthquakes have caused the geothermal features of Yellowstone to hiccup, so to speak.  Their "behavior" or timing was off for several months after quakes in California and Alaska in 1992.

This is the Great Fountain Geyser.  It's not as faithful as Old Faithful, but it is predictable.  We missed the actual eruption of Great Fountain because it was about 4:30 A.M.  I don't get up at 4:30 A.M. in 40 degree weather for nuthin' honey...

But these guys are fascinating and should put us in awe of how this planet is held together ...

How Close Do The Grizzilies Get?

I really like this photo.   What you're looking at is a teenage grizzily's "grizzle."

And this is a more complete shot of him (or her.)  Do you see the blonde stripe down his back?  That's what appears as "grizzle" and where the bear gets his name.  I've never seen a grizzly up this close before, black bear, yes.  Grizzly, no.

See our windshield wiper?  He was walking right in front of us!  He looked angry - or at least out of sorts.  No way were we gonna get out of the car, and I was busy rolling the window up.  Don't know if I've ever seen what appeared to be an angry bear on any of our travels - lots of bears, but never an irritated one...

He/she went on across the road, through the railing, and over toward the water, still looking angry.  Or maybe he just had a headache?

Through the water and on off across the meadow for a snack.

Usually I want to get out and try to make 'em feel better, massage between their ears, smooth the frazzled nerves in their back.  This guy was on his own though.  Best to let him figure out feeling better all by his boy lonesome.  Sorry, guy.  But thanks for the photo op!

How Close Do The Buffalo Roam?

Notice the buffalo just coming into view behind the side mirror...not the one to the right of the mirror, the one behind the mirror.

 See the mirror on the left and the window frame at the bottom?  I'd say that's close enough.

And he moseys right on by.

What must these buffalo think of all the people and vehicles??  I'd bet they think we're a pain.

Buffalo Don't Exist

There is no such thing as a Buffalo. Well, in America, anyway.  We DO, however, have American Bison:

I've never heard this term before, but apparently the American Bison is "ecologically extinct."  Apparently that means that they no longer roam free over the entire middle of the United States.  (Yeah, so?  What does???  Does that mean the American Indian is also "ecologically extinct?"), and yet we can find ground buffalo meat for sale in Wal-Mart and buffalo burgers on restaurant menus.  Ecologically extinct.  How goofy.   

Well, trust me, there are a bunch of American Bison in Yellowstone, and it is very, very possible to get up close and personal with them - not very SMART, but definitely possible.

This is called a buffalo jam.  We got caught in one that was five miles long.  These guys can stand six feet tall and weigh up to 2,000 pounds.  They are not shy about having temper tantrums on a car or a tourist that irritates them.  See that guy squatting down maybe ten feet in front of that lead buffalo?  The park rangers won't do a thing about that fool.  There are signs everywhere explaining that these buffalo are WILD and unpredictable.  If a child is involved a ranger will intervene, but if you're past the age of accountability, you are on your own.  I don't care that buffalo have terrible eyesight;  they have excellent hearing and sense of smell.  They can also run 35 miles per hour.  That man doesn't stand a chance if the buffalo decides to go for him...

On this trip, we saw a buffalo start to cross the road and a big ol' RV wouldn't let him.  That buffalo backed off to the side and threw a HUGE tantrum!

Pretty cheeky, huh?

Notice the interior of our door jamb on the right side of the photo.  These guys walk so close to the car that we could reach out and touch them (and I think Granpa did!)

The last time we were in Yellowstone a couple of buffalo got into a fight right in front of the car.  There's always a car right on your bumper, so there is no place to go.  If you get hit, you get hit.  When the fight was over, there was buffalo fur all over the road.  Our grandsons boiled out of the van and scooped some up.  It's at home in our "nature" cabinet.

They are magnificent and amazing beasts.  I'm so very glad we have them - there are TENS OF THOUSANDS of them on preserves and private ranches all across our nation.  But there will never again be the 3 - 4 million that were here when Europeans arrived in the 16-1700's.

Hmmm... What Do We Have Here?

American White Pelicans!  In Yellowstone?  Why did I think they were birds that only hang out at the ocean?  (Sigh.)

Once again, what I thought I knew wasn't all there was to know!   Pelicans are found on the coast and at inland waters.


People have tried to get rid of them thinking the pelican eats the fish we want - when in fact they don't (much.)  On Dyer Island in South Africa they also tried to get rid of the pelicans because the pelican doesn't get along with some guano producing birds. (You do know what guano is, don't you?  Bird poop.  It's a very valuable fertilizer.  Imagine being exterminated because you cheat someone out of their fair share of guano...)

A wonderful bird is the pelican,

His bill will hold more than his belican,

He can take in his beak

Food enough for a week,

But I'm (darned) if I see how the helican.

-- a 1920 Limerick by Dixon Lanier Merritt

The Tetons Up Close

A picture is worth a thousand words...

The Grand Tetons are a subrange of the Rocky Mountains.  (The Rockies run from Alaska, through Canada and all the way to northern New Mexico.)  The Tetons are totally within the Snake River drainage basin - meaning any snowmelt or rain runoff goes into the Snake. Some say the mountains were named by a French trapper; others say they were named after the Teton Indians.  It's first English name was Mount Hayden in 1870, but I guess it wasn't as romantic sounding as "Teton," and by 1931 the USGS gave in and acknowledged "Grand Tetons" as the official permanent name.

The Grand Teton is the highest peak in the range at 13,770 feet.  Mount Owen is the peak to the right and Middle Teton is on the left.  (I think I got that right...)  I thought I might find some information on climbing these peaks.  What I found is that folks die way too frequently either climbing or skiing these peaks.  That's right:  skiing!  They even have folks that climb the peak just to ski down - but there is a portion of that path that one has to rappel down with their skis on (?) because it's so steep.

Granpa and I think we will stay safely at the bottom.  It's plenty pretty down here!

Prayer Request for our Son

As a result of a workplace accident in December of 2000, our son has had to have everything in his shoulder "screwed and fused."  This solved the problem of his shoulder randomly falling out of joint, but it has done nothing for the damage to the nerves coming from his spine to everything in that quadrant of his body.

Our son will be 40 years old this year.  He has been in extreme physical pain for the last 12 years.  He was in the National Guard preparing to deploy overseas when this workplace accident occurred.  When he was six years old I could have told you he was "military," and I can tell you now that it broke his heart when the National Guard had to let him go because of the injury.

But the pain.  Can you imagine hurting at a scale of 8 out of 10 for TWELVE YEARS 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?  That's over 4,000 consecutive days.  And yet he continues to work a full time job, raise a family, run a farm.  There are days when things are tolerable, and there are days when he is in unbearable, untolerable pain from the get-go.  When manual labor is required he can manage for an hour or two, but then has to take pain medication that leaves him with severe side effects for the rest of the day.

Please pray for our son.  Pray for someone, somewhere in the world to see this blog and know of a medical solution or a medical nerve/pain trial that will help him.  Pray for nano technology or stem cell trials that will regrow healthy nerve tissue.  Pray for, miracle of miracles, a shoulder transplant or something that will restore our son.  Pray for his family because no one goes through eternal agony without affecting those nearest and dearest to him.  Pray for his current medical team and pray for future medical teams to step forward and say, "I think we can help with this."

Please pray.  This blog is now being read in 27 different countries on every continent but the Arctic and Anarctic.  Someone, somewhere on this planet knows how to help our son.  Please pray.  And please get in touch with us by clicking on "comment" at the bottom of the blog.  If you want your comment kept private simply say so.  Otherwise I will publish your comments so others will know you are praying.

Thank you, and may God bless and keep you always.

Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Jackson Hole today is called a micropolitan area.  (WHERE did they come up with THAT word??  Does it mean way small but very worldly / sophisticated?)  If you ask me, it is a way-fancy place for being literally in the middle of nowhere.  It's a place for the rich and famous to get away to.  For us, it's a town to walk around in and enjoy the ambience of.  (How about that:  ended two sentences with a preposition.  My English professor would be going nuts about now!  Good grammar doesn't always make for good conversation though - and this blog is about a conversation with our grandkids.  "Grandkids" is also not correct.  A "kid" is a baby goat.  Proper English would be "grandchildren."  However, sometimes our grandchildren are as hard headed as baby goats, so grandkids is correct in it's meaning??  Now, back to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.)

But this morning, we grab the first picnic spot we find, have a nice breakfast of sausage/egg/biscuits, and then get down to the business of computer-ing.  Yes! We get a super signal.  Granpa is on his laptop, and I'm on mine.

We are entertained and closely inspected by the Canadian geese that must call this park their home.

I like the gosling in the middle.  He seems to be the only teenager out here.  Got a bit of growing to do, huh?  We've got tons of goose pictures.  I love them all, but I won't bore you with anymore of them. 

After we get all our computing done we mosey into town for a bit of sightseeing. 

This is the town square.  At each corner they have these arches made from deer and elk horns.  This stagecoach ride looks interesting, but it only goes around the block - and it has to stop for the stoplights just like the cars do.  We opt out of riding the stop-and-go coach.

Here I am, visiting with one of my favorite writers, Mark Twain, as he chats with his friends, Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher.

There really is a lot of neat things to look at in the shops around the town square.  I'm not much of a shopper at all, but I did enjoy every one of these places.

Then it's back to the park for a picnic lunch with the geese.

The Moose

If you've been following our travels daily then you know what a royal pain it has been to try blogging on the go.  It has been just as much a pain to try and take care of personal business on line, too.  My patience is reaching critical mass.  So, first thing this morning we're going back through Grand Teton National Park to Jackson Hole, Wyoming where we're certain we can get a strong internet signal.

The drive through GTNP to Jackson Hole is almost surreal in its beauty. 

Yes, this is a photo Granpa took; it's not a painting!

Ditto...

It's a shame I can't upload all of the pictures Granpa has taken here and in Yellowstone.  The scenery and the animals are utterly amazing.  But, what's this?

Could it be?  We haven't seen one in years.  Wait a minute...

it's not just one, it's TWO!

Yea-a-a-a-a!  Hello, Mr. Bullwinkle!  I like your beard.

They say the Yellowstone fires of 1988 drove most all of the moose from Yellowstone down into the Tetons.  Must be some truth to that, eh?  They apparently have seen no good reason to go back up into Yellowstone.  But that's okay, there are plenty of other animals up there.  The Tetons can use you.

Unfortunately, however, the moose could stand to have a whole lot less people invading their turf:

Now, this moose has a couple of choices:  he can charge the man and stomp on him, he can ignore the man, or he can simply leave the area.  If a Park Ranger was here I know for a fact the Ranger would simply let the man reap his own reward.  The only time they physically step in is if a child is involved.  Why is there always some stupid human not content to revel in the glory of nature, but they are intent on being the one who gets closest?  Stupid.

Well, I have to say, I'm impressed with and proud of the moose.  He simply moved away.  It's a shame the man ran them out of sight of others just arriving at the "moose jam."  Stupid human.

As the Frenchman Would Say, The Great Breasts

"The Grand Tetons" - that's what it means in English, the Great Breasts.  

Granpa's photo is much better than my ol' iPhone-out-the-windshield snapshot:

The Frenchman that named these peaks was a trapper and fur trader.  When does one trap?  The winter time.  Imagine these mountains totally covered in snow.  Now, what might they look like to a lonely fur trapper?  That's probably why the name stuck...

Jackson Hole, Wyoming is at the base of these mountains, and the Grand Teton National Park butts up against Yellowstone National Park.  In fact, the entrance fee for one gives you access to the other.

It is truly beautiful here, and the air is crisp even in July.  The animals come out of the mountains into this valley to winter - except for the big horn sheep.  The people come here year round. 

We, of course, weren't the first people here.  The Native Americans came because of the abundant "necessaries" found naturally here.  The ecosystem that is included in Grand Teton National Park currently covers 20,000,000 acres (Looks like 20 million acres to me, huh?  "Millions" of unoccupied land, and there are those who say America is running out of land for people to live on - especially land with resources.  I don't think so!)


To be honest, the farmers, ranchers, and hunters around here fought hard to keep the Feds from "confiscating" their land for a park.  Ultimately they lost the battle - but only partially.  Congress did make the concession that these folks would be allowed to continue to graze livestock in the Park, and they also put in the provision that no U.S. president would be allowed to claim any more Wyoming land to set aside for a national park anytime in the future.  That's a rare win for State's rights!  When is "enough" enough?  I'd say 20,000,000 acres is more than enough!

YELLOWSTONE !!

Granpa pays the entrance fee for the Grand Teton National Park, zooms on through, shows the receipt to the Yellowstone National Park Rangers and finds the first campsite he can.  (As we are turning 62 next month, this will be the last time we have to pay a fee to get into any National Park.  Next time, we pay $10 and that gets us an American the Beautiful Lifetime pass.  That means free entrance for the whole car load and 50% discount on campsites.  Woohoo!!)

There's a picnic table to the left of center in this photo and a tent pad in the center.  What we've discovered over the years is that one can buy humongous tents, but one can rarely find a tent pad big enough to hold it.  Our tent isn't the smallest nor the largest, but it is too large for this tent pad.  However, there's a pretty flat spot just beyond that works nicely.  The path to the right of center is apparently a favorite bear trail, though we never saw a bear here.

Each morning we were up at the crack of dawn and exploring Yellowstone, the Tetons and Jackson Hole until almost dark.  It's a good thing, too, because Granpa heeded my battle cry and chose a campsite with no wind.  There were nice breezes, but no wind -- no wind to blow the swarms of mosquitoes away!  You see, this campsite was at the southern end of Lake Lewis, and, well, you know what happens when there is even the tiniest bit of water for a mosquito to breed in...  We would eat our meals at some nice, mosquito-less picnic grounds in the parks and simply go straight into our tent in the evening.  We had two comfortable chairs in there, our laptops and Granpa had his MP3 players - we even had a porta-potty thingy.  (I know, too much information Granma!  But considering the lines outside the pit toilets in the campground, we did good.)

So, anyway, we would come "home" at dusk, zip into the tent (literally) and then relish in the fact that those pesky mosquitoes were swarming our windows but not able to come in.  I confess, I even stuck my tongue out at them a time or two! 

It was wonderfully comfortable in the tent.  Granpa has a thermometer that records the maximum and minimum temperatures each day, and as our tent was secreted in the shade of those trees, the tent would get comfortably warm during the day.  Our sleeping bags would soak up the warm, and when it came time to crawl in the sheets it was GREAT!

Mornings.  Well, the mornings were downright chilly - 40-ish.  That's about my minimum (maximum?) tolerance level for cold.  We had bought a throw with a picture of a black bear on it the last time we visited Yellowstone, and I tucked that between the bed sheet and the top of the sleeping bag.  The extra cover was perfect.  I never did feel the cold until I had to dress in the mornings.  Granpa, of course, was usually sleeping on top of the covers and delightfully happy.

And so we are cozied up here in Yellowstone for the next week.  The Park recommends that you take at least a day and a half to "see" Yellowstone.  That's what we usually do.  But this time we have the luxury of taking longer.  We'll let you know how that works out...

The Oregon Trail

There you have the Oregon Trail to the north and the Santa Fe Trail to the south.  THAT'S how one would get to California by land.  (Still do, too.)  For a time, that changed with the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869.  But we're back to the automobile now as passenger trains have all but disappeared from the American landscape.

Notice up at the top right, just under the horses hooves.  That would be the Tetons, Yellowstone, the Snake River country.  The reason there are no trails up there is because the country was virtually impassable by anything but fur trappers and mountain men.  Check out a current road atlas.  Still very few roads through there - especially the Snake River area and Hell's Canyon.

Wagon ruts from pioneers on the Oregon Trail are still visible at the Sweetwater River just west of  Split Rock.

That is literally an indelible print on the landscape, eh?

Following the footsteps of the Shoshone, Arapaho, Crow, and Sioux were fur-trappers in 1812 and mountain men, then in 1841 emigrants, Mormons in 1846, gold-rushers (known as '49ers), and the Pony Express riders of 1860.  Those that created shortcuts were said to be following the California Trail.

Because there were about a half million people searching for new land and new lives in the American west, this path was originally known as the Emigrant Road.  Today, there are re-enactors that form up wagon trains and travel these paths for weeks at a time.  Later we'll tell you about crossing paths with one of those wagon trains...

The Pony Express and Split Rock, Wyoming

Out here in the middle of nowhere Granpa sees a roadside something, so he whips in to stretch his legs.  Turns out to be a pretty interesting stop...

If you watch really closely to the right you might see a Pony Express rider come galloping through being chased by Indians.  (Well, that is, if you have a vast and vivid imagination you might see them!)

Granpa wasn't worried about any Indians...

Split Rock Meadows was a landmark for the Pony Express and for anyone traveling the Oregon Trail.  Shoshone, Arapaho, Crow and Sioux made this valley home long before we started pouring through here.    Lots of game around here, and I'm certain there were a lot of buffalo, before we killed most of them off.

At the base of Split Rock a log station was built along with a pole corral.  The Pony Express stationed horses here and the Overland Stage would stop for the night, for fresh horses, food and water.  It was actually used as a post office until 1940's!  Here, in the middle of nowhere...

Can you read this?  "St. Joseph, Missouri to California in 10 days or less!"  On horseback!?!  Mercy me!  2,000 miles in ten days or less.  And check out the rest of it:  "Wanted: young, skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen...willing to risk DEATH DAILY.  ORPHANS PREFERRED"

Holy cow!  Can you imagine the lawsuits something like this would engender today...  Lawyers take all of the fun out of life, ya' know.  All the glory, too.


Mail relay stations were established 10-15 miles apart housing two to four men and fresh horses - the fastest and best horses in the west as proven by their cost - up to $200 each!  Each rider would cover the distance between three stations - unless there wasn't a new rider waiting at the final stop.  In that case, the rider would continue to another station on a fresh horse.  Day and night, every season, rain or shine, hot or cold.

I'm guessin' it was ol' (or should I say "young") Buffalo Bill Cody that holds the record.  From Red Buttes Station to Rocky Ridge and back, Cody, in one ride, covered a total of 322 miles in 21 hours and 40 minutes on 21 horses.  Seems his relief rider up and died...

At another time, Cody also rode through here on a single horse at full gallop for 24 miles due to the Indians being hot on his tail from Horse Creek Station to Plant's Station.  (Now you know why I asked if you had enough imagination to "see" those Indians!)  That's pretty cool of Cody - but I'm really impressed with the HORSE!

The Pony Express lasted only 19 months (April 1860 - October 1861) due to the Pacific Telegraph line being completed.  But those were an important 19 months.  That was the beginning of the Civil War and the Pony Express was California's main source of news.  (How awesome would it be to have had an ancestor get a piece of mail via the Pony Express, keep it, and pass it down to you?  Now THAT would be a piece of history for sure!)

The entrepreneurs that dreamed up this plan lost over $1 million overall, but a lasting legacy was created and imbues a pioneer spirit of freedom and daring in all who read about it now.