Glacier National Park - 10 August 2012

Almost due north of Missoula is Glacier (or Glayshah, as the locals call it) National Park and the skies got bluer and the hills got clearer as we got nearer. Leaving Missoula there was a distinct change in the scenery almost immediately as the foothills had a slight tinge of green about them rather than the very dry brown of yesterday.

The first feature of note was Flathead Lake, the shores of which are the source of Flathead cherries, and which is the biggest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi.  That is quite surprising as it is not really that large.

Following advice from the park Visitor Centre we took the free 12-seater shuttle bus up to the Avalanche Lake stop arriving about 1600 and set off on the 2.5m walk to Avalanche Lake.

Mindful of the time that the last shuttle left (1800) we romped past all the other walkers on the track - and there were plenty, stopped briefly to photograph and Elk (?) and got to the lake in time for a short rest and a few photos before making the downhill return trip.

Back at the shuttle bus stop at 1745 we were a little dismayed to see a queue of 24 people ahead of us.  Three shuttle buses arrived, already full and one actually added people to the queue.  It looked as though a situation was developing.  However, the bus organisers are obviously used to this problem and a 40-seater bus turned up to take us all back to base.

166 miles today, total trip 4726. States: Montana

Between fire and ice - 9 August 2012

"In a gorgeous locale surrounded by rolling green hills and pine forests and framed by snowcapped peaks, Bozeman is the coolest town in Montana"  Lonely Planet, USA

With a write-up like that why would you not detour to visit?   Reality was: In a fugg filled valley surrounded by mirky skies that completely obliterated any hills or forests that might exist, Bozeman was the most disappointing sight in Montana.

In fact, Montana all told has been disappointing.  We were promised exciting vistas and big skies but when the sky is full of smoke from local forest fires and the hills are burnt brown from the summer sun, the pallette is distictly uniformly boring drab.

However, before we got to Bozeman we had a delightful run up the Gallatin River valley where the hills were pine-clad and the river was crystal clear and the road was not too busy.  Although we started and ended in Montana, we briefly dipped back into Wyoming and back into Yellowstone National Park as we motored north.

Yesterday we crossed and re-crossed the Continental Divide as we motored the Grand Loop Road, but today we crossed it permanently and are now officially on the western, Pacific, side, just that little bit closer to home.

From Bozeman it was drab brown all the way to Missoula our stop between the fire of Yellowstone National Park and the ice of Glacier National Park and where we were introduced to Huckleberries in the form of Huckleberrry ice-cream.

310 miles today, total trip 4560. States Montana, Wyoming.

Yellowstone South Loop - 8 August 2012

Between the Park entrance and the loop road we saw two Golden Eagles down by the river, Even at that distance we could appreciate what huge birds these are. As we left the Park late in the afternoon,they were still there, still creating a traffic jam.

Heading south from Madison we took the Firehole Canyon Drive up beside the Firehole River, presumably along what used to be the main road. There were some attractive falls along the way to catch our attention and then it was on to the Lower Geyser Basin where the Clepsydra Geyser obliged with a display, not surprising as it is a fairly constant performer.

The Firehole Lake Drive is next, where the White Dome geyser played just as we arrived. Back on the main route our next stop was Midway Geyser Basin where one of the Yellowstone .jewels is to be found; the Grand Prismatic Spring. The colours here are quite stunning, just as well digital cameras have been invented otherwise the film cost would be ruinous!

The Biscuit Basin and Black Sand Basin provided a few more geothermal delights before we headed East to re-visit West Thumb in the sunshine rather than the rain we had on our last visit.

Passing Lake Village we entered the only section of the park roads that we had not covered and stopped at Mud Volcano where the star of the show was a lone buffalo right beside the road, less than two metres from the car, and it was possibly the same bison that came wandering up through the geothermal field that we were looking at later, nonchalantly crossing the boardwalk as it meandered off into the pines.

All the excitement at seeing a lone bison close-up pailed rather a few bends further on when there was an enormous traffic jam caused by bison crossing the road. There were hundreds in the valley as well providing a terrific spectacle for the hundreds of snapping cameras, smartphones, iPads and so forth. Eventually a Park Ranger had to arrive, lights flashing, to get the traffic moving again.

148 miles today, total trip 4250. States: Wyoming; Montana

Yellowstone North Loop -7 August 2012

Our first stop on our exploration of the north loop road was the Gibbon Falls which were more  a nearly vertical set of rapids as the water cascades down a series of rocks steps.   Just a little north of that was a 1/3 mile walk off the road to see the Artists Paintpots. For someone having grown up on the NZ Volcanic Plateau they were distinctly ho-hum, not really all that colourful but the best "boiling mud" we have seen in Yellowstone.

The next major feature is the Norris geyser basin where not a single geyser bothered to bestir itself for our viewing pleasure.  There was one feature spouting hot water a few metres into the air but as it never stops, it is not a geyser and as it spouts water, it is not a fummerole, it is sort of a non-entity.

There were some attractively coloured pools and the runoff areas are striking with the differently coloured thermophile organisms that inhabit these hot and/or acidic waters.

The northernmost point on the loop is Mammoth Hot Springs where the star attractions are silica terraces, mostly white but some stained a burnt orange colour.  From here the scenery changed quite dramatically and as we had now travelled outside the extent of the old caldera there was no significant geothermal activity.

This canyon is really quite spectacular with the Upper (30m) and Lower (90m) Falls crashing through a narrow eroded valley with wonderful colours on the valley walls resulting from the geothermal activity.

After climbing 150m down into the canyon on the Uncle Tom's Trail we were surprised to see that we were still around 50m above a largish patch of ice.  It is amazing, even though we are over 2600m above sea level, given the daytime temperatures that some winter ice could still last through the summer.  Wandering along beside the ice was a lone beaver.

Finished with the southern rim of the canyon, we explored the same views from the northern rim enjoying the colours created by the late afternoon sun.

160 miles today, total trip 4103. States:Wyoming

Yellowstone - 6 August 2012

Not far from Cody we came across the historic Buffulo Bill dam which, when built, was the highest concrete arch dam in the world. Used to provide irrigation water and hydro-power, the power plant fell into disuse in the 20s and the dam has been, more recently, raised 25' with a new hydro plant built further down stream.

After a look around the visitor centre we followed the Shoshone River (which it dams) up along the beautifully scenic valley until we entered Yellowstone Park through the eastern entrance.

Unfortunately, not long after we entered, so did the rain and so our views as we drove around the shore of Yellowstone Lake were rather grey and dismal.  The main interest was in looking at the various stages of re-growth after the major 1988 fire and the not so large 2001 fire.

It appears that the park managment have learned much from these fires and completely changed their approach to forest fires, realising that they are a perfectly natural occurence, required to keep the entire ecosystem healthy and functioning well.

The rain had mainly stopped but the sun was still hiding when we walked around the West Thumb geothermal area, right on the lake shore.  This area provides a great selection of different coloured pools and the thermal activity extends into the lake as witnessed by a flock of ducks

that were all in one small area and which all simultaneously dived, leaving no trace on the surface that they even existed until some minutes later when they all simultaneously surfaced.  Clearly something below had triggered movement in a food source.

Continuing round the Great Loop we came to the Grant visitor centre, walked in, saw the prediction time for the next blow at Old Faithful and the drive time written on the wall, looked at our watches and promptly got back in the car for the run up to the geyser area.

There are massive carparks available and even a motorway style overbridge off-ramp to get cars in and out efficiently, it is an exceedingly popular place.  Interestingly, once out of the car there are signs to all sorts of things except the location of Old Faithful itself so we adopted the novel technique of following the crowd.

Although the average cycle is 93 minutes there is a +- variation of 10 minutes but nevertheles we were there in good time with 2000-3000 other watchers ringed 4 deep along the viewing boardwalk.  Four minutes late, Old Faithful put on its world-famous display which lasted for about four minutes.   Fortunately the sun also obliged with its world-famous display and so we had a fabuloous spectacle.

From here there is a 2.2km walk to the Morning Glory Pool through the geyser feild.  We were extremely fotrunate to see a number of geysers in full flow, one of which only plays every twelve hours.  Even a hardened Taupo boy had to admit that the show here is pretty impressive, which is not hard when they claim half of the geysers in the world in this park.

On the outbound walk we were treated to full displays by the Anemone, Fan, Mortar and Spiteful geysers and the return trip rewarded us with the Giant, Sawmill and Beehive geysers.  The Beehive is only every 12 hours and its display was just a few minutes after another cycle of Old Faithful which we could see from the same vantage point.

From Old Faithful's timing it was clear that we had spent three hours just in this area, walking a lot more briskly than any one else and there are many more delights to explore tomorrow but before then we had to slip over the border into Montana and out the western park access, to our camp at West Yellowstone.

177 miles today, total trip 3943. States Wyoming, Montana