Today we slept til about 7am. I can't believe we are engaged. I'm pretty sure I woke up with an actual smile this morning. I was up in the air about if I was gonna put it on facebook. I wanted to tell more people before they found out on facebook. I texted Janet, Meg & Jac. I called Jess, she was super excited. I knew my mom would call Joanne, I wanted Jess to hear it from me. So, then I put it on facebook for everyone to see. Eric texted a bunch of his family and friends as well.
As we got ready the view from our balcony was so cool, the mountains looked like a backdrop, a painting on a large canvas! On my way down to breakfast, Gina and Meg called me, I was so happy to tell them. Jac texted me right back a few times. Her las one was so funny “so is this our 24 hour notice to get to Vegas?”. Eric's family started answering right away also. By the time we were ready to leave I had like 20 replies on FB. So crazy! So we ate our breakfast and hit the road.
Another sunny day, Yaay! We got back in the park, we immediately started seeing animals. A large herd of elk were on the other side of the river. The elk had a huge set of antlers, the biggest so far. It was cool to see all the fly fishermen in the river across from the elk as well. They were in about thigh water, it must have been very cold. You see fishermen all day in just about every river or large creek. We started out on the road and took a drive down Riverside drive. Of course there were bison everywhere. It is really pretty all the time in the park, but I the morning and sunsets are my favorite. The next stop was Canyon drive. We drove along the ridge of a giant rock/slope. Below was a small creek, well small for Yellowstone. We ended up at Firehole Cascade. It was a good way to start our trip today. It was a three tiered cascade and it was very peaceful. It was hard for me to pay attention to anything other than the fact that I was wearing a very sparkly ring on my finger and my fiance was right next to me. 
We were in the car and back on the road to our next stop, Found Flat Drive. We got there pretty early. The sun was already hot. The drive followed a small creek that divided a large meadow. Of course the fishermen were already in it. Sentinal trail was at the end of the road, we put our packs on and hit the trail. Ojo Calente, “Hot Spring”, ha!, was the first thing we saw. The steam coming off of it was incredible. The water that came from it cascaded into the creek. It created an orange and white color on the rocks it went over. We started to walk through a large meadow. Patches of trees, tall grass, and hot springs. I took out my bear bell of course. We did our bear calls as we walked, “Hey bear!” The last thing we wanted was to sneak up on the grizzly and the three cubs. Bear spray, check! It was an easy walk, flat mostly. We came across a bunch of dead trees. We saw the bluest birds I've ever seen. They were an aqua blue, every thing here looks too vivid to be real. They are called mountain blue birds, I looked it up in our book. Ahead of us was a small foot hill. On the way up we found two large white bones, a femur and a vertebra. Where the rest of the skeleton was, no idea! They looked like movie props from the Flintstones. So crazy and erie. It was just another reminder that this was no zoo, it was the wilderness. Past the hill was a large meadow. There were a few bison grazing far out. We were just about to keep walking on our path when we saw a giant bison laying down in our path about 150 yards away. Before we left for this trip we watched all sorts of movies about the park. One talked about invisible boundaries the animals have, you shouldn't cross them. Not smart. These bison were huge, wild, and dangerous. We weren't about to become the next story of visitors being trampled. So we turned around. We walked about 2.5 miles.
Fountain paint pots, a half mile walk on a boardwalk path around hot springs, steam vents and mud pots. The landscape around them is so sci-fi. It was white with these bubbling steaming and some erupting holes in the ground. Really weird. As we walked the smells from the steam escaping was terrible from some vents, it is the gas below the surface of the earth. Some were pretty clear blue and some were orange. We were just about to leave when a coyote ran threw the pots. It ran across the boards and through a part of trees. The people on the other side must have freaked when it ran out in front of them. I would have. Firehole Lake drive was next on the way down Grand Loop road. It was the place where we saw the sunset and our first bison sitting. It is a short but nice drive. We took a bunch of pictures. Eric is really loving the camera. I can't wait to see how they came out. We forgot our charger so we aren't looking at the pictures and are turning it on and off quickly. Its a lot of changing from small to large lens, 1 for landscape, 1 for animals. Its almost a joke now. Eric has his fannie pack for his lens on all the time now, ha! Great Fountain Geyser is here. We didn't see it go off but the reflection from the surrounding springs is still an awesome sight. It reflects the sky and clouds like a mirror.
We were calling each other fiance all day, silly! The afternoon was really warm and sunny, so perfect out. Midway Geyser Basin is next on the tour. This is where we saw Prismatic Springs, we were really really really looking forward to it. From the walkway the steam from the water was a light blue reflecting the real water below. The colors are brilliant. The center is blue and yellow and orange rings on the outer edges. The view was cool but we read that a view form above is the best. On our next hike there is a hill that you can climb for a complete look. It was just a preview for the money shot. Fairy Falls trail is a 6 mile easy hike. On the right we pass prismatic springs and end at a 200 foot waterfall. It looked really busy but we found a spot to park and got moving. 
On the way we climbed a treacherous hill, Eric says I was being a baby. I was nervous though, loose rocks and dirt = slipping down a hill. I do think an old lady passed me at an alarming fast pace. At the top we saw it, the vest view of Prismatic Springs, it was the whole picture. The intense colors and the edges (of the 300 foot wide) ran off in orange and brown. It looked like rays from a sun. I really enjoyed it. Eric took pictures from a landing higher than the one I was on (I was high enough). I climbed down slow, Eric was down in 2 mins.
On the walk to the falls we did some wedding talk and sang songs. We were getting sick of “Hey Bear” and needed to still make noise. We were flanked by lodge pole pines around a 3ft wide dirt trail. The lodge pole pines cover the park. They are so different from any trees by us. Super tall with branches that are very short. The branches don't go all the way down leaving many feet of exposed bark (pole like). The Fall was massive, it was so different. It came over a ridge like an infinity pool, really neat. We saw a couple feeding a chubby crow potato chips. They say over and over again not to feed the animals. I was so angry. I didn't say anything to them but I told Eric if we see a ranger I'm gonna report them. He laughed at my serious face, I guess I don't do threatening well. It was a hot, long hike out.
We ate lunch in the car and headed down the road to Biscuit Basin. It was about 12:30pm and we're sticking to our plan to get back to Bar-N early and relax at the amazing lodge and by the river for sunset. Biscuit was about a 1.5 mile walk, it was the sci-fi landscape that was really erie. Its hard to understand that it is a naturally occurring phenom. The sounds it makes and the water it shoots up seem like they should come from bad plumbing. From Biscuit we were gonna do another hike but we had to be back to pick up our dinner basket by 6pm and we still had to see one more basin (it was almost an hour drive home as well). So Mystic is top on the list for the next visit.
We were so bummed with the idea of leaving our beautiful ranch. Eric suggested we cancel our first night at Mammoth and stay an extra night at the ranch. Just when I thought our trip couldn't get any better it just did. We would stay in the colter room tonight, then our stuff would be moved to a slightly bigger room next door. Yaay Yaay! We got to watch another geyser go off by Old Faithful while we changed our plans. Black sand basin was last on the list for todays events. We both were already exhausted and had sore feet. Eric got a lot of sun and his face was super red. We picked up sunblock but it was too late. It was just snowing so much they had to close some roads down and now today it was 80 degrees and sunny. Yellowstone's climate is so unpredictable, they say that it could be hot and snow all in the same day, I believe it! Black Sands was a smelly place, but not as bad as Norris. We did use our new phrase for anything that stunk, “It's a Norris”, or “It just did a Norris”. We think we are clever. Needless to say, we power walked through the half mile walk. We took a lot of great pictures today at these crazy basins. The earth is just so crazy. I don't think you can understand what they look like til you seem them for yourself and smell them for yourself. It was about 4:30pm when we headed home. We pulled over for a huge elk, a ranger was there making sure no one got too close. A visitor asked him how much those 6 point antlers would get him, he was kind of joking. I didn't find it funny and neither did the ranger. He told him to get back in his car and leave. This place is a sanctuary for every thing that lives here. It's the rangers job to protect them and I was happy to see the ranger take it so seriously. We took our shoes off on the way home. We had hot stinky dogs! Eric had to put his in the back of the car. We did a ton of walking today. We were spotting animals the whole way home. At one point I jumped out of the car to take pictures, I went to get back in and Eric almost ran me over. Its so exciting to be on the search for animals he almost drove away without me. 
We were almost out of the park when I saw a deer sitting in the grass, it was so cute. The best part of this picture was the little bird that was birched on his hiney. So funny! He was just resting there. When we got to West Yellowstone we had cell service again. We both had a ton of text and facebook messages. It was only 5:30 so we walked around for a bit. On every street there was 2 bbq places. It's a hard town to be a vegetarian in (hard state). When we got back to our fantastic lodge our dinner box was waiting for us. Eric turned on the grill and we sat on the porch by the pond and ate. After dinner we packed a couple of beers and cookies for the sunset (and of course the camera).
Driving down a dusty dirt road we had to go through an electric fence that kept the horses in. I had my window down when 2 long poles (they bend and drag along the car, doesn't hurt the car but cant touch or you get a zap) ran along the car. My instinct was to grab it, but luckily Eric yelled at me before I got zapped. Note to self, roll up window on the way home. We drove slow and past a small herd of horses. Eric took off his fanny pack and the large lens so we weren't able to get close ups but the view behind them was even better to have in the pic. The river was very small, it was part of the Madison. There was a wooden swing for two. I took out this journal and tried to get caught up. Eric opened 2 beers and started taking pics. The mosquitos were out. There was a huge amount of the suckers. They didn't seem to be bothering Eric, but I was getting annoyed. They were ruining my perfect evening at the edge of the river at the food of these gigantic mountains. All of a sudden we heard a noise it was like a sneeze from the water. We saw my favorite animal. A water puppy, better known as an otter. I've never seen one outside of a zoo before. I just think they are so adorable. We only saw from the neck up. His cute little head and face. I was so excited. I've been talking about them from the time we got here. Every time we came up to water I would check for them. I wasn't even looking tonight. Unfortunately we didn't have our zoom lens, but still took a couple before he swam away. Eric was as much in shock as I was because I was really making such a big deal out of seeing one and he thought we never would (another good sign). I would be back tomorrow before we left with the zoom to see if he was there. Eric name him Ottie. I couldn't stand the bugs any longer. He was done with his photo shoot and agreed to watch the sunset from in the car. It was turning into a dream this trip. Almost too good to be true. The sunset was incredible as it sank behind the purple mountains. Life is good, better then good, it is wonderful. 
We went to the lodge and sat in the great room. We had some wine from the lodge. The fire was a little difficult to get going but once it did it was great. We sat on the large leather couches in our favorite part of the hotel. Wow, we are so lucky. I was perfectly happy at this moment. Eric was next to me reading and looking at a book with awesome pictures from the park and I was writing. In between we would talk about text messages and posts we were reading. I called my sister and Mo just to check in. I can't wait to see them. Eric made a comment about my sloppy wine induced hand writing. I told him he would be doing all the writing from now on and put my pen down. Obviously I didn't stick to my guns on that one. We went out back and laid on chairs by the pool watching the stars. The sky here is so big. There is nothing blocking the view, like buildings or light posts, just mountains darting up in the background. It was the most stars in the sky i've ever seen. They felt so low and close, if you were tall enough you might be able to reach up and grab one. It was a long wonderful day. We packed up the Colter room for our change tomorrow and went to bed. Yes, the trout was tucked in on my side of the bed...he thinks he's so funny (he is)! I'm gonna miss our great tiny room...sleeping in 10 seconds!
No comments:
Post a Comment