Yellowstone Karma

Since I posted the schedule for our trip, some things have changed.  I figure I'll just keep you updated as we go.

We moved our departure date up to June 20th.  This gave us one extra day between Yellowstone and Cincinnati, making our time in Yellowstone a bit more relaxed.  Monday the 18th we hosted our second going away party.  This gathering was much smaller, but it was nice and relaxed.  That evening I moved on to a party hosted for me by my friends at Make Your Mark Farm in Springfield.  Thanks, Kathryn!  I will miss you all.

We spent Tuesday running errands (translation: spending money).  Thanks to Stacie, I got to go to Costco, and I was able to meet Becca for lunch.  Becca lives in Klamath Falls, but was on her way up to PDX to fly to Tanzania--one of our favorite countries--for the summer.  They happened to stop for lunch in Springfield just as I was there.  Awesome!  Anyway, lots of packing and stress, then a sushi dinner with Bill, and that was our anniversary!  Never fear, though--we did celebrate.

Wednesday we had originally planned to depart early, but since the shipper was coming between 8-11 we decided to hold off.  He had said closer to 8.  My mother, who has done this whole moving across the Atlantic thing a time or two (or four), recommended we wait because "something will come up."  We spent the morning playing hearts with Bill and Mike in this weird limbo of waiting.  The shipper came at 11, and my mother, as always, was right--something came up.  The price went down.  Yay!  Worth the delay for sure.  We left Eugene at 12:40 on the dot.  A brief stop in Bend for lunch, dinner and fuel in Boise, and we stopped around 11 in Grand Valley, ID.  The next morning we left early--6 am--and headed over to Jackson, WY.  We picked up deli sandwiches, which we ate at an overlook in Grand Teton NP.  Rough life, eh?  While Teton is amazing, we were limited in time, so we moved on to Yellowstone.  This is where our amazing "Yellowstone Karma" kicked in.

Gus had managed to snag reservations at Old Faithful Inn--the nice lodge right next to Old Faithful.  Remember I said our plans kept changing?  He made the reservations 2 weeks ago.  We found out later that they typically book a full 2 years in advance!  As we pulled in, we not only got the best parking spot in the place, but Old Faithful was about to erupt.  We watched the eruption, checked in and explored the lodge a bit, grabbed some tea, and headed out.  We took a hiking trail up to an overlook, where we watched Old Faithful once more, then headed off to explore the other geysers.  I think our favorite was Solitary Geyser, but we were just getting started!  We hit Beehive Geyser just as the eruption indicator was going off.  Beehive erupts every 5-10 hours, but sometimes goes days.  It gets higher than OF, and if you are in the right spot, you get wet.  Well, nobody wanted that--except us.  Seriously, folks, it's a bit of water, and how cool is it to get rained on by a geyser?  Soaked and laughing, we headed on, only to catch Grand Geyser.  The eruptions, once predicted, have a 4 hour window, but it went off just as we arrived there.  Castle Geyser, which can be completely difficult to catch, had also been predicted for that day--and given a 2 hour window.  It erupted right after we got there.  All three of those geysers were HUGE, and it was really cool to get that much activity.

Our "Yellowstone Karma" continued, though.  That morning I had called the lodge and had--through some feat of magic--managed to get us a dinner reservation, though not until 9:15.  We got back to the lodge after several hours/miles of geyser exploration, and I needed a nap.  Gus, while I was sleeping, managed to get us an earlier time.  A quick shower, then dinner at 8:15--and the window seat folks cancelled right as we got to the front of the line.  Yep, window seat for us!  I had elk for dinner, which was good but a bit gamey.  We were exhausted, so we went straight back to the room after dinner.

Since the best time to view animals is early morning or dusk, we decided to get up early.  We were packed and loaded at 6, walked around OF for a bit, then had breakfast right as the dining room opened at 6:30.  We departed by 7, and it was worth it.  Up close views of sleeping bull elk, buffalo family wandering through the road (yes, 3 babies, and yes, they were blocking traffic and passed within a few feet of the car), and lots of beautiful scenery were just a part of the drive.  We headed over Dunraven Pass into the Lamar Valley, where there were herds of buffalo, some sort of antelope, and more buffalo.  We also saw a marmot and a pelican.  When you only spend 20 hours in Yellowstone and much of that at or around the lodge, you aren't going to see any of the harder to spot critters, right?  Wrong!  We saw a wolf.  Then, as we approached the NE entrance, some folks with telescopes pointed out mountain goats on the cliff.  You couldn't really see them with the naked eye, but with the scopes we got to see momma and baby mountain goat walk up a patch of snow on a cliffside.  Cool!  We left Yellowstone and headed up Montana's Beartooth Highway (thanks, National Geographic, for recommending that!), where the pass is almost 11,000 feet high.  Near the top we stopped because there were more mountain goats--this time up close!  Lots of snow, scenery, and mountain driving later, we arrived in Red Lodge, MT.  We had a late lunch, then pushed hard.  We ended up in Wall, SD (a bit east of Rapid City).  We left there (after a brief visit to Wall Drug) this morning, and I'm uploading this from an Arby's in Sioux Falls, SD.

One other change occurred yesterday.  NYC is no longer on our trip list.  The plan is evolving, so stay tuned, folks!

Technology and travel do not always combine, so photos will have to come later.  Sorry!  I promise they'll be worth the wait.