Karla's Kronicles #28

The Karla Kronicles #28 The Big Trip - Part 9 - Yellowstone National Park Wyoming U.S.A
Greetings Kronicle Readers! (Note: Larger and More Detailed Photos are in the Photo Albums Located HERE.)
June 28-29, 2009 - Days 42 & 43 - Heading towards our first National Park - Yellowstone (1872). Thank you, Teddy!
In the summer of 1986, a young man named Larry Dayhuff (or Dayhike to many of you), rode his Honda Shadow 500 motorcycle from Boston to Seattle. Larry had been on temporary assignment for Honeywell EOD and was returning back home. So, as we started our trip across the northern part of the U.S. in Summer 2009, Larry remembered how beautiful the scenery was along Hwy 16 and the Big Horn Mts. Pass and Sylvan Pass areas. Summit Elevation at Big Horn - 9,666 ft. At Sylvan - only 8,530 ft. Motorcycle vs. Motor Home...could we do it? Sure...
The following photos were all taken through the windshield as we drove along this scenic highway. I'll share just a few as I think the quality of the photos is just not great when shooting through the windshield of a moving vehicle. "You just had to BE there" to really experience the beautiful scenic highway.
	Here's when we sing ..."where the deer and the antelope play"....
Some curves coming up...
	Notice the "runaway vehicle" area as we head down, down, down...and we like to also sing "she'll be comin' 'round the mt." on these tight turns... We are thankful for our 400 horses (Cummins diesel engine) and our Two Level Jake Brakes!!!!
And what's a mountain pass without a couple of tunnels....
	...and a waterfall. This scenery was really making us homesick for Marblemount and the North Cascades Scenic Hwy. 20 in Washington State!!
Unfortunately, Larry missed a lot of the rock spires and geographical features as he was concentrated on the road.
	At the end of the pass near Cody, Wyoming, a beautiful lake view! I believe this is the Lake formed from Buffalo Bill Dam with peaks from the Absaroka Mountains in the background. From Cody, Wy to Yellowstone, Hwy 16 follows the Shoshone River thru the Shoshone Canyon. There are several Buffalo Bill Museums in Cody and June - August, there is a rodeo every night. We discovered a campground right on the lake called "North Shore Campground State Park" located just 6 miles from the East Entrance to Yellowstone. and a Good Sam's Park called Yellowstone Edge RV along Hwy 89 just 30 minutes out side of Gardiner. Hopefully, by documenting these other campgrounds we will remember next time we plan our trip out!!
Obviously, we have arrived in Yellowstone. We entered from the East Entrance (fitting through the Entrance Gate was quite interesting), then turned North after Fishing Bridge. For those folks familiar with Yellowstone, this road follows the Yellowstone River and there are many grazing areas for wildlife.
	Road Block Ahead...an entire herd of Buffalo were crossing the road, stopping traffic in both directions for quite a long time (it was a LARGE herd). That was fine with us; we had a great view sitting so high in the motor home and it gave us time to snap these photos.
If you look closely , you may notice some calves in the herd (lighter shade of brown coat). I lost count at the number of calves, but it was sure great to see so many!
This little calf had already crossed the road when he turned and spotted Momma. He took off running and caught my attention. It was time for his lunch and she could not shake him loose, even though she did kick her back hooves a couple of times, then...

...very slowly, she walked off the road to safer grounds, but the calf continued to nurse without letting loose. It was pretty comical to see her shuffle along with the calf attached!
	The Yellowstone road system is shaped like a Figure 8. We cut West at Canyon Village (or the middle of the "8") and continued our route through Yellowstone to the North West Road leading out toward Gardiner, Montana, where we had reservations for the night. Larry did an excellent job of maneuvering that Coach on the narrow, winding and sometimes quite steep roads inside Yellowstone National Park. It's probably not something we would do again, but we can't say it wasn't a memorable experience! I didn't take too many photos of the ride; I was getting a bit "seasick" looking through the view finder!
I took this photo of Roosevelt Arch as we headed out of the north entrance to Yellowstone. The town of Gardiner, Montana can be seen in the background. That was our destination for the night. Our plan was to set up at Rocky Mt. Campground and come back into Yellowstone with just the jeep. Much easier to explore, park and maneuver!

The Mammoth Hot Springs area of Yellowstone is very unique. Although this is our 3rd trip to Yellowstone since 1989, we hadn't been back to the top of the North loop since then. So on this trip, no Old Faithful (on the South loop), but we find that the Mammoth Hot Springs area is just as fascinating.
This is Liberty Cap. The sign says "a dormant hot springs cone"

The very colorful and spectacular terraces are created by travertine (calcium carbonate). I always feel like I'm on a different planet when we visit this area of Yellowstone. You really get a sense of the volcanic activity with the steaming geysers and mineral pools. There are boardwalks, stairways, steep trails all around the area. It's quite a bit of walking if you want to see the different geo-thermal pools and scenery. I definitely recommend sturdy shoes and water. We were in our sandals and hadn't planned to do much more than a "window" tour from the jeep, but to really experience the features, you should plan to get out so you can walk to the overlooks. And, of course, these photos can't bring you the aromatic scent of sulfur from the mineral pools! Lucky you! Just imagine rotten eggs (or not).

A bit of civilization...This village near the thermal activity of Mammoth Hot Springs features the post office, a Hotel, fuel stations, restaurants, Albright Visitor Center and historic Ft. Yellowstone. We also discovered a primitive (no hookups) National Park Service campground that actually had some sites that we could have fit into...next time!
	And no trip through the village would be complete without sighting the Roosevelt Elk that pretty much stroll the grounds at their leisure. They have no fear of the visitors. I don't know if that is good or bad, but it's always so much fun to see them!
And as we left the park, we stopped to get our "sign" photo. Another car load of folks had stopped so we were able to help each other out with group photos. It had been a long day and we were ready to head back to camp, but we were so glad we made the effort to drive through Yellowstone on this trip.
Getting closer to "home" - Walla Walla is just 2 days away. But when we woke up on Tuesday morning, 6/30/09, our Coach slides would not come in...we were stuck. Larry grabbed the manual, we called LazyDays Crown Club service rep. and after many hours of hot, manual maneuvering of the slides and a bit of phone help, Larry figured out a way to jumper the power to the individual slides and bring them in. That was after manually cranking in one of the bedroom slides. So we got a very late start out of Gardiner, MT. Luckily, we had reservations in Lolo. That night in Lolo, we did not even attempt to slide out anything, knowing we would be in Walla Walla the next day, July 1st, for a month when we could figure out a solution. Of course, it didn't take Larry long to figure out that a fuse in the control board was acting up. Getting a replacement board wasn't an easy task, but Larry was able to get the bad board to work...making each time we set up and broke camp a new adventure...We actually did not get a new board in our hands until we returned to Florida three months later in October, but Larry always got our slides in and out after discovering how to override the system. I am married to an electrical genius.
Approaching Walla Walla and our Month-long Visit. Kronicle's 29 will feature lots of family visiting. More later...Karla and Larry

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