Roving Cooks

Alternate title: Geysers, buffalo and bear spray, oh my!

May 1-14, West Yellowstone, MT

We spent 2 weeks in West Yellowstone, a couple blocks from the entrance to Yellowstone National Park, and found it simply incredible. The landscape, wildlife, geothermal activity, and ice cream were breathtakingly awesome. I’ve been struggling to sit down and actually write this post; it’s hard to condense down the experience. Also, I have hundreds of pictures of buffalo and needed to be a couple weeks removed in order to narrow them down to those I’ve included here. Apologies in advance to any family members celebrating holidays with us this year; you will not be spared.

The Town of West Yellowstone: For us, this was an ideal time of year to be in Yellowstone. The weather was cold at night and comfortable in the day, and crowds were light. Our first night, we grabbed a pizza and the waitress told us that West Yellowstone doesn’t usually open up until Mother’s Day; but since hotels and campgrounds were filling up early, the local businesses opened up a couple weeks early too. The town is cute, with about 3 main blocks of shops, restaurants, a nice playground, a tire repair shop with good service, and at least 5 ice cream options. There were a few evenings that we walked for Huckleberry ice cream after dinner.

I prepared for bears. The NPS Bear Safety site is quite extensive…and a bit funny. My favorite line by far was “In most cases, climbing a tree is a poor decision. Bears can climb trees (especially if there is something up the tree that the bear wants). Running to a tree or frantically climbing a tree may provoke a bear to chase you. People have been pulled from trees before they can get high enough to get away. Also, when was the last time you climbed a tree? It’s probably harder than you remember.” As I don’t have memories of tree climbing (easy or hard) to refer back to, I was relieved that it wasn’t the recommended action. Since we had purchased bear spray, I also watched the video on how to use it, and channeled Annie Oakley in a brief practice session.

Alas (?), we did not end up seeing any bears in the wild; only those at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center (alive and stuffed) and Old Snaggletooth (no longer alive) at the Museum of the Yellowstone. Madelyn formed quite an attachment to Old Snaggletooth, “West Yellowstone’s most famous dumpster bear”.

We shared a parking lot a combination IMAX theatre/gift shop. They featured a 45 minute movie “Yellowstone” and 50 cent soft serve cones. Both excellent. Our last day we all wandered about the gift shop for shirts, hats, and men’s L bear slippers (Grayson’s choice, despite availability of youth sizes). So, we now have furry slippers that fit all family members. They are quite cozy.

The Land: Created by a supervolcano, the ever-changing landscape of Yellowstone is breathtaking, full of valleys, rivers, trees, and steamy surprises. We gradually explored the park over a couple weeks, which was a luxury I was glad to have given the size. Prior to May 7, we could go south to Old Faithful, north to Mammoth Hot Springs, and northeast through the Lamar Valley (up to the NE entrance of the park). We went from the West entrance to the Northeast entrance on a Saturday and it was a full day (9-4) of driving!

Starting May 7, another road opened, allowing us to go to Canyon Village, see the Yellowstone Falls and Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. I loved the Yellowstone river valley with mountains in the background, and hiking around Mud Volcano with the kids (featuring the Dragon’s Mouth, which smells like it sounds). On May 14, the road going past Old Faithful to the southern entrance of the park opened, in perfect time for us to drive it on our way to the Grand Tetons. (Park map for reference here).

As for geysers and other geothermal activity, we of course saw Old Faithful. The NPS Yellowstone app provided helpful predictions of eruption times. As one might expect, I was more impressed than the kids; I also found other hot spring areas to be more beautiful, like the Grand Prismatic Spring and Black Sand Basin. Some activity was only occurring because it was spring; the “Red Spouter” was bubbling in May but dries up later in the summer. We learned (thanks Junior Ranger program) that the different colors source from micro-organisms called thermophiles; different thermophiles survive at different temperatures, creating rings of color (hottest in the middle is typically blue, cooler outer rings are typically green/brown/orange). Mammoth Hot Springs features mineral terraces that look like ice’/snow steps. So much variety!

The Wildlife: We saw a lot of buffalo! Some herds, some loners, and some babies! There were buffalo on the roads, creating “buffalo jams” on a regular basis. Some were crossing, some were arguing, one seemed to be taking a sobriety test. Most were eating most of the time. For several days we played a new car game called “Rock or Buffalo?”

Aside from buffalo, we also saw some elk, primarily by Mammoth Hot Springs and in the Lamar Valley. On a daytrip to Mammoth Hot Springs, the kids and I were alerted to an elk in labor on the sidewalk! We gave her a wide berth.

Another day, we passed a group of people on the road who had spotted a wolf! We followed this beauty along the river for awhile until s/he swam across and into the fields beyond. The story of the Yellowstone wolves is fascinating; they had been eradicated (hunted) from the area by 1926 and were not reintroduced until 1995. Since then, their population has grown with complex ripple effects on the ecosystem.

While we didn’t do many big hikes, we did many big days with a lot to take in; leaving my favorite wild creatures quiet on the drive back to the campground.

“Where may the mind find more stimulating, quickening pasturage? A thousand Yellowstone wonders are calling, “Look up and down and round about you!” And a multitude of still, small voices may be directing you to look through all this transient, shifting show of things called “substantial” into the truly substantial, spiritual world, whose forms flesh and wood, rock and water, air and sunshine, only veil and conceal, and to learn that here is heaven and the dwelling-place of angels.” -John Muir, 1885