Friends in Denver

Our last day of vacation was spent with my friend, Jeanna, who had lived next door to me when we were teenagers. Jeanna is a special education teacher and her husband, Ed, is retired from the Air Force and is an engineer in the private sector. She has two children, Sara who is at Clemson University and Lucas, soon to be a high school senior. We met them for brunch at Sam's No. 3 (from Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives) at Austin's request. It was nice that our children, though years apart in age, could find things to talk about so that the adults could visit, too. After brunch, they took us to Red Rock Ampitheater where Widespread Panic was getting ready to perform a concert. The rocks were amazing and the kids had a great time climbing on them. After that, we climbed a rock formation called Castle Rock which overlooks Denver. The kids went all the way up to the top! Later, we went back to Jeanna and Ed's for a cookout. It was really a great visit and opportunity to reconnect with an old friend!

Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Friday,June 24. We spent the day in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, doing very touristy things. We took a ski lift up to and down from the top of a mountain for a very scenic view of Jackson and the Tetons. Next the boys tried their hand at Alpine sliding! Austin won both races! We had a very good lunch at 43 North (meaning latitude). After some time at the hotel, we went white-water rafting with Lewis and Clark Expeditions. We met there at 4 p.m. and donned our wet suits before boarding the bus that would take us to the rafts on the Snake River. We rafted for about 1 1/2 hours through rapids called Lunch Counter and the Big Kahuna. David took a front position, Davis was behind him, and Austin and I shared a spot to the back. It was freezing water (melted snow) and we were very cold, especially our feet which stayed in the bottom of water-filled raft! Afterwards, we ate steak and salmon beside the river. We had a great time and want to try a longer trip next time!

Grand Tetons National Park

The remainder of our day was spent driving through Grand Tetons National Park. It was first designated as a national park in 1929 and through the vision and generous donations of John D. Rockerfeller, Jr, additional lands were added in 1950 to create the present-day park. People have lived in the shadow of the Teton Range for more than 11,000 years beginning with prehistoric American Indians, to the early Euro-American explorers, to the frontier settlers. It covers 310,000 acres and includes the 40 miles of the Grand Teton Range. We ended our day in Jackson Hole, WY.

The Continental Divide

Davis and Austin at the Continental Divide

Isa Lake which drains "backwards"


On Thursday morning, we began our travel day from Gardiner, MT, to Jackson Hole, WY, through YNP and Grand Tetons National Park. The drive took most of the day with scenic stops along the way. We stopped at several more geyser sites before reaching the Continental Divide. It begins at Cape Prince of Wales, AK, and ends at Tierra del Fuego, the southern tip of South America. The Continental Divide is the "line" that separates the watershed/rivers that drain into the Pacific Oceans from those that drain into the Arctic and the Gulf of Mexico. The Continental Divide follows a line of high peaks through the Rockies and the Andes. More interesting about the place we stopped on the Continental Divide called Isa Lake which straddles Craig Pass between Old Faithful and West Geyser Basins is that the east side of the Lake drains to the Lewis River (west) to the Pacific and the west side of the Lake drains to the Atlantic Oceans through the Firehole River (east). It is the only lake in the world that drains backwards to two different oceans!

Wildlife in Yellowstone and Teton National Parks

Black bear in Grand Tetons
Yellow-bellied Marmot
Grizzly near Yellowstone Canyon
Black bear near Roosevelt YNP
Baby elk in Yellowstone
Buffalo in Yellowstone

AJ's friend, Chipmunk

While we were in Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks, we saw a variety of wildlife. Most prevalent were the buffalo which could appear at any time anywhere in the park. You could always tell visitors who were new to the park because they would stop in the middle of the road to look at the buffalo...though sometimes you would have to because they were in the middle of the road! The buffalo are the largest animals in the park. Adult bulls can be more than 6 feet tall at the shoulder and weigh more than a ton. They can run faster than humans and should be admired from a distance!
We also saw elk, the most abundant large animal in the park, usually near the ranger stations. They are about the size of an average horse and feeds on plants in many parts of the park. We saw mostly females with their young.
Bears are a huge attraction at the park. Grizzlies are found near open meadows and can run fast enough to catch an elk. There are about 150 grizzlies in YNP and a full-grown male can weigh 2 to 3 times as much as a black bear. We saw a grizzly at the end of our Lupine Walk. Many black bears roam YNP and can be seen in near forests looking for rodents and insects to eat. We saw a mother bear with twin cubs near the Roosevelt area in YNP and a lone bear on the hillside in GTNP. The bears can be identified by the shoulder hump and a rump lower than the shoulder in a grizzly and no shoulder hump and a rump higher than the shoulder in a black. Color is not a good way to tell them apart because both kinds can be golden, dark brown, black, reddish, and in combinations.
In all, there are about 67 species of mammals; 148 species of nesting birds; 11 native species of fish and 5 non-native; 6 species of amphibians; and 4 species of reptiles.

"Thar She Blows"

Castle Geyser

Hot spring between Castle and Grand

Grand Geyser after eruption


Grotto Geyser

Davis and Austin ready for Old Faithful

Old Faithful getting ready!

Thar she blows!

The last stop in our busy day was to the Old Faithful section of the park. We met for a ranger tour of some of the other geysers since we had time between Old Faithful's eruptions. We met at Castle Geyser which has a 12 ft cone of limestone, which makes it a cone geyser, that has taken between 5000 and 15000 years to form. It erupts between every 9 and 11 hours and we were fortunate to see the whole eruption which comes in two parts--a 20 minute water phase of between 60 and 90 feet, followed by a 40 minute steam phase.

At the same time Grand Geyser also erupted! Grand Geyser is a fountain geyser that erupts between every 8 to 12 hours, lasts about 10-12 minutes, and is between 150 to 180 feet high!

As the ranger began to tell us that these geysers are not related in eruptions, the other hot spring we were standing next to began to bubble extremely fast...makes you wonder!

Another geyser we saw was Grotto geyser which is also a fountain geyser that erupts about every 8 hours but is only about 10 feet high.

Last, but not least, is Old Faithful! It erupts about every 90 minutes, is a fountain geyser, averages about 130 feet high, lasts about 5 minutes, and spurts out between 3700 and 8400 gallons of water depending on length of eruption, at a temperature of of 204 degrees Fahrenheit!
Enjoy the pictures!

The Caldera

Views from Norris Geyser Basin





Steamboat Geyser last erupted in 2005; Is 3 times higher than Old Faithful at eruption

Views from Black Sand Basin







The next stop in our busy day was on to the geyser basin which is inside the caldera. Basically, Yellowstone National Park sits on top of a supervolcano that is about 34 miles by 45 miles. Magma causes the ground to swell and deflate on a regular basis. Yellowstone experiences about 3000 earthquakes a year, most of which cannot be felt. The result of all the underground action is the hot springs, mudpots, fumeroles (steam vents), and the famous geysers.

Geysers are hot springs with narrow sapaces in the plumbing, usually near the surface which prevent water from circulating freely to the surface where heat would escape. The surrounding pressure increases with depth and with the enormous weight of the overlying rock which prevents the water from vaporizing. As the water rises, steam forms, bubbling upward,expanding as it nears the top of the water column until the bubbles cannot pass freely through constrictions. Tremendous amounts of steam force water out of the vents, and the eruption begins. Water is expelled faster than it can enter, and the heat and pressure gradually decrease. The eruption stops when the water reservoir is empty or when the bubbles diminish enough to be able to rise without spitting out the water. (Info taken from NPS/YNP publication)

These pictures are from the Norris Geyser Basin and from Black Sand Basin (which we actually visited on another day).