Chapter 17: Do You Think They Will Let Me Live In Montana?
The kids picked up their Yellowstone Junior Ranger booklets in the Canyon Village visitor center. The program is slightly different in Yellowstone, in that you have to pay $3 for the book. In most other parks, the program is free. I’m guessing this is due to the sheer volume of visitors and materials that must be produced for Yellowstone. I started to grumble about it, but then I figured donating $3 to the National Park Service was probably a better use of funds than most of my actual tax dollars.
We settled back into the van for a drive around the outer highway loop towards the northern entrance to the park. The next major attraction eventually came into view: Mammoth Hot Springs.
But first, a little detour.
A sliver of the northern and western borders of Yellowstone actually lie in the state of Montana. Since we’ve been trying to visit every state with the kids, it would have seemed like a wasted opportunity if we’d skipped Montana at this point, being so close. So at Mammoth, we made a turn north to head out of the park, figuring it was a cheap, easy way to pick up another state for our tally. It is a bit of a cheat since Montana is one of the largest states in the nation and we were barely inching over the border, but no one can say we weren’t actually in the state.
Our plan was to actually leave the park and turn around in the town of Gardiner, just outside the park gates. Gardiner is home to the famous Roosevelt Arch, erected here at the northern entrance to commemorate America’s very first National Park. Teddy Roosevelt himself laid the cornerstone of the arch in 1903. The sign at the top of the arch is inscribed with a quote from the 1872 legislation which created Yellowstone National Park: “For The Benefit And Enjoyment Of The People.” Even to this day, visitors enter by driving under the arch.
Unless, of course, you visit when we did. It just so happened that on this particular day, the entire area was under construction. So we couldn’t actually see the other side of the arch or drive under it. We had to settle for taking a detour and being near it. In the spirit of the Jungle Cruise, here’s the backside of Roosevelt Arch.
From there, we drove back to Mammoth, stopping for one location of note just to say we actually set foot in Montana.
So after all of that air travel and driving, we were still only halfway to the north pole. I guess we have our work cut out for us.
In Mammoth, we found a shaded piece of grass in the shadow of the visitor center and had our gourmet PB&J sandwiches for lunch. We learned that elk also seem to enjoy lounging in the shade of the buildings in town. Thankfully, there was shade for everyone so we didn’t have to fight over our spot. I would have hated to give a bull elk a beatdown.
After lunch, we took a little time to find a parking space near Mammoth Hot Springs. Competition was fierce, and I ended up having to drop the rest of the family off near the boardwalk trail while I kept searching. Finally, just when I was about to ram some poor schmuck’s motorcycle out of the way, a spot opened up and I was able to park and catch up with the others on the trail.
Mammoth Hot Springs was the first up-close look we got at one of the many geothermal features of the park. All of Yellowstone National Park rests on a giant caldera—the remains of an ancient volcano that scientists estimate had a massive eruption about 600,000 years ago. That eruption was so cataclysmic that it basically blew the top off the mountain, collapsing into the caldera. This caldera remains churning magma and volcanic gases under the surface of the earth here in Yellowstone, and forms the basis for all of the geysers, hot springs, vents and other features found in the park. Scientists believe Yellowstone is actually one of the largest volcanoes on earth, and that it is due for another massive, catastrophic eruption—overdue, actually. We had watched a special on the Yellowstone “supervolcano” before traveling and had managed to completely freak Scotty out. It took some calming before he understood that the likelihood of an eruption while we were there was very small. It probably didn’t help that the maps on the screen showed an eruption having the potential to almost completely cover the United States in ash.
By the way, Orlando looked like it was outside the radius that would be affected, so if Yellowstone erupts, our emergency plan is to head straight for Disney World.
Mammoth Hot Springs is exactly what the name implies. A hot spring forms when molten earth underneath the surface heats gases in the voids and breaks through fractures in the rock. Rain water and ground water in the voids gets superheated by the magma which causes it to bubble and seep out of the earth as it works to release the pressure that gets built up underground. At this location, the heated water dissolves the limestone in the earth’s crust and carries it up to the surface. Once it breaks out, the water cools rapidly and the limestone can’t stay in liquid form, so it gets deposited on the slope. The result of these many, many years of limestone deposits is Mammoth Hot Springs.
It creates an other-worldly landscape, marked by smooth terraces constantly being shaped by the flowing water.
Here you can see the steam as the water rapidly cools upon reaching the surface.
Did I mention the smell? All of these geothermal features are somewhat pungent. Sulfur smells are particularly noticeable. The kids were pretty grossed out, while I was happy for the endless opportunities for fart jokes. I’m pretty sure Julie was, too.
Driving down the west side of the park was an absolute nightmare. Several miles of the road were under construction. And in a remote area like this, there are no detours. This was the only road for miles. The only way you can work on it while keeping traffic moving is to close one side for work, and leave the other side open. This means one lane of traffic for both directions. So northbound traffic has to wait while they allow a certain amount of southbound traffic through, and vice versa. The line of cars stretched for miles as we waited our turn.
Finally, we got the chance to move. The road was completely torn up down to the dirt, so it was incredibly bumpy and slow. But we were grateful to be moving.
And I know you guys are ready to jump all over me with highway engineer jokes, and I know that’s part of the deal for me. But as aggravating as these delays are, it’s a tough job. There is absolutely no convenient time to do road construction, anywhere. Sure, they could work on it at night, but that requires extra costs due to lighting and safety features. It’s also an environmentally sensitive area with native habitats and the nearest accommodations for your workers are dozens of miles away. And winter weather lasts from October through May. So there really are no good options.
Eventually we reached the
Norris Geyser Basin. After all this time in the park, we were finally going to see some geysers. We wasted no time getting on the boardwalk trail.
I’ve always wondered who built those boardwalk trails around the geysers and steam vents in the first place. How did they find the solid ground? Trial and error?
This is Emerald Spring. I’m sure they gave it that name for a reason, but it’s escaping me right now.
Next up was Steamboat Geyser. When it erupts, it is one of the largest geysers in the park. But it can go years between eruptions. Still, it’s almost constantly churning and shooting minor gushes of water into the air.
Here we managed to catch up with a park ranger giving a talk, which satisfied one of the requirements for the kids’ junior ranger badges. Gotta get these while you can.
Cistern Spring:
As a visitor, you are warned many, many times to stay on the trail, not to step on the ground (lest it give way), and never, ever put your hand in the water. Unless you want it completely scalded off. We made sure Baby Drew was completely strapped into his stroller for that very reason.
Here’s a view from above of the rest of the Norris Basin. The trail goes on for miles, so you could spend a serious amount of time here if you so desired.
It was getting on late afternoon, so we went back to the van instead, heading south towards Old Faithful once again. And it wasn’t long before we were in yet another line of cars, completely stopped on the road.
But hey, at least he was paying attention to the traffic signs.
We reached Madison Junction, and the view was similar to what we’d seen that morning in the same field.
Thankfully, this line of cars was traveling in the opposite direction:
Our final stop was the Fountain Paint Pot area. This involved another search for a parking spot followed by yet another boardwalk trail. On the way up to the top, we saw Leather Pool:
All of the various colors, from the blues to the browns, are the result of different types of bacteria. It’s amazing that there are life forms that can survive even in those conditions.
At the top of the trail were the Fountain Paint Pots. These are essentially the same thing as a hot spring, only instead of boiling water, you have boiling mud.
These are also accompanied by a fine odor, which we named Eau de Taco Bell.
It was finally getting to be dinner time, so we finished the last leg of our hard-driving Yellowstone day at our new favorite home away from home.
We began a walk over to the Old Faithful Lodge in order to eat dinner
at their cafeteria. We stopped in the Visitor Center for the kids to turn in their Junior Ranger booklets for review. As luck would have it, we got a particularly goofy ranger who decided to have fun with the kids. When they first approached, he immediately got cranky (but in way that let us know he was having fun), saying, “Oh, great! Junior Rangers! I’ve only done 30,000 of these today.” Then he proceeded to review their questions and answers. Sometimes he would compliment them if they gave an answer with good detail and specific answers, whereas generic answers would get a response like, “That’s boring.” I’m making it sound a little cruel, but it was obvious from his tone that he was just giving them a hard time. Also, they may be used to this treatment from other male figures in their lives. In any case, they had fun with it, and I was grateful that the Ranger was taking the time to have a memorable interaction with them rather than just going through the motions.
Instead of a plastic park badge like the other parks, Yellowstone offered them a choice of patches as a reward. As the ranger demonstrated, they could choose from a bear, a bison, or a GEYSER patch. It was really up to them, even though the GEYSER PATCH was more unique to Yellowstone, and the GEYSER PATCH looked very cool, they could of course choose any one they wanted, especially the GEYSER PATCH.
2 out of three were somehow convinced to take the geyser patch. Scotty took a bison.
Outside, we noticed a crowd had gathered and the clocks all seemed to be close to the time posted on various signs around the visitor center. We finally got our first chance to see the main event.
It’s breathtaking to see a plume of water shooting over 100 feet into the air, and to imagine the pressure and forces under our feet making that happen. This is truly a unique place, and I was glad my family could have this experience together.
After that, we had the experience of eating in the cafeteria. It sucked. I can’t even remember what we ordered, to be honest. But the food was crappy. We all experienced that together, too.
Still, it was hard to stay grumpy. We got to explore the Old Faithful Inn the rest of the evening. It was hard to complain about that. In case you were wondering, we stayed in this room:
The rest of the evening was spent wandering the halls and the gift shop. We caught another glimpse of Old Faithful later in the evening. The camera was put away, so we just enjoyed it in the moment. And then we went to bed, having no problem falling into a deep sleep right above an active supervolcano.
Coming Up Next: It’s our anniversary! Time for a romantic, easy day strolling around the geyser basin.