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Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park was a nice facility. It had everything except easy phone access, and that was a feature of the area more than the park. Johnnie washed the RV, and Delphine did laundry during their stay there.
The entrance to the park was within walking distance from the campground and from most of the town of West Yellowstone. Had J and D chosen to walk, however, it would have been over twenty miles to Old Faithful, the first real landmark. The point is: Yellowstone is big. You must allow at least a full day to do the southern loop and the same to do the northern loop.
The elk shown here, the first on the southern loop, gave the wrong impression. Apparently, animals were strewn far and wide throughout Yellowstone, and sharp eyes would be required to see them.
Old Faithful Erupting
To say Jay the guide was a character was like saying bison are large. Of course, Jay was large, too. He was a very big guy with a very big handlebar mustache, and he knew more stuff - real and otherwise - than most people you'll ever meet.
On both days, the tour stopped at the Grand Canyon, smaller than the one in Arizona but no less spectacular. Brad was the driver and guide on the second day, and the Coxes and Ennises were joined by the Mayos, John and Dot. That's right: three Johns on board, and seldom a bathroom in sight. The Mayos, originally from West Virgina, lived in Hickory, North Carolina, and knew a lot of the same areas the Coxes and Ennises did. The three couples hit it off well. Good thing, too. On a bus meant for more than 25 people, 6 guests and a driver turned into a cozy group.
During lunch at Mammoth in the north, Brad went for a walk a little off the beaten path and surprised a black bear and her cub. He was the only one to see those bears, but grizzly bears were seen on the tour both days.
And Brad loved to walk. Near the end of the second day, some of the six walked a muddy, snow-covered trail to Artist's Paint Pot, a mudpot thermal feature. It was secluded and kind of nice to have the area all to themselves.
Artist Paint Pot, seen to the right, was the best mudpot of both days of the tour. On a trail easily accessed in the summer, it lay around the base of a hill about 3/4 mile from the road and was worth the mud-splashed walk. Next day while washing the RV, Johnnie also washed his and Delphine's shoes, which were coated with - call it mud or Artist's Paint.
J and D enjoyed their stay in Yellowstone, not the least of which included dinners with the Ennises and the Mayos in West Yellowstone. The IMAX teater and the Discovery Center were wonderful. A hoped-for side trip to the Grand Tetons didn't happen because of a minor problem with Harvey the RV. Still, that simply meant a chance to travel back via highway 191, seeing new sights along the way.
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The drive to the west entry of the park was uneventful enough, considering a speed limit of 70, mostly on flat ground, but occasionally through mountains and hair-pin turns. Sometimes the speed dropped from 70 down to 35 in exactly no distance at all for a short drive through a small town. One such place was Ennis, a modern-day, old-west town.
Wrong! Herbivores, like the elk above and the bison to the left, were a dime a dozen in the park. There were thousands of them. After a short while, interest dropped away completely in the fact they were there. However, what the animals did remained fascinating for the whole trip. Elk sloshed across streams, and bison jammed the roads in front of the bus. (Animals have the right-of-way in Yellowstone.) New calves bucked and frolicked and nursed their mothers. Old male bison, 2000 pound bulldozer-sized beasts, strolled along as if they could kick the Saturns and Mazdas out of their way if they wanted to. And they could.
In pre-season Yellowstone, J and D shared the oversized shuttlebus with their driver/guide, Jay, and with John and Betty Ennis from Virginia. John and Betty ate lunch with the Coxes at Old Faithful Inn. And a funny thing happened there.
The Ennises finished lunch and agreed to meet Johnnie and Delphine out by Old Faithful in about 30 minutes, the estimated time for the next eruption. J and D glanced at the Indian celebration outside and walked another 100 yards to a series of seats set up around the world's most famous geyser.
After the big event, J and D strolled back toward the lodge, where the Indian dances were winding down. As John and Betty Ennins met them, Delphine asked, "Did you see it?"
They had missed it. Betty said that, since the Indians were still dancing, they'd figured it wasn't time. The two couples decided to extend their stay at the park, and settled down on the semicircle of benches to wait for the next time, which was 90 minutes away and a half hour beyond their scheduled departure time. (Jay would understand, hopefully, and wouldn't drive away.)
With Delphine placed for scale, note the difference in size between Johnnie at left and Jay above (seen at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.)
In the afternoon, Jay drove them to a number of geothermal features and to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Geysers, mudpots and hot springs abounded in Yellowstone, and they were the most prominent features on the southern loop.
Thermal features were often surrounded by a colorful layer of bacteria, the color indicating the type of bacteria. The pool at the left trails a coating of some of the hottest bacteria, which live in temperatures above 180 degrees F.
What about the carnivores? As mentioned earlier, grizzy bears were seen and photographed. However, Delphine's camera had a zoom lens, but Johnnie's digital camera did not. The mother grizzly and her cub on the first day, the lone male (probably) on the second day, all were far away. Gone forever were the days of bears hanging onto cars in the park. People and bears began to die from that scenario, and the rangers ended it.
So to compensate, the bear at the left must suffice.
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