Moving to Alaska: Day Twelve

After yesterday, one thing I always suspected has been confirmed; I should have been a geology major. Think about this; on this trip I detoured specifically to go to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. I hiked "Fossil Ridge" (which I did not mention by name earlier) in Eisenhower State Park in Texas. I stopped at a small museum with petrified wood and geodes (again not mentioned before; I didn't want to bore you all with the minutia of the day) in Nebraska and finally to Yellowstone with the geysers. Things like rocks and fossils and volcanoes have always fascinated me and still do. There were a few things on this drive that I opted NOT to do such as Dinosaur National Monument in Wyoming and Hagerman Fossil Beds in Idaho, more due to time/distance and having a trailer. I actually considered changing my major from biochemistry to geology but took the lazy route; I had enough credits that I was technically a semester ahead with no intention of graduating early, meaning I could take less full loads the last two years or I could change my major and spend two years playing catch up on classes. The funny thing is that at the time, I just didn't like the career options for geology over biochem, but since I have never actually had a science job and instead ended up working in IT, it would not have mattered anyway.

Today was a trip back to Yellowstone. The first part of the day was a hike to Fairy Falls, which is about 200 feet high, then more of the same; drive and/or walk to various geysers and springs. The hike in was pretty and unlike the previous 5 mile round trip bear country hike, this one did not bother me as much since I was at least occasionally passing people on this trail. Not many, but they were at least out there. It is amazing what that sense of isolation does to your head.

There are a lot of pull offs and short hikes around the park and I was exploring some of them when something amusing happened, again. I stopped the car and walked away from the geyser to look at a pool across the street. Then as soon as I turned to come back, the geyser blew. What is funny is that the same couple I had met the night before and talked to about how my timing had been so perfect were parked there too so they proceeded to thank me for finally allowing them to see a geyser blow.

Another of the areas I hiked to day was "Artist Paintpots" which are more bubbling mud pools of different colors. Some actually look like paint. The various minerals in the dirt dictate the color of the pot. It was one of those places where I just said "of sure, let me pull off here and look", which I did a lot of in the park. I had a target destination and an approximate time needed there so did from time to time have to skip things I wanted to see and focus on the actual intended highlights but I did see a lot more than I am talking about here.

I also saw a lot of wildlife today; herds of buffalo (including one that wanted to cross the road about a foot from my car so I waited patiently), a couple elk (no photos, they moved too fast), another coyote, and even a grizzly and cub. I apparently like seeing bears from 100 yards, but not closer than that!

Eventually I made my way over to Yellowstone Falls and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The upper falls is 109 feet and the lower falls is a 308 foot drop with about a 1/4 mile between them. There are some fantastic views as you walk along the top of the canyon rim and even a few places you can go down for closer looks. One is "Brink of the Lower Falls" which is exactly that, a twisting trail that takes you to a platform right on top of the drop for the lower falls. On the other side there is also a set of 328 steps built into the side of the cliff so you can go about 3/4 of the way down for a view of the lower falls. What I found interesting about this is they have a sign saying basically this is hard and you are at 8000 feet elevation so it will be harder than you think so you might not want to go down those steps.

But alas, now it is time to say goodbye to Yellowstone and continue the journey north and west. I will come back here some day and see the rest, and see the same things again too.

Start: West Yellowstone, Montana

Stop: West Yellowstone, Montana

~130 Miles Driven

~14.2  Miles Walked
4 Letterboxes Found

1 Letterboxes Not Found

0 Letterboxes Planted

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos