Journal Entry for June 9-16, 2007. Yellowstone Caldera Trip with Hannah and Joshua.

June 9, 2007. We flew into Jackson Hole, Wyoming in the early afternoon, and bought supplies that we could not ship by air, either due to the inconvenience of because of their being prohibited. We bought a cheap foam cooler, ice, perishable foods and butane lighters at the Jackson Whole Grocer (get it?) and propane canisters and bear deterrent at the Sports Authority. Then, in a rental car, we drove northward, through Grand Teton National Park to Yellowstone Park.

The northward drive is very beautiful. The road parallels the Teton Range, whose high rocky peaks are very dramatic. We stopped briefly at roadside pullouts several times to admire the view and to take photos. The mountains have large snow fields, and in sheltered places what might count for small glaciers. I could spot several moraines built of grey gravel perched in high valleys. The road passes Jenny Lake, which sits just at the base of the range. The landscape is more subdued in Yellowstone National Park, with less topography, more trees and grassy glades. The effects of the great 1998 fire are evident everywhere we travel, with smallish (6-foot) but lush green trees growing beneath the taller trunks of the trees killed by the fire. We arrive at Madison Campground in the early evening, the drive taking about three hours, and check into our campsite, number G260 [N44°38.648, W110°52.228, elevation 6675’, WGS-84]. We first set up our two tents and then cook dinner of pork, rice and pot-stickers on our MSR stoves. Just before sunset, walk down to the river. This spot is where the Gibbon River, flowing from the west, merges with the Firehole River, flowing from the south, to form the Madison River, which flows to the east. The rivers meander in a wide and flat grassy flood plain. The site is famous for having been the spot where the idea of a national park was conceived back in the 1860’s, and a nearby highland is appropriately called National Park Mountain. Some anglers with waders and fly rods are standing in the water. I peer in, try to spot trout, but see only a few fingerlings. I walk along a path towards the road, and see a small herd of bison grazing peacefully on the grass. They are very large and solid-looking. Some are losing their winter fur, which is hanging off like old rags. I cross the Gibbon River via a highway bridge, walk past a hydrographic station, and hike back along the river towards National park Mountain, jumping over several small rivulets. I cannot reach the mountain itself, though, for I can find no way over the Firehole, not at least without having to ford it. This area has lots of dead trunks of conifers killed in the 1998 fire, some still standing and others having fallen to make passage difficult. The sun has set now, and the air is very calm. Numerous vertical smoke plumes rise from the many campfires of the Madison Campground.

June 10, 2007. We cook eggs and oatmeal for breakfast, and then decide to drive the southern of the Park’s two loop roads, stopping to see the sites on the way, and especially the many geothermal features. Firehole River at Fountain Flats Drive: we examine a geothermal spring at the stream’s edge. This steaming pool has a distinct travertine rim and is about 20 feet across. On the opposite bank, a family of Canada Geese and goslings walks by, reminding us that not all of the animals of Yellowstone are exotic! We notice the skeleton of a large animal on the far shore of the river, too. Fountain paint Pot Area: We stroll along the boardwalk though this geothermal area. The hot springs and their outflow must constantly shift around, for in places large trees have been killed by the poisonous runoff, and in others new saplings are growing. We pass several beautiful geothermal pools that are all steaming in the morning’s rather cool air. Fountain Paint Pot itself is a large mud boiling mud pot, with several small spatter-cones that are being built up by burps of mud that are thrown up the air. Josh gets spattered a bit as he stands near a particularly active spot. Further along the boardwalk a geyser erupts, and we rush over to view the action. Water and steam spew perhaps ten feet into the air. Midway Geyser Basin: We cross the Firehole River via a pedestrian bridge. Streams of boiling hot water are pouring from the pool of the Excelsior Geyser, down across a travertine edifice and down into the river. We walk past two large pools, Excelsior and Grand Prismatic Spring and several smaller ones. The surface is everywhere wet with a thin layer of geothermal runoff, with low-relief travertine terraces forming a wavy pattern on the ground. Algae of various colors and patters grow on the ground. We also spot a large beetle plodding by, and puzzle over whether its visit to the geothermal area is intentional or accidental. The water at that spot is cool to the touch and not obviously deadly. Bridge at the Mystic Falls Trailhead: We stand on the bridge viewing the Firehole River and several small nearby hot springs. Pretty yellow flowers are growing at the river’s edge. Upper Geyser Basin: We stop at the general store of this rather too touristy area and buy supplies, and then walk over to the Old Faithful geyser viewing area. We are prepared for a long wait, but we are there for only a few moments and an eruption begins. Water and steam shoot a hundred feet into the air, in several pulses lasting a total of a few minutes. We then take the boardwalk though the geothermal field, crossing the Firehole River via a footbridge. This area has many geysers, both large and small, and several beautiful pools as well, such as Blue Star Spring. We watch a small eruption of one of the geysers in the Lion Group. Hannah and Josh ponder the rise and fall of the water level in the nearby Goggle Pool. Whiskey Flats Picnic Area: We have a lunch of tuna salad sandwiches at this pleasant picnic area, set in the woods immediately adjacent to a grassy glade (its marshy – I guess all the grassy glades here are). Ranger Station at Old Faithful: We picked up our backcountry camping permits and viewed the park’s Safety Video, which includes tips on dealing with bears. Yellowstone Lake: We stop briefly and walk down to the lake shore at a place where a large sandy spit appears to cut off part of the Lake. We stand on the beach, speculating as to what caused it. Fishing Bridge: We walk across and back across this bridge over the Yellowstone River, once renowned as a place for catching Cutthroat Trout, but now closed to fishing owing to being a spawning ground. (This status did not stop the White Pelicans, which were numerous, from taking their share). I hear frogs singing in the wetlands along side of the river. An elk was walking among the trees, a little further from the river bank. Fishing Bridge Visitors Center: We viewed stuffed animals (e.g. Trumpeter Swan by nest) in the museum and then walked down to the dark gravelly beach of Lake Yellowstone. Waves about a foot high were breaking, for the day was quite windy. The dark clouds overhead made the view across the lake to the distant mountains very dramatic. Yellowstone River north of the Lake: We stopped briefly to view a herd of bison. West of Norris Junction: We stopped to view an Elk that was sitting in the woods near the Gibbon River. We then returned to Madison Campground and cooked a dinner of bowtie macaroni, fried tomatoes and mashed potatoes. We then watched Supervolcano, a copy of which Hannah had brought, using the DVD-player on Josh’s computer, all three of us sitting in the back seat of the car. This Discovery Channel show depicts a gigantic eruption of the caldera beneath our feet, saying that the events that are described are true, they just haven’t happened yet.

June 11, 2007. The morning is rather grey, but the weather gradually improves during the course of the day. We cook a breakfast of eggs and toast on the MSR stoves, and wash them down with copious amounts of hot chocolate. We drive the northern loop today. Artist paint Pot Geothermal Area: We access these hot springs via a pleasant trail that leads through low woods. The trail climbs up a hillside behind the hot springs that affords a nice view of the area. We see pools of several different colors: reddish, yellow and grey. I find the large grey mud pot most interesting. Bubbles are forming concentric circles of varying shades of grey. Norris Geyser Basin: We take the boardwalk through this large and open geothermal area, past many hot springs and geysers. We pass a two-tone stream. One side is bright green owing to algae growing in cool water; the other is yellow from a different biota living at higher temperature. We watch several geysers erupt. Steamboat geyser, which is said to be the world’s largest during its infrequent major eruptions, is throwing up some minor, but still impressive, fountains of boiling water and steam. We spot the skeleton of an animal, possibly a deer, in the Dragon hot spring. Virginia Cascade: We stop briefly at this largish waterfall on the Gibbon River. Tower Falls: We walk to the overlook to view Tower Creek as it drops into the Yellowstone River, forming a slender but tall waterfall. Several slender rock spires jut up from the notch in which the creek flows. Across the canyon of the Yellowstone, in which rocks of a distinctive yellow color (of course!) are exposed, we see several layers of lava with prominent columnar jointing. Near Mt. Washburn: We stop to watch a Grizzly bear and her two cubs, which are browsing for food up on a hillside above the road. They are far enough away that they would seem to pose no hazard, so Hannah spends fifteen minutes or so by the roadside photographing them with a video camera. Cascade Lake trailhead Picnic Area. We stopped for lunch in this heavily wooded (meaning unburned) area, and made Italian wraps with cheese and cold cuts. A big raven watched us from overhead in a tree. Dunraven Pass: We stop briefly and climb a rock outcrop that affords a nice view of the valley below. A little north of Dunraven Pass: We stop briefly to view a Pronghorn, a type of antelope. Hannah, once again, video records it. Mammoth Hot Spring: We pass the Libery Cap, a very tall (35 foot) and now extinct spire-shaped geothermal mound. We then walk some of the boardwalks of this very large travertine mound of the main part of the geothermal area. It has very well-developed travertine terraces, which seem to have three distinct colors: The active, wet and steaming terraces are yellow, I suppose because of the biota. The recently extinct terraces are bright white and very crisply defined. And the older extinct terraces are grey and beginning to crumble. The boardwalk leads high up onto a hillside completely built of travertine. It affords a nice view of the terraces below us, and of the surrounding countryside. Boiling River: Hannah’s research has revealed that there are two places in the park where one can legally swim in geothermal waters. Once is in the Gardner River, just where the geothermal water from the Boiling River pours into it. We find the access point of this spot, parking a few miles north of Mammoth Junction and then walking down a trail along the edge of the Gardner for a half mile or so. The Gardner is a briskly flowing stream about thirty feet wide and a foot or so deep. The Boiling is a smaller creek that begins at a spring – or maybe better described as a cave – below a set of horizontally-stratified layers of travertine, and which flows a hundred yards of so down a hillside to meet the Gardner. The confluence is both raised above the level of the Gardner by about four feet by travertine terraces, and sub-parallel to its edge, so that a long cascade is formed. People – and there were perhaps thirty swimmers there when we arrived – stand in the Gardner, warming themselves with the geothermal outflow of the Boiling. The Gardner flows quite fast, so entering it and getting to the geothermal cascade is quite tricky. Hannah and Josh loved it, of course, and completed several loops of being carried downstream in the cold water and then slowly walking back up along the edge, with the geothermal cascade pouring over them. I, too, went in, though I had more difficulty entering the stream and spent only a relatively short time in the geothermal waters. Along the Gardner River, couth of Mammoth: By now, it was getting late in the evening. We stopped briefly along the roadside to view an elk. We then returned to Madison Campground, and cooked a dinner of beans and cheese wraps, with rice on the side.

June 12, 2007. We wake up to sunny skies. We cook breakfast of pancakes (for Hannah and Josh) and scrambled eggs (for me, to use up the leftovers), and then pack for our backcountry camping trip. We leave one tent at the campground, for we have paid for the site for the whole week. Josh puts the other in his pack; we will use it plus a bivy sack. We drive to the Glacial Bounder Trailhead [TH 4K6, N44°43.782, W110°28.371, elevation 7951’, WGS-84], which is so named because of a huge (20’ high) glacial erratic that stands at the site. The trail first follows the cliff edge of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, over level ground. Hannah spots a marmot, a small mammal about the size of a raccoon, near its burrow by a tree. It scurries away as we approach. In about a mile, we stop at an overlook that affords a wonderful view of the canyon. We gaze downward, seeing rock spires amid the tan, beige, yellow and brown colored rocks. A wide waterfall, the Silver Cascade, is on the far side of the river. A second, much thinner waterfall is further downstream. We can see the blue-green water of the Yellowstone River, far below us. We then continue along the trail, with Hannah and Josh (who are naturally sprinters) taking the lead and slowly getting ahead of me. The trail is mostly through woods, but approaches the edge of a large and marshy grassy glade. I reach the footbridge at far end of the glade, by a trail junction [N44°44.976, W110°26.369, elevation 7965’, WGS-84] and find Hannah and Josh relaxing, waiting for me and chatting with a couple of Park Rangers. The Rangers kid me that my pack looks larger and heavier than Hannah’s or Josh’s. Actually, it about the same weight; I’m just slower than them. I filter water at the stream to refill our water bottles and we then set off, taking the right-hand and southern fork of the trail. The trail heads steeply downhill, via several switchbacks, following a ravine that descends into the canyon. We all found this trail quite difficult, owing to its being rather slippery; with lose gravel atop hard-packed earth. About halfway down, at a turn in the trail, we stopped for lunch. The spot we picked [N44°45.187, W110°25.545, elevation 7800’, WGS-84] had no flowing water, but was lusher than neighboring spots, with grass and flowers, so I judged that water must be flowing at some shallow depth beneath the surface. We set up a propane-fired Gaz stove, cooked a pot of rice and relaxed for a while. After lunch, we walked down another set of switchbacks that led into a flatter terrace, but one that was still high above river level. We came across a tall (15 foot), conical active geothermal mound among the trees, and then a little later came to a rather bare hillside with active travertine terraces. We were reminded that we had not left the Yellowstone Caldera. Its huge size dwarfs the canyon, though the canyon is a much more visible feature. The trail wound down this hillside and then entered a flatter, wooded part of the terrace beyond. The steep part of the trail here is quite tough. Hannah slipped once when her shoes lost traction, and fell onto her butt, fortunately without injury. We then crossed a little stream and then arrive at our campsite, Seven Mile Hole [4C2, N44°45.214, W110°24,319, elevation 6788’, WGS-84], which is just off the trail. It consists of an area for tents, an area for cooking and a food-hanging area (a horizontal beam set between two trees about ten feet off the ground). The water source is a few hundred yards further downhill along the trail, at the confluence of Sulphur Creek (smelly) and the Yellowstone River. This spot, which is a small peninsula that extends out into the Yellowstone, affords a beautiful view of the canyon. In addition to the creek, it has several geothermal mounds. It also has grass and a few trees, and is a nice place to sit and relax. I bring the water filter down to the river, and refill our water bottles. Josh comes down a little later, and the two of us sit around, enjoying the late afternoon sun. Josh reads a book by Oscar Wilde. Hannah, however, stays at the campsite and takes a nap in the tent. In the evening, we all cook a dinner of beef stew and mashed potatoes. We all walk back down to the river to get more water for cleaning the dishes. I slip on one of the steeper sections of the trail and land on my butt. The dishes fly into the air and are scattered, and I whack my arm on a rock and bruise it a bit, but fortunately I am not seriously injured. Hannah helps me pick up – we find everything except one of the forks. After washing the dishes, we sit around and read aloud Tolkein’s Children of Hurin, which Hannah has brought. The sun sets, and the night is clear and full of stars.

June 13, 2007. The morning is clear. We cook pancakes and oatmeal. Josh finds the missing fork on the way down to the river to pump more water. We pack up, and head up out of the canyon. The hike out is quite strenuous, with Hannah and Josh being quite a bit faster than I. We stop briefly at yesterday’s lunch spot, for a rest, and huff up the rest of the switchbacks to the canyon’s rim. The footing is quite a bit better when we are going uphill. At the top, Josh discovers that the can of bear deterrent is missing; it has fallen off his pack-strap during once of the rest stops. He head down the trail looking for it, as far as yesterday’s lunch spot, but cannot find it. We decide to go on without it, hoping to encounter no bears. We now take the north fork at the trail junction, which leads across the fairly level ground at the canyon’s rim. This area is mostly wooded, but with some large, marshy meadows, as well. The trail crosses several of these meadows. Their openness affords a very nice view of Mt. Washburn, to our northwest. We cross several small streams. We can simply jump across most of them, but one, in a wooded area was too wide to jump. We cross it by walking across a fallen log. I had not expected to find geothermal springs on this top level of the canyon, too, but we passed several. We had lunch by one [N44°45.571, W110°26.320, elevation 8050’, WGS-84], and open area with a white travertine crust and a few steaming seeps. A little further along the trail was a much bigger geothermal spring, with a boiling and steaming pool. After another mile or so walking through woods, we arrived at our next campsite, Washburn Meadows [Site 4E1, N44°46.666, W110°24.690, elevation 8097’, WGS-84]. It is among trees at the edge of a marshy meadow, with the ridge of Mt. Washburn visible to the north. At one end of the camp, several springs feed a small creek. Like yesterday’s camp, this one also consists of a tent area, a cooking area (this time with a fire ring) and a food hanging area, each about 100 feet apart. The site has quite a few mosquitoes, so we slather on DEET. After setting up camp, Josh and I sit in the meadow, soaking up the afternoon sun. Hannah takes a nap in the tent. One party of hikers comes down the main trail. Finally, as the shadows are getting long, we gather deadfall for a bonfire. We have bowties and sausage for dinner. Josh lights up the campfire and Hannah and I take turns reading aloud from Tolkien. I filter water from the little spring, just before bed, in the grey dusk. It’s a clear night again. The sky is full of stars.

June 14, 2007. It’s clear when I awake at 7AM, but grows partly cloudy over the next few hours. I walk around the camp, looking at flowers and birds and some very agile squirrels. Slowly the sun rises high enough in the sky to light up the meadow. After Hannah and Josh wake, we cook a breakfast of pancakes and oatmeal. Hannah spots an elk in the woods. We pack up and head out. The hike back to the trailhead is a relatively easy one, as the ground is fairly level. Nevertheless, Josh slips once going down a little hill of travertine and lands on his butt, but without injury. All three of us have fallen, which I hold to be unusual, for we are excellent hikers. The loose gravel on the trails here is really quite treacherous! We whistle songs as we walk along, to alert any bears that we are in the vicinity. We don’t want to have any surprise encounters, especially given yesterday’s loss of the deterrent! We arrive at the Glacial Boulder trailhead and take a group picture, with the camera, set in timer mode, propped up on a road sign.

We drive over to Canyon Village and take showers, using the rather pricy ($3.25 each) bathhouse there, and buy supplies at the general store. We then drive over to the Norris Picnic Area, which is in a wooded area adjoining a large meadow. We have a lunch of macaroni and cheese with tuna. Hannah treats us to some soft cheese and crackers that she had bought at the general store. We then drive back to Madison, stopping to herd of bison in a large meadow. Josh counts eighty adults and twenty calves. The tent that we left at Madison Campground has survived just fine. We set up the other and relax. The afternoon is rather cool and windy, and the sky is mostly cloudy. A big cloud overhead, which is a frustration to us, given that the sky elsewhere is clearer, seems to be generated by the mountain behind the campground. In the evening, I take a leisurely walk down to the Madison River. I walk first downstream, first through the campground and then along the highway as far as a pullout. The sun breaks through the clouds, lighting up the blue water and the green grass. Numerous ground squirrels sit by the burrows in the grass, chirping or barking as I approach. I then head back upstream, past our campsite, and see that a herd of bison is grazing near the confluence of the Gibbon and Firehole Rivers. A crowd of fellow campers are gathered on the high wooded ground above the grassy floodplain to watch them. The bison have many calves. Some roll in the dirt, some chase after their mothers, and are chased after and butted by their mothers. A large bison slowly walks up to where two campers are watching. They stand cowering behind a rather thin-trunked conifer tree. The bison approaches to within a foot of the tree, but after a few tense moments slowly backs off and walks away. These are huge animals, and while I have not seen any being particularly aggressive, I take care not to get too close! Back at camp, we cook dinner of spaghetti and sauce and sausage. After dinner, I walk down to the river again. The bison have moved on. I can see them downstream, half a mile or so.

June 15, 2007. In the morning, before Hannah and Josh have woken, I take a brief walk down to the Madison River. I notice a small geothermal area at the river’s edge. A small side channel of the river is bubbling. The water is warm, but not hot, to the touch. Back at camp, we have a breakfast of eggs and oatmeal. Afterward, at Josh’s suggestion, we decide to climb Mt. Washburn. So we drive over to Canyon, spotting a coyote along the way, and getting caught in a traffic jam caused by bison on the road. We check with the Backcountry Office whether a permit is required. Apparently none is. So we drive over to the trailhead of the Mt. Washburn Jeep Trail [N44°47.073, W110°27.229, elevation 8715’, WGS-84]. The jeep trail winds steadily, but at a very even grade, up the mountain. We are wearing only light day packs, so I find the walk much easier that the last two days’, even though the elevation is higher. Josh and I walk at a fast, steady pace, but Hannah jogs ahead. The scenery on this clear day with puffy clouds is marvelous. The mountain commands a fantastic view in all direction. We can see nearby forested hills, more distant snow-covered mountains, Yellowstone Lake and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The road passes occasional snowfields. Hannah throws snowballs at us, and Josh throws some back. Harmless fun, yet at one point I become upset that we are not paying close enough attention to the cliff-edge at the road side, and put a stop to it. It’s just too easy to become distracted and walk right off! The trail leads across a narrow arête, and then makes a final circle about the summit peak, up to an observation tower at the top. Just before arriving at the tower, a fox walks right by us. It sports thick fur and a very fluffy tail. Many people are hanging out in the tower, which has a glass-enclosed observation deck. Our hike up to the Tower [N44°47.858, W110°276.035, elevation 10072’ by GPS, 10243’ according to a sign, WGS-84] took 1:08. Among the people at the Tower was a group of University of Pittsburg students being taught about the local geology. I chatted with them and with their instructor, William Harbert, for a few minutes. They are spending several weeks studying geology, ecology and environmental policy over the course of the summer. Meanwhile, Josh cooked us a lunch of rice on the flat area outside of the Tower. The strong wind chilled us, and we donned our jackets and windbreakers. We then headed down, maintaining a strong pace.

Back at Canyon Village, Hannah asked around for a good restaurant, and determined that the Roosevelt Lodge had both good cooking and a nice view. It was still too early for dinner, so we drove over to the Cascade Lake Picnic Area to rest for a while. Hannah and Josh took turns reading aloud from Tolkien. We got as far a Turin’s slaying of Glaurung the dragon. We then returned again to Canyon and used the public showers again. One the way to dinner, we spotted a black bear near the roadside. The rustic Roosevelt Lodge did indeed prove to have both good food and a nice view of the surrounding hills, and to be fairly reasonably priced, as well. We had ribeye steak, barbequed ribs and barbequed chicken. On the way back to Madison Campground, we stopped to watch the black bear for a while. It was still in the general vicinity of the road. We also spotted a couple of mule deer grazing by the roadside. Over the last week we had not stopped at two obvious sites, a cliff by the roadside where people were viewing coyote pups and Gibbon Falls, so we stopped at them now. The pups were hard to see, but one of the other bystanders lent me her binoculars, and I watched one roll around a bit. The falls were quite wide and beautiful, especially for a river with only a modest volume of water. A big log jam had formed at its bottom, I suppose composed of trunks of trees killed in the 1998 fire. We also saw a moose, feeding by a stream in a meadow – one of the animals that Hannah had been especially hoping to see. We arrived back at Madison Campground late in the evening, and just had time to pack before full darkness was upon us.

June 16, 2007. We awoke at 6AM and packed up our tents and sleeping bags. The tents proved hard to dry of condensation, as the sun was not yet high enough to light up the camp. I could only watch, with frustration, the sunlight slowly creep down the side of National Park Mountain – not fast enough for us. So we packed them up wet and set off. The drive south was uneventful. The steam plumes of the geothermal fields all rose straight and tall in the still morning air and were vividly lit by the morning sun. The scenery was very pretty, but although we looked for them, we saw few animals, just a few solitary bison. Hannah read aloud from Tolkien, completing the story of The Children of Hurin, which ends with the death of Turin and the release of his father Hurin from the captivity of the Dark Lord.