It is Friday morning, and I am in Rawlins, Wyoming This is the first chance I have had to access the internet in a few days. I will back track and talk a little about day one in Yellowstone. I stayed in Cody, Wyoming Monday night, Sept. 7. I had not been to Cody since 1992. What a difference 17 years makes!! It has a modern and open-minded feel to it now with art festivals, parks, and many nice areas to shop and eat. I have to admit, I was impressed.
So I took a route into Yellowstone that I had not taken before. The direct route is due west out of Cody and into the East entrance of the park. Instead, I drove the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway which takes you through some beautiful passes and winding turns and delivers you into the most remote and least visited areas of Yellowstone- the northeast entrance. There is a small town near this entrance called Silver Gate, Montana and I encourage you to stop there and have a bite to eat. It is just one of those places where you should slow down for a moment before you begin your park experience.
I then traveled through the Lamar Valley, which is the prime range for wolves and many bears as well. I saw quite a few bison and pronghorn but nothing more exciting than this. Have I mentioned that it has been sunny and beautiful EVERY SINGLE DAY on this trip? The only clouds and rain were in Kansas City- says it all! Okay, back to Yellowstone. I did a short hike at Slough Creek but it was too busy of a trail for me. Overall, this is my favorite time of year to visit the park, but being Labor Day week it was still fairly busy. Slough Creek trail was actually over run with horses and metal wagons being pulled by what looked like Clydesdales. Seriously, once I started hearing “here comes the king here comes the big number one BUM BUM BUM BUM” in my head the hike was over. I then went to my cabin in Canyon Village which is fairly centrally located. The cabin was simple and clean for the price. However, you are adjoined to other small “cabins” with paper thin walls there is nothing making ANY background noise to give you a sense of privacy. Luckily, I had my laptop and played music while I worked. I think it is safe to say that my neighbors hated the night owl next door! To make matters worse, I was going to bed at around midnight or so and getting up before sunrise. I heard the couple next to me arguing as I was getting dressed- I think over being woken up so early. Oh well, I was there to enjoy the park not sleep!
The first full day in jellystone was Wednesday, and it was a crystal clear and cold morning. It was 28 degrees at sunrise, and I was the only person around in shorts and a t-shirt and the only person not complaining. HA! I went to artists’ point to view the lower falls at sunrise. If I am going to shoot something that everyone else does as well I wanted to at least put in the effort of capturing it at sunrise. I shared the viewing area with three other professional photographers, and we ended up sort of bonding and talking shop for over 3 HOURS! Tourists came and went, and I can’t recall how many couples asked me to take their picture with their camera. One of the other photographers gave me his card and website info and when I find it in my things I will post it. One woman grabbed me and had her friends take a picture of us hugging. They explained each time they visit a new place on their road trip she picks out a strange man to be her photographic fling. I guess it was my lucky day. I told her she could do much better and suggested Old Faithful as a new hunting ground. We had a great time laughing and shooting and I ended up with a total of 260 shots from that morning. We all shot Nikon as well which I thought said a lot for Canon!
I ended the day at Old Faithful with the very last eruption in daylight. The sun set as I was collapsing my tripod. I do not think I walked away with any great shots as I had set up in the perfect place and the wind shifted just as it started to erupt. I ended up with a view of it straight on and the mist and steam spraying away from me rather that side to side as it had been presenting just before it started. Oh well. That is not the most exciting thing to shoot. The last treasure of the day was an amazing purple sunset on Yellowstone Lake as I drove back to Canyon Village. It was like looking at a graduated rainbow based in the color of purple spreading out across liquid glass. It was stunning. I stopped to shoot a little island just off shore that was being bathed in this light. Next to me was another photographer on the ground with his tripod. As he stood up to pack his gear he looked at me and just said: “hard to believe huh!” and it was. Photographs have many limitations and that shot, that light at that moment is one of them.
I guess the best advice I can give about visiting Yellowstone is to go in the saddle seasons or even winter and try any hiking trail. The few trails I hiked all had one thing in common- no crowds after ¼ mile! Just get off of the road and you can find peace and the real Yellowstone! More to come.
Here is some general info about the park from their site:
Established in 1872, Yellowstone National Park is America’s first national park. Located in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, it is home to a large variety of wildlife including grizzly bears, wolves, bison, and elk. Preserved within Yellowstone National Park are Old Faithful and a collection of the world’s most extraordinary geysers and hot springs, and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
The human history of the Yellowstone region goes back more than 11,000 years. From about 11,000 years ago to the very recent past, many groups of Native Americans used the park as their homes, hunting grounds, and transportation routes. These traditional uses of Yellowstone lands continued until a little over 200 years ago when the first people of European descent found their way into the park. In 1872 a country that had not yet seen its first centennial established Yellowstone as the first national park in the world. A new concept was born and with it a new way for people to preserve and protect the best of what they had for the benefit
Why “Yellowstone?”
Who would doubt that the name “Yellowstone” derived from the brightly colored volcanic rock in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. It would be an appropriate origin, afterall, since thermal features like geysers and hot springs were the primary reason Yellowstone Park was established and thermal features refashioned the canyon’s rhyolite to its present brilliance. But then that would be re-writing history.
The name actually derives from the Yellowstone River which flows some 670 miles from the heart of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in Wyoming to the Montana/North Dakota border.
French-Canadian trappers, in the 1700s, first learned of the “Rock Yellow River” or “Mi tse a-da-zi” from the Minnetaree tribe in what is today eastern Montana. The Indian name likely referred to the sandstone bluffs that overlook the lower Yellowstone near its confluence with the Missouri River. The trappers applied the French translation “Roche Jaune” to the river.
David Thomson, an explorer-geographer, made the first translation of the river’s name into English, “Yellow Stone,” in 1797. In the journals of the Corps of Discovery, Lewis and Clark refer to the Yellowtone River in both French and English forms.
In the decades after the Lewis and Clark trek across the continent, the wild and wondrous landscapes through which this river flows came to be known as the “Yellowstone Country,” the core of which would one day give birth to the world’s first national park.
Beautiful Casey and your insight to the view in front of you is eye opening...thank you! Val
Posted by: Val | September 12, 2009 at 07:56 PM