Another gorgeous day.  This trip is already exceeding our expectations!  Jim and I snuck in an early run with temperatures hovering in the mid 30’s… the air was crisp and all you could hear was the Snake River that we ran along and the crunch of gravel beneath our feet.  Horses were curious to see us go by and you could see the breath exiting from their nostrils on this brisk morning. Savannah and i then hopped in the jeep after our run and headed back to Starbucks in Jackson Hole for her online virtual class and checkpoints/quizzes.  This has been an adventure in itself!  We love the girlie, coffee time together. While we sit side by side with our Mac pc’s, at such a glam little mtn. town! (we were not wearing UGGs… but we do have our own Starbucks mugs! lol) Just as she finished her class we saw Jim come through the square in the RV.. pretty funny and we all headed back to the Teton National Park.  We sat in on another park ranger seminar about bears (very interesting), and Savannah completed and received her Jr. Ranger badge for the Grand Teton National Park. (If you have not Google’d the mountain range, you should.. it’s fascinating.)

We were hoping to paddle some of the lakes in the Tetons but with the blustery 40 degree weather, we thought our time would be better spent taking our time getting to Yellowstone, as there were road closures ahead due to excessive Grizzly bear activity that would take us a couple of hours out of our way.  We drove the East side of Yellowstone circumnavigating the Park to the West Entrance.  We arrived just before dark, so we were glad we left when we did!  We stopped many,  many times along the way.  The beauty was literally sensory overload.

The two lane roads were all connected from one national park to another including national forest.  The roads were well groomed with lots of turn outs for photographic opportunities, and letting the speedsters pass.  We paralleled the Tetons for some time, with additional stunning views of this incredible mountain range.  As we went deeper into the forest the topography was changing literally every few miles.  Miles of evergreen forests, to deep rocky canyons, to grasslands, with major variances in altitude.  At times we would be peering down 100’s of feet at a river and then be river level at other times.  Shortly after entering Yellowstone Park, we drove past the Lewis River Canyon which will eventually will make her way to the Pacific Ocean, since we were West of the Continental divide.  We then crossed back over the Continental divide (East side)where  the rivers will flow to the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico.  Through out our Northerly routes, we have zigzagged this hydrological boundary numerous times!

As i mentioned earlier, Yellowstone is a land of varied topography.  “Much of the park is a high plateau where the apparent flatness belies the high elevation: 7000′-8500′. Elevations range from 5300′ at the North Entrance to 11,358′ on Eagle Peak’s summit in the Absaroka Range in the southeast. Many ridges crest at 10,000′ to 11,000′.”

The MANY thermal areas were super awesome!  They smelled just like Jim’s chemical plant in Puerto Rico.  That smell is Sulfur in the form of hydrogen sulfide and in some of the vents, the hydrogen sulfide is consumed by micro organisms which convert it to sulfuric acid. This acid heats the rocks and soil and then converts that into mud. (This is our bread and butter in Jim’s line of work, fyi.. 🙂 Jim manufactures sulfuric acid and related inorganic chemicals, mostly for water treatment.  He finds these natural sulfur outputs sadly under capacity for his requirements! Sulfur is also a very hard to find and a pricey raw material for Jim’s company.  I’m surprised he’s not out there now gathering buckets of sulfur as i write!!

The thermal areas are quite abundant.  We stopped at the mud volcano which featured the “Dragon’s Mouth Spring”.  “An unknown park visitor named this feature around 1912 perhaps due to the water that frequently surged from the cave like the lashing of a dragon’s tongue.  Until 1994, this dramatic wave-like action often splashed water as far as the boardwalk. The rumbling sounds are caused by stream and other gasses exploding through the water, causing it to crash against the walls of the hidden cave.”

“Yellowstone’s thermal features are the product of 50 million years of geology, largely fueled by the interaction of heat and water.  The park is one of the world’s largest calderas (volcanic craters), measuring 28 x 47 miles. volcanoes erupted here many times; the last lava flowed about 70,000 years ago.  Recent seismic studies indicate magma probably exists about 1-3 miles beneath the surface, a relatively shallow depth. Water from rain and snowfall seeps down several thousand feet where it is heated by the magma. The hot water then rises to the surface, creating hot springs, fumaroles and geysers.   Yellowstone contains about 10,000 thermal features. Only Iceland, New Zealand and Kamchatka have comparable concentrations.  But Yellowstone’s 200-250 active geysers equal more than the sum of all the other geysers in the world! Upper Geyser Basin, which includes Old Faithful, hosts the world’s largest geyser collection, although Norris Geyser Basin is the park’s most active thermal area. Steamboat, the world’s largest geysers, is located at Norris.”

We have also enjoyed the abundant wildlife and close encounters with a bull elk and a bison.  Also herds of bison from a distance and prong horns.  Deer are everywhere!   The weather has been spectacular, however the last couple of days have been a cold front bringing flurries and temperatures in the teens at night and upper sunny 40’s in the day.  It should be back up into pleasant day time 60′ weather soon.  The Aspen trees and other deciduous trees and plants are so colorful and peaking here their with their Autumn song.

We are about to go explore this geographic wonder after brunch and school!

Happy Trails!