Standing on Higher Ground

Day 20:

Well, we found them. All of the wildlife we had heard about but not yet seen were on the roads we traveled today. We saw many bison. First we saw the single one. We'd stop for a picture and pat ourselves on the back for the amazing close encounter with nature that we had just happened into. Then they came in small groups and we kept taking pictures like this was our last chance. Finally, we ran into the herds. That right, herds with an 's'! With babies and all roaming the plains.

We saw an entire herd of elk sitting on the grass between two of the lodges at Mammoth Hotsprings and ran over with the kids to get good pictures. Little did I know how common they were in that area. As we sat down for a picnic in the grass, three elk wandered through the building complex and across the street! Later in the day we were treated to a huge bull elk with full rack wandering through a parking lot. The only thing we didn't see were bears.

Driving was better today. We got lucky and didn't get stuck behind any belligerent rule followers so we made good time. Those times we did slow down, as much as I cursed the perpetrator for forcing us to brake so hard, I secretly thanked them for giving us an excuse to see the bison. It seemed that at every spot on the same small stretch where we saw bison, the lead car would slow to around 5 mph and take a look. Never mind the fact that this was the same car that did the same maneuver for a similar herd of bison a mile up the road. The rest of us in the line did the same, only we felt better about ourselves for not halting traffic.

The kids' Junior Ranger "ceremony" was really nice. The ranger, a young woman from Montana, checked their packets to make sure they had done the work and asked questions on the pages they filled out to make sure that the kids new their stuff. After she was convinced that everything was in order, she gave them one last reminder that this was not the end of their tasks but just that beginning and that they had signed on to continuing to learn about nature. Finally, she called for the attention of everyone in the visitor center and announced their names as new Junior Rangers. I think it really made an impression on all three of them (my two and a cousin).

Mammoth Hotsprings is a very different place from Grant Village where we are staying. Mammoth is outside of the caldera and the terrain tends much more toward open plain. The Hotsprings themselves are a reminder of the huge active volcano that is Yellowstone National Park and "caldera" is just a fancy word for "the part that will be blown to Newfoundland should this volcano get angry."

I told the kids to look around them at the six-foot tall pine trees and fix them in their minds. I had visited Yellowstone before the fire of '88 scorched one third of the two million acres but I don't remember what it was like. Almost twenty years later, the effects of the fire are still obvious. In an entire hillside of small green trees, you'll see occasional reminders of what was before; a lone remnant of a forty-foot Lodgepole Pine still standing amidst the newcomers. In another twenty years when my children visit the park with their children, the park will look very different.

We hit the road again tomorrow. Look for some new pictures on Flickr.

Highlights:
1. A good dinner and fast service
2. Stuffed animals and ice cream: the reward for collecting stickers from four of the five gift stores located at the main villages in the park.

Quirks:
1. The kids' cousin K has seen all but two state license plates. After a quick check, we've also seen all of the Canadian provinces.
2. We saw an entire leg bone (ankle to hip) of what we believed to be an elk just lying by the sidewalk.