Day 11 Sept 29 2018, Madison Campground Day’s Highlights

 

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Grand Teton is dramatic.  The uplifted and tilted mountain peaks are inspiring. They tower above Jackson lake.  On a calm day their reflection in the Snake River is the most picturesque spot in the park.   By comparison, Yellowstone National Park sits atop the Yellowstone hot spot.  The park encompasses a massive caldera that filled in with basalt lava flows thousands of years ago.  Yellowstone is predominantly flat with geysers, fumaroles, mud pots, and fissures; evidence of its volcanic and geothermal history.

I loved Grand Teton for its ruggedness and beauty.  I love Yellowstone for its rolling golden plains, wildlife, and in-your-face geology.  It is impossible to visit Yellowstone without asking, “how”, “what caused this”, or “what makes this area so vastly different than the rest of the world”.  I also get a kick out of the bison, the elk, the pronghorn antelope, the coyote and wolves, the bears.   As much as I was in awe of the Tetons, I left my heart in Yellowstone. We’ll be back.

Today I awoke early to 20 deg. F. temp.  My concern about the batteries faded when the push out came in.  We had used the inverter to charge batteries last night and had an electrical hiccup with lights, water pump, and inverter going. The lights dimmed and off went the inverter.

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Predictions are Remarkably Accurate!

The plan this morning was to drive to Old Faithful early enough to avoid crowds.  This was Saturday after all.   We hoped to run the generator to recharge the batteries and get ATT connectivity at the Visitor Center.  We arrived at the Visitor Center around 8:12 and went there directly.  Old Faithful was scheduled to erupt at 8:46.  We had time to both run the generator and make some Nespresso.  Adequately caffeinated, we scurried back to the Visitor Center.  Access to Old Faithful is either around the Visitors Center, or through it. I realized I’d need a tripod and motioned Ellen ahead as I ran back for a tripod.

Tripod in hand we setup right in front.  Early in the morning in 22 degree weather, only the hardy are up.  As time approached 9:46, Old Faithful made a few false starts that triggered everyone.  Some steam and a very little bubbling.  Right at 9:46 another false start kept growing and away she went.   Geysers are not commonplace on earth.  I overheard a ranger say there are just over 900 geysers on earth, 500 of them are in Yellowstone Park.

Old Faithful Video

As we drove to Old Faithful earlier in the  morning steam from the fumaroles blanked the highway and obscured visibility for  a few hundred yards.  It was much like tulle fog.

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Bison are Quite Common in the Park.

 

What next?  We thought we’d visit the Upper Basin the move on down to the Lower Basin.  On the way we saw Biscuit Basin,, turned in, and were greeted immediately with a “No RVs Allowed”.  I am growing adept at about faces! Back on the road to Upper Basin, we hit heavy traffic ahead of “Midway Geyser Basin”.  Crap we missed Upper Basin!   Traffic turning into parking for the basin was crazy.  Down the road there was a turnout that made a U-turn possible and we parked on a paved pullout a hike away from the traffic.  It was crazy.  There were cars and motorhomes going into the basin, bicyclists tooling by in both directions.  This is during late September, a shoulder season.  What would this be like in the summer?

We had found Grand Prismatic Spring.

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Grand Prismatic Pool, Difficult to do it Justice in a Photo

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Turquoise Pool, more easily photographed.

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It was overcast with flat light on and steam rising from the pools.  What a unique experience. We took our time walking the boardwalk and taking in the bubbling and whooshing sounds and the colorful pools.  Prismatic Spring is best photographed from above, on a hot day, with little wind.  For us, on a cold windy day, Prismatic pool was picturesque.

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Yellowstone is Busy for September, Imagine it in July!

Back at Li’l Beast, there was far too much traffic to U-turn there.  I drove south to a turn around.  A groups of people with binoculars were stopped, standing in a turnout on the opposite side of the road.  We passed them, U-turned,  and slowed to a crawl.  Ellen asked, “what do you see” a few times before the answer: “Wolves” came back.  With room to park, we stopped and out came the spotting scope, tripod, telephoto cameras.   We saw nothing.

A youngster spotted a wolf and the family pulled over.  Others stopped and excitedly watched a wolf.  The crowd of people changed as some left and others arrived.  Ellen and I scanned the tree line where the wolf had been spotted.  Ten minutes into our search, Ellen said, “there he is”.  “Where” a chorus of voices.  Between the two dead trees that created an

inverted V, stood a large grey wolf.   In the time it took to setup the scope for Ellen, and for Ellen to check him out, that wolf was gone.  We continued to scan the tree line.

Far to the right of the first sighting, I saw motion and with the spotting scope watched a “wolf” coming head on in the far distance.  It was a dramatic sight, though something was wrong.  This wolf was not dark gray, it was light gray fading to light brown down its body.  Coyote, I thought.  But coyote and wolf don’t mix.  You would never expect to see them this close together.  He (or she) disappeared in the tall grass.

A fellow setup beside me.  Rafael scanned the tree line with an impressive lens.  Another five minutes later he said, there he is, now far to the left of the first sighting.  Ellen was on the scope.  I panned the tree line with our long lens and found him.  Again this looked more like a coyote than a wolf.  My older 40D had a difficult time focusing, the “wolf” and the grass blended too well.  I snapped a few photos in manual mode just before the “wolf” disappeared.   “These shots are probably trash, but what the hey”, I thought.

The first sighting was definitely a wolf.  It was dark gray bordering on black and it was massive.  The other two sightings were probably not a wolf.  I spoke with a ranger about this.  Yes, coyote and wolf will not appear together, unless there is a carcass dump nearby.  In that case all predators will converge on the site.  If there was a carcass dump nearby, you could easily see both a wolf and coyote.  she also said the coyote population in Yellowstone has plummeted since wolves were introduced in the park.

There had been a bison killed on the road somewhere between Madison and Old Faithful.  Some idiot had run into a bison on the road.  In cases like this, rangers will move the carcass into the tree line away from the road.   If the carcass were left by the side of the road, wolves, coyote, and grizzly bear would congregate by the roadside.  No doubt tourists would exit their vehicles to “get a good shot” of a predator.   The carcass had been moved into the tree line, quite likely it was moved near where we were spotting wolf and coyote.

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3rd Sighting, Coyote or Wolf?

Oddly, my trash shots are “ok”. Later a ranger said, “If you think you saw a wolf, it was probably a coyote”, implying that if you saw a wolf you would know it was a wolf.  I wish I had a photo of the first wolf sighting for comparison.

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