Yellowstone's internal roads are scheduled to be closed from the 7th, earlier if it snows heavy. I arrive in Gardiner on the evening of the 2nd.
I'm sure some of you saw the BBC documentary 'Yellowstone' in the last couple of years. For those that didn't, Yellowstone National Park sits atop an age-old volcano in the middle of the Rockies. It lies predominately within the state of Wyoming, but straddles state borders into Montana in the north and Idaho to the west. At its' centre is a huge plateau, 8000ft above sea level, surrounded on three sides by mountains. Here roam herds of bison and elk alongside packs of wolves, reintroduced to the area in the nineties. Here, also, is the greatest concentration of geysirs and hot springs in the world.
Day One
The forecast says I've got a day-and-a-half until the snow comes. That's the real snow, I assume, because a lot of the park is already pretty much covered - about three inches. The roads, however, are clear, aside from a small amount of snow where they sit fully in the shade of the forests. The park is eminently driveable. I choose today to get as far south, as far into the park as I can. On the way I see bison. And I see a lone wolf off to the side of the road. It is right about now I feel a pang of regret for not finding room in my down-sized pack for my camera and lenses.
You have probably heard of 'Old Faithful', a regularly spouting geysir and the parks' centrepiece. It sits on the southwest corner of the central plateau, about ninety minutes drive away, and the amount of natural attractions on the route fills a whole day easily.
Old Faithful is set up to cope with huge numbers of tourists - there is bench seating enough for perhaps a thousand people. It spouts roughly every two hours, though cannot be precisely timed, so I am quite pleased to see it do its' thing a few minutes after I arrive. It isn't freezing out, but I expect two hours of waiting would have made it much colder.
On the drive back to Gardiner I stop off at the many geothermal features that line the route. Even though the region is so far above sea level - I struggle to get my head round this - the Earth's magma is close enough to the surface, and the water in the ground so plentiful (a lot of snow in winter) that there are hot springs, geysirs and mud pots around every corner.
Alongside the multitude of holes spouting boiling water, I'm also lucky enough to see a pair of wolves, a couple, tracking across a snowy white plain in the far distance. I win. Except they are far too far away for me to photograph. I lose.
Day Two
A predicted half-day before the snow is due, so I plan to swiftly drive down the opposite side of the central plateau, through Hayden Valley - home of numerous Bison herds - to Yellowstone Lake.
Unfortunately my chosen route takes me over Dunraven Pass, where the winter weather has already taken hold, so the road is closed. Fortunately there is a road, across the central plateau, that will take me into the Hayden Valley. Unfortunately this road too has had a dusting of snow. Fortunately, it is not enough to stop the Purple Nimbus from safely making its' way across.
So I drive to Yellowstone Lake, which is vast and eerie and backed by snow-capped peaks. And I drive through Hayden Valley and I see three or four separate herds of bison. And I see one lone bison at the bottom of the Yellowstone river valley below. And I visit Mud Volcano, a small gurgling cauldron of, well, mud. And whilst there I see Dragon's Mouth Spring - apparently named because the water that surges from the cave there resembles a dragon's tongue. Personally I would puport it was named such because the steam rising from the cave/mouth is not unlike a dragon's breath. Because we all know that dragons breathe fire, right.
Further north I stop at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, and risk the stepped descent into the ravine to see the falls there. It is only on the reciprocal ascent that I realise climbing 398 steps at 8000ft isn't the easiest of tasks, especially given my sole exercise for the last month has been moving my right foot from accelerator to brake. I keep one eye to the sky for the impending snow storm. Clouds are gathering above the mountains to the west. I turn that way, towards the plateau road, and am met by another wolf twenty yards off to the right - close enough to get a picture that actually resembles a wolf. Or maybe a coyote. Dang.
As I drive back over the plateau I am surprised by a lone bison stumbling from the undergrowth onto the verge. He is almost the size of the van, huge. It is on the last stretch back to Gardiner that the flakes begin to fall.
Day Three
I'm expecting more roads to be closed with further snow forecast for the day. Today's destination is the Lamar Valley, along the only park road that stays open year round, and home to the greatest number of wolves in the park. The road is clear initially, then turns snowy, similar to the plateau road yesterday, before climbing up through trees above a cliff above the Yellowstone river valley. The snow starts falling.
Last year, Dave, Manuel, Jamie and I went to Iceland and road-tripped into the wilderness. Even now I am convinced we were a matter of minutes from getting trapped in the blizzard that caught us in the mountains there, never to be seen again. That experience has taught me to err on the side of caution in these situations so, when the layer of snow became consistent across the road, and I felt the van might not make it up/down the hills safely, I chose to turn around. As exhilarating as it might be to skate a van sideways into a 200ft raveen, I suspect that exhilaration might only be short term. And, given how much slipping and sliding the van did as I exacted my three-point turn, I figure I made the right decision.
So as not to waste the day I headed to a spot where I had seen bison on the first day and did a spot of winter safari. No wolves, sadly, but I did spot a little stripy, scurrying rodent escaping the minus 5 celcius temperatures down his wee hole. [Three different 'spots'.] I'll bet he is well toasty in there - a little den on top of hot springs. A park ranger closes a road for the day as the snowfall becomes slightly more consistent. Time to get down the mountain methinks.
Day Four
As my days in Yellowstone have gone by, so too the snow settles at lesser and lesser altitudes until, on the morning of day four, the Purple Nimbus awakes with a covering all of his own. Today is set aside as contingency, but I made sure to leave the attractions nearest to Gardiner unwitnessed to make one final venture into the park wholly worthwhile. Alas, the road to Lamar Valley remains snowbound - more so than yesterday even - so I shall have to content myself with the three wolf sightings amassed to date. Saying that, you know, I'm feeling fairly sure this won't be my last visit to Yellowstone. There is time yet in this life for further commune with the wild canines.
I spend a couple of hours wandering round Mammoth Hot Springs, a place with many, many outlets producing a raft of multi-coloured stepped mineral deposits on the side of the hill. It is bitterly cold, the wind chill taking the temperatures down to minus 15 celcius. Brr.
So, that was Yellowstone. My seemingly annual hankering for landscapes embattled by geothermal activity is satiated and I have had my fill of sulphurous gases. You know, I reckon I got the timing very nearly spot on. A bit gutted I didn't make it to Lamar Valley to see the wolves, so maybe an arrival a few days earlier may have been more satisfying, but to see Yellowstone crisp and sprinkled with snow, the bison beginning to shovel their way to their meals, the roads unburdened...if and when I return I might well aim for the back end of October again.
Next up, about a week trekking across the Great Plains - Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota - into Wisconsin to the Great Lakes and America's second city: Chicago.
Here's the best of the pictures I managed this week. Apologies for the lack of right-way-up-ness in some of them. Photobucket is lame. I'll stick 'em on fbook too...
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