Day 8 – Yellowstone ( Old Faithful )

Tuesday, June 11th, 2013

There is sporadic cell phone service and no wifi available in the park so I wasn’t able to update my blog until I was out of the park.

I left Cody Tuesday morning and headed for Yellowstone Park. I reached the park entrance by mid-morning, proceeded to one of the campsites, reserved a spot for two nights ( which was all that was available ), had a quick lunch at the nearest diner and then rode around the ‘ Grand Loop ‘ to Old Faithful, arriving there one week ( to the hour ) from the time I left home. I hiked the trail to numerous other geysers before returning to the entrance to see Old Faithful ‘ erupt.

The scenery in the park is beautiful.

On my trip around the Grand Loop, I saw several herds of bison, some deer and two Elks.

There are numerous sulphur caldrons along the road but I skipped them. The ‘ rotten egg ‘ smell brought back memories from one of my student work terms at the INCO smelter and if I want to experience a foul oder, I will arrange an engineering fishing trip.

Shortly after I left to go back to the campsite I was greeted with large droplets of rain together with sleet. It didn’t last long but it was just long enough to make my hands and arms cold. I understand why so many bikers wear little or no protection but it doesn’t make sense to me. Every time I go for a ride I have to clean my windshield and helmet from all of the bug carcasses and they make quite an impact at highway speeds.

It is obvious from the burned sections of forest around the park, that forest fires are common. It is interesting to see the regenerative power of nature due to natural occurrences. Its too bad that it can’t regenerate man’s pollution. Each of the areas that suffered a forest fire was at a different stage of re growth from young saplings hurrying to become the tallest trees among large white & black tree trunks devoid of any branches or foliage to areas where the new growth has replaced the old forest and only left a few reminders of the fire of long ago.

The campsite is at an elevation of 8000 ft. Although there is no snow there, many of the mountains still have snow patches on them at this elevation and higher.