Yellowstone Wildlife

The Super 8 at West Yellowstone was adequate. For the daily rate, it should have been outstanding, but it was clean and quiet which are our minimum requirements for lodging. Although it is called the West Yellowstone Super 8, the motel is several miles west of the town of West Yellowstone. Since the town is very much like any resort town, there are lots of overpriced shops, restaurants and bars with names like The Slippery Otter Pub, Wild West Pizzeria & Saloon and The Buffalo Bar. Rates and taxes in the town would certainly be higher, so it is not surprising that the Super 8 was out of the main business thoroughfare.

As usual, we awoke around 5:30 and did some things in the room like our daily German lessons. Then we went to the front desk for the grab-and-go breakfast of a granola bar, Danish, apple and water bottle before getting on the road.

We stopped by the post office in West Yellowstone to mail our quarterly state and federal taxes as well as a few postcards to family. We got into the park using Mark’s lifetime National Park pass, saving us $30 for admission. The outside temperature was in the upper 20s, so our long pants and jackets felt pretty good. Like yesterday, the smoke from forest fires is not as bad as we had in Idaho.

Our first stop today was Roaring Mountain, a bleached hillside marked with fumaroles and hot springs. The dissolved minerals in the hot water precipitated out when the water cooled on the surface, giving the rocks a coating of hardened minerals. Trees growing near the mineral water flow took up minerals through their roots along with the water. Eventually, the minerals clogged the vascular tissue of the trees causing them to die; the bottom foot or two of their trunks are white from the minerals. The name, Roaring Mountain, came from the hissing sound made by the fumaroles and vents.

Our next stop was at Obsidian Cliff, where the lava flow cooled rapidly without forming crystals, producing the obsidian volcanic glass. Natives as far back as 11,000 years visited this area to obtain the obsidian for tool making. It is believed that much of the obsidian found in ancient burial sites throughout the Midwest originated at Yellowstone’s Obsidian Cliff.

We stopped at Willow Park, a wetland near the road to look for moose. A ranger told us that looking in this area, especially around dusk, is the best place in the park to see a moose feeding. Since we were there early in the day, there did not appear to be moose in the area.

Sheepeater Cliffs are comprised of hexagonal columns of basalt from a 500,000 year old lava flow. Because the lava cooled slowly in this area, the minerals crystalized into the hexagonal columns. The area is named for a band of Shoshone commonly called the Sheep Eaters.

We made a quick stop at Swan Lake to look for wildlife but saw only the water fowl, bison and pronghorns that we have seen throughout the park. We drove on to Mammoth Hot Springs where we hiked the upper and lower trails, sometimes on boardwalks. This area had many geysers, hot springs and fumaroles throughout the entire area.

The underground acid water dissolved the limestone bedrock. Once the water cooled on the surface, the calcium carbonate deposited as travertine that forms the terraces throughout Mammoth Hot Springs.

We drove the short distance into the town of Yellowstone which, unlike West Yellowstone, it entirely within the National Park. Mary went into the Albright Visitor Center to get her National Park Passport stamp while we walked around the streets of the small town that is now operated by the National Park Service.  Several mature elk walked through the streets of Yellowstone unbothered by the gawking tourists. Cindy checked on the dining room for dinner and was advised that our best chance of getting seated was if we were at the door when the restaurant opened at 4:30. We agreed to a small lunch then an earlier evening meal.
We understood that Undine Falls, a three-tiered waterfall, is a Yellowstone “must see” so we made a stop to take photos and enjoy the view. While these falls are certainly beautiful, many waterfalls across the park are just as scenic.

We took the Blacktail Plateau Drive, a six mile drive, to the Bannock Trail where we looked for wildlife. We had seen plenty of bison, elk and pronghorns, but we were hoping to see a bear or moose. We understood that the elk population is much smaller than before the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone. While we hoped to see a wolf, sightings are not common.

We made a stop at a Petrified Tree that is believed to be about 50 million years old. The tree species is now extinct, but it is most closely related to the coastal redwoods of California. On seeing the petrified trees in Yellowstone, frontiersman Jim Bridger commented on the “peetrified trees a’growing with peetrified birds a’singing peetrified songs.”

We drove to Lamar Valley looking for wildlife. Since this is a popular location for viewing bison, elk and pronghorns, there were more cars here than we had seen earlier. We drove nearly to Yellowstone’s Northeast Entrance, turned at Pebble Creek and drove back along the road watching for wildlife. We saw herds of bison throughout the drive, including several herds that stopped traffic while crossing the road. Some bison were dusting in shallow pits near the road. Lots of cars stopped along the road to take snapshots, and some viewers got dangerously close to the bison attempting to get a snapshot with a cell phone. We were driving by a bison herd feeding near a pond and saw a bison calf fall into the pond and struggled to get out for nearly 30 minutes. We were afraid that she would drown, but she made it to an area where she could pull herself up to safety.

We made a stop at Soda Butte, a cone near the road. The name came from a belief by early visitors that the white material making up the cone was soda. However, it is composed of the same type of travertine that makes up the Mammoth Hot Springs area. 

We hoped to hike the Trout Lake Trail, but so many cars were in the parking area so we moved on. We had read that the 1.2 mile loop is especially scenic, but we didn’t want to wait for a parking spot. We decided to walk the Wraith Falls Trail, a one mile hike to waterfalls, marshes and forests.

We returned to the town of Yellowstone around 4 pm and walked around the streets. A bull elk was grazing in a lawn and bugling his presence to all. It cracked us up that we scanned every hill and canyon with binoculars looking for elk when they were walking around in town. I am sure that the increased pressure from the reintroduced wolves has the elk staying closer to places with more people, affording them some degree of protection.

By 4:30 we were in line for dinner at Mammoth Hotel Dining Room. As promised, we were seated promptly in the elegant dining room and given menus with lots of great choices. Mary had elk sliders, Steve had a bison burger, Mark had mac and cheese and Cindy had strip steak. Everyone enjoyed their meals, and we did a lot of sharing at the table. There was a nice rain while we were at dinner, which I am certain was welcome.

We drove back the 14 miles out of the park to West Yellowstone, happy to be getting in early for the first time in a long time. Traffic wasn’t bad except when elk or bison were near the road causing cars to slow for photos.

We stopped for gas in Mark’s pickup in West Yellowstone. Because it is a resort area, prices for regular unleaded ranged from $3.50 to $4.00 per gallon in town. Several stations offered gasoline for $4.50 or more. We went to a local supermarket for breakfast and snack items for the next couple of days. As expected, everything was overpriced. Fortunately we brought most supplies  with us, so we only needed a few things to get us through.

We arrived back at the West Yellowstone Super 8 and did some preparation for Tuesday before turning in. We would be checking out of the Super 8 and spending Tuesday night in the park lodge near Lake Yellowstone. We were looking forward to Tuesday, spending the morning in Yellowstone in the Old Faithful geyser area then traveling to Grand Tetons National Park in the afternoon.

So far, the trip has been very pleasant. The parks have not been overly crowded, and the weather has been great. While the morning temperature has been in the upper 20s, the sun warmed quickly to the 70s for most of the day. We really enjoy traveling and spending time with Mark and Cindy since we share so many interests. Having them with us really enhanced our visit to Yellowstone.

Redwood National and State Parks

Redwoods near the Lady Bird Johnson Grove

We awoke early as usual and did a few things in the room before leaving a little after 7 pm. Our room in the Eureka Super 8 was fine, but wasn’t in the best part of town. It was, however, clean and quiet, which is all we really need. We drove north on Highway 101 and stopped at Clam Beach just north of Eureka. There was a long walk through the dunes to reach the ocean, and we walked along the waterline at low tide and looked for shells and sand dollars. There was a lot of fog making the views limited, but the wind wasn’t bad as we walked along in shorts and T-shirts. We got back to the rental car and continued north on US 101.

Redwood forest

Our first stop was the Redwood National and State Parks Visitor Center. We bought a couple of postcards to send back to family, and I bought a Redwood National Park windbreaker. The rangers at the visitor center were very helpful and gave us a lot of information on the park. We went out of the back of the visitor center to walk along the beach. Because there was so much fog, we couldn’t see much; we didn’t stay there long. Our first stop in the park was at the trail to the Lady Bird Johnson Grove, the location where the First Lady announced the status of the area as a National Park in October 1968. There were a number of large redwood trees all along the trail and a nice place with benches where the plaque commemorates the ceremony in 1968. Several other groups were on the trail, but everyone was keeping distanced.

Mature bull Roosevelt Elk

We got back on northbound 101 to the town of Orick where we saw another elk herd near the road. We stopped and took a few snapshots, especially of the large bull elk. We learned that this herd are Roosevelt Elk, but that California has these as well as Tule and Rocky Mountain Elk. After leaving the elk herd, we drove to the Prairie Creek State Park where there are often elk herds. We didn’t see elk there but found a bench where we ate our usual travel lunch of Ritz crackers and peanut butter.

on the Big Tree Trail

After leaving the visitor center we took the Newton-Drury Scenic Parkway which parallels Highway 101. There were many pull off spots with short trails to selected trees. We opted for the Big Tree Trail that features a redwood of impressive proportions and was named Big Tree. Other trees in the park have been found to be larger, but this tree is still very impressive and very accessible. We also walked the Circle Trail at the same trailhead. We drove a little further north on the Scenic Parkway to the Cathedral Trail that took us to many very large redwood trees as well as through redwood sorrel and many species of ferns. Our last stop on this road was the Ah-Pah Interpretive Trail that is a reclaimed logging road that has been returned to the contour and vegetation that was originally at the location.

False Klamath Bay

We returned to Highway 101 and drove toward Coos Bay, Oregon. We made a few stops along the way for especially scenic views as we drove along the Pacific Coast of Northern California. False Klamath Bay has some beautiful sea stacks with huge waves crashing all around them. There was still low visibility that may or may not have been due to the wildfires in the area. We didn’t smell smoke as strongly as we did earlier in the day, so we were thinking that this is just fog that is limiting our visibility.

Sea Lions at Crescent City, CA

Our last stop of the day was at Crescent City, one of the northernmost towns in California. We drove out on a spit where fishing boats go out each day. There were several small restaurants and food shacks serving fresh seafood. We drove to near the tip of the spit where dozens of sea lions congregate on platforms a few yards from the docks. They were being very vocal and vying for space on the floating platforms. We watched them for a while as we talked with the Koehlers on the cell phone. After about 30 minutes, we continued on toward Coos Bay.
We arrived our Super 8 in Coos Bay, Oregon around 5:30 pm and checked in to our first floor room easily. Our room was small but clean and convenient. We went out to a grocery store to pick up yogurt, fruit and snacks for Friday's drive then went for dinner. Mary found a highly reviewed local seafood restaurant, The Boat. This restaurant is constructed an old boat and a repurposed shipping container. Mary had a halibut fish and chips meal then helped me with the captain’s platter. We both thought that our meals were very good. We started sitting at a table outside, but the wind was a little sharp. We moved into the covered area that wasn’t heated but was sheltered from the wind. We chatted briefly with a local couple as we enjoyed our meals, then got the rental car filled up before going in for the night. 

We were pleased that gas prices here in Southern Oregon are a dollar per gallon less than in Northern California. Buying gas that is nearly $4 per gallon will take some getting used to since we were paying $1.78 per gallon back in Kentucky. We had forgotten that Oregon is one of two US states where gas stations are all full service. That will also take some getting used to. We hope to get a good night’s sleep in preparation for a long drive on Friday north through Oregon to Aberdeen, Washington.