(Click on the thumbnails for a larger image)
Map of Yellowstone Park (from the National Park Service site)
This year's annual family get-together fishing trip was back to the great wilderness of Yellowstone National park. David drove by himself all the way from Michigan, while Mommy and Ken flew in from New York. This was just another leg in Mommy's latest multiple cross-country trip. Stephen and Thuy packed suitcases full of warm weather and cold weather clothes, fishing gear and food, joining Ken and Mommy in Denver for the flight to Bozeman, MT. Stuffing our gear into an all but too small Rav4, we sprinted down to Yellowstone.
It's all about fishing after all, so Ken decided not to waste any time. Upon arriving in Yellowstone, Mommy, Ken, Stephen and Thuy immediately obtained fishing licenses and then went to look for David. David was no where to be found, so we left a message for him at Old Faithful Inn and headed back to the Firehole River near Biscuit Basin. We figured that if David was to be anywhere, his favorite river would be the place to go. Well, he wasn't there, so...let's go fishing! Thuy suited up in her brand-new waders, vest and Tilley hat and took her first foray into a great Western trout stream. There's nothing quite like waking up to the bustle of a mechanized city and finding oneself fly fishing next to grazing bison by the afternoon!
Eventually David wandered out of the woods (he had gotten waylayed by catching 2-foot long trout in Healy Reservoir in eastern Wyoming -- poor guy). Stephen and Thuy hauled out an instant dinner from their luggage: Vietnamese/Cajun boiled jumbo crawfish! This had to be a first in Yellowstone history. Later in the trip, we enjoyed durian that was also buried in the luggage--surely another first for the western wilderness.
We stayed 3 nights at the famous Old Faithful Inn, the largest log building in the world, steeped in ageless charm and grandeur. The 70-foot high atrium is awe inspiring and David, who brought his laptop along, would get up early and plug away at his school work on the second floor coffeeshop -- go figure.
We spent a lot of time following David's red Jeep through the twisting mountain roads, past stands of pine trees and the charred matchsticks from the great fires of 1988. At the higher altitudes, the lakes, like Lewis Lake here, were still frozen .
We did actually stop to see a few sights...and check out the fishing opportunities. There had been a sudden warm spell causing a tremendous amount of snowmelt. The rivers were swollen with icy water making Lewis Falls even more amazing. Time for some requisite family photos--hmmm, doesn't that river back there look interesting?
The old fishing adage is that the best fish are where other people are not willing to go, so Ken assured us that the Lewis River above the falls was "just over that ridge". Yeah, right. But we loaded up and bushwhacked our way through the woods, across the snow and up and over the mountain. Yes, that is the edge of a 200-foot snowbank cliff next to where we are standing.
Ken was always the first on the water. How he got down there, I'm not sure. I didn't attempt it. David perched out on a rocky outcropping that made my knees quiver and took the "River Runs Through It" shot of Ken. Scrambling down a safer route to the river, we were rewarded with spectacularly beautiful scene.
Alas, beautiful did not translate into fish-full (the water was too cold, it turned out), so we trekked out way back, passing a view of the falls that few ever see. The river in the meadow below the falls was too much to pass up, so Ken trotted out to check it out. No fish, but we did see a beaver swimming around.
Warmed by all the hot springs draining into it, the Firehole River was the only river in the park that while high like the rest, was warm enough for the fish to be active. But Thuy abandoned her husband (see him all teary-eyed in the middle of the river?) and went touring the hot springs and geysers with Mommy. Some of the springs are so hot that their waters are an iridescent blue (cooler springs are more brown, due to algae growth). In Yellowstone, hot water bubbles up everywhere.
The land is alive in Yellowstone, the waters boil as the steam rises into the crisp mountain air. The Firehole is aptly named as the fires deep in the mountain spew forth scalding water that rushes to mix with the icy snowmelt.
Mud pots and hot springs bubble with anticipation of geyser eruptions. We tried to catch an evening eruption of the Grand Fountain Geyser off of Firehole Lake Drive (last picture above), but were only treated to a serenity belying the fuming power beneath the surface. For more information on Yellowstone geysers, see http://www.geyserstudy.org/geyser_main.htm
Of course, if you're going to see a geyser, you've got to see Old Faithful. No matter how many times you see it, it always takes your breath away.
Herds of bison were everywhere, oftgen creating mini-traffic jams as cars waited for them to amble across the road. Elk were everywhere too, but for some reason we never got a decent picture of them. We also saw moose, pronghorn antelope, coyote, wolves, grizzly bears, bald eagles, golden eagles, osprey and sandhill cranes.
Back to fishing. Thuy found a nice way to keep cool on the Nez Perce River. At our "secret pond", David landed a 17 inch beauty, easily the largest trout of the trip. Later, Mommy caught a 13 inch trout in the same pond.
Mommy said Thuy couldn't just spend the whole time fishing (we're still trying to figure that one out) and since it was her first time in Yellowstone, she should at least take the walking tour through the Upper Geyser Basin around Old Faithful. Geysers, geysers everywhere. And out of every little crack it seemed there was hot water trickling into the Firehole River.
Friendly ground squirrels greeted us on our morning walk. We made it all the way out to the Morning Glory Pool with its mesmerizing blue depths.
On the way back we were treated to an eruption of the Grotto Geyser group. This geyser is very interesting because the cone is strangely shaped, theorized to have been formed around some ancient trees.
In spite of looking so good on the river and lucky bison wandering through the picnic site at Fountain Flat on the Firehole, Thuy still hadn't caught a trout. After some tutoring by David on how to "swing" a wet fly (caddis and Prince nymphs), she finally hooked up with a beautiful rainbow. She then turned on the talent and proceeded to catch more fish than just about anybody. Stephen conceded to the facts and let Thuy have his net--she's the one that needed it after all.
We then spent the last 3 nights at Mammoth Hot Springs, gleaming white in the mountain sunshine. We stayed in a cozy cabin, which Mommy said we stayed at when we were kids, floating our little plastic boats down a now, non-existent run-off ditch. Thuy thought the cabins were pretty cool--which they were. David wanted to sleep outside, under the stars, ignoring the bear warnings posted on the cabin doors.
Thuy was not so thrilled to discover that the cabin was already occupied by a field mouse. David helpfully locked Stephen in the bathroom with it so he could capture it in a wastebasket. Thanks David--I knew I count on you. Thuy then came running in screaming about the "rats" all over the yard (look carefully in the picture of the cabin above). David went out and fed all those friendly ground squirrels a cracker.
We found a little pond near Mammoth nestled in the hills and filled with feisty brook trout. Since the rivers in that region were unfishable due to the muddy snowmelt, every day we drove all the way back to the Firehole. Twice, on the way back, one day we saw a grizzly bear (the dark spot in the middle of the last two pictures above).
We took a drive out to the Lamar Valley to see the wolves (which we did in fact see), we saw some beautiful sites, including one of many herds of bison crossing the road.
All good things come to an end. I'm not sure why, but they do. We stopped by the Roosevelt Gate entrance to the park and took the requisite "photos by the sign". We'll be back of course, but not soon enough.