Long Day in Yellowstone

West Yellowstone, Montana: We were up, situated, and headed into the park at 8a, with everyone else. It was perfectly clear and 54 degrees. Driving between West Yellowstone and Old Faithful we saw a very nervous coyote running down the road. He looked as he was late for a very important meeting. What an amusing demeanor this guy had. We also saw a Bald Eagle perched on a tree above the Madison River.

We arrived to Old Faithful just about 20 minutes before her projected eruption. We weren't the only people waiting for an explosion:

While waiting, we chatted up a group of young guys from Kentucky who were doing masonry at Grand Tetons National Park. Stuart, a master dry stone mason, told us where to go to see his work around Jenny Lake. Hope we do get to see his artistry.

After the eruption, we took a spin through the gift shop for postcards and continued our circular route along the southern loop in Yellowstone National Park. Our next stop was to Yellowstone Lake to take a photograph looking southeast:

We stopped at Pumice Point on the lake and took another photo of the lake - and a photo of our tow car RV.

All we did all day was pull over at vistas, pull over at short walks/hikes, and pull over if we saw a mess of cars - which means there is a critter nearby. We found this gorgeous boy resting in the shade near Bridge Bay. Can you imagine having to carry that thing around on your head?

Brother Rick informed us the bear population in the park (and in Montana and Wyoming) has exploded. He might be right, because we saw a lot of this:

We stopped in Fishing Bridge to top-off our diesel tank. DT was pretty sure we had enough fuel to get us around the loop, but filled-up just in case. We had paid $3.69 in Idaho, and were surprised to pay ONLY $4.69 in Yellowstone. Face it, they could charge anything they wanted. As we left Fishing Bridge, we spotted a large grey wolf off in the distance. S/he was too quick and too far away for a photo.

Stop #364 of our day was to the very interesting Mud Volcano area. The weather had grown quite warm and gorgeous. The park has constructed a 1k loop over and around the many bubbly pots of mud, and boiling water spilling up into hot lakes. Fascinating and the sulphur smell is very strong. We cracked-up at all the kids complaining about the smell.

There was so much evidence of bison hanging out at Mud Volcanoes. Mud wallows, dung, foot prints. (We also saw grizzly bear footprints!). So many beautiful wildflowers and exoticly bleached dead trees.

Finally, at Hayden Meadow, we stopped for a good while, made sandwiches and relaxed for a bit. On the fields above and below were hundreds of bison cows with their young. As far as the eye could see, but they were about 400m away from us so this is all I can offer in way of proof:

Next on the itinerary was to see the Upper and Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of The Yellowstone. Wasn't meant to be. We could not find a parking spot and it took us 30 minutes to get through the parking area because of people waiting for other cars to back-out and exit. So annoying. We were able to park on the road about 1/4 mile from the lower falls and here are the photos I snapped while there:

And this is when our day turned to dog doodie. As we were nearly completing our loop at Norris, and were less than 30 miles from our campsite, cars coming towards us began flashing their headlights at us. We had no idea what was up, except this usually means to either turn on your headlights, or they are warning of an approaching danger. No idea, but a few miles later traffic came to a complete halt. Usually this is a good sign in Yellowstone as it means there is a Grizz pulling-up grubs or a Bison napping on the side of the road. Nope. Just a line of cars that we could not see to the end. We waited. Then a few people left their cars and jogged down to see what was happening, but returned to report they could see no end to the line of cars.

There were no cars approaching us in the oncoming lane, but the lane was being used by Park Rangers going back and forth at high speed, lights flashing. None stopped to offer any information to the hundreds of cars in line. Finally DT wondered if the tow truck a few cars ahead of us would possibly have a CB radio, so I walked up and the driver rolled down his window. My first thought that the person driving a large flat-bed tow truck with a smashed car on the back could not be old enough to even have a driving license. So young! He told me his radio said there was a very serious accident ahead and there was no way to determine how long it would take to reopen the road in either direction. Hmmm.

Sometimes a car or two would come past us and we had hopes the road was opening, but it was soon determined these cars were simply making a U-turn. If we had to turn around, it would mean retracing our entire days drive and add hours to our day... when we were SO CLOSE to our campsite. We decided to wait it out. So we waited. And waited. More and more cars were making U-turns, and after two hours the rangers set up a turn-around a few miles down the road (closer to the accident) and told people to turn around and that they had set-up a cut-through for cars (NOT RVs) and were making this two-way cut-through a temporary one-way to get everyone in line out of there. We turned around and pulled into a large parking area for a hiking trail, along with a few other large rigs. None of us knew what to do. Wait. Turn around?

Finally a park ranger stopped to talk with the confused crew. He was completely worthless. He knew nothing because he was stationed at Glacier National Park and had been sent to Yellowstone due to a shooting on the 4th of July in the park. He told us there was a terrible accident involving a small RV. Head-on collision. I asked if anyone had been injured, and by the way he answered yes, we knew someone had died. Then he said there was a propane tank leaking fuel so HazMat had been called in... but then he said the propane tank was on the RV, so everyone listening to him knew it couldn't have been that much propane from a RV tank. The Glacier Ranger said he didn't know. That was his main theme of the entire conversation. No answers. Everyone talking to the ranger decided to retrace our routes and not wait for the accident to clear.

So, Dear Reader, DT and I drove our entire route again - in reverse. It added 70 miles to our day and with the waiting and driving, we were away 12 hours! Thank goodness DT had topped-off the fuel tank. And how blessed were we that we had food, water, and a bathroom with us during this emergency. I will not complain, as obviously someone (at least one person) has died. I can't imagine the horror, and discussing it with Dave on our long sad route back to West Yellowstone, know the person driving the RV was probably not alone, as there is rarely a single person in a car in Yellowstone. So many families in RVs. It is just heartbreaking, but I can't yet learn any facts. (NOTE: Googled for weeks; learned nothing.)

We arrived back to West Yellowstone about 8p. The first thing we both did was go for a bit of a walk as we were so stiff from sitting the past several hours. The planned tofu and asparagus stir-fry with ginger and sesame went bye-bye and I opened a can of chili. Not even homemade. From a can. After showers, I edited 40 photos, DT went to bed, and I blogged.

There may be more to tell of this tale, but for now, I am going to bed as well. Forgive typos. No time for editing.

Until my next update, I remain, your concerned correspondent.

Campground Information: Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park - This is the best commercial RV park (in my opinion) to camp in to explore the park. We paid $121 per night with a senior discount for a full-service gravel back-in with picnic table. Laundry, bathhouse, playground, gift shop, ice - and you can walk to town to a large variety of tourist shops and restaurants. The Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center is less than two blocks away.

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