Friday, August 11, 2017

Wyoming, Montana, Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks

After three National Parks in a little over a week, I'm a little burnt out. I've been calling it "scenery fatigue," or park fatigue. So a few days of doing almost nothing are kind of helping. And then I'm going right back into/over the mountains, probably passing through three Canadian National Parks on my way to Vancouver.

Yesterday was not a good day. Today is OK.  Going through 600ish pictures takes a lot of mental energy, though. So this post will be mostly pictures. Some thoughts/words, too. I'm tempted to say not many ... but I know I tend to be long-winded.

From Rapid City, SD, I made a plan about how I was going to do Yellowstone. My host was very helpful, having been there many times, worked in the park, etc. She said I should definitely take the 212 (Beartooth Pass) into the park.

From there I went into Wyoming for just one night. I had an, uh, interesting time in a little bar in Gillette, had a bed to sleep in for a night, then went to Billings for one more night. From there, the park. Maybe not the most direct route, but I'm pretty glad I took the route in that I did.

I did go by Devils Tower, too, which was a good idea. I first saw it pop up about 15 miles away, and it immediately drew my attention.

Devils Tower


There are some cool stories about/around Devils Tower. Most of the tribes in the area actually prefer that it's called Bear Lodge -- almost all of them have a name that translates roughly as that (or Bear Tipi, or Where-bear-lives) -- but you know, white people. But one of them was about a guy who, before WWII, was a professional parachutist (that's a profession?). Well, without permission from the parks or the government or anyone really, he decided he'd get dropped on the top of the tower. Success! He did it. He proved you can parachute with fairly good accuracy. And he also proved you can get stuck for six days in inclement weather until they can organize a rescue party to come get your butt down off the rock.

On the way out of Billings I stopped at Pictograph Caves State Park. I guess I wanted/expected some crazy travel through time experience, but unfortunately with as hard to discern as the images have become it was hard to feel very connected to the people of the past who painted them. It was still very cool and I'm still glad I went.

Pictograph Caves


OK, so Yellowstone.

Beartooth Pass (Entering Yellowstone)


When I started seeing mountains I thought to myself, Oh, cool, I'm almost into the park. Ha, no. It was at least two hours before actually passing through the entrance. Granted, that was with lots of stops. The driving was steep and slow and curvy with lots of switchbacks. My car became almost unresponsive, either from the steepness or the elevation or both. I made liberal use of my car's "auto-manual" feature, basically staying in second and third gear the whole time. First time driving in the mountains; ears popping, head aching. Interesting experience.

At one point I drove by the summit of the Beartooth Pass, and it was over 10,000 feet. I should have stopped to take a pictures, but didn't. Oh well.

Yellowstone National Park


Oh, guess what! I'm a bad planner. I didn't get into the park until 1 or 2 in the afternoon, and (no surprise) the campgrounds were all filled up. I had briefly considered the days before still doing a quick backcountry hike and camping just the one night, but decided against it for many reasons. The ranger at the entry station said that if I was considering camping I should turn around and go to one of the campgrounds I passed coming in. But I'm like Nah, Imma wing it like I always do. Oh yeah, and I went on a Friday. Good idea, right?

Around 5:30pm I hit a hard wall. I was very tired (physically) and getting grumpy. I needed food. Thankfully after eating and getting some caffeine I felt a little better (a little), but really it was a waterfall that woke me up.

The Lower Falls again took my breath away and gave me goosebumps and almost made me cry again. I was walking down the trail to the brink of the lower falls, and the more I walked the more I was like Is this even worth it? Another waterfall?  Well, walking down it's pretty much impossible to see or even get a sense of the falls until you're right next to it. And as soon as I peeked over the edge I was fully awake again and full of energy and joy and whatever. To the immediate right is an enormous waterfall, probably the biggest falls I've seen in my life (tallest -- although there were a few in Ontario that might have been comparable) where the Yellowstone river drops probably a few hundred feet. Then there is the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. And on the left bank there is this beautiful sight where all of the mist from the falls has settled onto the bank, and it's just all green. Lots of new plant growth and actually tiny little rivulets flowing back into the big river. So much mist that it's actually re-condensed and created little streams of its own. The water cycle before my very eyes.

It took me until almost dark before I reached the southern side of the park (Lake region). The few hours leading up to that I had started to think about what I was going to do, where I was going to sleep. I was leaning toward going down into Grand Teton National Park and seeing if any of the campgrounds there had any spaces. Car sleeping, I thought, was basically out. Parking at any of the main lots, in a roadside turnout, etc, were all invitations for a Ranger to wake me up with some not so nice words. At Lake, I stopped at Lake Lodge to try to get wifi (they had it but it wasn't working right on my phone), and then I came up with what I thought was a brilliant idea. Where are there already tons of cars parked all night, and where one extra isn't going to draw any more attention? One of the hotels/lodges, of course.

I left thinking I'd still check the Teton campgrounds, but I got to the exit back to the main road and saw that the sun was already starting to set, and it'd be probably another hour or more before reaching the first Teton campground. Plus then I'd have to pay, and after dark I probably wouldn't even want to set up a tent so I'd probably sleep in my car anyways. So I turned around and did just that. Arranged my "bedroom" in one lot, then drove to the lot I intended to stay in all night, moved a few things around, and got settled. Left around sunrise and no one suspected a thing.

(With the things moved around they way they have to be to make room to sleep, and with the blanket forting ideas I've been trying out, it's almost impossible to see inside the car. Someone would have to be extremely nosy to even know I'm in there. And assuming the car doesn't draw any extra attention, and it shouldn't, no one should have any reason to come near or look or anything.)

It might take some of the romance and specialness out of what could have been a beautiful experience in nature away -- but it also adds a certain trademark Tony the Cheapskate element to the whole thing. So, it's a wash.

Wildlife in Yellowstone National Park


It took almost all day to reach the north side of the park again. Lots of stopping and picture taking, but not a lot of hiking, unfortunately. I finally reached Mammoth Hot Springs by about 4pm. Used wifi in the only building in the park with free wifi I could use, and found the Boiling River before leaving, which was a really unique and really cool experience. It's where water from the hot springs flows into the Gardener River. Move two feet one way or another and you can get water that's either way too hot or too cold.

Oh, the whole no-free-wifi thing is just the beginning of what could be a rant all its own. Yellowstone has to be one of the biggest tourist attractions on earth. Lots of international visitors. And with all those people -- and on Saturday I feel like it really was all of the people -- they try to get as much money out of you as possible. Most shops or restaurants did have wifi, but it was either a pay-by-minute model or you had to buy something from them and they'd give you a code (presumably). Surprisingly, the few places I saw prices in actually had reasonable prices for food, but everything else -- wifi included -- costs money.

Yellowstone is huge, and this post, like my visit, barely scratches the surface. Even if you took out all of the cool geothermal elements and attractions and were just left with forests, mountains, lakes, rivers, canyons, wildlife -- you'd still have a hell of a park. Add in hot springs and geysers and "paint pots" and it's no wonder it's the worlds first National Park.

From there I went to Livingston, MT, where I spent two nights and did my last batch of photo uploading and blogging and sharing, and I cooked some food and relaxed some too. Started to make a plan for Glacier National Park, and kind of last minute decided to look for a couch to surf in Great Falls, MT. Fired off some messages and took off.

Stopped somewhere in the middle and to my surprise, given the very short notice, not one, not two, but three hosts had accepted and made an offer to stay with them for just one night. I updated them all, but plans can change so I didn't accept any one until I was in town. Ultimately, it came down to who it sounded like had the comfier setup. I chose the one with a real bed. Nothing personal.

Glacier isn't as big of a park (it's still pretty damn big), and it doesn't have as many attractions, so I felt more confident in "winging it" there. I got in kind of later in the day, mostly just enjoying a nice, slow scenic drive. Guess what? One of the primitive campgrounds had space! It was a long bumpy drive to get there, but it had a space. I set up a hammock I was borrowed, heated up my leftover dinner from the night before, and got to sleep.

I actually slept quite well, having only hammock slept twice now. It's different for sure, but not bad. And I think at this point my body is just kind of like "Fuck it. You're sleeping, even if you're not comfortable." I was woken up at about 2:30am by a weird hissing noise, definitely wildlife of some sort but I'm not sure what (bird?), which was then followed with some crazy owls that sounded like monkeys. I drifted back to sleep and dreamt of bears and mountain lions, and woke well after sunrise.

Glacier National Park


I woke up to a spectacular view of Bowman Lake and the mountains in the background. I sent that picture to multiple people that morning, as soon as I reached the visitor center and wifi again.

But after Yellowstone, Glacier just seemed smaller. Not less beautiful, just different. The Going-to-the-Sun Road was built up by a few people I had talked to, and honestly I expected more. It was still a beautiful drive with incredible views, but it wasn't bigger or better than the Beartooth Pass I had driven just a few days before.

Remember that "scenery fatigue" I mentioned? Yeah, I think it's partly that. I've seen so much in the past two weeks I'm not "seeing the forest for the trees," so to speak.

Since then ... I kind of rushed up to Calgary for reasons I explained in a post the other day, and I'm not sure what to make of it. I've confirmed over and over that I'm not really a city person. And I don't know anyone here. And I'm kind of socially inept anyways, and again feeling overwhelmed and alone, so I've mostly kept to myself and I feel like I'm just wasting time.

Maybe more on that later. Besides, this is a Wyoming/Montana post. And those were neat.

Assorted Photos from Wyoming and Montana



Yaaaaayyyyy my picture uploads and blogging is up to date.

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