Across the country- Day 6 Yellowstone

Day 6
We are off today to the Yellowstone park. We had breakfast in the room to start as we had bought supplies the night before in the camp store. It was a treat to actually be on our own.

Yellowstone was the first park of its kind in 1872 and named a national park in 1917. There are 3,468 sq. miles.
                                                 This area is called Grand Canyon of Yellowstone - 800 foot drop. 

The Yellowstone River is green because of the breaking of the stones.
Lower Falls- south rim 308 foot drop and Upper Falls 129 feet.

                              Crystal Falls drops 129 feet. Here below you see it peaking through the woods.

                                   A little surprise along our pathway that one of the kids saw.

                       There have been many fires in the park over the years.  In 1988 fire burned 1/3 of the park

Our driver asked me if I was nervous traveling along these roads since I was in the front seat. I said no that I was used to it, having traveled a few years in Colorado.

The Park also supports the oldest bison herd in the US. Bison has four stomachs for digestion and have to lie upright where the babies can lie on their side because they only drink milk.

                                                        Calcium combination in the distance

On to Norris . Here we saw Elk on the lawns resting in the shade and then on to see the Hot Springs.  

 Here is the Hot Spring Cone formed 20 years ago. It is now dormant  now water is flowing is at 180 degrees.  On the bottom where the white is like a tum taste but not good to have because never know what is also in it. The Elk can walk through it by then hte water is cool.

 Yellowstone Lake was a volcano 45 X 30 miles and still has underground thermo.  The deeper down the more the temperature of the rocks increases.  Water found on the rocks goes as follows.  Magma- boils..the fumarole- steams, and the Mudpots  are mixed acidic features with limited water.  The different colors are caused by either the depth of the pool or the bacteria growing in it.  The Magna layer is clogs to 6600. feet down,. 
                    There are 1000 geysers in the world and Yellowstone has 460 active ones here.  
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Then on to an area that had many boiling pots and geysers.  First one we came to was Canary Hot Spring.  The first pot was 27 feet and 180 degrees. It was white on the edge and blue in the middle for the depth. The next was a fountain geyser was tapped 1891.  The trees in this area  are called "bobby sock forest" and have been there since 1800s. The hot burns the tree and then the mixture around them is like cement.   

More paint pots at 140 degrees of sulfuric acid and  the Excellor Geyser produces 4000 gals out of it. 

At last we come to the mighty Old Faithful.  Just wonderful and fascinating that it erupts every 1 1/2 hrs without fail all these years. The pictures say it all. 

There is still time on the clock before the next
 eruption so go get your seat and watch her go!
We are headed back to the Lodge.
See you tomorrow

Across the country- Day 5 traveling

Day 5

We are off at 7:30  traveling through Blackfoot Tribe "lords of the Plains" Reservation.  They grow wheat, barley and hay. They have cows, sheep and bison. And even golf on the reservation. It has 8 major lakes, 175 miles of fishing and Browning has the best schools on the reservations . We will pass through many more Indian Reservation such as Crow, Apache and others.

Our guide told us about Montana. It is 147,000 square miles, has 1 million people and has logging, tourism, mining and a few other industries.  It is a great place for discovering dinosaur fossils . The soil and rocks were able to preserve these for many years.

We pass through the town of Brady where George Montgomery came from. Only 150 people live here.  Then onto Helena the capital of Montana.  The town of the sleeping giant on the mountains. If you look carefully, his face is on the right and his chest expands on the left. 
Then passing by Great Falls which is the 3rd largest in the state. It has 5 waterfalls on the Missouri River used for hydro electric power. 

In Wheat, Montana there are 15,000 people here at an elevation of 5,000 feet.  This little town has a 3rd generation wheat farm which won the Guinness Book of Records for having wheat to Bread  on the table in 7 or 8 minutes.

We are going along the highway and pass a sight that we were supposed to stop at, called Earthquake Lake 190 feet deep.  Here on August 17, 1959, 28 people lost their lives.  The 7.5 earthquake triggered a massive landslide of over 80 million tons of rock crashing down the into the canyon and blocking the Madison River. In a matter of seconds with the land dropping and tilting it caused sections of the highway to fall into the lake. the water then crested over the Hebgen Dam causing the dam to crack but it still held. Hundreds of vacationers were trapped. When it was all done a new body of water was formed 5 miles long.

The town of fly fishing!

We are passing through Ennis where three rivers coming together: the Jefferson, which is the longest on the left, Gallatin, on the right  and the Madison in the middle.  These three form the Missouri, the longest river in the country.  

Next stop is the West Yellowstone- population 1300 and elevation 6600 feet.  The kids have had enough of the bus.  Our stop is a welcome rest. We head  to the visitors center to check out our options. The boys look at the Junior ranger and bought it to complete on the trip as we go.

(next time tell me when you are taking the picture!)

Rogers is not too happy about the bear getting him!

We decide on the Grizzly and Wolf live exhibit, The wolves are close to us as we walk by. They had long slim legs and are white. It was awesome to be so close. We watched a film about the habitat of the wolves and how they survive.
Onto the big Grizzly

Our place in Yellowstone was new and had just opened this week.

So we are here two days and tomorrow we are off to Yellowstone National Park
See you tomorrow.....

Across the country- Day 4 Lake Sherburne

Day 4

We started off going back to Browning and St Mary to go on a boat ride on Lake Sherburne.  For those that know the area or have a map in front of them, we are going through a the town of Babb population of 146!

Driving along we have wonderful views!

As we approach the Lake we are going to the Many Glacirer Lodge which was built by the railroad around 1910 . They had a fire around 1930 and the crew of the hotel stayed behind fighting the fire with fire hoses. The guests had all been evacuated by the Red Jammers which are car/mini bus that held 17 that had been their only a year.  When the crew called back to the home base in Chicago that they had saved the hotel, the question that came back was "Why"?  It was in the depression and they weren't making any money at that time. 

We took an old boat that was built in the 30's now a diesel from gas down the lake..  And of course the glaciers . The continental divide has three peaks that the water will take for its path to the ocean. We were on the Hudson  peak.  So this means that the water flows to the Hudson Bay and out the Arctic.   The Harrison Glacier is the biggest and there is Gem Glacier the 3rd largest.   Gem Glacier flows through the mountains and to the East. There are only about 25 glaciers left in the park and they feel by 2020 they will be gone.
We then walked through the woods hoping not to meet a bear,
As we get onto the next boat (the fuel is brought up every day -about 7 gals)  to travel around Lake Josephine,

 Ahead of us is The Salamander Glacier  . The snows are 300 feet deep and was formed about 1500. ( known as the " the little ice age that turned into the new glacier) A glacier by definition is a moving mass of ice.  There were 150 glaciers then and now we are down to 25 and the scientists feel by 2020 the glaciers will be gone.

As we get onto the next boat to travel around Lake Josephine we  come across a cow moose. 

We then walked through the woods hoping not to meet a bear.  My pictures shows Bear grass but the Bears don't like it. It only blooms every 6 years and we are the lucky ones to see it!

As we hike back to the lodge to have lunch we have a look through the woods at the Lodge and in the distance on the cliffs you can see the red rock with its agalite.
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.  Eamon can't wait to go horse-back riding... "Is it time yet?"  We finished lunch and walked out the door to find it raining.  Poor Eamon. He was so upset. They were willing to take us, but it wouldn't have been fun in the rain and cold,
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Back to the hotel.
  The temperature was dropping and we had a few snowflakes during dinner,

Tomorrow we move out to Yellowstone on an all day drive.
 See you tomorrow......