Days 207-213: Yellowstone, the Super Volcano

Yellowstone: the Super Volcano

Days 207 – 213

July 23 – 29

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone is a name that everyone recognizes.  It was the first place in the United States to be declared a national park.  It has 4.5 million visitors every year.  And it feels like waiting in line at Disneyland when trying to drive anywhere.  Despite the obvious downfall of being in an overcrowded natural landscape, hype about Yellowstone only undersold the place.  It is a truly spectacular wonderland, something that can only be appreciated through experience.  Like seeing the immensity of the Grand Canyon for the first time, the active thermal areas in the Yellowstone Caldera left our jaws wide open.  Even spending a week there was not enough time.  God truly is the greatest artist, and Yellowstone is one of his masterpieces. 

Our first stop was Mammoth Springs.  Bacteria have created unique
patterns in the rocks where hot sulfuric water overflows.

Cliff walls here have their own flavor.

We spent two nights sleeping in a thermal field, waking up each morning to sulfuric steam rising from the ground in every direction.  We summited a peak together.  We hiked to a towering waterfall in the morning before the crowds arrived, taking in the experience with shared solitude.  We backpacked with herds of buffalo in Lamar Valley, getting a little too close to the 2000 lbs. beasts on more than one occasion.  We stared with fascination into unbelievable rainbow-patterned thermal pools colored with bands of thermophiles and extremophiles that have lived there for the better part of the last billion years. 

Lynzee is our campfire master!

We had to stand next to Fairy Falls to show how tall it was!

Sitting atop the summit of Twin Peaks (at least one of the summits).

Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

Getting close to the Buffalo was an exciting experience.

Lamar Valley in the early morning.

We followed the Lamar River to our second campsite in the valley.

Saying our goodbyes on our last morning in Yellowstone.

Grand Prismatic Spring.  Just. Wow.
The colors come from the thermophile and extremophile bacterium.
This is the oldest known organism on Earth: one-billion years!

With a stroke of luck, we were able to see three massive geysers erupt in sequence: Old Faithful, Riverside, and Grand.  The later of these was so large that we retreated to a further vantage point, lying next to each other on the wooden boulevard, watching the super-heated spray vaporize into a cloud, contorting as it rose and cooled and condensed and rained tiny droplets onto our faces. 

Riverside Geyser shoots sideways and rains down
on the river below.

I cannot imagine Yellowstone with a better adventure partner; it is a blessing to share a beautiful experience with a close soul.  

Days 201-203: Montana's Glacier-Carved Mountains

Montana’s Glacier-Carved Mountains

Days 201 – 203

July 17 – 19

Glacier National Park

We were now in grizzly bear country, and I was happy that we had the locking hard cases on the bike to store our food.  The night before our arrival into Glacier National Park, we camped in the forest just outside of the south entrance.  To ensure we wouldn’t wake up with a bear poking its head in our tent at 2:00 AM, we put all of our food and anything with an aroma into one hard case and stashed it downwind and far away from our campground.  If a grizzly bear wanted to kick around the case while trying to get inside it, at least he would be doing it from a safe distance. 

We rode into Glacier just after sunrise, bolting towards one of the many first-come-first-serve campgrounds that fill up in the early morning.  Pink clouds filled the sky.  It was a cold ride, weaving past the glacial lakes and roadside waterfalls that punctuated the winding mountain roads.  I couldn’t take my eyes off of the road, and Lynzee couldn’t take her eyes off of the scenery, mentally noting all of the places that we needed to revisit during our three day stay.  We arrived just in time to snag ourselves a campsite.  

The placid glacial lakes make for great photos of the mountains.

Lynzee wants to be a Junior Ranger.

Glacier just after sunrise.

On our way to watch the sunset, we found this gemstone waterfall.

I wanted to summit a mountain to get a better view of the park.

And I found a mountain goat on my way up.

Portrait on the summit of Mount Oberlin.

Waterfalls from the snow melt fall directly on the roadways.

We watched the sunset from a beach with rainbow-colored pebbles.

Contrary to what the name of the park implies, there are not many glaciers left in this national park.  Climate change has taken its toll, and most of the glaciers have retreated into tiny pockets on the northern faces.  I made it a priority to see the most accessible of these: Grinnell and Salamander. 

The route out to Grinnell Glacier.

The patterns on some of the rocks are unbelievable.

Staring at the remains of the Grinnell Glacier.

Salamander on the right, Grinnell on the left, and a waterfall in the middle
from all of the melting snow.  Salamander and Grinnell used to be one glacier,
but they have melted tremendously in the last decade.

Heading back from the glacier.  It may not be here the next time I get a
chance to visit the park.

On our last night in Glacier, two astronomers hosted a stargazing program with two massive telescopes set up in a parking lot.  We spent hours discovering parts of the universe enlarged to a scale that we had never seen with our own eyes.  The craters of the moon, the rings of Saturn, the moons of Jupiter, the spiral arms of the Andromeda galaxy, and some of the brightest stars in the northern sky: Vega, Rigel, Betelgeuse.  We stared wide-eyed at each other after each new stargazing experience, sharing our fascination with discovery and nature. 

Before Glacier, we were growing close to each other.  Our days were so full and so long that we already felt like old friends.  It was uncanny how much we had in common.  There were discussions about futures, and where we wanted to end up in life.  It was here in Glacier, laying in our tent on the last night, that I asked Lynzee to be my girlfriend.  She said “yes,” making me a lucky man.  

I'm a lucky man to have this woman in my life.