Turns out that Cody, WY has a Sierra Trading Post, so goodbye old and busted.....hello new and shiny!
- Posted by Sara from my iPad
Location:Cody, WY
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Boots
On this trip I discovered that my boots were wearing out...ok so maybe that is an understatement.
Turns out that Cody, WY has a Sierra Trading Post, so goodbye old and busted.....hello new and shiny!
- Posted by Sara from my iPad
Turns out that Cody, WY has a Sierra Trading Post, so goodbye old and busted.....hello new and shiny!
- Posted by Sara from my iPad
Chief Joseph Highway
After some late evening wildlife viewing in Yellowstone's Lamar Valley, we headed back toward Cody via the Beartooth and Chief Joseph Highways. The Beartooth begins in Montana's Gallatin National Forest at Yellowstone's northeast gate, immediately passing through the tiny town of Silver Gate and then the slightly more developed town of Cooke City. We didn't stop, but they seem a cute towns driven almost entirely by the tourist economy trickling through this most remote gateway to Yellowstone. The drive then enters Wyoming and the wilderness of the Shoshone National Forest, passing no more towns until Cody (about 80 miles).
The route is a renowned scenic drive, but I'm sad to say that I can't confirm this because the sun set a few minutes before we left Yellowstone, so beyond some scenic mountain silhouettes early in the drive we didn't see much. What I can confirm is that the Chief Joseph Highway has a section that is insanely curvy. The attached map doesn't even do it justice as it has smoothed out a lot of the curves. At several points I glanced at the Garmin to see a route that resembled very closely a small intestine.
The pitch dark along with my level of exhaustion from a busy day exploring the park made the drive a challenge, but I can only imagine what the views must have looked like. I'm putting this drive on my list of things to do again, but the next time during the day.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
The route is a renowned scenic drive, but I'm sad to say that I can't confirm this because the sun set a few minutes before we left Yellowstone, so beyond some scenic mountain silhouettes early in the drive we didn't see much. What I can confirm is that the Chief Joseph Highway has a section that is insanely curvy. The attached map doesn't even do it justice as it has smoothed out a lot of the curves. At several points I glanced at the Garmin to see a route that resembled very closely a small intestine.
The pitch dark along with my level of exhaustion from a busy day exploring the park made the drive a challenge, but I can only imagine what the views must have looked like. I'm putting this drive on my list of things to do again, but the next time during the day.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:Cody, WY
Yellowstone Adventure - The Game
Yellowstone Adventure
50 bison
20 deer
240 moose
75 bear
250 mtn lion
250 sheep
30 elk
70 antelope
10 small birds(swallows, robins,...etc)
30 medium birds (ducks, geese,ravens/crows)
50 large birds (eagles,pelicans,etc...)
300 wolves
20 small mammal
150 coyote
BONUS
+100 for baby animals NO BIRDS
+20 in a group of five or more
RULES
Game does not ever stop unless you are not in yellowstone.
If you see animals in groups you can not count each individual animal.
The person that has most points wins.
CREDITS
Clancy James
Cassidy Husted
Sara & Shawn Polson
- Created by the yonguns as we drove through Yellowstone
50 bison
20 deer
240 moose
75 bear
250 mtn lion
250 sheep
30 elk
70 antelope
10 small birds(swallows, robins,...etc)
30 medium birds (ducks, geese,ravens/crows)
50 large birds (eagles,pelicans,etc...)
300 wolves
20 small mammal
150 coyote
BONUS
+100 for baby animals NO BIRDS
+20 in a group of five or more
RULES
Game does not ever stop unless you are not in yellowstone.
If you see animals in groups you can not count each individual animal.
The person that has most points wins.
CREDITS
Clancy James
Cassidy Husted
Sara & Shawn Polson
- Created by the yonguns as we drove through Yellowstone
Location:backseat of the car
The wild life
Last year we saw a moose in Newfoundland. There is a post here about it in fact. We were hoping this trip to see a moose in Yellowstone. Alas, no moose were spotted. However, what we did see was nothing short of thrilling.
We saw tons of bison (even calves) and occasionally even shared the road with them, we saw more elk, deer and antelope. We did see a couple of black bears, and more grizzly bears. The highlight of all of our wildlife viewing had to be when we came up on a mother grizzly bear and her two young cubs.
The best places for viewing wildlife are the Hayden Valley and the Lamar Valley. Both of these boast vistas that are among the most beautiful I have ever seen.
In the Lamar Valley we even saw some coyotes. On Thursday we drove through these valleys with our niece and nephew in the back seat and as fun as it was to see the bison, elk and bears, the best part was seeing them with family.
- Posted by Sara from my iPad
We saw tons of bison (even calves) and occasionally even shared the road with them, we saw more elk, deer and antelope. We did see a couple of black bears, and more grizzly bears. The highlight of all of our wildlife viewing had to be when we came up on a mother grizzly bear and her two young cubs.
The best places for viewing wildlife are the Hayden Valley and the Lamar Valley. Both of these boast vistas that are among the most beautiful I have ever seen.
In the Lamar Valley we even saw some coyotes. On Thursday we drove through these valleys with our niece and nephew in the back seat and as fun as it was to see the bison, elk and bears, the best part was seeing them with family.
- Posted by Sara from my iPad
Location:Yellowstone NP
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Cody
We woke up this morning in our luxurious accommodations, which included our own room and a (very comfortable) queen sized mattress, This is luxury indeed for a fifth wheel camper trailer that we are sharing with Sara's brothers family.
Today we decided to recover from our travels, so after an excellent breakfast provided by our generous hosts, we decided to spend some time checking out Cody. There's not much you can say about Cody without mentioning Buffalo Bill Cody. He started the town, financed many of its buildings, and directed its early growth. We took a brief bus tour of the small town.
Between learning the location of the elementary school and the mayor's house, we were told that Buffalo Bill insisted that the towns streets be twice as wide as normal roads because he had been annoyed having to turn his wagons around in narrow city streets when on tour with his wild west show. His vision also secured the tourism that now supports Cody, as he insisted that even though the park is 50 miles away, He insisted that the only way to get to the park from the east was to pass through Cody's downtown (and it remains that way).
We also checked out the Buffalo Bill museum which is quite impressive for such a small town. It is a collection of 5 museums covering everything from Buffalo Bill to Natural History. We spent a couple of hours in the museum, but only made it through one section.
In the evening we went to the Irma hotel (named after Buffalo Bill's daughter) and watched the Cody Gunslingers put on a skit and gunfight in the street. The all volunteer group puts on the nightly performances benefiting various charities. Their costumes were very realistic and Clancy enjoyed getting his pictures with Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Buffalo Bill, and other wild west figures.
We wrapped up the day with dinner and "Mexican" margaritas at La Comida. (side note: apparently "Mexican" is a synonym for very strong) :-)
- Posted by Shawn from my iPad
Today we decided to recover from our travels, so after an excellent breakfast provided by our generous hosts, we decided to spend some time checking out Cody. There's not much you can say about Cody without mentioning Buffalo Bill Cody. He started the town, financed many of its buildings, and directed its early growth. We took a brief bus tour of the small town.
Between learning the location of the elementary school and the mayor's house, we were told that Buffalo Bill insisted that the towns streets be twice as wide as normal roads because he had been annoyed having to turn his wagons around in narrow city streets when on tour with his wild west show. His vision also secured the tourism that now supports Cody, as he insisted that even though the park is 50 miles away, He insisted that the only way to get to the park from the east was to pass through Cody's downtown (and it remains that way).
We also checked out the Buffalo Bill museum which is quite impressive for such a small town. It is a collection of 5 museums covering everything from Buffalo Bill to Natural History. We spent a couple of hours in the museum, but only made it through one section.
In the evening we went to the Irma hotel (named after Buffalo Bill's daughter) and watched the Cody Gunslingers put on a skit and gunfight in the street. The all volunteer group puts on the nightly performances benefiting various charities. Their costumes were very realistic and Clancy enjoyed getting his pictures with Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Buffalo Bill, and other wild west figures.
We wrapped up the day with dinner and "Mexican" margaritas at La Comida. (side note: apparently "Mexican" is a synonym for very strong) :-)
- Posted by Shawn from my iPad
Location:Cody, WY
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Places I have(n't) been
As some of you may know I have actually been to Yellowstone NP before. I was 14 the first time I experienced the awesomeness that is Yellowstone. I worked, selling cookies, doing odd jobs to save up for the camping trip with my aunt Lia. I paid my way (or most of it) and my aunt and I set off with camping gear and cameras. Needless to say it is interesting to see how much the park has changed over the years. This was most obvious at Mammoth Springs in the northwestern part of the park. Here the hot springs flow over and create complex limestone terraces. However, the flow is transient and the flow I saw when I was 14 was completely dry and new limestone deposited flows had taken over part of the old walking trail.
While we were in the northwest corner of the park, we took the opportunity to do something I did not have the chance to do when I was 14... go to Montana. Although, I don't feel like I have seen much of that state, we did have lunch there, so technically that makes it the 46th state I have set foot in. More impressive perhaps than having lunch in Gardiner, Montana was seeing the Roosevelt Arch at the northwest entrance to Yellowstone. It is a huge stone arch that was dedicated by president Roosevelt when the park first opened.
This afternoon we met my mother again at the Norris Geyser Basin to see some more amazing biogeochemisty at work and to say our goodbyes because tonight we travel to Cody, WY where we will meet up with my brother and his family.
We will be spending the next three days and nights with my big brother Don, his lovely wife Alisha, our 14 year old niece, Cassidy and 7 year old nephew named Clancy.
- Posted by Sara from my iPad
While we were in the northwest corner of the park, we took the opportunity to do something I did not have the chance to do when I was 14... go to Montana. Although, I don't feel like I have seen much of that state, we did have lunch there, so technically that makes it the 46th state I have set foot in. More impressive perhaps than having lunch in Gardiner, Montana was seeing the Roosevelt Arch at the northwest entrance to Yellowstone. It is a huge stone arch that was dedicated by president Roosevelt when the park first opened.
This afternoon we met my mother again at the Norris Geyser Basin to see some more amazing biogeochemisty at work and to say our goodbyes because tonight we travel to Cody, WY where we will meet up with my brother and his family.
We will be spending the next three days and nights with my big brother Don, his lovely wife Alisha, our 14 year old niece, Cassidy and 7 year old nephew named Clancy.
- Posted by Sara from my iPad
Location:Yellowstone NP
Monday, July 19, 2010
Yellowstone - Geyser basins
Yellowstone National Park is known for many things. It was the first National Park and is also the largest. Its beautiful and full of wildlife, but one thread connects every part of the park: its an active volcano. Technically its a super volcano with a caldera so large that its 34 by 45 mile dimensions could not be discerned until the advent of aerial imagery.
The most obvious sign of the volcanic activity in the park are the thousands of "thermal features" within and surrounding the caldera. These take many different forms: geysers, thermal pools, mud pots, mud volcanoes, fumaroles . . . These features are awe-inspiring for anyone, but for a microbiologist this is one of the coolest places on Earth.
The first thing that you notice about many of these features is the bright-coloration that makes each unique. The source of this coloration is microbes (bacteria, archaea, algae, etc.). These organisms known as extremophiles can tolerate the very high temperature and extreme pH (acid/alkaline) conditions of these springs and thrive. Sara and I had a great time explaining the various features to her family as we toured through several different geyser basins.
For me it was even more exciting since I actually do research on the microbes and viruses that call these pools home. In fact the week before I left for this trip we submitted a grant proposal to study the microbiology in several of the hot springs at Yellowstone. One of the hot springs we visited at West Thumb Basin (called Black Pool) was previously sampled by our collaborators and I recently analyzed viral DNA sequences from it. It was very cool to be able to stand there and actually put a face on part of my research. The sulfur-laden smell of many of these springs also took me back to my past trip sampling deep sea hydrothermal vents, which are essentially the same thing (but under the sea).
All in all it was a great experience and despite seeing dozens and dozens of thermal features over the past few days, I still wish I had time to see more. My only caveat about this experience is that while we stood there and waited for Old Faithful to erupt, this was probably the least interesting part to me. It was crowded and a lot of waiting around. In the end I found many of the other features we visited, like West Thumb Basin, Sand Pit Basin, Grand Prismatic Hot Spring, Norris Geyser Basin, Mammoth Hot Springs, and the Dragon's Mouth to be much more interesting. Anyone who goes to Old Faithful spends a few minutes wandering around the nearby Upper Geyser basin then assumes all the rest are the same are really missing out on some of the best parts of Yellowstone.
I know this post is getting long, but I have one more thermal feature that I'd like to mention. This feature is well-known, but most people would be surprised to learn that the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, carved by the spectacular Upper and Lower Yellowstone Falls are actually a thermal feature. Scientists have determined that the falls have managed to carve this deep canyon in a geologic instant within the last 14,000 years. The accelerated rate that this canyon has formed is due to the thermal features which heated the rock, making it extremely susceptible to erosion and linking this seemingly independent marvel of Yellowstone, to the volcanic activity which drives life in the park.
- Posted by Shawn from my iPad
The most obvious sign of the volcanic activity in the park are the thousands of "thermal features" within and surrounding the caldera. These take many different forms: geysers, thermal pools, mud pots, mud volcanoes, fumaroles . . . These features are awe-inspiring for anyone, but for a microbiologist this is one of the coolest places on Earth.
The first thing that you notice about many of these features is the bright-coloration that makes each unique. The source of this coloration is microbes (bacteria, archaea, algae, etc.). These organisms known as extremophiles can tolerate the very high temperature and extreme pH (acid/alkaline) conditions of these springs and thrive. Sara and I had a great time explaining the various features to her family as we toured through several different geyser basins.
For me it was even more exciting since I actually do research on the microbes and viruses that call these pools home. In fact the week before I left for this trip we submitted a grant proposal to study the microbiology in several of the hot springs at Yellowstone. One of the hot springs we visited at West Thumb Basin (called Black Pool) was previously sampled by our collaborators and I recently analyzed viral DNA sequences from it. It was very cool to be able to stand there and actually put a face on part of my research. The sulfur-laden smell of many of these springs also took me back to my past trip sampling deep sea hydrothermal vents, which are essentially the same thing (but under the sea).
All in all it was a great experience and despite seeing dozens and dozens of thermal features over the past few days, I still wish I had time to see more. My only caveat about this experience is that while we stood there and waited for Old Faithful to erupt, this was probably the least interesting part to me. It was crowded and a lot of waiting around. In the end I found many of the other features we visited, like West Thumb Basin, Sand Pit Basin, Grand Prismatic Hot Spring, Norris Geyser Basin, Mammoth Hot Springs, and the Dragon's Mouth to be much more interesting. Anyone who goes to Old Faithful spends a few minutes wandering around the nearby Upper Geyser basin then assumes all the rest are the same are really missing out on some of the best parts of Yellowstone.
I know this post is getting long, but I have one more thermal feature that I'd like to mention. This feature is well-known, but most people would be surprised to learn that the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, carved by the spectacular Upper and Lower Yellowstone Falls are actually a thermal feature. Scientists have determined that the falls have managed to carve this deep canyon in a geologic instant within the last 14,000 years. The accelerated rate that this canyon has formed is due to the thermal features which heated the rock, making it extremely susceptible to erosion and linking this seemingly independent marvel of Yellowstone, to the volcanic activity which drives life in the park.
- Posted by Shawn from my iPad
Location:Yellowstone NP
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