Day #65 - 5/16/2011 - Gardiner, MT to Casper, WY - 430 miles

As if yesterday's 475 miles was insufficient, we covered 430 awesome miles today from Gardiner, Montana to Casper, Wyoming.  This is how we went.

The Super 8 - our motel-on-the-road of choice, before we pulled out.  The complimentary breakfast is pretty decent, but usually not ready until 6am. 

We were up at 5am and enjoyed oatmeal in the room.  I wanted to be at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone by 6am to enjoy the sunrise.

96% of Yellowstone National Park is in Wyoming, 3% in Montana and 1% in Idaho.  We had just pulled out of our Super 8 Motel and left Gardiner, Montana before seeing Bambi.  Bambi was a Montana 3%er and was grazing just outside the park.

I was really excited by entering Yellowstone, especially about seeing Mammoth Hot Springs.  I had seen pictures of it before and, as we drove by it late yesterday afternoon, the colors were stunning.  And, we'd be there by sunrise...I love the colors that sunrise (and sunset) bring...

Mammoth Hot Springs is a large complex of hot springs on a hill of travertine limestone

...except there was no sun!!  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!  We had driven by the springs yesterday in late-day sun and we didn't stop..."we'll be here tomorrow", I thought.  (Note to self: there is no tomorrow...only now.)

The wooden footpath meandered endlessly around the springs with stairs connecting the different levels.

Even though the lighting was bleak, the MHS were still spectacular.  I took photos as best as I could under cloudy skies.

Can you tell how dramatic the landscape looks when it is so cloudy?  Not really, I guess.  The heavy cloud cover and lack of sun was killing me.  It's not like I was going to be able to drop in on the next sunny day.  Here...get a better look and click on the photo.

Well, even if it was gloomy, the landscape was breathtaking.  Mammoth Hot Springs was created over thousands of years as hot water from the spring cooled and deposited calcium carbonate (over two tons flow into Mammoth each day in a solution).

The footpath around the springs was pretty elaborate.  The posted signs give an estimated time to walk the path of about 2 hours.

After nearly two hours of walking the footpath, I gave up on the sun breaking through the stratus cloud cover and started to return to the car.  And, then...Mr. Sun appeared and the colors popped.  

The problem with coming to a grand and vast area like this for the first time is knowing how to photograph it.  I've found that the best photographs of the American landscape are by those photographers who live in the area and can return at will.  Anyway, this panorama measures over 18' in diameter.  How many do you need?  Click!

 The footpath gave a thousand different angles on the springs and the rock formation with just as many different looks.

The limestone formations results when superheated water that is supersaturated (we're talking superduper saturated) with calcium carbonate, reaches the surface and carbon dioxide degasses from it.  This causes the pH to rise and the calcium carbonate is deposited and eventually hardens into travertine.

Even though I had spent nearly two hours walking the path and taking (gloomy) pictures, I retraced my footsteps, basking in the beauty of the algae-tinted superheated water cascading over the limestone.

Terrace Mountain at Mammoth Hot Springs is the largest known carbonate-depositing spring in the world. Though the area is outside of the caldera that creates Yellowstone's geysers, the energy that powers Mammoth Hot Springs has been attributed to the same magmatic system that fuels other Yellowstone geothermal areas.  I hope you're clicking.

Every few steps offered a different perspective of this awesome display of rock and water.

How many pictures are enough?  100?  300?  Is it okay if you shoot 400 pictures and walk away with only one to be proud of?  This panorama is stitched from four images and measures about 15' in diameter.

Before my first trip to Yellowstone in December of 2009, I had read about and seen pictures of Mammoth Hot Springs.  The springs are not accessible in the winter because of the snow cover.  I had wanted to return here ever since.  The beauty of the springs exceeded expectations.  Go, National Park Service.

The springs made it look like liquid limestone was cascading over the formation.

Lani had long since returned to the car and, after taking one look back, so, finally, did I.

Mid-May and winter was still clinging to the mountains.  At the springs, we were at 6200' in terms of elevation.

 After another 90 minutes of Mammoth Hot Springs, I returned to the car (where Lani was already napping) and we moved on through the park.

Yellowstone sits on the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest volcanic system in North America, aka the Yellowstone Supervolcano.  What makes in super?  It's the size: 34 miles by 45 miles.  Anyway, the park is alive with geothermal activity, like this smoking hill.

The scenic features in Yellowstone are endless: lakes, mountains and, my favorite, the geothermal stuff.  Bubbling hot springs are almost as cool as geysers.

The hotter the water, the more blue and clear it becomes.  Below 190ºF, algae growth creates greens and oranges.  I love the geothermal heat contrasted against the ice and snow of winter.

 Moving along, I parked the car to see how close I could get to a gaggle of geese.

318 species of birds have been described in Yellowstone, including 34 species of duck and duck-like species, including geese.  As I approached, they jumped into the water and crossed the stream.  I gave them their space.

90 miles later, after turning towards the eastern entrance of the park, we were turned back: snow still blocked the highway.  We had to turn back and retrace 20 miles.  But, for our efforts, we were rewarded with the sight of a grizzly crossing the snow and entering a stream.

The Grizzly is a ginormous predator and needs its space....lots of it.  Spawning cutthroat trout are an important late-spring and early-summer food source for bears, providing bears the opportunity to regain body mass after emerging from hibernation.  That's why the Grizzly crossed the river.

The wildlife in Yellowstone is as amazing as it is just everywhere, from bison to bear, you just really don't have to look very hard.  Coyotes occasionally lose their wariness of humans and frequent roadsides or developed areas, becoming conditioned to human food by receiving handouts or picking up food scraps.  Like the bison and bear that crossed our paths yesterday, the coyote we met was unphased.

The coyote is a major predator in the park, though not the biggest.  The reintroduction of wolves in 1995 significantly decreased the coyote population, probably because of competition for food.  Park cougars will occasionally snack on coyotes.

We finally made it out of the Yellowstone, taking the south exit towards Jackson and then turned east.  This part of the country contains an immense area of national parkland, including Targhee National Forest, Yellowstone National Park, Teton National Forest, Shoshone National Forest and Bridger National Forest.  This vast continuous parcel of land covers 31000 square miles.    Wow.

Along the way, we pulled into Dubois, Wyoming and looked for the downtown.

4 stars on Yelp, its own page on the Book of Faces, we pulled up for some lunch.

Dubois, Wyoming was originally known as Never Sweat due to its warm and dry winds.  The postal service, however, rejected the name as unacceptable. Dubois, named after Idaho Senator Fred Dubois, was accepted. In protest, the citizens of Dubois rejected the French pronunciation, and pronounce their city as "Do-Boys" with the accent on the first syllable.  Such rebels. 

You'll never guess what Lani found across the street from the Cowboy Cafe.  Yes...here in this old cowboy town of 962 that dates to before 1890 was a collection of used and old books.

 Remember the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?  Butch Cassidy (Robert LeRoy Parker) owned and managed a ranch on the outskirts of Dubois from 1890.  The body of Marine PFC Chance Phelps was taken to his parents' home in Dubois after his death in Iraq in 2004. The story is featured in the HBO film Taking Chance.  It turns out that there's a lot of history and culture here.

Florida tourists enjoying lunch at the Cowboy Cafe.

91% of Wyoming is classified as rural so, no surprise, it is the least populous state in the nation with a bit more than 500,000.  Cheyenne, the state capitol, has only a few thousand more people than there are students on the UF campus. 

Even though mineral income (including natural gas, crude oil and uranium) is the backbone of the state economy, agriculture still plays a role.  The Wyoming Cattlewomen advocate for the livestock industry.  Crowheart is a census-designated place with a population of 163.

 Several American Indian groups inhabited the region before it was Wyoming. The Crow, Arapaho, Lakota, and Shoshone and other tribes encountered European explorers.  French Canadian trappers left behind names like "La Ramie".

Abandoned rural home, but it was the beehives that caught my eye.  Wyoming has about 65 bee farms, with about 32000 hives.  (5 hives or more qualify as a bee farm.)  .About 2 million pounds of honey are produced per year, a fraction compared to what CA and FL produce.  The Wyoming beekeeper produces honey from the hay fields in March and from alfalfa in the summer

 We continued to be impressed by the vast stretches of highway and the occasional small, small town...sometimes, not even a town, just a "census designated place" or an "unincorporated area"  

Not a town, but a "census designated place", Kinnear has a zip code a post office and is one reason why the post office is facing insolvency.

And, like the small towns of the Texas and elsewhere, I was continually impressed by the remoteness and tiny populations.

Even though there are just 10 people, Hiland has its own zip code and post office.  At one time, Poison Creek (as it was known earlier) had the largest machine-shearing facility in the West. 

And, like Texas, the rail road of the 19th century had much to do with why some of these places where even here.  There.  Nowhere.

I never found out what Bad Bob's  was, but how could I pass on the picture?  I'll have to return for the sign.  Do you think it would be missed?

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of driving, we pulled into Casper, Wyoming for the night.  Just a few more days, and then back to the bikes.

Lani's kicks back in the car as the hundreds of Wyoming miles pass by.