A few weeks ago we learned that Pete’s Dad was in the hospital, so we decided to go back to California. In May we had spent a month with Pete's folks, helping his Mom recover from knee-replacement surgery. During this time we had realized that Pete’s Dad didn’t have a lot of time left in his life. Thankfully when he passed away, he went peacefully. We spent ten days with Pete's family in Pleasanton helping out. Pete will do a blog posting in tribute to his Dad in the future.
We resumed our road trip by driving from California through Nevada to the Spiral Jetty in Utah.
Robert Smithson conceived of his land art piece in 1970. He leased the land from the state of Utah for $100 a year and hired a local construction company to haul 6,650 tons of rocks and mud from the surrounding hills to create his 1,500-foot-long sculpture.
Situated on the northern shore of Great Salt Lake, Spiral Jetty was created during a drought that had lowered the lake level. When the drought ended a few years later, the sculpture was submerged for almost 30 years.
Since 2002 Spiral Jetty has alternated between being visible and being under water, depending on the season and the amount of rainfall each year. When we visited it was fully visible.
As we walked along the jetty we saw pockets of lake water within the sculpture. The water is red due to salt-tolerant bacteria and algae.
Evidence of the high concentration of salt from the lake shows on the basalt rocks, turning them from black to gray.
One visitor was inspired to create a miniature version in homage to Smithson.
These basalt rocks that Pete is standing by are throughout the landscape, linking the land art to the land. We have wanted to see Spiral Jetty for years, and we are happy could finally visit.
On our way to the Spiral Jetty we happened upon the Golden Spike National Historic Site, which honors the accomplishment of the US transcontinental railroad. The railroad was completed in 1869. A commemorative plaque and railroad tie mark the point of union.
Two railroad companies laid 1,776 miles of track. The Central Pacific Railroad company hired thousands of Chinese laborers who started in Sacramento and built the western tracks over the Sierra mountains. Union Pacific Railroad had a more diverse workforce with European immigrants, Civil War veterans from both sides, and even Native Americans. They started from Omaha and built east. Two replica engines here at Promontory Point, Utah show the meeting point that connected the west coast to the rest of the United States.
From Utah we headed north to Yellowstone National Park. It was our first time in Yellowstone, and we were awed by the wildlife!
This photo shows a mother black bear in deep flowering shrubs. Nearby are her two cubs that we occasionally glimpsed. The ranger told us that the bear has a reputation for aggressively protecting her cubs, so we stayed far away as we watched them.
We were enthralled with the bison. First we saw hundreds of them grazing in the meadows.
Then we saw some close up!
We experienced several bison roadblocks and traffic jams, as cars were slowed to a crawl behind slow moving bison.
If you've visited Yellowstone, chances are you've experienced a bison roadblock. It's so common that there's even a local beer called Yellowstone Road Block.
There are many products that are named for Yellowstone features. Interestingly, Yellowstone whiskey is made in Saint Louis!
This bison had crossed the road to get to a snack of Lodgepole Pine bark.
Along the road we saw lots of evidence that bison enjoy eating the bark of this tree. About 80% of the forests in Yellowstone are Lodgepole Pines, as they can grow in the poor rhyolite (volcanic) soil here.
Named for their role in supporting Native American tipis, the Lodgepole Pine tree grows as a tall, straight trunk with tiny branches towards the top. We learned that without fire the Lodgepole pine cannot reproduce; It requires the heat of a forest fire to open its pine cones.
The National Park Service realized about 40 years ago that fire is a natural part of the park life cycle, and that their years of fire suppression in the parks had weakened the forests. Yellowstone started to allow forest fires to burn in the '70s, trying to control them so that only small areas would burn. But because there was so much dead wood accumulated in the forests, and because there was a severe drought in 1988, the Yellowstone fires that year became uncontrollable and resulted in 25% of the park being burned.
There are 40,000 elk in Yellowstone. Elk shed their antlers every year. At one of the lodges they had a chandelier adorned with elk horns, as well as skulls and horns of bighorn sheep.
These mule deer were eating the grass in front of the old Yellowstone Fort barracks. The fort was originally built to prevent Native Americans from entering Yellowstone
These are American white pelicans. They catch fish while swimming rather than soaring in the air and diving for fish like brown pelicans do.
This great blue heron was hunting in a shallow lake.
Then flew to the other side when people got too close.
On the same lake was a mother mallard duck with her eight fledglings.
There are many ravens in Yellowstone. We enjoyed listening to their different vocalizations and watching their soaring flight.
This Uinta ground squirrel was eating seeds.
Pete took the picture of the squirrel while we were waiting for Old Faithful to erupt.
This Old Faithful geyser eruption at about 9 am included many tourists watching the "show".
The earlier 6 am show was not well attended, but was just as impressive.
Kristina is in front of the Old Faithful Lodge. This style of architecture is called Parkitecture and uses large logs and rocks in walls.
The recently built visitor center shows the National Park Service moving in a more contemporary direction. The exhibits on the geysers and other geothermal features were very informative.
We were pleased that the park has a robust recycling collection program. Here Pete is recycling a used propane canister that we had used with our camp stove.
While not as iconic as the Glacier National Park red Jammers, Yellowstone has eight 1930s refurbished buses that tour the park; Of course they are yellow.
In 1872 Yellowstone was established as the first US National Park. A comprehensive survey by Ferdinand Hayden demonstrated to Congress how incredible this land was. Yellowstone is the only hot spot volcano on land in the world. As a result, over half of the world’s geothermal features exist in Yellowstone National Park. This is Riverside geyser before its eruption.
Riverside erupts about every six hours, spraying water 50 feet in the air like a fireboat. The hot water falls into the Firehole river, creating more steam. Pete videotaped some of the Yellowstone geysers, hot springs and mud pots. If you’d like to watch our 2 minute video on You Tube, click here.
Hot springs constantly release water heated in the earth. This is Morning Glory hot spring, which did look like a morning glory flower.
The rainbow colors are created by colonies of thermophiles, which are heat-tolerant bacteria and algae. Colors range from red to yellow to green to blue, depending on the temperature the different thermophiles like, from 120 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
While hiking around the Mammoth Hot Springs area, we saw travertine formations that are formed as the hot springs melt limestone underground.
The melted limestone is carried to the surface, and when it emerges on a hill it results in enormous and beautiful shapes.
At the Norris Basin area felt like we were on the moon. The sulphur kills most vegetation, leaving a naked landscape with steaming turquoise pools.
The geothermal features are constantly changing. On the left you can see Lodgepole Pine trunks, killed by the heavy silica when this hot spring formed.
Trees and grasses still try to grow in this area, and sometimes they are successful.
You may notice that we’re wearing rain jackets and carrying an umbrella. It rained quite a bit during our visit.
Pete rigged up our tent to withstand the rain. He used bungie cords to hold the rain fly away from the tent, and we were dry inside.
Even though it was drizzling, Kristina was determined to use her Girl Scout training to build a warm camp fire.
Sheer cliffs with basalt columns show the volcanic nature of Yellowstone. The most recent explosion was about 640,000 years ago.
This area is called Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. This is one of the most-photographed views in the park.
Here the yellow color of the canyon walls are visible above the Yellowstone River.
The pink colors are caused by geothermal activity and erosion when the softer rhyolite lava leaves behind iron deposits.
People from all over the world visit Yellowstone. And it’s a favorite vacation place for Americans. We completed our license-plate collecting-game here after spotting the last 12 of the 50 states. As a bonus we even saw Washington, DC license plates.
After four days of exploring Yellowstone we went south to the Grand Teton National Park.
On the way we saw this large grizzly bear just on the side of the road amongst the flowers and grasses. The habitat for grizzlies extends from Wyoming north through Idaho, Montana, Washington, British Columbia and into Alaska.
We stopped for a picnic after we were well away from the grizzly bear!
Our first views of the Teton Range were breath-taking. The rugged mountains rise right from the valley floor to heights above 13,000 feet.
The new Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center in Moose is beautiful example of the National Park Service's more contemporary architecture. It is an environmental-sensitive building, constructed to the LEED Gold standard.
We didn’t see any live moose in the park, but we learned that they hang out by rivers so they can eat the willow trees. A moose can dive 18 feet underwater and hold its breath for a minute!
In the visitor center parking lot we saw this Model A Ford. It was fun to know that a family was touring Grand Teton National Park in the same type of vehicle that was popular 100 years ago.
One of the most popular areas in Grand Teton is Jenny Lake. We drove the scenic loop and stopped to photograph the lake.
We chose a hike near Moose that looped around Lake Taggart.
The scenery was as gorgeous as Glacier National Park, and we thoroughly enjoyed hiking here.
Next we'll take a few days to drive east to Minnesota.
We resumed our road trip by driving from California through Nevada to the Spiral Jetty in Utah.
Robert Smithson conceived of his land art piece in 1970. He leased the land from the state of Utah for $100 a year and hired a local construction company to haul 6,650 tons of rocks and mud from the surrounding hills to create his 1,500-foot-long sculpture.
Situated on the northern shore of Great Salt Lake, Spiral Jetty was created during a drought that had lowered the lake level. When the drought ended a few years later, the sculpture was submerged for almost 30 years.
Since 2002 Spiral Jetty has alternated between being visible and being under water, depending on the season and the amount of rainfall each year. When we visited it was fully visible.
As we walked along the jetty we saw pockets of lake water within the sculpture. The water is red due to salt-tolerant bacteria and algae.
Evidence of the high concentration of salt from the lake shows on the basalt rocks, turning them from black to gray.
One visitor was inspired to create a miniature version in homage to Smithson.
These basalt rocks that Pete is standing by are throughout the landscape, linking the land art to the land. We have wanted to see Spiral Jetty for years, and we are happy could finally visit.
On our way to the Spiral Jetty we happened upon the Golden Spike National Historic Site, which honors the accomplishment of the US transcontinental railroad. The railroad was completed in 1869. A commemorative plaque and railroad tie mark the point of union.
Two railroad companies laid 1,776 miles of track. The Central Pacific Railroad company hired thousands of Chinese laborers who started in Sacramento and built the western tracks over the Sierra mountains. Union Pacific Railroad had a more diverse workforce with European immigrants, Civil War veterans from both sides, and even Native Americans. They started from Omaha and built east. Two replica engines here at Promontory Point, Utah show the meeting point that connected the west coast to the rest of the United States.
From Utah we headed north to Yellowstone National Park. It was our first time in Yellowstone, and we were awed by the wildlife!
This photo shows a mother black bear in deep flowering shrubs. Nearby are her two cubs that we occasionally glimpsed. The ranger told us that the bear has a reputation for aggressively protecting her cubs, so we stayed far away as we watched them.
We were enthralled with the bison. First we saw hundreds of them grazing in the meadows.
Then we saw some close up!
We experienced several bison roadblocks and traffic jams, as cars were slowed to a crawl behind slow moving bison.
If you've visited Yellowstone, chances are you've experienced a bison roadblock. It's so common that there's even a local beer called Yellowstone Road Block.
There are many products that are named for Yellowstone features. Interestingly, Yellowstone whiskey is made in Saint Louis!
This bison had crossed the road to get to a snack of Lodgepole Pine bark.
Along the road we saw lots of evidence that bison enjoy eating the bark of this tree. About 80% of the forests in Yellowstone are Lodgepole Pines, as they can grow in the poor rhyolite (volcanic) soil here.
Named for their role in supporting Native American tipis, the Lodgepole Pine tree grows as a tall, straight trunk with tiny branches towards the top. We learned that without fire the Lodgepole pine cannot reproduce; It requires the heat of a forest fire to open its pine cones.
The National Park Service realized about 40 years ago that fire is a natural part of the park life cycle, and that their years of fire suppression in the parks had weakened the forests. Yellowstone started to allow forest fires to burn in the '70s, trying to control them so that only small areas would burn. But because there was so much dead wood accumulated in the forests, and because there was a severe drought in 1988, the Yellowstone fires that year became uncontrollable and resulted in 25% of the park being burned.
There are 40,000 elk in Yellowstone. Elk shed their antlers every year. At one of the lodges they had a chandelier adorned with elk horns, as well as skulls and horns of bighorn sheep.
These mule deer were eating the grass in front of the old Yellowstone Fort barracks. The fort was originally built to prevent Native Americans from entering Yellowstone
These are American white pelicans. They catch fish while swimming rather than soaring in the air and diving for fish like brown pelicans do.
This great blue heron was hunting in a shallow lake.
Then flew to the other side when people got too close.
On the same lake was a mother mallard duck with her eight fledglings.
There are many ravens in Yellowstone. We enjoyed listening to their different vocalizations and watching their soaring flight.
This Uinta ground squirrel was eating seeds.
Pete took the picture of the squirrel while we were waiting for Old Faithful to erupt.
This Old Faithful geyser eruption at about 9 am included many tourists watching the "show".
The earlier 6 am show was not well attended, but was just as impressive.
Kristina is in front of the Old Faithful Lodge. This style of architecture is called Parkitecture and uses large logs and rocks in walls.
The recently built visitor center shows the National Park Service moving in a more contemporary direction. The exhibits on the geysers and other geothermal features were very informative.
We were pleased that the park has a robust recycling collection program. Here Pete is recycling a used propane canister that we had used with our camp stove.
While not as iconic as the Glacier National Park red Jammers, Yellowstone has eight 1930s refurbished buses that tour the park; Of course they are yellow.
In 1872 Yellowstone was established as the first US National Park. A comprehensive survey by Ferdinand Hayden demonstrated to Congress how incredible this land was. Yellowstone is the only hot spot volcano on land in the world. As a result, over half of the world’s geothermal features exist in Yellowstone National Park. This is Riverside geyser before its eruption.
Riverside erupts about every six hours, spraying water 50 feet in the air like a fireboat. The hot water falls into the Firehole river, creating more steam. Pete videotaped some of the Yellowstone geysers, hot springs and mud pots. If you’d like to watch our 2 minute video on You Tube, click here.
Hot springs constantly release water heated in the earth. This is Morning Glory hot spring, which did look like a morning glory flower.
The rainbow colors are created by colonies of thermophiles, which are heat-tolerant bacteria and algae. Colors range from red to yellow to green to blue, depending on the temperature the different thermophiles like, from 120 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
While hiking around the Mammoth Hot Springs area, we saw travertine formations that are formed as the hot springs melt limestone underground.
The melted limestone is carried to the surface, and when it emerges on a hill it results in enormous and beautiful shapes.
At the Norris Basin area felt like we were on the moon. The sulphur kills most vegetation, leaving a naked landscape with steaming turquoise pools.
The geothermal features are constantly changing. On the left you can see Lodgepole Pine trunks, killed by the heavy silica when this hot spring formed.
Trees and grasses still try to grow in this area, and sometimes they are successful.
You may notice that we’re wearing rain jackets and carrying an umbrella. It rained quite a bit during our visit.
Pete rigged up our tent to withstand the rain. He used bungie cords to hold the rain fly away from the tent, and we were dry inside.
Even though it was drizzling, Kristina was determined to use her Girl Scout training to build a warm camp fire.
Sheer cliffs with basalt columns show the volcanic nature of Yellowstone. The most recent explosion was about 640,000 years ago.
This area is called Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. This is one of the most-photographed views in the park.
Here the yellow color of the canyon walls are visible above the Yellowstone River.
The pink colors are caused by geothermal activity and erosion when the softer rhyolite lava leaves behind iron deposits.
People from all over the world visit Yellowstone. And it’s a favorite vacation place for Americans. We completed our license-plate collecting-game here after spotting the last 12 of the 50 states. As a bonus we even saw Washington, DC license plates.
After four days of exploring Yellowstone we went south to the Grand Teton National Park.
On the way we saw this large grizzly bear just on the side of the road amongst the flowers and grasses. The habitat for grizzlies extends from Wyoming north through Idaho, Montana, Washington, British Columbia and into Alaska.
We stopped for a picnic after we were well away from the grizzly bear!
Our first views of the Teton Range were breath-taking. The rugged mountains rise right from the valley floor to heights above 13,000 feet.
The new Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center in Moose is beautiful example of the National Park Service's more contemporary architecture. It is an environmental-sensitive building, constructed to the LEED Gold standard.
We didn’t see any live moose in the park, but we learned that they hang out by rivers so they can eat the willow trees. A moose can dive 18 feet underwater and hold its breath for a minute!
In the visitor center parking lot we saw this Model A Ford. It was fun to know that a family was touring Grand Teton National Park in the same type of vehicle that was popular 100 years ago.
One of the most popular areas in Grand Teton is Jenny Lake. We drove the scenic loop and stopped to photograph the lake.
We chose a hike near Moose that looped around Lake Taggart.
The scenery was as gorgeous as Glacier National Park, and we thoroughly enjoyed hiking here.
Next we'll take a few days to drive east to Minnesota.
