Monthly Archives: August 2018

Skywatch Friday – Hike to Trout Lake at Yellowstone Park

During my trip to Yellowstone Park earlier in August to see my sister, we took a hike up to Trout Lake. It was a hike that kicked my butt but was only 200 feet in elevation change. But it was worth the climb. The lake is absolutely gorgeous as are the the views from the lake.

There were a couple guys fishing from floats for cutthroat trout. One of them told us that he had caught (and released) eleven and they were gorgeous with deep rich colors. He was a little older guy and mentioned that the hard part was hauling all the gear up the trail from the road. I had a feeling that he lived not far from the Park. I am wondering if he stashes his gear nearby.

My fellow bloggers over the years have taught me the beauty of imperfection and change in plants. So I took lots of pics of plants in the midst of transition. Nature is beautiful in all its cycles.

Here is my sister Ellen, the Park Ranger. I felt guilty as we were out from 8 am to about 9 pm every day. She loves showing off Yellowstone Park. Check out her blog. She saw wolves today on a hike.

Here is my Garmin connect view of our outing. It doesn’t lie, like I might. It says 200 feet of elevation change, I’d of sworn 2000 feet. And 1. 4 miles long. Why, it was easily six miles, if not longer.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday today. Come join us! You don’t have a blog? You can link an Instagram photo!

I’m a little late with my post. I was going to write it Wednesday night along with setting up the Skywatch Friday meme and my brand spanking new Dell laptop with super duper quad core processor and solid state hard drive decided to not work, at all!!! As I thought about it though I remembered that Staples, where I bought it from, had given me a thumb drive which they said to keep track of because it was a recovery drive. So a few hours ago, I stuck it into my Dell and fired it up and it came up normally and asked if I wanted to restore my settings to factory, and I said yes and everything now works fine. What’s up? Can anybody tell me?

Our World Tuesday – Yellowstone Park’s Grand Prismatic Spring

My last few posts have been about my recent trip to Yellowstone National Park to see my sister Ellen, the Park Ranger (so proud of her, our father was a Forest Ranger so it is great to see her carrying on the tradition). I only spent a few days with her as we went around the Park and the adjoining Grand Teton National Park, but I saw so much.

So one day we went to see the Grand Prismatic Spring at Midway Geyser Basin. I’ve seen lots of photos of it the last few years and maybe, or maybe not, I saw it as a kid during our whirlwind 1960’s style vacations that we took as kids.

This trip I was wondering what the first people who saw the thermal features in the park thought. Steam and boiling hot water coming out of the ground. What a wonderland or what a nightmare. Plus the ground could give way any time sending somebody to their doom or at the very least severe burns. Something that happens to the dummies today who think the rules do not apply to them.

Yellowstone is a wonderland in many senses of the term. Its natural beauty is astounding and its supernatural features such as the geysers and hot springs are bewildering.

When you leave the parking lot of the Grand Prismatic Spring you come upon this scene of boiling hot water entering the aptly named Firehole River. The chemical engineer in me was doing mixing calculations trying to figure out how much the temperature of the hot water raised the river temperature plus wondering how much bad stuff from deep down in the earth is now dissolved in that how water, and how much precipitates out of solution when it mixes with the cold water, and how the remaining dissolved minerals and higher temperature affected the trout fishing. My sister just said she sees lots of fishermen (fisherwomen too!) on the River and so I decided I would worry about something else, especially since I didn’t bring my calculator with me.

But it was like entering a different world with all the steam all around us. I learned that autofocus cameras don’t like swirling clouds of steam so I would focus a on a rock and then pan away. Just in case you are wondering why the steam is out of focus and the rocks are not.

The closer you get to the Spring, the more steam you see, especially on a chilly morning.

They have benches but they are mainly for people getting a better angle on the water.

At first, I could see why you got up on the benches. So much steam swirling around obscuring the view.

I liked this view. You can’t really see the spring, but you can see the colors of the spring reflecting off the steam.

Ah here you go, things kind of cleared up a bit. The different colors are from some of the bacteria that live in the spring that thrive at high temperatures. I find that concept fascinating. How can anything live close to boiling point with all sorts of strange chemicals involved.

The strangeness just extends away from the spring.

There is an overlook trail that Ellen took us to where you can get a better look of the Grand Prismatic Spring. You have some elevation and perspective that you don’t get at a lower level and it is easier to see. It is more than just a little walk but it is worth it if you are up to it. I think the spring is gorgeous. And I love the name Grand Prismatic Spring. I think it lives up to its name.

One thing about Yellowstone that I learned very quickly is that not just Americans love Yellowstone. The world loves Yellowstone Park. A huge percentage of visitors are from outside the USA. Somehow I feel that increases the responsibility of us to take care and preserve the park. The international visitors bring their culture with them and selfie sticks but somehow it all works and everybody gets along. I think that is great.

This is a view at ground level below the overlook. We are pretty far away but one can still see the colors of the spring in the spring.

I’m linking with Our World Tuesday, come check it out.

Skywatch Friday – The Teton Mountains from Mormon Row

As I mentioned in my previous post, last week I spent a few days with my sister, Ellen who is a Park Ranger at Yellowstone Park. One day we ventured from Yellowstone down to the Grand Teton National Park and looked at a few of the sights. One of my favorite places is an area called Mormon Row in the valley below the Tetons.

Long before the area became a National Park the area was settled by Mormon settlers in the 1890’s at the direction of their church. Rather than being spread out from each other they put their homesteads close to each other for community and shared labor. They built their farms and an extensive irrigation system to water their farms.

They stayed on their homesteads until the 1950’s when they were bought out when the land for the national park was being acquired. Many of their buildings are preserved, especially the barns and photographers (and picture takers like me) flock from all over the world come to capture images of the buildings with the mountains in the background.

_DSC0793 — I love the color of this stucco.

This trip though,, the smokey hazy skies along with the shadowy afternoon light defeated me. Still, I love the area. I had an aunt and uncle who had a mountain ranch tucked deep into a valley in southeastern Idaho and their buildings were similar in design and construction to those in Mormon Row.

mormon row 3 loo_DSC0791-Edit — A Loo with a View
(Sorry I couldn’t resist”

I sense that although a settler’s life is hard that it must have been a pleasant place to live in the summer with the cool breezes and the astounding view of the mountains. The Tetons are the most awe inspiring mountains that I have ever seen and I couldn’t get enough of looking at them. I am just sorry that I couldn’t capture that.

I really love our national parks, I love that they are a precious resource and are defended by all against exploitation. We need more areas like this, not less.

How about you, have you ever been to Mormon Row?

I am linking with Skywatch Friday

Our World Tuesday – Yellowstone Park’s Gibbon Falls

I have been out of pocket for a few days. My sister Ellen who works as a seasonal Park Ranger in West Yellowstone, Montana for the Yellowstone National Park invited me up for a few days for a chance to see a bit of the park with her. She loves sharing the park.

One of the first things we looked at was Gibbon Falls on the Gibbon River. A beautiful 84 foot drop of the Gibbon River. This is the view from a bit downriver.

The Gibbon River is about 25 miles long and starts near the center of the park at the outlet of Grebe Lake and confluences with the Firehole River to form the Madison River.

This is a view of the river downstream of the falls as it flows toward the Firehole River. I came across a post talking about how the Park Service is starting a process to remove non-native fish like rainbow and brown trout from the river and re-introduce native species such as cutthroat trout. They are starting later this month and is expected to continue to 2020 or 2021. I love these kind of projects.

Ellen tells me that the week I was there the visitor count had dropped off presumably because of schools starting. The park had the fewest people I have ever seen on my visits there. That being said, the parking lots fill up early and so you need to get up get out early to go see what you want to see.

Ellen - Norris_DSC0495-Edit — My sister Ellen

This is just a small bit of all that we saw in my few days at Yellowstone. I am trying to break my visit down into bite sized pieces to make it easier on me, and hopefully you.

This was maybe my fifth time to Yellowstone and the first time I didn’t just do a drive by, and instead got to hike a little and spend some time getting to see things. When I was a kid, we did the standard 1960’s thing and just breezed on by and maybe stopped to see Old Faithful and maybe a few thermal features but then it was back in the car and head out.

How about you? Have you ever been?

I am linking with Our World Tuesday

Our World Tuesday – Will Rogers/Wiley Post Fly-In

On Saturday Logan and I headed up to Oolagah, Oklahoma to check out the annual Will Rogers and Wiley Post Fly-In at the Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch. The event is held every year to commemorate the deaths of Rogers and Post in a plane crash in Alaska on August 15, 1935.

Will Rogers is the favorite son of Oklahoma, a humorist, movie star, newspaper columnist, and movie star. Although later in life he moved to California, Oklahoma regards him as their own.

Wiley Post, from Maysville, Oklahoma is less known but was an aviation pioneer. He was the first person to fly solo around the world, discovered the jet stream, and developed the first pressure suit.

I didn’t know what a fly-in is but through the magic of google I found out that it is a pre-arranged meeting of aircraft. Beyond that anything goes. This one seemed to feature vintage airplanes. They also had a helicopter and some vintage cars. We got there a little late. But there were still several interesting aircraft.

I loved the one above for its batlike paint job and its wooden propeller.

Son Logan perked up at this. It appears to be an ex military observation plane with a cool paint job. It had the biggest crowd of kids. I have found that you need to follow the kids to see the coolest stuff.

One by one they taxied to the fare end of the grass strip and took off.

Even the medevac helicopter.

Logan and I checked everything else out. They had inflatables, food trucks, face painting, lots and lots of stuff. We found this conestoga wagon in the barn.

I love this view of the old ranch house. It may be the prettiest house in Oklahoma.

Next Year we’ll get there earlier!

I am linking with Our World Tuesday

Skywatch Friday – New Views!!

Here is my big news this week.

I had a great cubicle that faced the west for years at work and I loved it. Then years ago, I got an “upgrade” a nice office in the interior of the building but no window, just gas company beige. Don’t get me wrong. I was glad to have it but I missed by window. Since then I have moved around but always with a beige view and last week I finally got an outside view again. To the south, not the west but I will take it. I can see a slice of the Arkansas River and Turkey Mountain. So I am happy. I’d have been happy without the view, but you know what I mean.

Having an outside view certainly makes a difference to me. How about you?

I am linking to Skywatch Friday

Our World Tuesday – Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park

Recently, I ventured up Route 66 from Tulsa to Foyil and then on Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park. The park was built by a retired shop teacher, Ed Galloway during the period 1937 to 1961. The signature piece is the 90 feet totem above. It is built of sandstone, with a concrete skin, reinforced with steel and wood. And as you can see it is decorated elaborately. After Galloway’s death in 1961 the park went into slow decline until the Rogers County Historical Society and the Kansas Grassroots Arts Association restored it in the 1990’s.

Ed Galloways Totem Pole Park Topaz Studio _DSC0317-Edit

Here is the other side. You can see that Galloway has the totem sitting on the back of a turtle. The turtle is a natural sandstone outcrop on the site that the artist incorporated into the structure. This also shows a little better the decorations.

I am not sure what the symbology of the snake in the mouth is about.

Some examples of the Native American decorations.

The inside of the first floor is open and is also decorated. There seems to be lots of discussion about the difference between biggest totem pole, largest, tallest, etc. I am not worried about it.

Here are a couple more totems. That are yet others. There is also a visitor center/gift store and a short nature trail.

Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park is a great Route 66 attraction and is in very good shape. Check out the this National Park Service site for more information.

I am linking to Our World Tuesday

Here is a blog post I made of the park six years ago when son Logan visited with me.