Two days of driving lead up to a late arrival and adhered to surprisingly amazing scenes of sights. The eyes were tired and working forward towards that first state of relaxation. The Interagency Annual Pass seemed like an exploitable option to insure easy access to many Federal recreational lands along the way. After a climbing exposé through a valley and a stop river side to relieve the bladder with a picturesque shot awaiting, we came upon a group of fascinating specimens.
They were at first what seemed typical. A group of peds (pedestrians) standing alongside a narrow road with potential death all around. They were gathered like a lazy pack of dogs curious about some mangy new ball standing surprised and oblivious to the obvious danger that they have put themselves in. Then as we progressed my first interpretation became skewed. There was an obvious alpha male present. He was clearly marked out in a large green suit that matched his size and a brown top with a yellow crest. He was barking orders and the males took they mates close and gathered in the children. The whole excitement had to do with a grizzly bear wandering along the cliff meadow and looking confused himself in what is causing the excitement. Luckily we quickly passed and moved on towards Mammoth hot springs.
Arrival and camp setup passed. Wandering around our surroundings we found a hill and decided to stop for a well deserved puff as the sun settled. As always the mind sorted and explored and topics came to mind.
Ecology of the experience is what seemed to hit first. The drastic nature is obviously abundant here. Hell, life has been theorized to start in similar environments as the hot springs and sprung forth the diversity that is present today. No wonder this place is America’s summer hot spot for vacationer’s. The question that obviously must be put forth in this scuppy (socially constious yuppy) age is; how do we save this from our pollutants and climate change? Well, my view simply is, we can’t. So enjoy it while you can and soak it up. Find a way to adjust and live in a new environment. Because 50 years from now it will not be the same.
The debate about first nations, indians, or natives that first inhabitated this wonderful variety of landscapes. Tribes or bands? Both? A book came to provide the answers.
When morning came a more American experience could not be had been ever anticipated. While making the morning cup of coffee, it became noticed that a family of bison were wandering through the sites towards the river. With a 5 meter experience of a bull then his wives coming through our vicinity was unexpected. They passed on by for their morning drink.
The morning passed then by traveling towards a goal, again which came to be different then first planned. As most things are and end up being. Seeing obsidian cliffs, Roaring Mountain, going through Dunraven Pass towards Mount Washburn where snow still is present along the road on these summer days. The falls for lunch worked soothingly as the water carved slowly new pillars that will be gazed upon long after the river dries out.
The afternoon. It came suddenly and with a full force of nature and man kicking it lightly. Lamar Valley showed that a more American landscape could not be anywhere else, and if it was it still could probably not even compare. With Specimen Ridge and Mount Washburn in view to the southwest , and Druid Peak and Mount Norris to the east. As the walk started, we could see ahead between two hills a bison walking, which we assumed was back to the heard we had seen a few miles down the river. Over a hill and towards a nice packet of Trembling Aspen and Black Cottonwoods large boulders stuck out like pinch of nuts placed on top of a sundae. We sat on one. With harmonica and guitar in hand we jammed for the Yellowbelly Marmots. They seemed to be using the boulders as lookout points for their dens and they came to squeak along to the songs.
During a little reflective time having a Marlboro Light, I came to notice a creature coming up the creek towards us. It seemed like a coyote to me at first, as it came closer into view it was too large, maybe that man’s dog even though they were at least a mile apart. Then we chatted and it went out of view. Minutes passed and then it was trotting up the hill, it followed the crest walking slower, it stopped and looked at us standing upon the rock. It then was obvious, this was a Grey Wolf. It then must have been one of the 170 that were reintroduced into this territory as a effort to balance the ecosystem. Which I have learned that is working in more surprising ways then ever. The presence of the wolves are now keeping the deer and elk population in check, this then provides the riparian (river) species of trees more chances for their saplings to grow and provides more root systems to keep the rivers and creeks from washing out. This single wolf can be another symbol and meaning of how the top predators keep so many things in balance and how the systems work together to provide a balance. The politics of lifeform’s come to equal agreements a lot more efficiently then any modern human society ever could.
After this we walked back. Then the double shot of nature and luck showed its head again. We walk towards the car and see this all American man in front of his Ford 350 with a camo baseball cap and ‘field glasses’ aka. Binoculars staring up to the area where we just left.
He says, “You boys see that grizzly up there?”
“Nope, just was there for 2 hours and saw a wolf but no grizzly.”
“You were just up there? You boys are lucky, he is a big one and was heading right in your direction.”
“Whoa, lucky then we left when we did, being only armed with a guitar and harmonica.”
Then up pulls a Park Ranger and looks to be searching for something. He asked us if we saw anyone collecting petrified redwoods, maples, oaks, or sycamores. Those rangers do like to point out all the information they know. We didn’t see such a thing and Dom even showed him the guitar case only held beautiful shaped musical wood and strings. While this conversation ensued, up comes a mangy canine that provided even more proof that the Grey Wolf was just that. A coyote with a light brown coat and patches of loose fur from still shedding its winter wear just strolled up and picked around the fire pit and then walked by ignoring the group of men standing beside their motorized carriages.
We left the valley and continued on by Blacktail Deer Plateau to Mammoth Hot Springs. In light of a drunken viewing of Bill Nye while in Las Vegas I’ve opted to leave the Hot Springs for a separate article.
A late dinner was needed after the Hot Springs, Sheepeater Cliff seemed the perfect spot. A single fat marmot to keep us entertained and the camp stove providing the chili cheesiness that came from it.
The evening proved to be the pinnacle of the day. We returned to the site of Indian Creek. Went again for a walk and a puff. We followed the creek till we came to a nice fallen tree with a view of another family of bison, a bull and 3 sows and one calf. They grazed to a settling sun and we puffed, jammed, and relaxed. Then we walked along the river. Seeing a new set of bison, one male and two females (which I believe are the one and the same from the morning). We sat and enjoyed this truly Marlboro Country.
Then it came. Like Animal Planet was LIVE before our eyes. A youthful large Grizzly came into sight. He walked along the meadows on the hill across the creek from us. He never really paid us attention the whole time. He walked slowly, constantly stopping and looking northeast, then down, maybe following something. An interesting happened with the bison, then noticed the Grizzly when it was about a klick or two from them. The lifted their heads in the act of sniffing. Then they gathered in a little patch of Gambel Oaks and stood quietly as the Grizzly walked by. We kept following. We had to. It came to a edge of trees and stopped. It looked at the trees pondering. Which one? That’s what it was thinking. Then it picked it. It stood up and backed up to it. This scratch was a long day coming. It scratched till it was satisfied and went down, marked that tree with a piss and continued on. It wandered along the tree edge and we came upon a RV trailer site with your southern looking pack getting excited about the site of the Grizzly.
We decided to turn back and head home to leave the pack and Grizzly to continue on with their own separate nights, in where we sat around the fire, ate hot dogs, and stared at the stars that cracked the sky.
That was one of our days in Yellowstone.
Yet, an excellent point was made in that blurb, almost in an irrelevant passing. He mentions the workforce and that citizens should “fulfill their lives to very meaningful work.” He points to the ability to move around to where work is needs to be simplified Federally, for it takes 13 municipal, provincial and federal permits for one to be an undertaker.
