Corvallis, MT to Henrys Lake State Park, ID
Butte MT and Yellowstone
September 2 - 8, 2019
We have seen many things in the week since my last post so this is going to be a long one.
On Monday, September 2 we left Don and Cathy's house. We had a good time with them and enjoyed our visit.
We drove to Deer Lodge, MT and stayed at Indian Creek Campground. Unfortunately neither one of us took a picture of it. It was by an interstate and on the side of a truck stop so kind of noisy.
On Tuesday, September 3 we took a trolley tour of Butte, MT, which has an interesting copper mine history.
There were mining headframes all around and a huge open pit mine.
One of the stops was Berkeley Pit.
Underground copper mining started in the 1860s. In the mid 1950s they started open pit mining and ran into some of the old mine tunnels, which had flooded. They ran pumps to keep the water out, but the decline in copper prices in the 1970s caused them to shut down the mine in 1982. The water flooded the underground mines and the pit, and is now 5,340 feet deep. It rose about 1' per month and holds 40 billion gallons of water. The had a problem with birds landing on the water and dying so now they have a loudspeakers that make different noises like cannons shooting, sirens, and other weird noises.
The whole hill on the north of Butte is a mine. Not very pretty but I'm sure it looks like money to the locals.
The downtown area was very historical and many of the buildings were being restored.
On Wednesday, September 4, we drove to Henrys Lake State Park in Idaho, which is on a beautiful lake.
The sites are large with water and electric hookups. When the water tanks get too full John dumps them into a 5 gallon container and takes it to the dump station. It's allowed us to do laundry and have good showers and is the next best thing to full hookups.
On Thursday, September 5 we went into Yellowstone. We started on the west side of the south loop, stopping along the way to see almost everything we could. I have so many pictures it's hard to choose the ones for the blog.
We downloaded an app called GyPSyGuides that has been very helpful. As we drive our 'guide' tells us what's ahead and if it's a must see or recommended stop, as well as park history. It's well worth the $9.99 and they have guides for other locations too.
Our first stop was a waterfall.
Then we moved on to the Lower Geyser Basin with Fountain Paint Pot...
...and Great Fountain Geyser (although it wasn't geysering).
Here are some other pictures of the area.
Then we went to Midway Geyser Basin and the Grand Prismatic Spring. This area has the big pool with the deep blue center and all the other bright colors around the edges you see pictures of. Unfortunately those pictures were taken from a drone and you can't really see the colors like that from the ground. These pictures are from that area.
Our next stop was Biscuit Basin area.
Finally we got to Old Faithful! We had to wait less than an hour for the next eruption and used that time to eat our lunch.
I took a video which is posted on the RoVing Walkers Facebook page.
We went into the Old Faithful Inn and it was beautiful.
It was hot that day and after all the walking we decided to go back to the campground.
On Friday, September 6 we set off again to finish the lower loop. We went back to Old Faithful because we wanted to hike around the boardwalk. There were several other interesting sights along the way.
When I was five years old my family came to Yellowstone. I only have a couple of memories but I think we stayed in this cabin.
Our next stop was Kepler Cascades.
It was a long way down into that canyon.
We stopped at the Central Basin...
...and saw Yellowstone Lake.
Not very pretty in the rain.
We made a couple of others stops.
We also saw a bison along the road.
We decided to skip the Yellowstone River Falls for another day when it wasn't raining. We stopped at Norris Geyser Basin but there wasn't any parking so headed back to the campground.
On Saturday, September 7 we decided to go directly to Norris Geyser Basin before it got too busy. We walked along the boardwalk, John taking the longer loop and me the shorter one.
We then decided to head north to Mammoth Hot Springs, making a stop at Sheepeater Cliff.
It reminded me of a small Devil's Postpile, which is near Lee Vining in California.
I wish we had smell-a-vision so you could smell all the awful sulfur smells all these geyers, mud pots, fumaroles, and hot springs put out. Sometimes you can smell an area before you see it.
These pictures are from the Mammoth Hot Springs area.
We stopped at the Visitor Center. There were some elk on the lawn around the center building.
Yellowstone became our first national park in 1872. Nathaniel Langford was the first park superintendent, but they didn't give him any salary, funding or staff, so it was hard to protect the park from poachers, vandals and lawlessness. He asked Congress to create a federal agency for the park but they refused. He was forced to step down in 1877 and Philetus Norris took his place. He finally convinced Congress to fund a salary and minimal funding to operate the park. A gamekeeper and first ranger, Henry Yount, was appointed to control poaching and vandalism. However, neither he or the three following superintendents were given enough manpower or resources to do so. The railroad came to Livingston in the 1880s, connecting the northern entrance. There were few roads and travel was by horse or stagecoach. However, the number of visitors did increase. Continued poaching and vandalism brought the U.S. Army to Mammoth Hot Springs in 1886. Over the next 22 years they built buildings and called it Fort Yellowstone. In 1894 the Park Protection Act saved the park. The army developed their own policies and regulations that permitted public access while protecting park wildlife and natural resources, most of which the park service adopted. The Army turned over control of to the National Park Service in 1918.
These are some of the buildings that the Army built.
The Visitor Center.
Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel.
After leaving this area we found a parking place for the Liberty Cap and Palette Spring.
I think Palette Spring is what most people think of when the hear about Mammoth Hot Springs. It's beautiful and changes all the time.
This was our last stop for the day. I had no idea there was so much walking to be done to see the sights. John had over 14,000 steps and I had over 10,000 that day. There have been lots of people and sometimes hard to find a parking place, but I can't imagine what it's like in the summer before the kids go back to school. We headed back for the campground and the beautiful view out our back window.
Sunday, September 8 was a day of resting and catching up on laundry and the blog, as well as making banana nut bread. Yum!
Tomorrow we head back into Yellowstone to see the more of the park. The weather forecast is calling for 50% rain but we're hoping they're wrong.
Roving on...
The heavens declare the
glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork. Psalm 19:1
