Scott and Sue Family

Day 16-Idaho

We have been told by many that we should visit Yellowstone Bear World in Rexburg, so we decided to go since we were in town.  It’s a great opportunity to see bears up close, especially if you are close behind the special tour that allows people to feed the bears and they are begging by the truck and wandering around.  They have a rare white elk and cute little baby goats.

We visited Massacre Rocks State Park, which is named for an incident along the Oregon Trail where 10 white emigrants were killed by Native Americans.  There is a geology trail and we hiked that to see the rock formations and learn about the geologic history. Also in the park are some very well-preserved wagon ruts on the Oregon Trail and you can hike to see them.  We drove from the visitor center to a parking area by the interstate and then hiked quite a ways, went through two tunnels underneath the interstate to get to the other side and the ruts.  It’s a deep swale in the prairie that’s easy to see and interesting to think of all the wagons that traversed that area.

We drove a couple miles farther on to Register Rock, which is part of the same state park and is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  Many emigrants scratched their names into the rock for posterity and it’s now protected by a pavilion so that you can still view the signatures and dates.

 

 

Day 15-Wyoming

We celebrated Pioneer Day in Yellowstone and started the day with my favorite thing: a stop at a waterfall!  Yay!  Golden Gate Falls are right off the road and there are pullouts at the top and from an overlook spot.  So we got a pose of me with the water falling gently behind me as it cascades beautifully to the ground.  Because that’s how we roll.

We decided to return to the Norris Geyser Basin and hike the Back Basin trail today.  It is the most active area of the park and Steamboat Geyser went off a week after we were there, the first time in eight years.  The trail leaves the wide open area of Porcelain Basin and winds through a forested area with thermal features and then opens out into a flat area.  It also has some interesting features like the Green Dragon Spring, which was a cave-like area that looked green from the water, and a blue mud pot that stained the surrounding area a shocking shade of blue.  It’s a longer hike than Porcelain but quite interesting and fun.

Next roadside stop was Gibbon Falls which had a close overlook, but we hiked down the paved  trail along the road to a better overlook that faced the falls and got a really nice view. There was a bird in the tree in front of us that was pretty and unconcerned about all the people so I had Scott snap a shot of him, too.

We had a ways to drive that evening so we headed out to West Yellowstone and stopped at my favorite book store for a new Western literature purchase and a hot chocolate, then on to Rexburg.  You’ll notice we’re getting closer to home!

 

 

Day 14-Wyoming

We stayed in Gardiner the night before and entered Yellowstone via the north entrance.  This was our first time entering this way and we got to go through the Roosevelt Arch. It’s rather difficult to get photos there as it’s on a curve in the road, but people were parking all over and hopping across the road for the photo ops. We joined in the fun and I narrowly escaped being run over by a car.

We wanted to visit Mammoth Hot Springs because last year we spent about 15 minutes there, due to traffic problems and needing to get Brian back for his call time.  So we went there first since it’s the first big stop on the north end. Mammoth is an interesting place. It’s essentially a huge hill full of terraces with waterfalls cascading down, The mineral content in the water causes different colors on the rock and the dry parts are white and gray, but the active parts are yellow, orange, green, and blue.

Mammoth is also a community of lodging, restaurants, a store and gas station for tourists, and a residence area for park rangers and staff.  They live in buildings at historic Fort Yellowstone and there is a brochure detailing the different buildings and their former use on a walking tour.  We looked around a bit but didn’t have time to really explore, but another time.

We drove to the top of Mammoth and parked in a lot up there to hike to Canary Spring, which I really loved and thought was pretty.  It was the biggest fall of water on the terrace and I liked it!  Along the way we saw branches in a river that were already being calcified-weird!

Next we went to Norris Geyser Basin, which we hadn’t explored before.  We walked the Porcelain Basin trail from the visitor center and there were pools of many different shades of blue and green throughout the rather flat basin.  So pretty!  There were also small geysers and steam vents and a variety of thermal features.  We hiked all over.

Off to the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone and Artist Point, where we saw a real artist painting the Falls. That was after we circled the parking lot trying to find a spot and then hiked in with two busloads of  tour groups.  It was very crowded at the overlooks, but we wormed our way in.  I’ve never seen the Falls and it’s the iconic view down the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone that is often seen in photos.  So beautiful. Not much space for quiet meditation, but I still got to enjoy the view.

We drove over to the Upper Falls overlook and got to see the Upper Falls from across the river.  Last year we hiked to the brink where you can stand right over the water as it falls over the edge, so this was a different view of the face of the Falls. We hiked on a level trail there that went along the rim of the canyon and looked down on some great views of the river.

Last stop of the day was Undine Falls off the road on our way out of the park.  So pretty to see waterfalls everywhere we go!

 

Day 12-Montana

We left Helena and drove through the Valley of a Thousand Haystacks, which is the Little Blackfoot Valley. It’s a narrow valley filled with rounded haystacks with lodgepole pine structures near them called beaver slides.  It’s a combination catapult and cage which allows hay to be stacked higher and in the distinctive round shape. It was invented before 1910 and revolutionized haying in Montana by preventing the wind from blowing the hay and cutting stacking time.  So interesting to drive through the valley and see the large stacks.

Fort Owen State Park is a one-acre park in the middle of a private farm that has structures left from the original fort built by Jesuit priests led by Father Pierre Jean DeSmet in 1841 in the Bitterroot Valley. They sold the fort in 1850 to John Owen who turned it into a successful trading post. It’s now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Although small, the buildings and displays are quite interesting and informative and we had fun walking around and reading up on the area.

Our next stop was the Big Hole National Battlefield which is the site of a battle between the US Army and Chief Joseph’s Nez Perce who were fleeing to Canada along what is now preserved as the Nez Perce National Historic Trail.  There is a park with several sites and brochures detailing the auto tour tracing the entire flight.  On Aug 9-10, 1877, troops commanded by Col. John Gibbon surprised an encampment of Nez Perce bands along the Big Hole River.  The dawn attack on the sleeping village resulted in between 60 and 90 men, women, and children being killed by the Army.  The park has tipi poles set up where the encampment was and many individual lodges are marked.  It is a sacred site because so many died there, and it was a very moving experience to walk among the encampment and imagine the troops bearing down on them.

The warriors fought hard for several hours and the soldiers retreated back across the river and up a ridge to a small wooded area where they were under siege and dug shallow entrenchments for defense that can still be seen.

Nez Perce sharpshooters kept them pinned down overnight while their families escaped, and the warriors finally left the field when the families were safely away and other troops were seen to be coming to the rescue. It was interesting to walk the ground and see the way the battle unfolded.

After hiking two separate trails and wandering all over the battlefield, we drove the Pioneer Mountains Scenic Byway, saw an elk herd and stopped at Crystal Park, which is a public mineral-collecting park operated by the U.S. Forest Service.  We had found out about it the day before so we were unprepared for digging, but we found some small quartz crystals just lying on the ground and did some digging with sharp rocks.  It was a fun place and someday we’ll have to go back with trowels and sifters.

Day 11-Montana

After the late night, I was worn out so we took it easy in the morning. Finally got moving and drove to Great Falls where we visited Great Springs State Park which was really cool and so beautiful.

It was a camping site for Native American tribes passing through following buffalo and good for winter camps because the water stays at 54 degrees all year long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lewis and Clark mentioned the beauty of the springs in their Corps of Discovery notes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over 150 million gallons a day flow from the springs and comes from cracks in the Madison Limestone Formation. The springs bubble up in a crystal clear pool filled with brightly colored plants in lime and kelly green as well as maroon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was so gorgeous that I could have sat there all day in the shade watching and listening to the water. There were fish in the pond and a walkway around it so that you can see into the pool.  

The water spills over in some small falls into one of the shortest rivers in the country.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Roe River is 201 feet in length and flows into the Missouri River, which is the longest river in the country at 2,540 miles. The park also included a fish hatchery with a small visitor center and outside raceways to see trout of different sizes.

We headed south and stopped along the interstate at Tower Rock State Park, which is another Lewis and Clark site. Along Native American trails they were following and at the transition between the plains and their move into the mountains, stands Tower Rock, named by Meriwether Lewis. It’s made of rock fragments blasted skyward from violent volcanic activity then cemented with volcanic ash.  This created a large outcropping one mile long and one-third of a mile wide. We walked the short trail that runs along the base of the rock and parallels the interstate. It got us close to the formation and was interesting but hot to walk. Scott found a bush covered with ants and got a cool photo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We forged on and saw a sign along the road for Gates of the Mountains and decided to check it out because it reminded us of something my mom was describing before we left. We drove down into a valley and saw there’s now a reservoir created by the Missouri River exiting a narrow opening in the high cliffs. Meriwether Lewis on the Corps of Discovery expedition said it looked like a gate and gave it the name which stuck. It was quite an impressive sight and there are boat tours which we need to do on another trip.