Jutta On The Road – Day 12

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Yellowstone National Park Wyoming

Disclaimer: This blog entry wasn’t written until 17 years after the trip. It should be noted that it was a huge mistake to have not written it way back when. Sometimes, after writing so much about other days, it happens that at the time directly after the trip (or even during), I convince myself that the details are not that important. Years later, these details are that important, and pulling them out of foggy memories is difficult. The photos help and often leave clues, and then Caroline’s memories are usually far clearer than mine. With that said, here goes.

Again, at the break of day, we are on our way into another Yellowstone adventure of exploration. I can say this with confidence all these years later because every time we’ve been in this park, it’s left indelible impressions on us regarding our time here. It’s probably a cliche to put it this way, but I don’t think we are as much into Yellowstone as Yellowstone gets into us.

Yellowstone National Park Wyoming

If it looks like boiling water, you’d be a fool to put your hand in to test the observation, so I’m just going to assume that these grasses and plants have learned to live on the edge of a hostile environment, though I can also accept that what I think is boiling is just escaping gas floating to the surface of this pool.

Yellowstone National Park Wyoming

There are plenty of obvious sights here in the park that easily suggest a great photo might be had, but to try and see what, while common, may not have been seen frequently is a challenge.

Bison in Yellowstone National Park Wyoming

And then there’s that moment when no matter how often you’ve seen a bison, a deer, or an elk, you just have to take one more photo out of fear that you won’t have seen any other wildlife during your visit so you use it to prove your visit included animals because what would a Yellowstone adventure be without the beasties?

Don’t forget the iconic photos either, preferably not one with your mother-in-law being gored by a giant sharp-horned hairy bison the park service constantly reminds people to stay clear of, but more like this one where mother and daughter pose for a photo together in front of the Upper Falls of the Yellowstone.

Yellowstone National Park Wyoming

I’d really love to know how this tree came to lose whatever earth might have been below it prior to its roots having to act as legs.

Yellowstone National Park Wyoming

Okay, so the trees have been standing in this shallow, apparently hot, highly mineralized water long enough to give the trees the appearance of wearing white ankle socks, but then why isn’t the grass white? While I can answer with a bit of quick logic that the grass grows and dies off so quickly it doesn’t have time to absorb the same chemicals the trees do, what I cannot figure out or learn from the mind of the internet is how this grass is growing in such a hostile environment in the first place.

Yellowstone National Park Wyoming

Godzilla, is that you? Oh, it’s just my mother-in-law leaving the bathroom; just kidding, I love hanging out with Jutta, seriously.

Yellowstone National Park Wyoming

Not Old Faithful.

Yellowstone National Park Wyoming

Orange bacterial mat with mineral islands sporting forests for microscopic life I cannot see, this is why I come to Yellowstone.

Yellowstone National Park Wyoming

Reflections that blur the point between sky and earth are another good reason to be here.

Yellowstone National Park Wyoming

Humans throw coins in fountains to have their wishes come true. While I can’t be certain, I think the marmots sneak out here when nobody is looking and throw marmot coins into this pool, hoping their wishes might also come true. If you think those are mostly just stones of the same size, you’d be wrong. I verified them as currency, and that’s that.

Yellowstone National Park Wyoming

There, did you see that? The Eye of Yellowstone winked at us in the reassurance that it was okay for us to leave as we’d be coming back again. With that, we pointed the car south and moved on.

Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming

I’d like to offer my apologies for including this photo at such a low resolution, but there were so many mountains in this shot of the Grand Teton range. I couldn’t even take this one photo and had to take countless images that were assembled as the panorama you are seeing. To have included a high-resolution version would have meant I would have had to upload one, and then anyone could have just stolen this masterpiece, claimed it as their own, and grown rich.

Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming

This looks awfully familiar, and that would be because every trip we make to the Tetons requires us to stop right here at this oxbow bend in the Snake River, which is also the same area we saw our first ever moose back in the year 2000.

Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming

More Tetons because everyone loves the Grand Teton.

Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming

Not a wolf.

We are on Highway 26 going southeast after leaving the national park via Moran Junction instead of traveling through Jackson Hole.

It might not be that great town of Jackson that everybody adores, but it sure is beautiful out here, too; plus, it’s taking us into part of Wyoming we are unfamiliar with.

Going along enjoying the rainbow of earth.

Every trip should include three or four obligatory stops at incredibly photogenic abandoned businesses and homes.

We’ve turned west on Highway 28, traveling along the Oregon Trail for a bit before cutting south again.

The Great Plains in Southern Wyoming.

Jutta On The Road – Day 11

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Disclaimer: This blog entry wasn’t written until 17 years after the trip. It should be noted that it was a huge mistake to have not written it way back when. Sometimes, after writing so much about other days, it happens that at the time directly after the trip (or even during), I convince myself that the details are not that important. Years later, these details are that important, and pulling them out of foggy memories is difficult. The photos help and often leave clues, and then Caroline’s memories are usually far clearer than mine. With that said, here goes.

The Roosevelt Gate, which could also be known as the “Gate to Heaven,” stands at the north entry to Yellowstone National Park. While the rest of the trip might have been taken at a fast pace, we have two nights in the area in order to get a good dose of the place.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

On the terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs for sunrise, such a wonderful place to catch the sun’s arrival.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

We learned long ago that one of the treats of Jutta visiting us in the United States is to be found on the occasions when we can bring her back to a place she never thought she’d get to visit even once in a lifetime, such as what we’ve done taking her to the Grand Canyon time and again.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Then there’s our own curiosity following our first encounter with Yellowstone back in early 2000 when we saw the remnants of the destructive force of the big Yellowstone fire of 1988 that burned for approximately five months. Each time we return to this place, we are scouring our own memories, looking for signs of change and regrowth.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

This might not be the conventional or popular view associated with Yellowstone, but I find that unfortunate as the diversity of landscapes on offer is incredible. One can only wish to be on hand for a couple of more years to see the evolution of changes due to the seasons, water levels, cloud cover, lighting, and the rest of the environmental factors that impact the view.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

If you were to ask Caroline or me, you’d learn that we’ve never met a boiling cauldron of gaseous mud that we didn’t love, not that one gets to encounter such things on a regular basis.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Behold an evolved skin-removing device capable of snuffing out the life of those who tempt the gods of crusty edges found at the hot springs of Yellowstone.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Almost worse than someone dying in a hot spring is the damage done to the surfaces around the springs, where visitors have to witness that idiots preceded their own visit. For those who somehow don’t know, this is the Grand Prismatic Geyser.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Sure, a bison, elk, or bear might walk across this, but they live wild; we live with intention and are often capable of following rules. Heck, just to visit Yellowstone, a person most obviously has been able to maintain a job somewhere otherwise, how’d they afford to get themselves to this remote corner of America? To the best of our ability, these places shouldn’t be trampled underfoot by hordes of people neglecting their responsibility to help preserve such treasures for those who follow. And of the bear that walks across this? There will never be thousands of them per day.

Jutta Engelhardt and Caroline Wise at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

We are staying at Lake Yellowstone Hotel and Cabins, obviously in a cabin.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Once we were checked in, the next obvious stop would be Yellowstone Lake.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Followed by that favorite area called West Thumb.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

This being our 5th visit to Yellowstone, there’s a certain calm allowed in chasing around to see it all; we can just go slow and take in the detail at a pace I’m certain my mother-in-law is a lot more comfortable with, too.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

I’ll never tire of the phenomenon when the environment is so big that we can see a storm off in the distance and dream of its ferocity and just go on with our sightseeing like the bad weather is a million miles away until it’s not.

Jutta On The Road – Day 10

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Caroline Wise and Jutta Engelhardt at Glacier National Park, Montana

Disclaimer: This blog entry wasn’t written until 17 years after the trip. It should be noted that it was a huge mistake to have not written it way back when. Sometimes, after writing so much about other days, it happens that at the time directly after the trip (or even during), I convince myself that the details are not that important. Years later, these details are that important, and pulling them out of foggy memories is difficult. The photos help and often leave clues, and then Caroline’s memories are usually far clearer than mine. With that said, here goes.

Wake up, practice the ablutions you’ve adopted, and step into new, unknown experiences so your life might rise like the sun on the horizon. When the final night comes, will you be able to celebrate in the knowledge that you danced through this life, even if it’s just metaphorically? Yes, Jutta comes to America primarily to visit her daughter and maybe me a bit (but only a bit), and then there’s the obligatory exploration of aspects of her ability to bring in the new, to dance with her children in unfamiliar places, often doing unfamiliar things. Today, that involves the three of us driving into the mountains of Glacier National Park here in Montana. Before we got to this park sign, we detoured a brief way up north to the Canadian border, getting there before the sun did, turned around, and headed this way.

Glacier National Park, Montana

We were not those lucky few who could afford to stay within the park’s borders, so we had to drive down from Eureka through Whitefish and Columbia Falls to get here, but upon our arrival, it appeared that everything was just as amazingly beautiful as if we’d slept within Glacier. The lodges in the park are highly coveted and, like all great places, are booked well in advance, but don’t worry if you can’t snag a reservation; just look at the following photos to see that you too can experience the astonishing.

Glacier National Park, Montana

We’ve read that Glacier is crowded; well, maybe that’s true in the summer or up at the Logan Pass visitors center, but right here, right now, things are, as you can see, perfect.

Glacier National Park, Montana

What’s not perfect is the insane road that’s been carved out of the mountainside. Beware those who easily entertain a fear of heights.

Glacier National Park, Montana

Just looking at all that snow triggers my anxiety as I can easily imagine that during the winter, the road we are traveling is a frequent target of the snow gods ready to toss passing cars off the road. Funny how the imagination can impact the pucker factor even when such situations are not really possible or even likely but somehow have crawled into the mind.

Glacier National Park, Montana

The worst part of the road is that you can see it ahead, while the best part is EVERYTHING ELSE!

Glacier National Park, Montana

You know, to be honest, I’m happy to be here before the main summer season gets underway, as with the amount of snow here still draping the mountains, one gets a faint idea of what this corner of Montana looks like during the winter.

Glacier National Park, Montana

That’s Wild Goose Island in Lake Mary, meaning we’ve already gone over Logan Pass, and while I may be mistaken, I think that’s Going-To-The-Sun Mountain to the right and the namesake of the road we are on.

Glacier National Park, Montana

Heading into the Many Glacier area of the park that requires visitors to get on Highway 89 north towards Canada and turn off at Babb, this is one seriously big national park.

Swiftcurrent Lake at Many Glaciers in the Glacier National Park, Montana

We’ve arrived at Swiftcurrent Lake and will now dream for as many lifetimes as necessary about staying at the chalet over on the far left.

Caroline Wise and Jutta Engelhardt at Swiftcurrent Lake at Many Glaciers in the Glacier National Park, Montana

After visiting Glacier National Park, a number of people asked if we’d ever been up to Jasper and Banff National Parks, and as sad as it is to admit here in 2022 when I’m writing this post, we’ve still not visited that corner of Canada.

Glacier National Park, Montana

It’s all pretty crazy when you stop to think that this is just a small part of the Rocky Mountain range that stretches 3,000 miles from northwest Canada down to New Mexico.

Driving north on Highway 89 towards Canada in Montana

Being a short 10 miles from the Canadian border, you bet we headed up there.

Blackfoot Nation Sculpture in Babb, Montana

We could have shared a boring photo of the customs station or sign to Canada, but this roadside Blackfoot Nation Sculpture was way better.

Somewhere on Highway 89 in Montana

Highway 89 will take us all the way to Gardiner, Montana, today, which is where we’re staying the night so we can visit the next national park first thing tomorrow.

Somewhere on Highway 89 in Montana

Along the way, we’ll pass through Fairfield, Neihart, Ringling, Wilsall, and Wineglass.

Somewhere on Highway 89 in Montana

Minutes before, we were passing through Ringling, Montana. It sure is wide open out here.

Rainbow over the Yellowstone River on Highway 89 in Montana

You just know that this had to be the last photo of the day as we cross the Yellowstone River with one fairly strong rainbow and a hint of pale one to its left. Yep, this is how life should be: rainbows welcoming us back to Yellowstone, where we’re going in the morning.