'Big sky' Montana

With all the overwhelming beauty of Yellowstone to blog about I keep forgetting to show you a little of our 'own' park, the Yellowstone KOA that is.
These pictures are from when we'd just arrived, as you can see there weren't too many people around yet.
I think the spaces are fairly large and I like it that each site has it's own bench, table and fire pit. Even all cabins have their own rocking benches hanging at the tiny front porch.
Our space is one of the largest in the park, we really lucked out there!

This bottom right is us

                                                        

For the tent-ers they have a few of these round structures. The one one the left has 'pie-shaped' wedges fenced of in front of the building. You can pitch your tent in one of them and use the counter under the roof for cooking and eating.

The one on the right has sinks and stoves that can be used by anybody.

As you can see you'll barely notice it's a campground from up above.

As I said before we've been ordering a lot of parts for some minor repairs we had to do and James has been busy checking them off his list.
The toilet had a small leak from the base so we ordered some parts from Thetford and when they arrived James had to contort himself around the throne to get the thing out and, even worse, back in when it was repaired.
You who know how small RV bathrooms are will understand this wasn't the easiest job!

As you see in the center picture our anode rod for the water heater also needed to be replaced. It was almost completely corroded through!

 Next on the list was the screen door. Merlin had scratched it to an inch of it's life and after we replaced the screens we cat-proofed it (hopefully) by installing 2 aluminum screens we found at Home Depot over the bottom one (with the use of Velcro).

 

And than there was the generator that all of a sudden didn't want to start anymore.
James found some wires that had corroded and cleaned some parts but didn't see much else wrong with it.
I googled and found the company in California that distributes them and they were very helpful in giving pointers what to check next.
Unfortunately it still doesn't work but we pretty much nailed it down to it being the carburetor so I think that's going to be the next item we'll have to order. Fortunately it isn't very expensive!

 

 

Our space has a nice concrete slab next to the RV but there was a little 'hole' in the back that wasn't covered. Off course that turned out to be the spot with the nicest view so James went into what they call here the 'boneyard', which is the parks junkyard of old and spare stuff, and came back with some old planks and plywood.

Et voila! Our new patio.

Phew! Just in time for coffee and (apple)pie!

 

 

Maybe you remember the picture of the old school building of two blogs ago?
Well, it appears to have some secret inhabitants!
One morning I discovered some movement at it's base and out came three of the cutest little creatures!

Peekaboo! See the one at the bottom of the Cal sign?

They are little red fox kits (see the little white tail tip?). They had a great time playing in the sun and one of them walked right up to me to have a closer look!

 

All of a sudden mother fox (vixen) appeared around the side of the building. She clearly hadn't seen me walk up but than she did and after barking 2 short warnings at her cubs she took off in a flash.
The kits (or cubs) turned as one and were gone in 2 seconds flat! They were very well trained!
                                               

How cool is that? Why go into the park to see animals? We got plenty around here!
I think I'll give them some room though, I don't want her to panick and feel she has to move them.

Although we had a rather cool week with 2 rainy days in a row it is very nice once again and we're ending our days often around the fire pit.
Nothing better than a, slightly burned, dog over the fire!

And guess what? James is reading! Books, I mean, not his usual manuals :)
Well....reading....he's listening, to be honest. I bought him a Sandisk Sansa Clip and he's listening to audio books I download for him from the library.
Amazing what this incredible teeny weeny little device can do! It also has a radio and you can put all your music on it. Unbelievable!
He loves it. Only problem, now he's listening to the darned thing the whole time and it's impossible to have a conversation with him!

You'll miss it if you don't look closely

 

 

 

I have to admit, I got one for myself too. You know I love, love, love to read and now I can read and spin (or knit or clean or walk the dog or......you get the picture).

 

Talking about pictures. Here are a few I shot from the various birds in the (our)park. I wish I had more zoom but you can see they're all different. (No?)

 

 

 

Clockwise, from the top left: White-crowned Sparrow, Tree Swallows, Mountain Bluebird (male),MBb female, ?(Judy?) Sandhill Crane, Red Robin, Canada Goose.

 

 

 

 

 

This little guy just sang his heart out! So sweet!

 

These are some shots from the beautiful Hayden Valley through which the Yellowstone River winds her way towards Yellowstone Lake. I promised to pick it up from here 2 weeks ago on our first trip into the park so here we go!

These 3 white pelicans were looking for some dinner. I read somewhere they actually 'hunt' in groups so as to round up the fish and get a better chance of catching one.

Their wingspan is about 8'! Wow!

Somehow I didn't think I would see pelicans in Yellowstone?

A little down the road we came across a few more 'bubbling cauldrons'. It's like Halloween here all the time!

I got a kick out of this 'Dracon's Mouth'. It really looked and sounded there was a dragon, or something like it, coming out of that cave (on the right)!

Yellowstone National Park contains at least 45 named waterfalls and cascades, and hundreds more unnamed.

 

This is one of them:

There's a lot of water from the melting snow and ice fields coming down the rivers right now which makes for nice big falls.

Here's another one:

The 'Central Plateau'

OK, I'm up to speed now, more or less, with the current time and the next pictures are from our second trip in the park during which we 'did' part of the upper loop.

We weren't able to do the full loop since the Dunraven Pass (8859') was still being plowed.

We are very fortunate to be able to pick nice days to do these trips! Since James works by himself he is allowed to swap any day for another which allowed us to go on an absolutely gorgeous Wednesday instead of having to go in the rather nasty weekend!

Our first stop were the 'Artists Paintpots',  a group of over 50 springs, geysers, vents and especially colorful mud pots. 

They are varying in shades of blue, grey and brown, and have a range of different textures. An easy 0.6 mile loop trail winds  through partly wooded land, mostly level apart from a short climb and descent across the hillside from which you can overlook the basin.

I love to watch the bubbling mud-pots.

  

This little fella, a Uinta Chipmunk, was obviously used to people, he walked along the path with us for quite a while.

Next stop: Norris Geyser Basin.
This is one of the hottest and most dynamic of Yellowstone's hydrothermal areas.
It is divided in two sections: The Black basin and the Porcelain basin.
The black basin is a longer hike and more forested and houses the largest geyser in Yellowstone, the Steamboat geyser. Unfortunately it is also the most unpredictable and rare to erupt. The last big one was in 2003.
We decided to leave this section for a next time and look at the Porcelain Basin which has a shorter boardwalk around it's area.

This basin is characterized by a lack of vegetation. No plants can live in the hot, acidic, water that comes from the numerous thermal features in the basin.
It's a rather desolate view which is unlike any of the other geyser basins in the park.





Unlike most of other geyser basins in the park the waters from Norris are acidic rather than alkaline. The difference in pH allows for a different class of bacterial thermophiles to live at Norris, creating different color patterns in and around the Norris Basin waters.

Thermophiles (heat-loving microorganisms) create tapestries of color where hot water flows among the terraces. Colorless and yellow thermophiles grow in the hottest water; orange, brown, and green thermophiles thrive in cooler waters. Colors also change with the seasons.

 

Whirligig geyser, a fun, if small geyser. The fun part is the chugging sounds the back vent makes during the eruptions.

From Norris we took the western road of the loop north towards Mammoth Hot Springs.

 

   

We passed through a much rockier area of the park. It's amazing how many different landscapes you'll see in just a couple of hours.

 

While we stopped for lunch, I took Sadie for a walk and snapped some pictures of the wildflowers. Spring is here!

 

Yellow Prairy Violet

 

Sugarbowl or 'leatherflower' but actually Clematis hirsutissima

 

At the top of the loop we arrived at Mammoth Springs which was like nothing we've seen so far. A completely different landscape once again!

Upper terraces

Mammoth Hot Springs is a large complex of hot springs on a hill of travertine.  It was created over thousands of years as hot water from the spring cooled and deposited calcium carbonate
The hot water that feeds Mammoth comes from Norris Geyser Basin after traveling underground via a fault line that runs through limestone. This limestone is the source of the calcium carbonate.

Minerva Terrace

Isn't that something! It reminded me of Pamukele in Turkey where I was in 1987. You can actually swim in the lower basins (less hot) there!

Main Terrace

Lower terraces

From here we took the northern route out of the park on our way to Gardiner and passed the 45th parallel of latitude.

Looking towards the towering, snow capped peaks of the Gallatin Range, we noticed some movement among the rocks of the foothills.

Pronghorns!

Sometimes mistakenly called antelopes these graceful animals can run 30 miles per hour for 15 minutes with spurts up to 70 miles/hr which makes them the fastest land animal in the world. (The African cheetah is only a sprinter who flags out after a few hundred yards).

Gardiner is situated right at the North Entrance to Yellowstone , the only entrance that is open all year round. The town is nestled in  Paradise Valley, with the Yellowstone River running right through town. It's a sort of wannabee quaint little western town but for a lot of the usual antique and tourist shops.

All in all it didn't impress us much but they have really good huckleberry ice-cream!

 

The Roosevelt Arch is the most famous structure in Gardiner. This Yellowstone Entrance Gateway or Arch was dedicated by President Theodore Roosevelt on 24 April 1903.

Well, we thought that was rather enough for one day!

The blue sky was making way for the (almost) daily gathering of thunderclouds in the late afternoon (typical for this mountainous area) so it was time to call it quits and head for home!