Yellowstone!

This past Monday Jef took me to Yellowstone to celebrate my 24th birthday.  My guests included elk, chipmunks, and buffalo!  We had high expectations for the park, and yet we were still amazed over and over again.

We left Sunday night (it's about 80 miles from Bozeman to Yellowstone) and arrived at the park just before dusk.  

Here we are at the North Entrance of the park. President Roosevelt laid down the first cornerstone of the arch in 1903.The quote at the top, which is taken from the 1872 legislation that created Yellowstone, reads, "For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People"--indeed.

Upon entering the park we were almost immediately greeted by elk--and lots of them! It was incredibly tempting to pet one, but I managed to resist the urge. 

We only had time to see one site before it got dark--Mammoth Hot Springs.  It was eery and stunning and certainly whet our appetites for more.  It's difficult to tell in the pictures, but there were thin streams of steaming hot water running down the limestone.  The water beneath the formation is superheated by magma and then finds its way up through the limestone to the surface. The hot water running over the limestone creates these white, chalky mineral deposits which make many of the rocks look like they're covered in frost. 

We slept in the car that night and were eager to set out early the next morning.  Our first stop was to the visitors center where Jef and I purchased our National Parks Passport. It looks like a passport and has spaces for you to get a stamp for each of the national parks. We hope to one day fill it with stamps from all the Parks.  While there, we also attended a ranger-led talk about wildlife safety in Yellowstone.  From what I'd heard from other travelers we've met while on the road, its common to see bears and wolves in the park--so I wanted to be prepared.  The ranger essentially said to stay 100 yards from bears and wolves, and to carry bear spray (we had none).  (Unfortunately, we didn't end up seeing any bears OR wolves! We want to revisit the park in the winter to hopefully rectify this.)

There is one main, figure eight-shaped route through Yellowstone. As you drive there are dozens of small stops and then about six major stops, many of which have their own visitors centers and gift shops.  Since we only had a day, we mostly stopped at the main sites. Our first stop on Monday was Norris Geyser Basin -- which was a large area that had dozens of smaller geysers and thermals. 

Since the ground is unstable you can only walk on the boardwalk, which circles the entire basin.  You can see the boardwalk in the background on the right.

Jef: "How about these geysers, eh?"

Tiny bacteria called thermophiles are the cause of the bright colors that surround most of the hot springs.  They thrive in extreme conditions and as a result have been studied in order to learn more about possible life on Mars.  The green thermophiles appear where the water is cooler (though still hot), while the red-orange ones signal the hottest water. 

Steamy

Another site we stopped at--I can't remember the name of this particular hot spring.  It did bubble every few minutues though, which was exciting. 

The steam created by the tiny eruption was enough to fog up the cameral lens!

Our next stop was the famous Grand Prismatic Lake--which is probably the next most iconic Yellowstone feature (Old Faithful being the first).

The hot springs around Grand Prismatic pump out hundreds of gallons of water per minute--much of it runs off into the Firehole River.

Excelsior Geyser. According to the plaque, it hasn't erupted for a decade or so and could blow at any moment!

Grand Prismatic Lake.  I really wish they would've thought to elevate the boardwalk here so that you could get a better view of the lake and all of its incredible colors! It was difficult to capture the rainbow effect with the camera, but you can kind of see it here.

Our next stop was Old Faithful--by far the biggest tourist attraction--it was packed!  It erupts every hour and the crowd was huge.  Hundreds of people stood packed around the boardwalk, quietly waiting with their cameras perched --it reminded me of The Birds.

Old Faithful minutes before the projected eruption time...

Yar she blows!

The steam blowing off to the right created a lovely rainbow!

As dusk was approaching, we asked a ranger where was the best place to see buffalo--he told us we'd have to wait 20 minutes to cross the road at Hayden Valley because the buffalo gather in such large herds. So off we went--and boy was he right!

Here they were gathered just off to the side of the road.

This guy came right up to the side of our car!

Hayden Valley

Random side of the road picture

All in all, we had an amazing day. We can't wait to go back!

Our Week on the Farm

We survived!!

Jef and I spent this past week on a small, organic farm located out in Eastern Montana with one of the friendliest, most obnoxious people either of us have ever met.  Our host, Charles, was a REAL character and I cannot paint an accurate picture of our experience on the farm without first doing my best to describe this guy.

The main garden area

Driving up to the farm, we first glimpsed Charles as we would see him for the majority of the week: shirtless.  Within minutes of meeting us, he was offering us "herb" and extolling the virtues of his vaporizer (an apparatus which, according to him, removes the carcinogens).  For somebody who smokes three times a day, he was incredibly healthy.  Throughout the week and at every meal he preached the gospel of health: organic, whole foods, grass-fed this, free range that, aroma therapy, yoga--the whole sha-bang.  He loved to talk and often offered fact after fact about the virtues of everything from essential oils (smelling them prevents Alzheimer's) to push-ups (picture the color green when  you do them--it strengthens  your heart chakra).  When I probed him once on where he learned these little health nuggets, he basically said, "I feel like they're true."

Our glorious shanty! Complete with a comfortable bed and an extension cord.

Jef channels his inner hippie

Though much of his health advice made us chuckle, when it came to cooking, we were sincerely impressed.  He had two cabinets stuffed with thousands of dollars worth of extremely high quality seasonings and spices which he used like magic to turn piles of swiss chard and squash into mouth watering dishes.   It was not unusual for him to indulge in random outbursts of singing, shouting, and dancing while preparing the food--it truly gave him joy to cook for us, to show us his way of doing things.  This loud enthusiasm for healthy cooking, while not quite contagious, certainly made for fun-ish meal preparations.

Some family friends from Germany visited the farm. Charles made a feast and we had fun chatting with them.  

The work on the farm was mostly pleasurable--for most of the week the weather was in the 80s or 90s.  We did a lot of watering in the garden, helped set up a drip system, harvested squash, zucchini, apples and watermelon and weeded.  Jef tilled up a plot of land that we later covered with clover seed, coffee grounds, and horse manure in hopes of making the soil viable for planting in the future.  Twice a day we fed and watered the chickens and milked the goats--this was by far my favorite chore.  Learning to milk the goats was surprisingly tricky, but we got the hang of it after a few tries.  There were seven adorable baby goats and three milkers.  About 2/3s of the milk went to feeding the babies and the rest we used for ourselves--we ate it on cereal, made yogurt, cheese and a delicious coffee/chocolate gelato.

The infamous Charles! Here he's making the coffee/chocolate gelato in his commercial grade ice cream maker (I've got to get one of those)

The chicken house!

Baby goats.  Every time you walked in the barn they came rushing over to say hello and nibble your shirt if possible. 

The milkers--Maggie, Gretta, and another one whose name we could never remember.

Jef milking Gretta

Though we enjoyed the animals and the delicious food, we felt rather exhausted by Charles' lifestyle.  We spent around 10 hours a day together and his energy and zest was bottomless.  We bore frequent witness to displays of his fitness prowess including comically drawn out demonstrations of ninja-style solo air fights.  Jef was more than once challenged to a pushup contest, and the impassioned renditions of contemporary political ballads lost their charm all too quickly.  On Monday the warm weather turned hot as the temperature rose close to 100. The cool weather and beautiful vistas of Western Montana began to lure us once again, and so by Wednesday afternoon we were on the road.

Just a coupla' farmers sittin on some  hay.

Six hours later we found ourselves in Bozeman, MT and only now do we truly feel like we're in Montana.  This place is simply beautiful.  Mountains in the distance everywhere you look, enormous spruce trees, and weather in the 70s. We love Bozeman so far.  It's home to a branch of Montana State University so it has a kind of college town feel.  The downtown area is amazing.  It's as charming as an old style town square but is busy and thriving with all kinds of cool coffee shops, boutiques, recreational outfitters and cafe's. The people seem outdoorsy, but not in a dreadlocks sort of way.

Olive is lying on the grass next to us as I write this on the patio of a local coffee shop.  She's on her back with her legs splayed open and she's so still with sleepy pleasure it looks like she's been shot and gone to heaven.

I think we feel the same way.