A week long stay in a log cabin in Yellowstone was supposed to be the “wildlife” highlight of our American roadtrip. So far the only wildlife we had seen was deer road kill, skunk road kill and raccoon road kill. The cows we saw on our horse ride at Granite Creek Station just didn’t count.
Desperate to encounter wildlife, I had read that animals in the area were more active first thing in the morning so my husband and I decided to get up early one morning and go for a hike along the banks of a nearby river. We got told off by a couple of chipmunks with their machinegun chatter and were excited to find lots of tracks in the mud at the rivers edge but we didn’t see one single bear or deer or moose.
We were starting to wonder where all the big game was.
So we purchased a $25.00 seven day pass and took the west entrance into Yellowstone , into the fifth state of our road trip, Wyoming, on the search for animals that weren’t roadkill or hiding from us.
We were constantly reminded by signs everywhere: Watch out for Wildlife, Don’t Approach Wildlife, Stay 2 feet away From Deer, Stay 6 Car Lengths Away from Buffalo. And again we enjoyed a wildlife free drive all the way to Old Faithful, the world’s best known Geyser.
Despite the 2.5 million tourists that go through the region every year it was surprisingly clean with pristine landscapes and very little sign of human influence. Park management ensures protection of the environment with clear trailheads and boardwalks; the roads were well maintained with lookout bays at points of interest; protection was provided in unstable areas close to thermal activity and cliff edges; and the speed limit was very low to protect both animals and people from accidents.
The two main roads through the park form a figure 8 between them and are known as the North and South Loops. Each Loop takes you past all different types of landscapes from woods, to mountains, rivers and plains and also some really amazing features of thermal landscapes.
Lodgepole pines are the predominant trees in the forests with patches of aspens breaking up the green with their autumn oranges and yellows. Lodgepoles aren’t as acidic as the pines we have at home where nothing can grow beneath their canopy. Yellowstone pine forests are thriving environments for all species. They creak and crack in the wind, have a mild scent and live and die in natural life cycles leaving straight grey weathered trunks like giant toothpicks on the forest floor.
The Lodgepole is similar to Australian tree species that make use of seasonal fires to germinate their seeds. Sometimes though, fires can take out whole forests that burned too hot for the pines to regenerate. Acres of dead pines stand tall, branchless and ghostly, surrounded by fallen comrades that look like a giant’s game of Pick Up Sticks on the side of a mountain.
The underground geothermal activity slowly changes the landscape above to increase the heat and infuse the ground and water with sulphur. The pines in these areas boil to death from the roots up and eventually fall leafless, branchless and lifeless.
Visiting the geyser basin had to be one of the highlights of our trip. Watching sulphuric steam issue from vents in the ground from the road leading in makes you feel like you’re in the age of a world just beginning. Clear steaming water boils in small blue lagoons surrounded by clean white clay. The 60°C water kills all bacteria which leaves stunning colours and patterns as it trickles away from a pool. I stood in the path of clouds of “freshly-boiled-egg” waiting for the wind to clear my view to take some fantastic macro photos I hope to put on my wall. Despite the broiling underground temperatures I couldn’t feel any heat reflected off the ground, water or steam, which surprised me. It would have been welcome too as the day was a bit chilly.
While Old Faithful was on time and magnificent to watch, sitting on a bench with 2-300 other people waiting for the show was a bit too touristy for me. Once she blew, the whole place emptied in minutes. Old Faithful has its own arena, gift shop, restaurant, visitors centre, museum, accommodation, tour coach setdown, etc.
But it was a good place to use one of the few flushing toilets. Although all the “wild” toilets were clean, they were seats over a hole in the ground (and a definite breeze) with plenty of loo paper and hand sanitiser dispensers instead of water and paper towels. I thought the sanitiser was an excellent environmental approach to hygiene, as well as reducing the cost of getting water to the outhouse and almost negating paper towel waste.
But we still hadn’t seen any wildlife!
But I complain too soon. Just as we pulled out of Old Faithful’s carpark, a lone wolf stepped out of the roadside bush and trotted off down the road behind us! It was too quick for me to get a photo but we were chuffed to see our first real wild animal. It was surreal to see a wolf step onto the road like that as though this super-tourist-centre was just another part of its range. Wow!
The maximum speed limit in the park is 45mph, often times 35mph on windy roads and 25mph where lots of cars converge, like Old Faithful.
Thank goodness for the low speed limit as we learned how best to track wildlife – traffic jams! On our way home we came around a bend to suddenly see the traffic slowed to a crawl, cars parked on the roadside and monster lenses on gangly tripods set up just off the verge. Two buffalo were casually walking in the scrubland alongside the road no more than a hundred metres away.
Our second buffalo encounter was located by traffic jam as well. This time we got to watch a lone bull coming up on a herd. Two males stared each other down, urinated in the dirt and then rolled in it kicking up giant clouds of dust. These two stood down as another group of three arrived on the scene. The first lone bull took on one of the newcomers with hardly any notice but the headbutting and bodily shoving was loud, intense and very dusty. It continued for quite a few minutes as the original bull pushed and butted the newcomer up the slope to the road and the traffic jam getting within metres of a parked car (full of people with their windows wound up).
There were easily 50 people with cameras watching the drama unfold. Most were respectful and kept enough distance, some were too loud from excitement (like a certain teenage son) and some were downright stupid getting too close.
The good news is that no buffalo, cars, people or teenage sons were seriously hurt during the encounter. I’m sorry to report that one small tree got seriously gored by a bystanding bull that desperately wanted a piece of the action but was content to give a big fat “take that!” to a pine sapling.
