A Surprise Stop

Thursday August 18, 2011
Mammoth Hot Springs Campground Site 5
Yellowstone National Park

 

On Wednesday we were up and out the door by 6am to
make sure Carrie got to the Jackson Hole Airport by
8:15, an hour ahead of her flight.

It’s 100 miles from Bridge Bay to the airport inside
Grand Teton National Park and the speed limit for 95%
of the way is 45 mph.

We made it on time with no buffalo stops – thank goodness.
Guess it was too early for them to hit the road.

We were sad to see her go and glad to hear later that
both her flights to Minneapolis and then to Baltimore
were on time and went well.  No good bye photos, we
don’t like good byes.

 

After she left we went into Jackson to restock.
Gas and groceries.
We stopped at Bubba’s for breakfast where David
had the biggest biscuit he’d ever seen.
Left our cameras in the car so no picture of that either.

For most of the rest of the day, David shopped
and I stayed in the car using our wireless for
about the first time in a week to catch up
on email and blog postings.

 

But Thursday, was a very different
story.  We set out in the direction of
Glacier National Park which is, of course,
North.  So I says to myself, let’s just go
up the North side of the Figure 8 drive
instead of across the middle and out the
west side and then North.

 

Made perfect sense except for the
fact that I didn’t realize 10,000+ foot
Mount Washburn was on that route.

I think it is the scariest drive on the
narrowest roads we’ve ever taken.
David did a GREAT job but I
could hardly look let alone take any pictures.

The pull outs aren’t well designed
if they want a motor home to
pull over they drop off at an angle. 
But we did find one on the wayat a lovely falls
and took advantage to destress and have
lunch there.

 

 

I was counting down the miles to North Entrance.
Only 5 to go, when we came to the Mammoth Hot Springs area.

 

Mammoth is actually the old Fort Yellowstone
so it’s like a town which was built in the late 1800’s
to protect the park once it was created.

 

Here’s what we saw on the town square
as we drove into town.

 

 

Elk, elk and more elk.
Apparently there is a small herd that
likes to hang out in town every afternoon
and cause the park rangers to have to
keep the tourists at a safe distance.
Notice above the ranger approaching the couple
out of their cars.   $125 fine for being within 75 feet
of any wild animal and 300 feet of bears.

 

 

What a darling little town……we’re exhausted from
the drive so far……..let’s just stay here.
The boon docking campground is 1/4 mile outside of town
down and around a hairpin curve of course.

 

BUT there is a Verizon signal even if they don’t
have electric or water or a dump station.
The important things are covered. 
We’ve got cell phone and internet coverage.  :-)

 

We signed up for two nights. 
$14 a night/ $7 for seniors.  

The ambiance of the campground
is much more to my liking
than either of the other two campgrounds
we’d been in while in Yellowstone.

 

 

 

We got set up and took off up the sage covered
campground hillside path to check out the Visitors Center
and those elk.   I’m the white dot nearly dwarfed
by the tree like sage.  Can you see me back there??

 

 

Great views on the climb up.

 

 

And look who is up at the top of the trail.

 

 

Luckily the elk wandered off while we were
deciding exactly what to do and we continued on to the top.

 

And of course there she was stopping traffic
coming into town and looking at us like “who me”?

 

 

All of the former Fort’s buildings have been converted
to the Park’s Administrative Headquarters or
employee housing.  It is now a National Historic District.

 

For the decade after the establishment of Yellowstone
as the first national park in 1872, it was under serious threat
from those exploiting rather than protecting its resources.
Poachers killed animals, souvenir hunters broke large pieces
off the geysers and hot springs.  The Civilian superintendents
hired to protect the park from 1872 until 1886 were pretty much unfunded and couldn’t handle the problems.   Congress
passed the law, created the park but gave no money to pay for it.  Sounds familiar doesn’t it??

 

So the secretary of the interior called upon the secretary
of war for help and in 1886 the Army came to the rescue
with men from Company M, First United States Cavalry
Fort Custer Montana Territory.  They stayed for 30
years and literally brought law and order to the park.
In 1916, the National Park Service was created
and took over administration of the park.

The first buildings were constructed in 1891
mostly quarters for the men and stables for the horses.
There is a very nice self guided walking tour of the town
which we did after the visitor’s center.

In 1909 Scottish stone masons began erecting
sandstone buildings including a bachelor’s quarters
which is now the Albright Visitors Center.

 

 

where I did get my passport book stamped
and the event was recorded for posterity!

 

 

This visitors center has a another great film
with an interview with  Mardy Murie. She’s
one of my heroes.  Olaus and Mardy Murie,
two founders of the modern conservation movement,
used the Murie Ranch in the Grand Tetons
as their base of operations from 1946 until
Mardy’s death in 2003.
Mardy sold the ranch to the National Park Service in 1968.
In 2006, the Interior Department designated the ranch
as a national historic landmark.  We passed
the ranch entrance several times in Grand Teton
but never made the time to stop
It is one of the things I want to return there to see. 
It was wonderful to see her talking about the
importance of wild places in this film.

 

In addition to the theater, downstairs the center
has exhibits of the photography of
William Henry Jackson and the paintings of Thomas Moran
both of whom were part of the original survey team.
The photographs, paintings and sketches are wonderful.
It was their work, primarily, which convinced congress
to protect the Yellowstone and create the first national park.

I didn’t have my camera that day and the only
picture David took of the Jackson or Moran works
was not of the landscapes but of the
early camping.   It’s fun to see Pre Winnona!

 

 

Upstairs is the very best collection of taxidermy I have ever
seen.  I’m not much for stuffed animals.  The idea of killing
and stuffing them doesn’t appeal but these were exquisitely done.

There were also a number of Crowe beaded pipe bags

 

a set of beaded stirrups

 

and
a Buffalo Hunt painting on elk hide.

 

 

This is an excellent visitors center.  Don’t miss it!

 

We left the visitors center and took the old fort buildings
self guided tour.

These are the first 1891 buildings

 

 

This magpie was walking up the walk to the porch
of one as though he lived there.

 

 

 

 

1891 stables turned carpenter shop

 

 

Several of the sandstone structures from 1909
now used as residences

 

 

And the Park Superintendent’s Office

 

 

It’s a very interesting walking tour that takes under an hour
to do following the well designed brochure available.

We ended up at the post office where we sent
some postcards

 

and across the street
were…….

 

 

 

We walked up to see the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel.
And to check out the ice cream possibilities at the
Grille and Grocery.  Great potential for another day!

 

Time to start the walk down but then this
guy was in the way and we had to cross the street
and walk around in order to keep the required
distance away.  We’ve been warned that
the rangers here are serious
about protecting the public,
avoiding lawsuits and
about issuing citations to that end.

 

Eventually,  back down the path we went.
A really nice walk from the campground
to “town”.

I took the opportunity to fill my
nose with the wonderful scent of
sage which I love.

 

 

There’s a nice bench about half way
which is a great place to sit and contemplate
how lucky I am to be right here, right now.

 

As we walked back through the campground
this western bluebird of happiness flew up
on a branch in front of us.
Plenty of good luck already in this day.

 

 

It had been a long day and I
was too tired for campfire talks
but David, ever the one to do it all,
went to hear the talk and see the
slides on camping in Yellowstone in the late 1800’s.

I don’t think he took pictures of all the slides
but I’m not really sure of that given the number
he had.  I’ll leave you with a few I liked
the best.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a fortunate mistake in
direction this turned out to be!