Grand Canyon Afternoon

We left the lake area and headed for the grand canyon…of Yellowstone, that is. On the way were a few more thermal features. The mud volcano area would hold many unique features. Boardwalks spanned throughout the features. We started off seeing a few small dirty, boiling geysers. Then on to the more interesting one.

All the names fitting for the Halloween season: dragon’s breath, mud volcano, sulfur caldron, churning caldron, and so on. Dragon’s breath was my favorite; it was a massive hole in the side of the hill. Not much to see, but steam spewing out. The sound, though, was crazy. As if a dragon was warming up before he would breathe fire or if he were to have a nasty bout of indigestion. It was mesmerizing to listen to. Then over to the mud volcano. It was a boiling pit of mud, but not as I had imagined. It was muddy, just not as thick as I was thinking. I imagined a bubbling pool of lava consistency mud.

Amanda wasn’t up for a steep hike up to the top of the plateau. So she went to the car, and I took off in my usual long-legged stride. I have to slow my roll constantly when with Amanda; I often look around and I will have left her in the dust! On my way up, there was a heavy sulfur smell. This smell would be different than the other geyser’s sulfur smells. Fireworks, immediate childhood memories, specifically Black Cats! At the top, I would find a few caldrons and a lake.

Today we were wearing our matching Patagonia pullovers we got in Amarillo. So naturally, we would receive many looks as we walked around together. I am used to being stared at, maybe my height or who knows, but it is a regular occurrence. Today the looks were a bit different; I surmised they were thinking, “you’re gay” from the husbands and “I wish my husband would matchy match with me” from the wives!

After the mud volcano area, we arrived at the upper canyon side first. Amanda wasn’t feeling great and was not up for much of a walk. We went for a short walk to see the falls at the beginning of the grand canyon. It was icy, and we were slipping and sliding around.

We quickly returned to the car and headed to the canyon’s other side. Amanda wasn’t feeling up for much of anything by this point. I would make the next few stops solo, showing Amanda the pictures I would capture.

Yellowstone is laid out in figure 8 with branches to its five entrances. By now, we were in the middle east side of the figure 8. We couldn’t go north on that side, it was closed for the winter already due to crossing over a high pass. But, we still needed to make it across the middle cross-section of the loops. So we’d take that across, then south to the cabin. A few hours drive would make for a long day in the car with sore butts on the stretch home.

Things got interesting when got in a buffalo jam along the way. They completely stopped cars on both sides and about 30 or so buffalo. So picture and video time it was. The northbound traffic was still trying to move among them; one truck was getting too close, and a bull was swatting his head at them as they drove by, just missing the side of the truck bed.

Once getting out of Yellowstone and through the short section of non-park land, we were back in Grand Teton. Alongside the many lakes, we had our eyes peeled for bald eagles. No sightings, but some fantastic frozen lake sun-setting sights were had.

We came up on many cars that stopped in a flat, almost marsh area at dusk. A vehicle started its emergency lights as we approached closer. We knew it was something big after seeing people out with cameras. Another grizzly, we wheeled right in the mix, stopping on the side of the road. It was a bit dark for pictures, but we shared the binoculars back and forth. We were watching the bear forage not far from the treeline, half the distance as our last grizzly sighting. We watched for 20 minutes until we couldn’t see in the darkening evening.

We’d decided to have pizza from an Italian place only steps from the cabin. Amanda checked online to ensure they’d be open, but we figured we should be good well before eight on a Friday. Well, we were wrong. I went to place an order before heading to the cabin, and at 7:20, the kitchen was already closed, with hours till 8! Jackson was a slow 15 miles away, with large animals roaming, so that was a bust; I’d have to cook. I grumbled, trying to think of something quick to cook, but we wanted pizza! So toast pizzas it would be. We had all the fixing; sauce, onions, artichokes, tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, jalapenos, corn, squash, and fresh herbs. Yes, we fit that all on a piece of bread! We typically don’t eat cheese, even the plant based kind, but I put some cauliflower queso on some of mine.

Amanda worked on the mini bear lego finishing it up before dinner. After dinner, we indulged in hot chocolate again and went to bed, worn out from another 12-hour day in the car.