goodbye...for now

It's hard to believe it, but our winter stint is over. We ship out with the first batch of employees at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow. Today we cleaned out our room and loaded up our luggage on the Prinoth they parked in front of our building.

We decided to take one more walk around the geyser basin and say goodbye to the bison who've been our neighbors for these past few months.



While our stint at Old Faithful is over, our time in Yellowstone will stretch on. We'll have about a month off, and then we'll be back, this time living in the northern part of the park, in Mammoth Hot Springs. I'll work in Mammoth and Steve will commute down to Norris.

I guess we'll need to tweak the header on this blog, so that we can pick it back up when we return next month...

But for now, we're Chicago-bound! We'll spend tomorrow night out in the Lamar Valley at the Buffalo Ranch, and then we'll hit the road on Wednesday morning.

who dat

One of the most often asked questions as guests arrive here is "Where is the TV?" There isn't one. We haven't seen TV since we arrived (our internet connection is too slow to even stream it), and Steve was getting a little nervous about the Superbowl.

But then we found out that the only TV shown here for the whole winter season is the Superbowl--they get a screen and host a party in employee pub (employees only, shh). The only snafu? We work on Sunday's. Luckily Steve has an AWESOME wife who gave him the day off, so he was set.

Sunday morning dawned sunny and clear--it's been beautiful having these brilliant blue skies, but it means it's still not snowing. Sigh.



We kicked off Sunday Funday with a ski around the geyser basin. It was cold enough that the steam from the geysers and thermal features was frozen in the air above



I saw my favorite coyote cruising the boardwalk near Grand Geyser, and small herd of bison were grazing in the sun in front of the gas station



We skied over to Biscuit Basin to look for the bobcat (no dice), and arrived just as Rusty Geyser was erupting


A lone bison was resting along the banks of the Firehole, obviously gearing himself up for the big game



After lunch, I headed over to work and Steve to the pub. In addition to showing the game, they had a whole spread laid out for everyone: wings, brats, hot dogs, dips, chips, cheesecake, etc. Steve saved me a chair and I skied over for my dinner, and while I missed the game (and the commercials!), I did get the good grub. Though I don't recommend eating wings and then jumping back on skis; the two do not go together.

spring in january

While it still hasn't snowed (sigh), we decided to take advantage of the warmer temperatures and blue skies this afternoon before work. We dragged our snowshoes out from under the bed and set off for Geyser Hill and Observation point.

The snow is so packed down right now that we didn't need our snowshoes, we just hiked up the hill in our boots. Steve was kind enough to strap both pairs of shoes to his backpack.


From the top of the hill we could see the whole Old Faithful area spread out before us, including the building where we live. And we also spotted a small herd of bison grazing near the Firehole River


These are the first bison we've seen in Old Faithful proper--guests have seen them on the boardwalks and right in front of the lodge, but for some reason we've always been somewhere else when they're walking about in the basin.

Steve pointed out this squirrel and we watched him eat for a few minutes before he grew tired of us watching him and scurried away.


We continued on to Solitary Geyser, and you'd never know from this picture that it's the middle of January


Someone reported a wolf at Solitary two days ago, but with all the melting snow I couldn't find any tracks.


The trail dumped us out back on the boardwalk at geyser hill,


and that's when we glimpsed Old Faithful #2, our resident coyote, across the boardwalk.


Wolves were spotted again this morning at Biscuit Basin, so we're off to bed so we can get up early and try our luck tomorrow morning.

geyser gazing

Today we got up early to join one of the park rangers for their geyser prediction circuit. Each morning a ranger goes out to the basin to check heat sensors located near many of the geysers that help determine when the geysers went off so that the rangers can predict when they will erupt again.

Our ski journey started with a short cut through the woods that had us following a slew of coyote tracks. And not only were there footprints in the snow, the coyotes had also left scent markings, some which contained blood, a sure sign that mating season is around the corner, or so said the ranger.

That first geyser we came to was Castle, which was steamy but pretty quiet

The ranger carefully walked along the run-off canal and downloaded the information in the heat sensor into a portable drive that allowed her to transfer the readings into a laptop. A spike in the water temperature reading will indicate when the geyser last went off and allow for an accurate prediction of its next eruption.

We continued to follow the coyote tracks

up past Grand Geyser, which the ranger predicted erupted about 20 minutes before arrival, which was a bit of disappointment since it is the tallest predictable geyser (it goes off once of twice a day) in the world. While passing Chromatic Spring the ranger pointed out dead thermophiles, which created the pink layer around the feature.

Thermophiles are organisms that thrive in the superheated springs and thermals of Yellowstone. They create all the vibrant colors in many of the springs and are of constant interest to science. For instance, thermophilic bacteria is the basis of DNA fingerprinting and many scientists wonder if, given their ability live in liquid and survive at extreme temps, thermophiles weren't the first life forms on earth. The latter has also made them a favorite of NASA since they believe studying thermophiles might give them a leg up on finding life on other planets like Mars.

Next we passed Grotto Geyser, which wasn't doing too much, and Giant Geyser, which hasn't erupted since February, on our way to Riverside Geyser. True to its name, Riverside sits right on the Firehole River and erupts every 6 hours or so.

To many people it looks like a toilet and you can tell it is ready to erupt when the bowl on the right fills with water and starts to overflow.

Making our way back along the trail we could see some steam rising and sure enough we caught Grotto as it was doing its thing

After checking out the eruption we headed over to Daisy, where the ranger once again checked out the sensor, peaked into the geyser to gauge the water level and then radioed in her prediction on its next eruption.

From there we headed toward Geyser Hill and past Grand, Wave Spring (if you look close you can see the constant ripple)

and Sawmill Geyser. In the distance we could see Lion Geyser going off and Old Faithful start to steam as we skied along the icy track and up the hill.

Over by Pump Geyser, the ranger pointed out where a bison had walked across the bacterial mat and left a trail in the layer of bacteria around the thermal feature.

We reached the top the hill just in time to see Old Faithful start to spout.

Having checked all the geysers and made her predictions, the ranger headed back to the Visitors Center to download her sensor information. We went back the way we came and reached Sawmill just as it was boiling over

The run-off from Sawmill passed by Wendie's favorite thermal feature, Scalloped Spring,

and down into the Firehole River (check how little snow there is)

Having completed both our physical and educational quota for the day we decided to follow the coyote's love trail and head back home.

Later, as we were heading home from a slow day at work, we heard a couple coyotes yipping and barking, obviously saying that their night would be more exciting than ours was.

(Further Reading: There was a story in USA Today that mentioned the Yellowstone Association and one of the guides we work with. Check it out. )

wolf tracks

Friday night we heard that wolves had been sited in the Old Faithful area so we vowed to get up early and do an investigative ski around the geyser basin. But tired out by our photo safari and a night of work, we hit the snooze button a couple times before heading out on our skis around 11am. As we headed toward Black Sand Basin on the Upper Geyser Trail we spotted what we believe are pine marten tracks

Continuing along the trail we came to Castle Geyser, which we caught at the end of one of its eruptions -- something that happens every 10-12 hours

After crossing some astroturf we took a left and headed toward Daisy Geyser and the collection of pools, geysers and bacterial mats (below) that surround it

About half way between Daisy and Black Sand, near Punch Bowl Springs, we came across a track crossing the trail. After further inspection -- it measured about the size of my hand -- we decided it was a couple-day-old wolf track

With no actual wolves in sight, we headed on down the hill and came across another set of footprints (plus some tail prints). These belonged to a deer mouse are were about a quarter of the size of the wolf track.

Next we skied across the road to Black Sand Basin, which takes it name from the small grains of obsidian (the stuff Native Americans made arrowheads out of) that covers the area. For a few moments we had the basin to ourselves as we checked out the thermal features that sat on either side of Iron Creek. By far the most colorful and steamiest was Rainbow Pool

When a coach full of tourists pulled up we decided it was time to head back. We had to break trail along the road on the way home and barely made it back to get to work on time.

The highlight of our work night was the ranger lecture which fittingly was on the topic of wolves. The ranger giving the talk also broke the news to us that the rangers doing the 8am geyser prediction had heard wolves howling in the basin. Kicking ourselves for not getting up earlier we vowed to get up early on Sunday and find some wolves.

We headed out around 8am and followed the same path toward Castle and this time we had the local coyote breaking trail for us

Around the astroturf we spotted a wolf track like we saw the day before but, again, it looked to be a couple days old. After some skiing around, we decided that the wolves had probably moved on. Still, the basin looked beautiful in the early morning light

so we decided to ski around the geysers and thermal features. The skiing was a little slick but we managed to make it down Geyser Hill without any incident. We are hoping to make it out with one of the rangers on a geyser predict soon so maybe we'll have another chance at glimpsing, or at least hearing, a wolf in the coming days.

happy new year!!

New Year's Eve has long been my least favorite holiday; too much pressure. We had to work, and we were tired from the previous day's ski, so we slept in, did some email, and went to work at 3 p.m.

Several tour groups checked-in to the hotel on Thursday, and I overheard one group making plans to meet before midnight to go out and see Old Faithful. What a great idea--and one that hadn't even crossed my mind (duh) until I heard them discussing it. And at just that moment our colleague popped by to invite us to join her and one of the rangers for their yearly tradition of watching the midnight-ish eruption. The estimations had it erupting right around midnight, and we made plans to meet.

After work we stopped by the employee pub for a beer. They were having a big New Year's Eve dance party, and everyone said we had to see it. We're 50 miles from anything here, and completely snowed in, so people make their own fun, and they bring costumes (Mandi and Nicole--where were you?!)

At 11:30 p.m. we strapped on our skis and headed towards the (closed) Old Faithful Inn. The four of us stayed on the Inn side, set apart from the rest of the crowd, and wondered if we'd see the last eruption of 2009 or the first eruption of 2010. As the clock crept closer to midnight we hoped for the latter. And at exactly 12:02 a.m. Old Faithful erupted, and with the snow and the full moon we could see it clearly.

On New Year's Day we decided to ski to Lone Star, and this time actually make it to Lone Star. We hopped on the 9 a.m. ski drop, which dropped us off at the trail head and let us avoid all those hills we've been practicing on.


New Year's Eve had brought snow, and we were the first ones on the trail.


Or so we thought--this bison sheds hair like I do


Lone Star geyser erupts every 3 hours for about 30 minutes, and we didn't have any posted eruption times. About 2 minutes after we arrived it went off--how's that for perfect timing?!


As we headed back we passed a few groups of guests who recognized us--word had spread that we had seen otters on the trail 2 days ago. Sadly, the otters weren't out today, but other animals seemed to be very active in the fresh snow.


So maybe I do like New Year's after all. Or maybe it's just better in Yellowstone...

Happy New Year! Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2010!

skiin' and readin'

Since Wendie is finally over her cold we decided to get back to doing some skiing. Yesterday we headed out on the Lone Star Geyser trail. It starts with two downhills. The first one is the one we practiced on during our ski lesson. I caught an edge on my way down and toppled over but Wendie took it cleanly. The next hill goes right down to the Firehole River before taking a sharp left. Somehow we both managed to nail this tricky descent and were over the river

while we left another couple at the top of the hill contemplating how to follow our lead.

The rest of the first half-mile or so of the trail is a steady uphill. Thankfully it is a gradual grade so we were able to ski up most of it. A bigger problem than the rise in elevation is the lack of snow on the trails. We haven't had any snow to speak of for about a week and the trails are all pretty slick, which makes sliding backwards a direct result of climbing to higher elevations.

Finally we made it to the top of the hill and had a nice view of not only the geyser basin down below but also of the trail ahead

Sadly by the time we reached the section of the trail that parallels the road, the trail, due to the lack of snow, had turned into nothing more than sheer angled wall of ice. So with that, and a check of the watch that told us it was getting close to work time, we decided to cut to the fun part: the downhill. Except for few flat sections, we took the whole quarter mile down without even so much as a push from our poles.

After pushing our way up the hills at the beginning of the trail we came out at the Old Faithful parking lot right after the geyser had gone off. As all the tourists hightailed to their snowmobiles and coaches we got our first glimpse of an Old Faithful rush hour, winter style.

We decided to follow up yesterday's skiing with a trip to Fern Cascades, a ski trail that starts right behind our housing location and is a bit of a rite of passage for winter employees. When anyone mentions Fern the first thing that comes up is the hills, and we learned why real quick.

The trails starts with a good quarter to half mile ascent that is almost vertical. We pushed onward, having to herringbone it from pretty much jump street

Despite the near perfect form demonstrated above, it took us a good while to get to level ground. From there, we traveled up and down some dipsy-dos until we made it to the cascade, from where we could see Biscuit Basin down below

After a mile trip through the lodgepole pines, we came to Fern's other hills: the downhill. Unlike the Lone Star trail, there is nothing gradual about Fern's descent; it goes just about straight down and it does so in a hurry.

Fighting the ice and gravity, we did our best to make it down in one piece, which meant falling on purpose a couple of times when we weren't sure if the drop kept going (it did). Our final descent was delayed by a couple that was actually trying to go up the one-way downhill that we were coming down. Somehow I managed to stop like an actual skier (I even sprayed some powder) so I didn't run into them. Wendie got stuck on the hill because, despite my ascertain that I knew what trail I was on, the couple decided they needed to disagree with me right at the bottom of the hill. Finally, after the couple told me we need to post better signs, Wendie too made a perfect descent all the way down to the trail head where we found a big sign saying, "This is a one-way trail." It pays to be able to read I guess.