I was up before sunrise, eager to explore the "Southern Loop" of Yellowstone...hopefully avoiding the canyons of yesterday.
I decided to hike out from Biscuit Basin, along the Little Firehole River, to Mystic Falls. This was a great hike with beautiful views of thermal activity at the beginning, the Little Firehole River along the way, and Mystic Falls at the end. I wanted to get to Mystic Falls because my Guidebook to the park mentioned that, in a cave behind the falls, are interred the remains of "Boo Boo", famous from the Yogi Bear Show of my childhood. There's a path that leads you from the trail, behind the falls, to the cave. Alas, on this day, the trail was closed...and I was not able to see, in the cave behind the falls, what my Guidebook described as "a bronze picnic basket on which are inscribed the words...
Ever reasonable and the voice of restraint, he was
truly 'smarter than the average bear'."
Bummer!...but...on to "Old Faithful"! I could not visit Yellowstone without seeing the iconic "Old Faithful"...so, following my hike to Mystic Falls and back, I drove another 20 miles or so to the bottom of the Southern Loop. I had time for a quick lunch...terrible pizza at the local "snack bar"...then on to Old Faithful. I arrived 15 minutes before the next scheduled "eruption" and joined two hundred or so other people around the geyser area...waiting for the big show. Well...Old Faithful was about 10 minutes late, but the show was spectacular.
I would have liked to do some more exploring today, but my plan is to get out of Yellowstone very early tomorrow...if I leave by 8:00AM or so, I can get to both the "Little Big Horn Battlefield" as well as another, unscheduled, stop. So...after Old Faithful, I'm heading back to my campground to pack up as much as possible before morning...after one last waterfall.
Things have been getting very strange here of late. First, there's the music...I keep hearing these six musical notes in my head...over and over and over. Then, there's the weird "static" on my satellite radio...at first, I thought that it was just random beeps...but it's not...it's a pattern of numbers...two sets of three numbers...44.48.74 and 104.83.60. I could not, for the life of me, figure out what these numbers were...then...it hit me. Before I left on this trip, I studied "cartography"...mapmaking...that first set of numbers...is a latitude! Two sets of three numbers...degrees, hours and minutes. So...I went down to the park bookstore and checked their globe...one finger tracing "latitude", the other tracing "longitude"...my fingers met somewhere in northeast Wyoming. So...I bought a geodesic survey map of Wyoming...I wanted it accurate down to the square foot. Now...I know where I need to go tomorrow after visiting the Little Big Horn Battlefield.
I stopped in again at the Lodge for dinner...another round of Prime Rib and mashed potatoes. I was embarrassed when, in mid-dinner, I glanced up to see people at the surrounding tables staring at me. Apparently, I had been completely preoccupied "sculpting" my mashed potatoes into...what?...I just don't know!
It's Elk "mating season" here, and they are everwhere ...around my tent at night, in front of the lodge, on the roads...everywhere!
1 comment:
Interesting with the numbers...very interesting. Beautiful pictures as always...Hugs!
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