Saturday, September 8th, 2012
(Warning: Lots of pictures!)
This day was the beginning of the End. We packed our bags, loaded up the car, and left Gardiner for the last time. The town itself didn't seem all that exciting (at least, in comparison with the park), but I was sorry to leave just the same. Leaving meant that the Tetons were next, then... then home!
Sad as it was to abandon Gardiner, the day was actually pretty amazing.
On the way down to Specimen Ridge, we passed a pull off full of people and their binoculars. What do you do when you're in Yellowstone and people are stopped beside the road? Why, you get out and join them, of course! Turns out there was a kill of some sort way up on the hillside, and they were watching that. All that was seen were some large birds, though, no wolves, bears, or coyotes.
We continued a mile or two down the road, and pulled off to a closed-down trailhead. Once upon a time, there was a road running off into the hills. We walked on what was left of it for a ways, then turned right after the first large boulder.
After 20 minutes of walking, we were passed by a young couple from Holland on tour of the US. They had been at the kill-site-pull-off, but left about five minutes after us--and nearly hit a wolf as he sauntered across the road, posed for pictures, then continued merrily on his way! Oh, the injustice of it all! ;)
Mom made me walk back down the trail for this picture, so she could show how steep it was. Dad and I were thankful for our homemade walking sticks, but Mom had claimed she didn't need one. Her mind changed not even half-way up the trail.
When we reached the trees, I looked around and found a Handy Stick just waiting to be used. (More on the Handy Stick later.)
Lookattheview! In the middle you see the construction crew working on a bridge. To the left of it there is a small parking lot with our car in it. The only reason you can see it that well is because the Holland-couple's huge camper is beside it.
A wind-scoured tree about 3/4ths the way up.
Father
Mother
The slowpokes!
On top of the WORLD!
That day was almost enough to make me into a hiker. Not quite, but it was simply amazing to be outdoors and all alone and just see everything.
We even found our own 'specimen;' believed to be the jawbone of a pica or some such rodent. It was in our bag as a souvenir, but disappeared between there and home. =(
Then we found the real specimens. Can you tell what that is?
It's the same as this.
A petrified tree.
Which was just so way totally cool! (Pardon the second-millenium colloquialisms)
These things were growing at the time of Noah! And most likely petrified during the Flood! And I got to sit on them! And look and touch and take pictures. (I like to touch everything. Museums are not a good place for me.) This really just amazed me. And look at the size of the thing!
I raved about this all day week year long.
The trek back down didn't take too long. Dad offered to make it faster--all it would take is a well-placed shove...
We decided it was best to leave our Handy Stick behind, so I composed a Winnie-the-Pooh-ish poem on the walk down the hill, and left it attatched to the Stick.
This Handy Stick
Will help you climb
From lowlands flat
To heights sublime
And when at last
You come back down,
Please leave it here
Where it was found.
(I wanted to sign my first name, but Mum wouldn't let me. Someone was paranoid about the paper being found by a ranger, who tracks me down and fines me for 'littering' or some such charge.)
Please note, though, that we left the Stick where people would find it, and the paper was firmly affixed to said Stick. You don't have to worry about it cluttering up the Yellowstone landscape.
To anyone headed to Yellowstone, or who was there this past September, let me know if you found my Handy Stick! ;)
~Kiwi~
