My first WorldCon, etc., #3

Our third day in the Park we drove up to Norris Geyser Basin and around to Canyon. Norris was another place M had missed last time due to being sick, so we walked around Porcelain Basin and listened to the roaring fumaroles and the hissing sputs (they rather sound like someone blowing a raspberry [g]), then she went back to the car while I walked out around the short loop at Back Basin. I hadn’t realized what I’d been missing by always walking the long trail at Back Basin, and got to see some new springs that I’d never seen before. Cistern Spring in particular was lovely, a clear green that was much less blue than came out in the picture. I stopped at Steamboat Geyser on the way back to the car. It was doing its usual 40-50 foot spraying, but, just like all the other times I’ve walked past it, it didn’t do what it’s really capable of. I swear I would die happy if I could just see Steamboat erupt (it goes off about every 3 to 50 years, so it really would be sheer luck, but when it does it goes up more than 300 feet, the largest geyser in the Park).

Canyon was lovely, of course. We stopped at the upper falls overlook, and at Artist Point, with its classic Moran view of the lower falls. Then we went to the Canyon dining room for lunch, a Mexican buffet, which was the best food we’d had so far on the trip. The sopapillas for dessert were particularly good. Then we drove down to Hayden Valley to see if we could find some bison, since, strangely enough, we hadn’t seen any yet (I don’t know if it was the heat – upper 80s most of the time we were there, or just the time of year, but we only saw elk twice and bison once in the entire five days this time, and none of either in the geyser basins). The first bison we saw was perched on top of a road cut, and, as we watched him from below, he started to roll in a dust bath. I swear I thought he was going to land on Kestrel’s roof, but he didn’t. Then we came across a lush, green meadow covered in bison, looking, as they always do, like they just got through filming their parts in Dances with Wolves. After that we had to turn around because the road was closed down by the lake and we couldn’t make the loop.

On Saturday, our fourth day in the Park, we drove up to the Lower Geyser Basin to see Great Fountain Geyser. The window for Great Fountain eruption predictions, like the window for Grand Geyser, is about four hours, and we wound up waiting most of that. Fortunately, we were prepared with reading material, and Great Fountain was well worth the wait. It was only the second time I’d ever seen it, and while it’s not in the same league as Grand (which really is my favorite geyser of all time), it was gorgeous.

Sunday was our last day in the Park, and I spent most of the time out in the Upper Geyser Basin, wandering around waiting for things to go off [g]. I saw Grand for the second time, and Riverside, and Daisy, and Castle, and ran into a bunch of Geyser Gazers (http://www.geyserstudy.org/), waiting for Fan and Mortar. I stuck around for about an hour, but the hot period ended without an eruption. I later heard it went off in the middle of the night [sigh].

On to Denver in the next post.

( more photos )

My first WorldCon, etc., #4

Monday morning we said a reluctant good-bye to the Park, heading south towards Denver by way of Grand Teton National Park (US Hwy 287 from the Park to Rawlins, coalboy). On the way we stopped at Isa Lake on the Continental Divide (we crossed the Divide six times between the Park and Denver) and took pictures of waterlilies, and at Lewis Falls, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. Then we left the Park, and entered Grand Teton, and spent most of the morning stopping and staring at and photographing the mountains. I won’t make the obvious comment wondering how anyone could possibly think those jagged mountains look like breasts, but really. We got caught in some road construction over Togwotee Pass, and made a lovely discovery in Dubois, Wyoming, of a museum devoted to the bighorn sheep (http://www.bighorn.org). It made a pleasant and educational stop. After Dubois the land leveled out and the soil turned red and it looked rather like Utah. Then we came out onto the plains, and the rest of the day was a slog to get to Rawlins, Wyoming on I-80. BTW, I highly disrecommend the local equivalent of a Dairy Queen (I can’t remember its exact name) in Lander, Wyoming. Lousy food, and even worse service.

Rawlins was the first time we’d had an ensuite bathroom since Livingston, which pleased M very much [g] (I was more thrilled with the overabundance of pillows – four per bed – the pillows in the cabins at Old Faithful are terrible). We did some grocery shopping, and pretty much crashed and burned.

The next day we made the half-day drive to Denver (I-80 to Laramie, the US 287 cutoff to Fort Collins, I-25 to Denver), stopping along the way in Fort Collins, Colorado, where I had gone to Colorado State University in 1979 and 1987 (long story, which I won’t get into here). It was the first time I’d been back to that part of the country since 1987, and I made a point of finding the campus and looking for the places I’d lived and so forth. Except that the dorm I lived in in 1979 is no longer. All the other dorms are still there, but they’d torn down Ellis Hall and were in the process of building something new there. Which was rather disappointing. But it was still fun to see the campus again.

After that we tootled one more hour into Denver – next post.

( photos here )

and now for something completely different

I'll do the next trip post tomorrow.

Your result for The Perception Personality Image Test...

NBPC - The Daydreamer

Nature, Background, Big Picture, and Color

You perceive the world with particular attention to nature. You focus on the hidden treasures of life (the background) and how that fits into the larger picture. You are also particularly drawn towards the colors around you. Because of the value you place on nature, you tend to find comfort in more subdued settings and find energy in solitude. You like to ponder ideas and imagine the many possibilities of your life without worrying about the details or specifics. You are in tune with all that is around you and understand your life as part of a larger whole. You are a down-to-earth person who enjoys going with the flow.

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