About Park County, WY

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam, where the deer and the antelope play. Where seldom is heard a discouraging word, and the skies are not cloudy all day . . . this song was written in 1873, yet it's still true today, some 137 years later. And I couldn't get it out of my head as we were driving toward the Jackson Hole airport, ending our vacation yesterday at Yellowstone National Park.

I said goodbye to Old Faithful Inn and my heart felt really heavy. All my surroundings were so familiar to me, it felt like home. Although it was only a week, I recalled how I felt when I first stepped into the lodge: the wonder, amazement and anticipation of an adventure. I wasn't disappointed. This trip was truly exceptional, and I highly recommend it to anybody who wants to get away from the world and back to nature. To reconnect with yourself. That's what our national parks give us.

The photos on this page are from my husband's camera. The first photo above is, of course, a chipmunk. Unlike the red squirrels who were seriously down to business, running across the hiking path to grab a nut and scurrying back again to bury it, the chipmunks were playful, like they had all the time in the world before winter arrives.

The second photo is of an elk standing guard of his herd on the lawn of the Albright Visitor Center and Museum in Mammoth Hot Springs. The third is a pronghorn we discovered off the Old Gardiner Road in Montana, just above the north entrance to the park, and the last photo is the Grand Prismatic Spring, shot from a hill high above the Fairy Falls hiking trail.

Photos: Adam Weintraub

If Julia Roberts filmed a movie in Yellowstone National Park, they would call it Eat, Sleep and Poop. Because that's how you feel when you're this close to nature; it's very basic. Of course, you can't touch anything or you'd burn off your hands. Many of the attractions have a warning sign of a kid jumping up startled because he fell into a scorching and boiling ground pit while his sister looks on horrified, hand clasped over her mouth.

We got up at 5:30, threw on some semblance of layering and teetered out into the darkness. Scraped frost from the windshield with a credit card. Shivering, pulled out onto the dark road. There was no traffic anywhere. Stopped to shoot a few mule deer (photo above) and again to catch an Elk running across a field and bugling.

All of your senses are engaged in Yellowstone. Your eyes behold thermal pools shimmering in golds, greens, orange and red. The sky is a brilliant blue, so blue that if your eyes were that shade, nobody could ever stop staring at you because they are that hypnotic. There are hundreds of shades of white.

The air smells like a mix of fresh asphalt, pine and sulfur. Decomposed granite crushes under your feet. You can hear the boards in the boardwalks creek. Water gurgles, bubbles, splashes and roars. Ravens caw; you can hear chickadee-dee-dee-dee. Bugling elk can wake you at night.

Many treats are available made with a local favorite, huckleberry: ice cream, jam and lollipops. Bison short ribs are tender, the meat falls from the bone, and it's delicious as long as you don't think about where it comes from.

We arrived at Artist Point in the Canyon at 8:30, and there was not a soul in the parking lot. It was 33 degrees. Of course, I had left my down jacket back at Old Faithful Inn. But I had my 3 layers on, plus my husband's hat. He says a hat keeps you 30% warmer. I think he made up that number. We had intended to catch a rainbow across the falls. But there was no rainbow. I hopped about in circles with my hands stuck in my pockets for about 10 minutes. Just as a busload of Japanese visitors screamed into the parking lot, I headed back to the car. I came out every 15 minutes to see if a rainbow had appeared. By 11 AM we left in search of more photo opportunities.

Below you will see photos of Artist Point, Yellowstone River, the Canyon, and a bugling elk.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

I am pleased to bring you Saturday's edition of Not Eaten By a Bear Yet. Yup, still in Yellowstone National Park. The thing about walking around a bunch of people who are gazing at geysers is if somebody lets one rip, you couldn't tell the difference between a toot or the sulphur. The smell of sulphur is really strong. Coupled with carbon dioxide, the sulphur and a high altitude, it's not unusual for your nose to bleed. Small price to pay for paradise.

I generally get up around 5 AM, throw on my down jacket and walk the 15 minutes it takes me to go from Old Faithful Inn over to the Snow Lodge. We picked Old Faithful Inn to stay at because it's historic but we didn't end up with a room in the historic part. We got the newer wing, but the toilet still has its problems. We have a view of geysers from several windows, but it might have been more fun to be in the original inn. All those rooms, and the lobby and restaurant, are original log construction. It was built in 1903 by 100 men, and it took about a year.

On the other hand, the Snow Lodge was built in 1999, but it has Internet service and Old Faithful does not. As I mentioned earlier, it also has better food and a better menu. It's situated directly across from the new Visitor's Center, which opened 2 months ago. We joined the Yellowstone Association, which you can do inside the Visitor's Center, and they gave us a stuffed wolf as a gift. Not a real stuffed wolf. In fact, we haven't yet seen a real wolf, but we did spot a coyote in with a group of bison.

It's pretty cold in the morning. Frost is on the ground. The secret is to wear layers. I wear a t-shirt over a base layer and a windbreaker or pullover. By around 10 AM, I'm down to a base layer and t-shirt. By noon, just the t-shirt. At 3 PM, I'm naked. It was noon yesterday when we reached the end of a 2.6 mile hike at Fairy Falls. We shot photos of chipmunks mostly and the falls. But 5.2 miles took its toll on my feet. Even with hiking boots. On our way back, Adam climbed up the hill to shoot an overview of Grand Prismatic Spring, which I'll show you next week. It's super cool.

Afterward, we grabbed a picnic lunch and headed over to Lake Lodge about 40 miles away. This is another log-constructed building. Somebody ran Romex over the top of horizontal logs under the front porch. Looks like a code violation, the Romex out in the open like that. This lodge sits directly across from Lake Yellowstone. At this time of year, it was very quiet, hardly anybody there. Ditto at Fishing Bridge, a few miles away. Definitely a good time of year to visit Yellowstone.

But it saddens me to see so much deferred maintenance at Lake Lodge. The windows need to be painted and reglazed. Maybe they could organize a group of volunteers to come in the spring, before the crowds arrive? This is what happens when funding is taken away from parks. People will pay double the price of admission to Yellowstone to go see actors stuffed into fake animal outfits parade around for a day, but they'll scream bloody murder if they have to pay more than $25 a week to go to a National Park.

The photo above is of Adam walking along a path toward Lake Yellowstone. The photos below are Fairy Falls, Lake Lodge front porch, Lake Yellowstone shoreline, and Fishing Bridge. You can't fish from Fishing Bridge anymore because Cutthroat Trout breed underneath it. I looked at a photo of the bridge on the information plaque from 1962, and it was bumper-to-bumper visitors. Not so in October.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

They say the best way to find wildlife in Yellowstone National Park is to stop looking for wildlife and start looking for people who are watching wildlife. And it works. You just drive along the road until you spot a bunch of cars pulled off to the side. If the people are holding cameras and not zippers, all the better. That's how we spotted our first bison. But it's funny how your attitude changes when you're the person who finds that perfect picture-shooting opportunity and somebody else pulls off the road beside you. The first thought in my head wasn't about how much I was looking forward to sharing their enthusiasm for wildlife, it was "Hey, this is my elk. Get outta here." I imagine the bison photo people felt the same way when we jumped into their camp. Everthing is all hunky dory when you're the intruder, but it doesn't work so well the other way around.

Probably the scariest thing from our trip to Mammoth Hot Springs yesterday was the trip up Old Gardiner Road. This is a one-way dirt road that climbs many, many feet and winds its way from the town of Mammoth over to the north entrance to Yellowstone. It has no guard rails and the turns are somewhat sharp. When we approached the first turn, I envisioned the road ending around the curve and a complete drop off. I don't know why I have these irrational fears. I did what I do best and put my head down, closed my eyes, clutched the center console in a death grip and cried, "We're all gonna die."

After my heart resumed beating and I could see the road again ahead of us, I began to enjoy the scenery. It's very different from in town. Wind-swept mountains to the right with jagged edges, rolling hills and meadows to the left. In a somewhat marshy area, we spotted ears poking through the grass and pulled over. Sure enough, it was a mama and papa pronghorn, plus a couple of babies. I have included a shot of one of those below.

Elk run loose all over the town of Mammoth Hot Springs. As a result, the town has erected signs on every street corner that say, "Do Not Approach the Elk." We watched videos at the visitor's center of elk ramming cars. By the post office, a bunch of elk were sitting under the trees napping. A young male elk approached the herd and the buck stood up to charge him. I asked my husband if the other elk didn't belong to the herd. The buck stopped in his tracks and urinated. My husband said the young elk just wanted what all males all over the world want. That reminded me of a birthday card I once sold to a greeting card company. It was for women. It said, "I know what you want for your birthday. You want what all women want -- a condom and a place to put it."

I decided on this trip to learn about evergreen trees. They all look alike but they are not alike. Although almost 80% of the trees in Yellowstone are lodge pole pine, there are other types of evergreens such as White Bark Pine and Juniper. So, I picked up a hiking book that helps to identify each type. The way lodge pole pine reproduce is by dropping pine cones. But the pine cones don't open unless they are heated, which is why fires are necessary. Sometimes trees have to burn down for other trees to grow.

Above is a photo of Grand Prismatic Spring at the Midway Geyser, and below are photos of a bison along the road, a fishing spot north of Mammoth, the lower terrace at Mammoth Hot Springs, the Travertine Occupants, followed by pronghorn and an elk along the trailhead.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

I'm crying the elliptical blues this morning. Ouch, ouch, ouch, oh, what's my penance: elliptical, why did I forsake you? We climbed to the overlook yesterday for Old Faithful. They say it's a half mile, but that's just to fool you into thinking it's a piece of cake. Let me tell you, it's more than a half mile and it was no piece of cake. Why didn't I wear hiking socks? I'm so lucky my husband brought mole skin. Little anklet socks don't cut it when you're hiking in Yellowstone.

We did see a bison, though, and I didn't have to try to outrun it. We oohed and aahed over many geysers and multi-colored thermal features, concentrating most of our hiking in the Upper Geyser Basin of Old Faithful. After you walk long enough, eyes peeled for wildlife, everything starts to look like an animal to you. That rock over there might look like an elk. A burned out fallen over tree might resemble a wolf. When I was looking through some of the photos I had shot, I spotted a bear. My heart started to pump. I called my husband,"Hey, come over here and look at this photo. In the lower left, there's a bear!!

It was an Escalade.

I soaked in the tub for a good half hour last night but every bone in my body aches. OK, I'm being melodramatic, only half of the bones in my body ache, the rest are asleep. We enjoyed another wonderful meal at Old Faithful. I'll say one thing about service at Yellowstone Resorts. Many of the people who work here are seniors. It's such a refreshing break from dealing with teenage mouth breathers. I think they should give seniors priority in any job, but that's probably because I'm heading that direction myself. Although the younger workers in the Park are all very enthusiastic because many of them work 5 days and take the weekend to explore Yellowstone.

We had dinner at Old Faithful last night and I was so tired from hiking that when the waiter asked me how I liked it, I blurted out the truth. It was dreadful. The tenderloin was well done and I had ordered medium rare, plus they smothered it in steak sauce. The last time I had steak sauce on any piece of meat, I was 12. His face fell, so we tipped him well anyway. Bit of advice, don't order a steak medium rare at the Old Faithful Inn.

Here are photos of the Old Faithful and the Upper Geyster Basin. Some are geysers, some are pools. I especially liked the pool at the end. The multi-colored pools are, in order, Beauty, Chromatic and Morning Glory.

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Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub and Adam Weintraub