Seconds With Steff

So things just went from sideways to completely upside down…

With an alarm set for 5:15, I got up, looked at Hunter, and I said, “Do you wanna sleep for another hour?” and he said yes. I set the alarm for 45 more minutes and immediately passed out. With that, we were up at 6:15 and moving in the car by 6:45, which I was fearing was entirely too late to get to Lamar Valley to see anything good, but with it barely misting and a forecast of 25% rain, I had hope for the day.

So there we were, early morning, 7:10 a.m., and I asked, “What are we looking at?” The man looks at me and says, “Oh, there are wolves down there. They’re between the water and the Marsimmon Tree.” He says this to me like five times, and I finally look at him and say, “I think it would be really helpful if I knew what a Marsimmon Tree was.” He goes, “No — Marge Simpson!” There was a tree that literally looked like Marge Simpson’s hair. So between this tree and the lake, there were wolves feeding on a carcass.

I could not see it with my naked eye. I could not see it with my phone zoomed. I could not see it with my new camera zoomed. However, the guy next to us had a scope with his phone attached, and he kindly let Hunter and me look — and yeah, there was a wolf feeding on a carcass. Yay …Nature! Blegh! I took pics with my camera …I don’t see anything, but you can see the Marge Simpson tree.

Then it started raining, and everybody started dispersing, so again, we followed suit.

On the man’s advice, we went to the next stop, which was like an eighth of a mile away, because there was a bear … No, I’m not kidding. There was a bear! On the hill just off the road!! So again, we pull over and climb a hill, and we turn around — and yeah, no, seriously, there’s a grizzly bear. And this one we could see with the naked eye… so with our camera and our phone and the very kind people next to a scope, we got pictures… not good ones… but we could see it clearly with their scope, and the darn thing had the cutest ears.

By the way, I saw the same man at the grizzly bear, and he said the same thing to another guy about the tree, and he didn’t know what he was talking about either. So I wasn’t alone. We all laughed.

Hunter had enough of the bear, which I don’t quite understand, but again, it is now raining, and we start driving Lamar Valley in earnest…and it’s drizzling. We come to our first herd of bison. Bison are everywhere. There are just herds and herds and herds of bison. To take a picture of them as herds, they look like black dots. So, I got more up-close pictures, but then again, you kind of see one bison and you’ve seen them all. But dang, Hunter’s right — they are so big!

Then a little farther down the road, there’s a car stopped going the opposite, and nobody’s around, so I stop. He rolls down his window, and I say, “What are we looking at?” He goes, “Oh, there’s a hawk.” So Hunter and I take a couple of pictures, we turn around, and I park the car on the side of the road in a safe designated spot, but I park entirely too far away, and I made an enormous mistake. See if you can figure out what it was. We then walk to take a picture of the hawk. We each got a singular picture — Hunter on the phone and me with the camera — before the dang thing flew away! Then we had to trudge back to the car. We’re going to come back to this in a little while. Again, think about my mistake.

We then drive the entire rest of the length of the Lamar Valley, and the rain had thankfully stopped. It’s just absolutely stunningly gorgeous. You really do understand why it’s called the American Serengeti. I mean, just forget the animals. It just goes from one gorgeous picture to another. I genuinely did not have enough time to pull over and take a picture every single time there was a picture; otherwise, I’d still be out there. It just was stunning. We turned around to make our way back to the Roosevelt area. When we came up upon the place where we had seen the falcon, there was also a herd of buffalo right on the side of the road. So that mistake I made… we got out of the car without our bear spray. Obviously, there were no bison in visible distance when we were walking; however, you don’t get out of the car without the bear spray.

Anyway, I knew we had to get back to the Roosevelt area because I had booked a covered wagon ride at 1 o’clock, and then at 3 o’clock, we were going on horseback to an old-fashioned cowboy cookout. I have been very excited about this and looking forward to it greatly.

Also, on our way out of the valley, we grabbed this picture of a bird flying away, and Hunter’s convinced it’s a bald eagle, but I’m not. We’re going to try to find a ranger to see if they can figure out what it is.

So our first stop at Roosevelt is to go to Tower Falls. But as we arrive at Tower Falls, it has started to sprinkle. So we grab the umbrella — no big deal. It’s just a little bit sprinkling, and we go down to the first plateau and we take the pictures.

Our next stop was Calcite Springs Overlook just a little farther north than Tower Falls, and now it’s more than sprinkling. So again, we grab the umbrella and do the little loop and take gorgeous pictures. Honestly, even prettier than Tower Falls.

And now it’s my mission to find the petrified tree. Except my notes are terrible. They say it’s near the Roosevelt Cabins — spoiler: it’s not. It’s like two miles away. We finally find it…

Hunter starts to question the horseback ride to the cookout. Can we take the covered wagon instead? I don’t know. I just don’t know. But the weather is all over the place — on and off, on and off. It pours, it stops, it clears. It rains again, then clears again. So we head to the corral next to Roosevelt Lodge. I talk to a lovely woman, explain the situation, and she says, “No problem. We’ll put you in the stagecoach. It’s not an issue.” Super simple. She even offers a refund since it’s cheaper. I’m like, “Great. I’ll even pay more. I don’t care.” She says, “Come back at 12:50.” Fantastic. We’re going to check out the Roosevelt Lodge. She says, “Great.”

Hunter and I go into the lodge, sit by the fire, and work on the book I got him — What I Saw in Yellowstone.

Since we now have extra time between the covered wagon ride and dinner (because we’re not horseback riding), I decide to try and find the 45th parallel. But there’s no service, no internet, Park Wolf doesn’t have it listed, and the National Park Service doesn’t either. So we walk into the Roosevelt Lodge registration area, and Hunter walks right up to the lady and says, “Excuse me, can you help me find the 45th parallel?” And she does. We’ll try to find it tomorrow. And if you don’t know what it is… tune in tomorrow.

At 12:40, we return to the corral — because if you know me, I hate being late. So now Hunter and I are sitting there, still working on the What I Saw in Yellowstone book and picking out the pictures we like best from today. We’re waiting for them to start hooking up the stagecoaches, and the horses are never coming. And the horses are never coming. And the horses are never coming. And people are starting to leave in their cars. So I walk over to the kind lady who helped me previously and I say, “Why is everybody leaving?” And she said, “Oh, everything’s been canceled.” And now it’s pouring. Like, pouring pouring. Like, it’s raining like it’s its job pouring.

I have been planning this for — no joke — at least 15 months, and you’re telling me it is canceled… OK. All right. OK. This is fine. It’s fine. It’s totally fine. I will figure something out. So, I get in the car, open up Park Wolf, look at the map, and I start talking to Hunter, “OK, Hunter, we’re gonna figure it out — because we’re gonna figure it out.” And we figured it out. First, we came back to our hotel, which we were going to have to pass anyway — because if you know anything about Yellowstone, it’s enormous, and it takes at least 20 to 30 minutes to go from place to place to place. So Roosevelt to Canyon Village is a good 30 minutes, and at this point, it’s foggy and raining.

Back at the hotel, I change into jeans because I was wearing these horrible pants I was going to immediately throw into the laundry — they were my horseback riding pants. I put on jeans, go to registration, and ask a very kind young man named Abe if he can help me find any available reservations at the Old Faithful Inn. He does — and there are some… at 9:15 tonight. No, no, no — that will not do.

So I get it in my brain that we’re going to go to Norris Geyser Basin (which we missed yesterday) and then head out to West Yellowstone to find someplace to eat. Abe says, “There’s this little mom-and-pop Italian restaurant. I can’t remember what it’s called, but you get to the stoplight, make a right, and it’s there — you’ll see it.” Thank you, Abe.

Hunter is super excited, so we start on our way… but now it’s legitimately downpouring. Like, “I’m thinking of turning around” downpouring. We even skip the geyser basin — there’s just no way. Umbrellas can’t help this. Not to mention, it’s 50°. This isn’t warm summer Orlando rain in the Magic Kingdom. This is 50° mountain rain. I’m cold.

So we get to West Yellowstone, we make it to the traffic light, we make a right, and the place is called Pete’s Rocky Mountain Pizza and Pasta Company. And it was absolutely delicious — like, seriously, it was absolutely delicious!

And our waitress was a dream. She told us where to spot bears on our way back into the park. We stopped but didn’t see any. However, one lot over, we saw a bald eagle! First half of pics, I took with camera … second half with phone … you judge. I am very shaky with camera, but it has a better zoom… and yes, I took even more of a bird that barely moved … but that profile!!!

Then we saw some elk…all pics with camera on same setting as eagle.

So today didn’t go at all as planned, but you know… lemons, lemonade, and all.

Unreliable Summary – more animals, pivoted plans, and so much rain!

PS – Obviously, we had good Wi-Fi in the hotel, and I’ve been able to post. However, tomorrow night I will be spending time with my friend Hilary, and I will not be posting. Therefore, look for postings Saturday and/or Sunday… Two more days to go! I can’t believe it went so quickly!!!