Buffalo, Trash Cans, and Flies

We took a day away from Yellowstone National Park to play tourist in the small town of West Yellowstone.  Besides having many shops selling trinkets and t-shirts, they also had fun items on their streets.

 

Like 3/4 sized painted buffalo: 

 

 

 

And these beautiful wildlife shots 

 

 

on

trash cans!

 

 

 

 

Everywhere we went, if there was water, there was a fly fisherman casting.  Besides waders and a pole, what more do they need?  Flies, natch.  And the town was glad to accommodate them with a minimum of 6 Fly Shops on the main streets. 

 

We didn't need any flies that day but we did manage to drop a few bucks shopping. 

Then we rested our bones while enjoying old-fashioned malts

at Eagle's 1910 Soda Fountain.

 

 

1988 Yellowstone Fire Revisited

Many of our readers know that we were in Yellowstone Park during the fires in 1988. We couldn't believe they let us drive on roads with fires on both sides, sometimes with firefighters working within our sight.

We eventually got trapped in the Old Faithful parking lot overnight, and they closed the park the next day and kicked all the tourists out. A couple of days later, the fire returned to the Old Faithful area and burned 22 cabins and smaller buildings. Whoops!

Old Faithful parking lot

 The fire burned 1,406,000 acres, or 44% of the park. And the maps show that the 44% seemed to be the areas most tourists go, so it seemed the whole park was affected when driving the "standard" routes through the park . While that is true, the fire burned in a hit-and-miss pattern, missing 183,000 acres inside of otherwise burned areas. Thus, the total area affected was 1,589,000 acres. Moreover, the fire did not burn at the same intensity everywhere. "Ground fires" did not burn the tops of the trees, damaging but not killing them. "Crown fires" burned the top foliage of the trees, killing them but not necessarily heating the ground to the point of killing the lower vegetation. (The high winds that occurred in 1988 caused a large percentage of the fires to "crown", sending burning embers ahead, starting new fires well in front of the following ground fires. Some crown fires covered 10 miles in a 12- hour period.)

 

While we do not have our 1988 pictures with us (taken before digital cameras) we still remember the striking nighttime scenes.

And the spooky semi-dark environment caused by the smoke, as we toured the normal touristy areas.

 

The U.S. Forest Service, the Montana Dept. of State Lands, the National Park Service, and the Bureau of Land Management spent $207 million fighting the fire – not  including the U.S. Army, who had 6000 soldiers on the line, the Marines, 1100, and the National Guard, 900.  Various military organizations provided transport aircraft, helicopters and firebombers to the effort.  (No cost figures.)  Non-military flying totaled 24,950 hours, of which 11,000 were helicopter hours.

 

Some other interesting statistics:  Supplies shipped from the Missoula supply center alone included 189,057 flashlight batteries, 55,488 canteens, 21,974 pulaskis, 24,773 shovels, 12,070 cakes of soap, and 16,278 rolls of toilet paper.

 

We've come back to the park three times to see if and how the park recovered.  The first time (199?), things were pretty ugly – the dead blackened trees were still standing, and very little ground vegetation was to be seen.  The second time, in 2001, some of the dead trees had fallen, and tiny pines were beginning to show up between the snags. (The Lodgepole pine cones are "glued" shut with pitch, and require 250 degree heat for over four minutes to open up and expose the seeds. A single burned Lodgepole can release 50,000 seeds for the squirrels and birds to scatter.  It appears that part of nature's plan is working.)

 

This year, twenty-five years after the fire, the park is green. The new pine trees seem to be ten to fifteen feet tall and are tightly bunched.  In many areas, the new pines are only inches apart. Other ground-vegetation covers much of the land between the pines.  In some areas, most of the snags are down; in others many still stand.

 

 

 

 

Our guess is that it depended on how severe the fire was in each area.   Interesting sidelight: The "See Yellowstone" video we had (made before the fire) showed fishermen standing in smooth-flowing waters of the Yellowstone, Madison, or Firehole rivers.  The new videos show the same pristine waters.  Aha!   What one actually sees today is riverbanks clogged by downed trees that have washed down to the rivers, hung up on the banks, or floated down to hang up on rocks or shallow spots.   A little "spin" put on the situation!! 

 

 

Our other observation this year is that many of the geothermal "features" (geysers, springs, etc.) in the park have quit or changed in timing or volume.  Another blog will talk of the big earthquake in 1959 which altered many of the features, but the changes we sense seem to have taken place since our last visit.  Springs or geysers have dried up; new ones have erupted, causing the park to move boardwalks that were on ground that became too hot, or were directly over new features.  All in all, it seems Mother Nature is still in control, and us feeble homo sapiens are struggling just to keep up.

(Credits: the top 5 pictures were copied from Red Skies of '88 by A. Richard Guth & Stan B. Cohen 1989)

 

Yellowstone Area (Hebgen Lake) 7.8 Earthquake 1959

EARTHQUAKE!!!

At 11:37 P.M. on August 17, 1959, a Richter Scale 7.8 earthquake struck near Lake Hebgen in Montana, about 25 miles northwest of the west entrance to Yellowstone Park.  The area is an intersection of the Hebgen fault and the Red Canyon fault.   The lake lies at 6550 elevation, in a narrow valley between 7600 foot mountains; and is held back by a concrete core, earthen dam at it's west end.  The quake caused  three 20-foot tidal waves, called seiches, to slosh back and forth in the lake over a period of an estimated 40 minutes, sloshing over the dam and destroying its spillway, but not breeching the dam.

 

The Madison river feeds Lake Hebgen, and flows west beyond the dam through Madison Canyon for about five miles before flowing onto a broad plain.  The canyon was home to a number of vacation/fishing cabins, and the Rock Creek campground.   On the evening of August 17, the campground was full, and many other campers had parked trailers and tents at numerous ad hoc camping spots along the river.

 

Somewhere between five and 20 minutes after the quake, a half-mile wide section of the south side of the canyon wall came loose, releasing an estimated 43 million cubic yards, or 80 million tons, of rock, trees and mountainside debris.

 

It took eight seconds for the mass at the top of the mountain to fall to the valley floor 1200 feet below at an estimated 174 miles per hour, and another 30 seconds to sweep 1/2 mile across the river and flow 300 feet up the opposite shore; then spread three-quarters of a mile each way east and west.   Twenty-one campers at the formal and ad hoc campsites were buried, and remain in the debris.  

 

Another seven died in hospitals, or were killed driving into eight-to-twenty-foot scarps, or vertical displacements of earth which developed on the plain west of the valley.   

With the river blocked, water began rising upstream at a rate of nine inches an hour.  Many campers not caught in the slide itself, lost their vehicles and supplies as the water rapidly inundated the area, and escape roads were impassible.  Most scrambled for high ground, shivering together in the darkness and listening to falling rocks as aftershocks continued.

The fact that timber from the face of the mountain spread in a relatively even pattern over the entire surface of the slide is interpreted to mean that there was little tumbling action – that the slide moved as a single, if shattered, mass.   Two 30-ton boulders stand erect at the top of the debris pile on the north side of the canyon.  Lichen growth and lack of scuffing indicate that they rode the top of the mass of moving earth from the south side to their new resting place without rolling or tumbling.  One of them now is home to a plaque listing the 28 victims of the slide.

These two big rocks are named: Memorial and Sister

The two fault plates slid vertically against each other and created numerous vertical scarps for several miles. 

See the scarps (faults) today in the valley below.

Hebgen Lake tipped:  The north side dropped 8 feet, while the south shore rose 8 feet.  Cabins on the north shore were floated away, or were flooded.  Cabins on the south shore were no longer on the shoreline; their docks were out of the water.  Causeways were later cut to be able to get boats to the cabins.

Allowing the water to build to the 300 foot depth of the slide would mean flooding the valley, burying the existing dam and causing huge economic losses. Moreover, if the water was allowed to reach that depth and then flow down the side of the slide unhindered, it could erode the slide rapidly and endanger downstream homes, towns, and businesses. The Corps of Engineers therefore cut two channels through the slide, lined with huge boulders, at a level that made the new lake formed upstream of the slide (“Slide Lake”) about 220 feet deep at its deepest. The new lake runs nearly to the Hebgen dam. It’s shoreline is filled with snags of drowned trees; it’s bottom an underwater forest of standing and fallen drowned trees. A fish’s heaven; a fisherman’s nightmare.

Thirty miles away in Yellowstone park, the quake did 3 1/2 million dollars damage to roads and structures.  (The huge stone fireplaces in Old Faithful Inn, and the park headquarters at Mammoth Park collapsed.)  There was considerable juggling of intervals and playing time of some of the better-known geysers.  Great Fountain, Riverside, Daisy, Castle and Oblong shortened their eruption intervals.  Clepsydra Geyser went frantically wild, and has erupted continuously since the quake.  Steady Geyser just up and quit.  Old Faithful erupted for a continuous 100 hours.

(Credit: 5 of the above photos/drawings are from The Night the Mountain Fell by Edmund Christopherson 1962)

How Uplifting

From afar, at the base of the Teton Mountains, we saw what looked like a man-made raised road grade (level ground).  But why the height?  Maybe to be above flooding?

 

Our theory worked for us; but then after picking up the park brochure we found that the mountains and the "road grade" are on two different tectonic faults and this level piece of ground is a natural phenomena and continues for miles.  It is not a "road grade".

This level area is on a fault that has dropped 7,000 feet (how can they tell?) while the fault with the Teton Mountains has raised 14,000 feet.  

 

It's Hard Raising Twins On Your Own

Momma Moose visited our campground last afternoon.  This was a warm day and she was overheated.  She parked her well-mannered babes in the shade and plunked herself in the parking lot puddle for about 4 hours.   Lots of pictures were taken by the campers and the hosts/rangers kept us all a safe distance away.  After a short thunderstorm passed by, she and kids headed for the river.

Not sure why she left the river in the first place, but have a feeling there were too many people and dogs for her comfort.  Though, the campground check-in parking lot is not a very isolated place either.

Got a kick out of this fellow who brought his 6-pack of Moose Drool beer
and wanted a picture of the Moose Drool and the moose drooling!

 

 

The Jackson Hole Elite

Ah, we were so confused as we came into this area.  We thought that the town of Jackson was actually Jackson Hole.  Maybe it was once since the entry arch says Jackson Hole but not today. 

 

Jackson Hole, the valley, was not settled early because it was so hard to get supplies to the area.  Historical displays on the original settlers related that a number of them were wealthy individuals from the eastern US looking for adventure.  These early settlers claim to have invented Dude Ranches.  And there are still many here.  Some of the land from those ranches is being split into summer residences for the jet set group.  We see in the local paper that the asking prices for these beautiful summer palaces places are up to $4 million! 

 

Of course, there was an airport so we had to make the obligatory drive-by.  We were surprised to see that the Jackson Hole airport has terminals for 4 major airlines.  The parking lot was full.  Lots of Hummers and Caddies.  For all the summer visitors, we saw 6 different rent-a-car agencies.  Busy place.

 

The paper today gave figures that had the rentals in the area at 90% capacity this week.  Busy place.  We are enjoying our little place away from the thundering crowd. 

Rockefeller Legacy

When I see the name Carnegie, I think of the libraries that that family funded in the US not the steel industry where their money was made.  When I think of the Rockefeller family, I think of politics.

 

But here in the Grand Teton National Park, the "Jackson Hole" (hole=valley) was for the most part acquired by Laurance S. Rockefeller to give to the government as a national park and wildlife preserve.  (That fact that he had a tough time getting the government to accept this is another story.)  Ultimately, these 30,000 acres were melded into the national park. 

 

A little bit of research on this conservationist, I found that he also made land donations to Acadia, Great Smoky Mountains, Yosemite, and Shenandoah National Parks.  As well as the Humboldt Redwoods State Park in California. 

 

 

Don't Fool Us

We are touring Grand Teton National Park and staying in the Gros Ventre campground.  There is plenty of room for us.  The campground is a bit scruffy as this is the winter grazing ground for elk, buffalo, and moose.

 

As per most government campgrounds there are minimum facilities like water or power or even sewer dumps.  But we like it rustic, so it suits us. 

 

This campground is now run by a private company and we can just imagine the head honchos wondering where to get some extra bucks in nightly site rentals.  We've got a clue: they have put in about 10 long paved double-width campsites ADA-accessible with 50 AMP power.  What a great idea especially for those who are handicapped and need to have power 24 hours a day.  These sites are only to be rented to people with handicapped permits.  

Well, all is well and good.  How alturistic!  EXCEPT...Not one camper in these sites has had a handicap permit visible and with all their toys (bicycles, ATV's, and motorcycles) one has to wonder how handicapped they may be.  But the park gets their $45 per site (vs the normal $21) and they don't ask questions. 

 

Some of the RV's we were wondering about were:

> Two Essex motorhomes (list price of $700,000 each) with a Hummer tow car and big Harleys.  Each had automatic motorcycle lifts which we are sure help out a handicapped person.

> There was one toy hauler 5th wheel with an ATV, a 3 wheel cycle (maybe that's where the handicapped ride?) and the other 5th wheel only had 2 motorcycles.

 

Shame on us.  Perhaps it's a handicap that we can't see.  Though this isn't the first time we've seen huge rigs like these take advantage of the system.

 

Diamond in the rough

What we thought might be an overnight stay on our way to the Yellowstone has turned out to be a super stop.  We've been at the Fontenelle Creek BLM Campground for the past 3 nights.   

View from our campsite

This campground is out in the middle of nowhere (actually situated on the Fontenelle Reservoir in SW Wyoming - which IS kind of like in the middle of nowhere).  55 paved campsites with picnic tables, covers over the tables, and lots of other stuff.  It seems to have been built in 1975 as we see a lot of signatures from the Youth Conservation Corps in the concrete with that date.  This park doesn't seem to get much use as sage is taking over growing in the cracks in the pavement.  Only one other camper was in this campground. 

Overlooking the lake and campsite

Pretty place.  The background reminded us of Lake Powell in Arizona.

 

But we stayed because we liked watching the wildlife.   

Like antelope, a small wild herd of cattle, and wild horses. 

 

 

 

 

One morning we saw this fellow drive up.  Any clue what he was up to?

 

Dean's thoughts:

1) feeding the fish

2) taking pictures of the lake

3) directing a imaginary band at an imaginary college football half-time program

For a while we thought this great white bird was a single swan. 
Once he got close enough, we found out not.

 

And, of course, we had the squirrels trained by the time we left.

Birdseed was a hit with the squirrels and the ants

 

Getting thirsty packing all that seed away

 

Miss Lily being good - not chasing the squirrels at the moment

 

Taking a rest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cow herding by RV

Heck, we are in Wyoming – home of the cowboy.  It was a thrill to find 10 cowpokes working a bunch of cattle up the road today.  ... Our road... The one we were driving on.  Hmm. 

We found that our monster RV convinced a cow or two to get to the correct side of the road.  A free service we provide. 

As a token of appreciation for our help, our wheel wells and mud flaps on both vehicles have a thick patina of brown sludge (aka cow poop).  Such is the life of a good Samaritan

The Gunnarsson Family Reunion and Snaps ritual

What a great time was had by all at our reunion.  It was wonderful getting the chance to relax, recreate, and engage in social intercourse with our cousins and their partners at Grandma's 1876 cabin near the Snowy Range mountains of Wyoming. 

Cousin Carol who works hard on the geneology of the Gunnarsson family and her brother, Mark, kindly invited their cousins on their father's side.   

And not only that!  They worked their buns off providing breakfast buffets and dinners with all the fixin's. 

Many of the meals were cooked over the old woodstove.

The weather was very nice – lots of sun and temps near 70.  A few sprinkles sent us indoors one afternoon to look through the family scrapbooks and to learn more about our grandparents.

This is the accordion brought from Sweden by our grandfather Otto

From Sweden, Missouri, Virginia, and Washington we joined our Wyoming cousins.  One day snow was brought down the mountain by Mark and Nadia and Carol used that to make homemade ice cream.  Then we had rootbeer floats.  Something new for our Swedish cousins to experience.

These Swedes, Ulf & Lena, celebrated their 41st anniversary with us.  We were honored to share their day.  One of their customs was for Ulf to pick the flower of the Mjolke plant.  Lena realized that that would not be able to be done this year until she saw it growing here.  Mjolke is the Fireweed plant here.  An anniversary cake magically appeared to make this a special evening for our cousins. 

Thanks to these Swedes we again had a Snaps evening like we enjoyed at the last reunion.

According to Swedish tradition (see below), we seem to be doing everything right.  Lots of humorous sayings and songs before each sip.  With the exclamation: Skål (Skoal) as we lifted the glass.

We are looking forward to our next Gunnarsson Cousin Reunion in Branson in June 2016.

SNAPS
With help from Wikipedia: Snaps is a small shot of a strong alcoholic beverage (aquavit) taken during the course of a meal. A ritual that is associated with drinking snaps is a tradition in Sweden, where it is very common to drink snaps at holidays such as Midsummer, Christmas and Easter AND FAMILY REUNIONS!. This ritual has been described as follows:
A group of people are clustered around a table for a meal and a clear, fiery drink. The host pours the ice-cold liquid into frosty, conical glasses with long stems. He raises his glass, at which point the diners turn to one another and make eye contact, making certain not to leave anyone out. "Skål!" calls out the host, and everyone takes a sip. Again there is eye contact, and then the glasses are set on the table, not to be lifted again until the host raises his.
Swedes have a tradition of singing songs (called snapsvisors) before drinking snaps. These snapsvisors are typically odes to the joys of drinking snaps. They may praise the flavor of snaps or express a craving for it.  Snaps and snapsvisor are essential elements of celebrating special occasions, which are sometimes notoriously tipsy affairs. Dozens of songs may be sung during such a party, and every song requires a round of snaps. However, the glass need not be emptied every time (that didn't stop us).