Twenty Years in Yellowstone (Prismatic Baldness)

Our first day in the park was not stupendous from an animal perspective. When we were here six years ago, bison were roaming the highways in large herds, and elk were scattered across every grassland. By lunchtime today, we had seen two bison…that’s it for the entire animal population. The park was eerily devoid of animals. So, we decided to spend today seeing some of the geysers. Troy was not happy about this plan, and he let us know about his disappointment every chance he could get. We had promised him animals, and that’s what he wanted to see! We also found out that Troy doesn’t do well sitting patiently in a car for more than 12 seconds. He was moaning, moving, making weird noises, complaining, and singing…constantly. It was driving my wife crazy.

We stopped at the Paint Pots and the Grand Prismatic geysers, not because we thought Troy would have much interest in them, but just so he could walk around and get some energy out. We tried to explain the science behind what made them erupt. Troy didn’t care. We tried to be excited at the awe factor. Troy didn’t care. We talked about the colors and smells. Troy didn’t care. Finally, we said it looked like when Troy tooted in the bathtub and made bubbles, and suddenly he was interested and giggling.

At the Grand Prismatic geyser, I let Troy take some selfies to get him involved. He seemed very excited about that. He started asking if he could take pictures of the steam, and the bacteria formations, and the algae. And I let him, because at least he was finally looking around. I may have a camera till full of blurry and strangely-framed pictures, but Troy was really proud of them. He kept wanting to look at his handiwork.

We had lunch at The Old Town Cafe, mostly because it was about the only place we could find open. The food was good, but not exceptional. The staff was very nice though. And since the place was practically empty, we had them mostly to ourselves. My wife wasn’t feeling well, so we went back to the room for naps. (Well, she and Troy napped. I went to check out the local souvenir shops.)

Then, with dusk on the horizon, we headed back to the park to look for more animals. The waitress at the cafe said we might have more luck just before dark. We headed up toward Mammoth Springs, and somehow I spotted a brown and white shape in a tree by the river. I asked my wife to go back, but by the time we got there, it was gone. Troy and I decided to get out of the car and hike through the trees down to the river. It may not have been the wisest decision, but it felt wild and natural. I was braving the untouched elements with a four-year old on my back eating apples.

We followed the river for a little ways, and we were finally rewarded, as I spotted the brown and white shape again. We edged back into the tree line, so we could approach unnoticed, and we crept closer. It’s not easy to be stealthy when you’re traipsing on rocks and scrub brush and when you have a little boy asking questions in a very loud voice. I got him to whisper, but even that was very loud. Luckily, the river sounds masked some of it. We managed to get close enough to the bird for us to make out that it was a bald eagle. I snapped one blurry photo before he spotted us and flew off farther down the river.

So, I called my wife and asked her to meet us down the road, and Troy and I headed back into the woods. I was trying to pick my way over fallen trees and through the tall grass, but Troy’s eyes were focused on the trees around us. Suddenly, he pointed over my shoulder and exclaimed, “Dada! There’s something in the trees!” I stopped and looked up just in time to see a furry tail disappear behind a tree about a hundred feet to our left. It was moving away from us, so I made the decision to follow it to get a better look. Whatever it was had an easier time navigating the forest than I did. I was trying to climb over fallen trees at a half-run while carrying Troy, so the animal got ahead of us. But luckily, it stopped just long enough for me to see it. It was a coyote, but it was big and filled out, almost like a small wolf.

We only got that one glance, before his tail was once again disappearing into the trees. We chased him all the way to the highway, and we saw him one last time as he crossed the road and ran into the trees on the other side. We searched for him, but the trees were too densely populated, and there was no way to track him farther. My wife pulled up a minute later, so we got back in the car and headed on down the road.

We made it almost all the way to Mammoth Springs by the time the sun’s light started to fade behind the mountains. But we were rewarded with our first elk sighting off in the distance across the grasslands. Just a small herd of four cows, but at least it was something. We pulled over, so Troy could get a better look, and of course, he wanted to go pet them. We headed down the road, and we found two more cows, and then another one a little farther still. The last one was near a parking lot, so we were able to stop and get a really good look. She was grazing, and she didn’t seem to have any interest in us at all. Troy and I got out and stood a little ways off to watch her. As we got back into the car, Troy asked where all the daddy elks were. He had a point, because we hadn’t seen a single buck yet.

It was getting dark, so we decided to head back to the hotel. We made it a little ways up the road, when my wife exclaimed, “Oh my gosh, look at this, Troy!” There was another elk cow standing just at the edge of the road. We were able to get close enough that we could have touched her. We rolled the window down and Troy started talking to her and waving at her. At the sound of his voice, the cow looked up and stared right at Troy. It was amazing. We let her eat in peace and drove back to the exit.

It’s amazing how incredibly dark the park gets at night. The only lights are the ones on the passing cars and on the millions of stars twinkling overhead. Otherwise, the darkness is absolute. During the day, the breathtaking views of Yellowstone show you the vastness of the place. During the night, it’s the exact opposite. The only sights we saw were from the small area lit up by the headlights. It makes you feel like you’re in a tiny bubble, floating through the inky blackness. The other problem with this is that you can’t really see if there’s an animal in the road until you’re upon it, especially if that animal is a dark-brown bison plodding down the middle of the lane. Luckily, our little caravan of cars had a warning from a car heading in the opposite direction, so we had slowed down enough to avoid the bull making his way down the road. But Troy got his first up-close look of a bison, albeit only in the illumination of another passing car’s headlights.

The rest of the trip out of the park passed without incident, and we all settled in at the hotel to rest and have leftovers for dinner.