No, actually I’d love to have the rain go away but I know how much this area needs rain. It is dry and need the rain badly. Luckily there have been no forest fires in this area but there are forest fires all around us, Montana, Washington, California but none here that I’ve heard of. But,then, we’ve been off-line and off the grid for a while now. We haven’t had TV reception since we left Grand Coulee on July 5th and that was for only 3 days. We didn’t realize that we wouldn’t have any Verizon service, neither telephone nor Internet when we got here on the 21st. When we went to the lodge for breakfast several days ago, we asked if we could buy a newspaper but were told that there were no newspapers on the premises. Our only source of news is our Sirius radio, both in the Jeep and in the RV. I don’t mind not having the TV, we don’t watch much anyway, but I do mind not being on line. We are hoping that Fishing Bridge Campground in Yellowstone is near some wi-fi. I’d check on line to see if it is but...
Yesterday, we were talking with our neighbors here in the campground who were leaving to canoe across Leigh Lake in the Tetons and then hiking up and camping out for a few days. Now, they’ve got rain. Then there are all the tourists from abroad who have 1 or 2 days in Yellowstone on their tour bus and it’s raining. Well, Old Faithful is shooting off anyway but it’s not nearly as much fun to watch it in the rain.
We’ve had marvelous weather the two weeks that we have been in the Tetons and in Yellowstone - but today that luck went south. Today it rained, and, not just a light come-and-go rain but an all-day, never-let-up rain. Great for the park which changed the fire danger chart from high to moderate but not so great for us. We had planned to visit Norris Geyser Basin and actually got over there but - the rain combined with the heavy humidity and low cloud cover gave us views like this. Eerie and other-worldly but sometimes the steam and the rain were so thick that we could see nothing.
After walking around a bit and not seeing much and getting wet, we decided to call it a day and head on back to the RV. There will be another time in Yellowstone and this will be high on our list of places to visit.
We also learned that our water resistant jackets were no match for an all day rain. Drizzle - sure, but rain - nope. Our next rain gear will have the words ‘Gore Tex’ as part of the description.
On the way back to our RV, we stopped at an area that had been burned in the fires of 1988, those that burned about 1/3 of the park. Here is a map showing recent fires in Yellowstone. The dark red colors show the 1988 fires. Imagine seeing Yellowstone in 1987 and then visiting after the fires in 1988. You ‘know’ that the forests will regenerate but you don’t really ‘know’ it.
They talked about the fire but had 4 panels that showed the changes from burned to growing again. The first picture sets the scene, showing the forests in the area having been a heavy wind shear.
Lodgepole pines, the most prevalent tree in Yellowstone, grows from a cone which is tightly shut until a fire hits it and then it opens up to sprout. You can see how closed these pine cones are - just waiting for a fire like the ones in 1988.
This is what we saw when we were reading the panels - almost hard to tell that there was a devastating fire.
Here is an area that was burned recently and - look - see the new trees sprouting.
By the way, did the rain let up on Tuesday - not on your tintype. Oh, we had a few minutes when it was not raining but these were few and far between and not long enough to make it worth while to do any touring. We did get in our daily walk but just around the Fishing Bridge area. We walked to the Fishing Bridge VC with its old ‘parkitecture’
and the burls in the wood
and watched a Ranger give a talk on the connections between the forest, the animals and us. Here he is with a group of children in the audience with a bison hide.
Then we took off into the forest around us, walking mostly in the areas where there were lots of people but then found a dirt road up through the woods in back of our campsite. We walked and walked, knowing that we were walking parallel to our campground and looking for a trail over to it. Finally, we found one, very seldom used but there were 5’ orange-tipped stakes in the ground leading to the campground and we decided to follow them rather than retrace our footsteps. Of course we’re singing all the way: my favorite was ‘Adestes Fideles’ and I was surprised at how much I remembered. Gary picked up two sticks and banged them together every now and then. We also kept up a conversation and were hardly quiet at all.
Why all the noise? Bear territory, you know.
We finally reached our RV, shook out our ‘rain resistant’ gear and whipped inside to get warm, dry out our socks and shoes and relax.
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