Grand Tetons & Yellowstone Natl Parks

Satire, but it gives you an idea of Yellowstone's lower loop road

Settled in enough to start making our way out into the parks.  We're still a little early in the season and combined with a heavy snow over the winter, may facilities and services aren't up and running, yet.  Most should be up and running by Memorial Day weekend.

First trip out was Wednesday afternoon in the Grand Tetons.  We really went for lunch at Signal Mountain Lodge area.  To save time waiting in line, we ate at the bar.  One of the bartenders told us to go down to the boat ramp for a better view.  We did.  Cloudy & light rain, but it made for dramatic pictures.  More snow than we're used to seeing this time of year. Jenny Lake isn't frozen nor was Jackson Lake.  Jackson Lake remains very low.  

Friday was a trip out to the Old Faithful basin to shop for a new jacket to replace one of my jackets.  My Smokey Mountain NP jacket was wearing thin after 12 years of use.  I wanted a new one with a national park's name on it.  Jackets are few and far between in the gift shops, but we managed to snag one with Yellowstone NP (YNP) on it plus get a replacement shirt for Donna's Mt St Helens t-shirt (a light, 3/4 long sleeve t-shirt). 

The trip up into YNP was great until we started west from West Thumb basin to Old Faithful.  The trip from YNP's south entrance along Lewis River's gorge area was great.  Heavy snow remains in the area in heavily forested areas.  Unfortunately, the great views from the truck couldn't be captured as the piles from snow plowing that were too tall to see over, and I didn't come prepared to climb those little snow mountains.  Lewis Falls was running at high level but the pull overs are blocked with construction equipment as it appears they're working on a new new bridge.  Traffic control there was by a signal light when one-lane traffic was in operation.

The Loop Road appeared just beat up by winter and some rough areas existed and there was the occasional frost heave to pass over.  Head west to Old Faithful and things got interesting fast.  Several miles on two lane, gravel road.  An additional 5+ miles of single lane where some sections the out-of-use lane was being dug up as if a new base was planned.  Get stopped here while you're waiting for opposing traffic to pass & you'll be waiting awhile.

Old Faithful area busy, but not too crowded.  Daytime temps were warm.  Talked with a ranger and decided to make it a longer day and travel clockwise from Old Faithful up to Norris Basin, over to Canyon and back south to Jackson.  Missed most of the construction and got some great views and more snow that we anticipated.  

First up was Gibbon Falls.  The falls here run over the edge of the caldera.  The parking and trails are excellent and handicap accessible.  It just aesthetically pleasing giving how long Donna & I have set in stopped traffic as one lane of traffic made it by the area as the area and road was rebuilt.  Seems all that sitting there going nowhere was worth it.  We did manage to come across a coupled of bison traveling south along this section of highway (south of Madison Junction).  Guess they like traveling by roads, too.  We didn't stop for pictures.  It's tourist tipping season, so as soon as it was safe to drive by, we went!  Grand Prismatic parking lot jammed as were the sides of the road.

Norris basin was closed. We turned east here and headed over to Canyon.  This was our heaviest snow area we traveled through.  The road is open, but picnic areas and side loops still had significant snow on them.  We decided to try to drive the south rim of the canyon.  That road is open as is north rim drive.  Only the brink of the upper falls was closed (due to snow).    Artist Point was open, so I got my traditional pictures of Lower Falls. 

2+ hours later and we're back in Jackson - our day trip complete.  Pictures and a video below.  Thanks for dropping by and checking on us, David

Mt Moran

Mt Moran from the Signal Mtn boat ramp

Old Faithful Basin

Old Faithful Basin - you can see the snow in the forested areas in the background

Firehole River

Firehole River - Can you see the bison?

Gibbon Falls (Gibbon River)

Valley below Gibbon Falls

Yellowstone River Lower Falls from Artist Point

@Jackson Natl Fish Hatchery

Snake River Cutthroat Trout (11 months old)

If you managed to hit this site as a result of a search on the Jackson National Fish Hatchery, don't hesitate to come out and visit. Bring a picnic lunch.  Bring your clean fishing gear & a Wyoming Fishing License and you can fish in the hatchery's pond.  The hatchery is open 8 AM -5 PM each day.  Tour guides are available from 9 AM - 5 PM each day through mid-September.  Dogs are welcomed when on a leash.  We expect the new batch of fish eggs to arrive near the end of May.

For the personal side: We arrived Monday, May 8th, and been busy until today.  On the way here, we had a new hydraulic leak from a fitting that needed to be tightened.  Probably worked loose bouncing along I-80.   We noticed the leak when we felt the front of the trailer slowly dropping.  (3rd time in 10 months for this one symptom.)  Found the leak after dark when we'd stopped at Newton, IA for the night, so lots of fun around 10 - 11 PM that night. (On the good news side, the first wrench I pulled out of the toolbox to try and tightened the fitting fit perfectly - when does that ever happen??)  

Next day traveling & Donna's not feeling well.  That day's stop was one of our sit-a-day breaks in traveling (that is, a 2-night stop.)  We made a trip to the emergency room in Lincoln, NE after we arrived and finished setting the trailer up for the night.  Who knew bronchitis gave off the same symptoms as a heart issue?  Off we go with a new prescription for an antibiotic and we keep going.   

As mentioned earlier, we got here Monday, met the other couple that's working as tour guides.  We received our National Fish & Wildlife shirts, sweater & jackets and started work the next morning.  We're both dehydrated and still acclimating to the high elevation.

New highway hatchery signs are up.  The hatchery has renovated a room to be a visitor center.  It's nice and keeps the tour guides out of the weather.  Previous years, we sat on the front porch of a cabin and met people as they arrived from the parking lot.  Today, five TVs each playing a looped GoPro video of a single stage in the growth of the Snake River Cutthroat from egg to adult.  

Two aquariums are also in the visitor center.  One contains the Kendall Warm Springs Dace.  Kendall Warm Springs is located in the headwaters of the Green River near Pincedale, WY and is considered an endangered environment.  The dace (think minnows) are not endangered, but since their environment is considered endangered they are treated as endangered.  The Jackson Hatchery was one of two hatcheries selected to learn how to raise & take care of the dace.  That process started in 2018 and was completed while we volunteered here in 2021. So what to do with the dace?  Put them in an aquarium and teach people about them.  Primary predator for the dace are birds - think blue herons as an example.

The second aquarium shows some of the Snake River Cutthroat Trout that currently reside in the outside raceways.  It's perfect for showing people what the fish (currently 11 months old) look like (see picture, above.)  

The visitor center is still evolving.  The goal is to make it as self-guiding as possible when tour guides are not available.  Boards explaining hatchery operations need to be rearranged to make more sense or at least a more logical order.  There are a significant number of pictures of the history of the hatchery that can be added.    The path down from the visitor parking lot is now completely paved and has a rail fence to "guide" visitors along the preferred path.  New information signs are up.  

Outside, the split rail fence along the pond is gone.  The cabin where tour guides use to sit is now moved to the northeast corner of the hatchery and "improved" to make a room for a volunteer eager enough to stay there.  The overgrowth around the pond is gone.  This first raceway to the west side of the hatchery contains the adult cutthroat trout.  The cutthroat being raised for delivery are all located under tents with restricted access. (That's the aquarium's job to show people what they look like!)  The area where the old hatchery administrative building use to stand is being considered for renovation where they plan to add three more full-hookup volunteer pads.  This year's fish eggs are due in a couple of weeks.

Tour guides and one maintenance volunteer have arrived so far.  Two more volunteer biologist are expected.  There may be one more maintenance volunteer expected - just not sure.  The hatchery's full-time maintenance position is currently open.

As I sit writing this blog entry, it's partly sunny, 57 with a 15 mph east wind.  There's more snow on the Snow King Mountain than Donna & I have ever seen.  Snow still remains on East Gros Ventre Butte.  We're told this area has gotten the most snow this last winter than has ever been recorded.  It looks it!

So that gets you up to date with us.  Thanks for dropping by and checking up on us.  Pictures of the hatchery and Snow King Mountain follow.  More later.

Kendall Warm Springs Dace

Snow King Mountain from the volunteer pads

Sleeping Indian Pond (Hatchery Pond with Sleeping Indian Mtn in the background)