Yellowstone in Winter - Old Faithful (Part 2)

Our final planned tour in Yellowstone was a 5+ mile snowshoe (or cross country ski) to Lonestar Geyser.  Turns out...we hiked out to this same geyser when we hiked to with the kids back 2 summers ago when we visited Yellowstone in the summer for the Ritterbusch family reunion.  The good news is that we fondly remembered this hike as one of our favorite places in the park because it wasn't crawling with people!  That wasn't a concern in January!  There were about 10 of us on our tour and maybe another 10 or so people that skied there on their own that day.  We missed the eruption by about 20 minutes and were hoping to catch some  minor eruptions but after hanging out for about 30 minutes we gave up and started our trek back to the snow coach.

Our group all decided that we pretty much hate snow shoeing - lol!  Ryan and I and tried it twice in our back yard earlier this year when we got a big dump of snow but 5 miles was too many miles for us with snow shoes.  They make you walk with a strange gait...and my hips were killing me by the end of the hike.  We do a fair bit of hiking and I'm always up for going longer distances...but by the end I was complaining like the kids and wishing Ryan and a snack to nudge me forward.  I was totally over it by the time we made it to the snow coach.  If we'd have has skis on at least we'd have gotten to glide for parts of the trail!

Being in the park in the winter time was really crazy.  We heard some stats on one of our tours that during the summer months they park sees around 7,000 cars per day and the annual visitor numbers top 5 million per year.  On one of our nights at Old Faithful I asked the front desk what the occupancy was for that day and she told me it was 125 guests total.  There were another 200 or so staff members so in total we're talking less than 400 people.  It was crazy to watch Old Faithful erupt alongside only a handful of other people.  Most of the places we went it was just our group.  And, over and over again we ran into the same couples and groups during our trip.  It was a little like college or a fraternity.  

This year was also very strange because there was so little snow around.  When we arrived at Mammoth there was bare ground everywhere.  Typically there is 2-3 feet of snow in most areas of the park and you could tell that the staff was a little worried about the lack of snow.  They are worried about it being a very dry summer and the potential for fires if there is a drought.  It was over 40 our last two days in the park and our tour guide for Lonestar told us that the staff was starting to carry around bear spray again because they were worried that the bears might come out of hibernation.  We didn't see any bear but on our way out of the park we stopped in Mammoth to pick up our luggage from the snow coach and one of the hotel staff said they found bear tracks outside the general store earlier that morning.

The above picture looks like a photo of nothing, but I wanted to capture a snow flea or springtail.  We learned that these tiny little guys are able to "jump" further than anything else relative to their size.  If we could jump the same distance as them we'd be able to fling ourselves over the Empire State Building in one bound.  Pretty crazy!

If you look right in the center of the above picture you can see a little trail in the snow.  This was a slide made by the otters into the river.  We saw quite a few animals on during our trip but sadly we didn't get to see the otters or a moose.  But, I think other than those two animals we got to see pretty much everything we named on our list before arriving.  

Needle Ice!  Another cool winter phenomenon we learned about on our trip.  It forms when the ground is over 32 degrees, but the air is below freezing.  Once someone pointed it out to us and taught us about it we found it everywhere.  I'm glad one of our friends grabbed the photo so I didn't forget to write about it.

Bobby Socks Trees - these are petrified lodgepole pine trees that sucked up the mineral water from the hot springs and eventually died where they stood.  You can see the characteristic white bottoms best on the left hand side of this photo.  Again, I'm bummed I didn't grab a better photo of them to share, but one of our friends took this and you can see them pretty well here.  They give the area the look of a bomb site.  

We spent 3 nights in Mammoth Hot Springs and another three nights at the Old Faithful Lodge but our trip isn't over yet!  We left the park and headed to Chico Hot Springs for 2 final nights of relaxation and exploration.  

Yellowstone in Winter - Old Faithful (Part 1)

 

On Saturday we moved from Mammoth down to Old Faithful.  In winter the only road that is open in the park is the road from Mammoth to Lamar meaning that the only way into the interior of the park is to take a snow coach.  They are basically small 9 or 10 person buses with big aired down tires on them.  I posted a picture of Ryan in front of our Norris Basin tour snow coach in the last post.  The drive down to Old Faithful is maybe 50 total miles but the snow coach ride is very slow plus they make lots of stops to see animals and viewing spots along the way.  Figure 4 hours to get from Mammoth to Old Faithful in the winter months.

I can't remember the name of the falls behind us in this photo but it was one of the better stops we made along the way.  It's not the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, but cool in its own right for sure.  The tour down included a stop at Madison Junction where they had heated bathrooms (the first we've used outside of our rooms and the hotel by the way) and a little store that sold hot chocolate and a few different snacks.  

On our drive down we saw the swans that are known to live in the park (the first time we'd seen them on the trip) and we came upon a small herd of buffalo walking down the road that included this very small calf which they call a "red dog" meaning it was born so late in the season that it didn't have time to grow it's winter coat before the snow started to fall.  Sadly he (or she) is not likely to make it through the winter because they are easy prey for the wolves and other predators.  This one was falling behind the group, though not by far...so hopefully it'll be an easy winter and this little one will be thriving by spring.  

Speaking of the weather here, I should touch on that for a moment.  Two weeks ago in Illinois it was -10 for the high for a day or two.  We had a total of three snow/cold days off school in less than a weeks time and it really got the entire group feeling like we needed to be fully prepared for cold cold cold and tons of snow here in Yellowstone.  Turns out, it's one of the driest and most mild winters many can remember here.  We learned that last year they had record snowfall which was great for suppressing the wild fires here over the summer.  This year is a stark contrast.  When we arrived on Wednesday there was probably less than 6 inches of snow on the ground.  I think the whole group was a little sad that there wasn't feet and feet of snow to tromp through but honestly, I'm pretty happy for the temps in the mid 30's and even in the upper 40's later in the week before we leave.  It did snow for us on Thursday night so it was fun to wake up and have the whole park coated in snow like a winter wonderland.  Most of it melted by mid day, especially off of the trees and darker areas, but it was fun while it lasted.  There is more snow down here at Old Faithful but nothing like they normally plan for.  Everywhere you walk you can see the snow poles they use to mark the trails when they plow.  Someone told us they typically have over 2 feet of snow now here.  I'm guessing there is 8 inches in some of the deepest parts.  

We finally arrived down at Old Faithful around noon on Saturday.  We checked in and left our bags in the lobby and grabbed lunch at the grill before actually going to our rooms.  We rented a cabin again here at Old Faithful, though this one doesn't include a hot tub.  The cabins here are old too, but much more spacious then at Mammoth.  We have two full sized beds and a small 4 person table in our room.  There is no fridge but there wasn't one at Mammoth either and, believe it or not, it's cold enough to just put our cold stuff outside and it's stays cold - lol!  The bathrooms are similar to Mammoth - small shower and toilet in one room and the bathroom sink is in the bedroom.  Honestly, if we didn't have the camper and we were looking to come here with the family for a few days in the summer, the cabins would be a great option!

Similar to the afternoon we did the wildlife tour everyone was ready to move and explore a little bit after we get ourselves settled in our cabins so we decided to hike around the boardwalks here at Old Faithful.  As we hiked around we came upon the Old Faithful Lookout trail which Ryan and I did with the kids two summers ago and loved.  It's a short hike - only .5 miles, but 200 ft of climb in that short hike.  Once you hit the trail head but it offers a great view of the geyser that's a little bit away from the crowds and higher up so you can really see it.  When we came up to it we checked our watches and realized we had about 20 minutes before Old Faithful would erupt.  We decided we could make it up in that time and set a really quick pace to make it.  Turns out we had a solid 10-15 minutes once we got to the top before it erupted but we got some great views.  You can see our view in the picture above this and, if you squint, you can see the small handful of people on the boardwalk.  In the summer months that boardwalk would be a see of people.  I should pull in a similar picture from 2021 summer so you could compare.

I had to post this picture to document my hat!  Last Christmas I got a book of knitting patterns by Nancy Bates, a pattern designer who makes hat patterns for each of the National Parks.  This pattern mimics Grand Prismatic here in Yellowstone.  I made one for myself and one for Jenny.  I was so excited when we got 4 comments and questions about the hats.  People recognized that it was Grand Prismatic or that they were handmade and it really made my day.  We can't visit Grand Prismatic in the winter, it sounds like the steam covers it up too much to actually be able to see so they don't even offer tours there...but this picture in the park seem slike close enough!

Sunday was a pretty open day for us at Old Faithful.  We had a tour booked for the evening called Steam, Sounds and Stars where we hiked around the geysers at night.  During the day we decided to do a 5 mile loop from the hotel out to Black Sand Basin.  From Old Faithful you can take the boardwalk past tons of pools and geysers out to Black Sand.  I saw a sign in the visitor center that said this area has 1/4 of the geysers in the entire world and that one small section here has the largest concentration of them in the world.  Sadly, I have to admit that after awhile I sort of felt like...huh....another hot hole...cool...let's keep moving.  The wonder almost drains off when you can see so many in such a short period of time.

Black Sand Pool (pictured above) is known for making a loud rumbling noise and a physical vibration you can feel if you sit still enough at the end of the pool for some time.  We sat there for probably 20 minutes before we got cold and decided it was time to start moving again.  While we saw the tell tale bubbles in the pool, I don't feel like anyone in the group actually felt the rumble the trail boasted of that felt like "a giant snoring underneath you".  Maybe next time!

That afternoon Ryan decided to rent cross country skies and did a ski by himself that afternoon while I sat in the lodge and relaxed with an old fashioned.  It was a lovely choice for BOTH of us...and much needed.

Monday evening we did a short tour called Steam, Stars and Soundscapes that involved three short hikes around the Old Faithful area after dark.  There are lots of rules here at Yellowstone that help keep the park beautiful and natural.  In the winter (and maybe all year long) they regulate the number of vehicles in the park by "sound events".  We learned on one of our tours that the park allows 125 sound events each day.  A sound event is a snow coach or a pack of 10 snowmobiles or even the trucks moving supplies and people across the park.  It's meant to limit the impact of humans on this area.  We also learned that all traffic has to be off the roads by 9pm.  In the evenings they run two buses of the Sound/Steam/Stars tour meaning we were one of 25 total people out in the park after dark that night.  Pretty cool when you think about it!  The night was very cloudy so we couldn't see stars or the moon but exploring in the dark was still fun.  We did a lot of listening with all the flashlights off.  I think the group is pretty happy that we'd explored most of what we saw on the night tour during the day so we had a sense of what it really looked like.  I think the tour would have been better if it had been clear with stars...but you can't control nature and we got what we got!

Tomorrow is our last day at Old Faithful and Jenny's birthday.  We have one final tour planned to snowshoe to Lonestar Geyser and then we have dinner reservations to celebrate tomorrow evening.  After that we head to Chico Hot Springs for 2 nights and then we're headed home.  We're over half way through the trip but we still have lots of fun ahead.  I'm looking forward to those hot springs!

Yellowstone in Winter - Mammoth Hot Springs

 

We've been on a once in a lifetime trip and I'm currently writing this blog post from the sitting area at Old Faithful Snow Lodge.  About a year ago now Jenny asked if Ryan and I would be interested in doing a trip to Yellowstone in the winter to celebrate her 40th Birthday and you know we couldn't pass up an invite like that one!  Having just been to Yellowstone two summers ago it felt a little early to be headed back, but we figured it wasn't everyday that a group of people would want to do a trip like this so we lined up some kid sitters (Thanks Dad and Erin!!) and started booking our trip.

**A little hard to see, but that's two grey wolves from a pack of about 10 or so out in the Lamar Valley.

Our trip is a total of 9 days, 8 nights, and includes three locations and 4 booked tours + plenty of hiking and snowshoeing we could do ourselves right from the lodges.  We flew to Bozeman MT on Wednesday and met up with the rest of our group.  There are 7 of us total on the trip.  Jenny and Jack, Ryan and I and then three friends of Jenny's from college, Kate, Katy and Nora.  We'd never met the three girls and had very limited email exchanges in the weeks leading up to the trip, but we figured if they were friends of Jenny's they could be friends of ours.  We're now over halfway through our trip and we were right, they are great!

Our first stop for the week was in Mammoth Hot Springs.  They renovated the entire hotel back in 2019 and between COVID and then the big flood in 2022, the hotel was relatively unused.  Jenny's original plan for the trip was to spend 5 or 6 nights right down at Old Faithful but I advocated that we spend a few nights up at Mammoth because I really wanted to see the Lamar Valley.  It was one part of the park that we didn't get to see the summer we were out here.  Plus, when I found out that there were cabins with hot tubs for rent at Mammoth I think I was able to convince the group.   Both Jenny and Jack and Ryan and I rented the cabins with the hot tubs.  The cabins were old, but nice.  They included a queen size bed and a very small bathroom.  There was a small shower (like the one we used to have at the lake house in Wisconsin) a toilet and a sink that was located outside of the bathroom by the front door.  It was small but nice and it was warm but the best part was the 4 person hot tub we had right outside our rooms.  We didn't get a chance to see the hotel rooms, but Nora, Kate and Katie stayed in a suite right inside the renovated hotel and from the sounds of it, it was really really nice.

Our first full day at Mammoth we booked a tour called Wake Up to Wildlife.  It was an early morning snow coach ride out to the Lamar Valley where we hoped to see some wildlife.  You never quite know what you're going to get...it's not a zoo...but I think the collective group had wolves and moose were our list.  Our guide Kirk was great - the best guide we've had on the trip so far.  He did a great job and we had what they call a "Three Dog Day".  We got to see the pack of wolves I had a picture of earlier, a coyote and an adorable red fox.  We also saw buffalo, elk and a variety of birds and water fowl.  He introduced to an cute little bird called a Dipper.  Kirk told us he was the only bird that could "fly" underwater.  They stand on the banks of the river doing little ducking/dipping motion sort of bouncing up and down and then they dive underwater and use their wings to "swim" underwater grabbing their food from the bottom of the river.  Once we knew what to look for we could find them everywhere. 

After our Wildlife tour everyone was feeling a little itchy to do some moving.  The tour was 5 hours long, but it was mostly made up of sitting on the bus and popping out when there was something to look at.  It was really neat to see parts of the park we hadn't seen before but we all needed to do some hiking.  So, we grabbed lunches and then decided to head out and hike around the Mammoth Hot Springs area.  There is a huge, terraced area that include three hot springs with boardwalks all around. These photos are from right around those hot springs.  It's nearly impossible to capture the beauty in photos but if there's one thing to notice, besides the nature, it's the utter lack of humans!  In extreme contrast to our summer trip, we've found that pretty much anything we want to do, we have it to ourselves...or maybe a handful of other people.  There is not a single other person in this photo.  It's such a stark contrast from our summer trip it's nearly convinced us that when the kids are a little bit older, we might be back with them one winter.

The springs around Mammoth are beautiful and it was so fun to explore with the place nearly all to ourselves.  In the end we hiked nearly 6 miles that afternoon all around Mammoth.  We did a trail off the top of the boardwalk which I cannot for the life of me remember the name of.  I'll find it and update the blog later so I've got it.

The beauty of this area is really really hard to capture in photos.  Video shows it better, but I can't post them here on the blog so stills will just have to do!

Our second day at Mammoth we did a few different things.  Ryan and I booked a tour called Norris Basin which I'll talk about in a minute, but the rest of the group decided to explore on their own for the day.  There was a trailhead right outside our cabins for a 5 or 6 mile hike called Beaver Ponds.  The rest of the group decided to set out on that hike a few hours before our Norris Basin tour started so Ryan and I thought we'd start the hike with them and then turn around in enough time to let us grab lunch and be ready for our tour later in the day.  It was one of the best decisions we made.  Not only were we the first ones to hike the path that day (we could tell because it snowed overnight 3 or 4 inches and we were the first ones to step foot on that trial that day) but we also stumbled on a large nursery heard for elk.  We'd learned the day before that the females and babies all herded together in nursery herds awhile the males tended to be more solitary.  Before actually finding the animals themselves we saw all sorts of signs that they were there the night before.  Bedding marks, hoof prints and all kinds of poop all around.  Maybe 10 minutes later we walked right up on the heard.  The photos I have just don't do it justice, but it was really neat to be so close to the animals and to have them all ourselves!

Our Norris Basin tour was very interesting.  It turns out the Norris Basin is the most active and changing basin in the entire park.  It's constantly opening new geyser areas and the small pools and hot springs are always changing sizes, locations and colors.  One thing Ryan and I realized about doing the park this way (with tours) is that you learn a lot more of the history and science behind the area vs. just seeing it and taking in the beauty as you see it.  You learn about why it looks like that, how it changes and what you might expect down the road.  It may convince us to do more guided tours on trips in the future so that we can get a good mix of exploration and education of certain areas.  

These areas remind me so much of what I'd expect the moon to look like.  Just desolate and grey but also steaming and beautiful in it's own unique way.

  

This hike was much more windy than our hike earlier in the day with the group to Beaver Ponds.  We were colder than we expected on our 2 hour hike around the boardwalks but we saw a ton, learned a lot and overall were very glad we made the trip.  The last thing we did on this hike was to walk past Steamboat geyser, one of the largest in the park.  It sounds like it might be close to erupting...but it's not really as predictable as others like Old Faithful or even Giant geyser right by Old Faithful lodge.  One of our other tour bus drivers told us that he got to see it twice last year.  Our guide told us a story about how she tried to see it as a child and never had the chance, but that she finally got to see it erupt in 2018 and how it was nearly a life changing experience for her.  

I said it earlier in the post, but capturing the colors and movement of the park is so so hard in photos.  The colors range from brown and beige to bright blues and greens and yellows.  It's really very beautiful.

We had a great ending to the day when we got to see a male elk just less than 20 feet away from our snow coach as we pulled back into the park.  I didn't have a good vantage point to grab a photo but watching him from so close as he pawed at the ground and munched on his grass and minded his own business.  

Snow Day

 

When life hands you some lemons (snow days and kids home for literally THREE WEEKS in a row due to Christmas break and the flu)....well...might as well go play in the snow and make the most of it.  Just rolls of the tongue, right??  HA!

Ryan and I decided we needed to try out these snow shoes while we had 8-12 inches for fresh "pow-pow" to quote Ryan.  I asked him how many times he thought it was going to say that when we were in Yellowstone and he said "enough for it to be annoying".  I told him it already was.  (Kidding...kind of).  We're considering a 5 mile hike in these bad boys in 2ish weeks when we are in Yellowstone so I'm glad I got the chance to try them out.  It wasn't as hard as I thought, certainly easier than without them on in the deep snow.  But just one loop around the path/yard and I was hot and thirsty! 

Look at that sweet kid.  You know what she's doing?  Making homemade chocolate Nutella cupcakes.  Her idea...she made them all herself and did all the dishes herself.  This is not the child who wasn't able to cut her own apple this summer.  We've made some progress with confidence over the past 6 months and I'm really proud of her.  I might by her a kids cookbook (she got a baking book for Christmas) and see if she can start making dinners for the family too!  One step at at time toward independence.  Operation Raise Capable Children is still very much in effect at the McGrath house.

1 Family x 12 (Jan)

 

It's been a helluva week around here.  It all started with Hazel's flu on Friday/Saturday.  I promptly caught in Sunday/Monday.  It might truly have been the sickest I can remember being in a long long time.  I don't know how much I slept Sunday night, but I took most of Monday off (being remote, that's saying something) to recover.  Tuesday the kids had an eLearning/snow day that didn't amount to much and Ryan stayed home as well.. I worked through it since I'd missed the day before...and then Abby was the next to fall with the flu Wednesday/Thursday/Friday.  Ryan was the 4th of 4 and not as immune as he thinks.  Though, if I'm honest he got it the least bad and turned it around pretty good in 12 hours.  Now it's Friday, the kids are home again for our second eLearning/snow day of the week and Abby's still feeling under the weather but I'm really really hoping tomorrow is a new day (with less puke!).

We did manage to have a little bit of fun in the snow though!

Ski Trip

We've taken the kids skiing the last two years and this year we vowed that we'd find two weekends this winter to take them in hopes of them gaining some momentum and confidence to really feel like they can actually ski.  Last year we ended on a high note.  All three of the bigger girls could do Rookies Ridge by themselves, confidently, and run the lift solo.  Lucy wasn't there yet so we knew we had work to do this year.  

So, we picked one weekend in Jan and one weekend in Feb to get these kiddos out on a hill in skis.  Want to know what happened?  Hazel ended up with the flu on Friday night just as we were getting ready for bed.  It was a long night, with lots of loads of laundry and in the end I stayed back with her for the day while everyone else went skiing.  So, I don't have a ton of stories of the day to share!

See, look how sad everyone was that we weren't there with them.  LOL!

Haze and I spent the day on the couch in the basement, watching movies, knitting and napping.  We both took a nap...my favorite part of the day was when Hazel feel asleep and I could take over control of the TV and watch some shows I wanted to watch.  I was sad to miss out of all the stories, and sad for Hazel that she missed the adventure, and annoyed that I didn't bring my work computer (I could have gotten a lot done!)...but honestly, a cozy Saturday at home on the couch is not a bad way to spend the day!

At least we've still got February!  We should all be healthy by then...though....did I just jinx it?!

New Years!

There were a lot of years that we spent New Years Eve a the lake when we didn't have kids and then even when we did...but they were too little to be able to get a sitter and go out (did I ever really like going out on New Years?).  But, it's been a long time since we got a crew together to head out there for the holiday.  It usually depends on the timing of New Years Eve.  Since Ryan's mom's side of the family always does New Years Day on the southside of Chicago, going to the lake makes a lot of sense.  We drive right through that area to get home.

Long story short, this year NYE was on a Sunday so we got a small group together (Meg/Greg/Jenny/Jack) and headed to the lake with the kiddos on Saturday for a chill weekend with the cousins.  Having enough bedrooms so rarely happens at the lake, that we all felt like we were living in the twilight zone!  We even had a few unused rooms in the end.

During the summer weekends there is plenty to do right at the house without ever feeling like we need to leave to find activities to keep everyone occupied.  But, on these long, cold, dark days of winter, I start to feel a little trapped without a reason to go out and get some fresh air and some new scenery.  So, we decided to take the kids bowling early Sunday afternoon (NYE) before all the crazies came out.  

The kids did a great job bowling.  We got the three older kids a lane to themselves.  Put the 4 younger ones on a second lane and then the 6 adults did our best to bowl and help the little through their game.  I think we stuck it out for at least 2 hours, maybe longer...I can't remember!  I remember the days the we struggled to get through one game before everyone had lost interest and lost their patience with the place.  

Ellie with her breadstick rolling around on the floor was a vibe I just couldn't resist.  

And, you know what else happened?! I think I might have bowled my best game ever!  That's right, that 138 up there, that's all me baby!  Is it a good score?  Nope?  Is it my personal best?  I think so.  Am I bragging...?  Yup...sure am!