After leaving Yellowstone, having been to Glacier, and Craters of the Moon, you could say the remaining days of out trip was a bit of a denouement. We headed east through Wyoming to the Big Horn Medicine Wheel. Despite the fact that a road stretches all the way to the wheel, which is set high atop a hill, up a steep and winding road, you must park about a mile from the wheel and walk the rest of the way. The medicine wheel is something like a simple Stonehenge. It has astronomically significant alignments, and was especially useful for marking the summer solstice. It consists of rows and circles of piled rocks, in the general shape of a wheel. The walk to it was steep, and there was a biting wind, but it was worth it.
There is a barb wired fence around the wheel, and a path outside of the that you walk counter clockwise around, in respect for the traditional practice. Native Americans still hold ceremonies here, and many leave offerings tied to the fence, in the form of small brightly colored bundles of cloth, or braids of grass. Less traditional offering, such as bandannas, probably come from the few tourists who may actually find their way here. Another bonus for making the walk to the wheel was seeing picas, which are like teeny weenie bunny rabbit mice. They are cute beyond belief.
After the Medicine Wheel, we went to the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. This is a narrow canyon with a green river flowing in a tan hued landscape. There is not a lot of plant life here, but there are the namesake Bighorn, which have made a comeback in the area. There are also wild horses, and we saw a small family near the road on our way in. They are grayish with a black mane, and, if you look, they have horizontal black stripes across their legs in the back. This fascinated me, because it relates to some of Darwin's theories on evolution, about how when modern species or breeds intermix, you tend to see what are the most basic characteristics, and therefore the characteristic of the common ancestors. So here are stripes on a horse, when none of the parent horses would have had them, showing perhaps a trait that is dormant in them, but exemplified in the zebra.
We then headed south toward Thermopolis. The plan had originally been to spend the remainder of the day hanging out at the free to the public hot spring/baths here, but after my visit to Yellowstone and learning about all the nasty extremophile disease causing bacteria that live in hot springs, I'm afraid I lost interest. So we headed instead towards our destination for the next day, which was Fossil Butte National Monument. We got as far a Kemmerer before stopping for the night. It also happened to be the home of James "Cash" Penney, who started the now national chain right here in this little town.
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Friday, October 29, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
The best laid plans, Not the Day in Rome We Expected
By the time we arrived in Rome, after debarking the ferry in Civitavecchia, we were running late. Late is not a good thing, when you are hoping to visit the Vatican Museum. This museum is extremely popular, and operates under very limited hours, resulting in impressively long lines and wait times, especially for those who are not with a tour group. We reached the walls of Vatican City, and saw the line stretching, far, far from the door. So we decided to visit other destinations on our itinerary instead, and hope to make it to the museum earlier when we returned to Rome for the last few days of our trip.
Instead, we headed over to Santa Maria Cosmedin. This church, while probably worth a visit in it's own right, wasn't our actual destination, just the center of a couple of things we did want to see. For starters, just near this church is the Circus Maximus. Normally, this isn't too much to look at. All that remains of the once impressive large arena is an oblong field with a mound running down the center. We passed by it a few times both on the first day we landed in Italy, and in the final few days before we left, but it was on this day, during the middle of our trip, that it was decorated with strange white globes, which weren't present before or after. Upon our return, we discovered that this was created by Giancarlo Neri, called Maximo Silencio. At night, the globes glowed and shifted colors. There are several nice videos that can be found through google. It really was interesting, and I wish I'd have been around at night to see the actual display. Here is a link to a good summary video.
Underneath a portico of the church is a large disk bearing a face. Some say it was a fountain, or perhaps a manhole cover. His eyes and mouth are simply holes, and it is known as Bocca Della Verita: the mouth of truth. It was featured prominently in Audrey Hepburn's Roman Holiday. So it goes that if you put your hand into it's mouth, and tell a lie, it will bite off your hand. I didn't test it.
Just across the street from the church are to remains of Forum Boarium, where in Roman times, cattle were sold. What remains today are two temples. One consisting of a circle of columns known as the Temple of Hercules Victor, the other, a rectangular structure is the Temple of Portunus.
Instead, we headed over to Santa Maria Cosmedin. This church, while probably worth a visit in it's own right, wasn't our actual destination, just the center of a couple of things we did want to see. For starters, just near this church is the Circus Maximus. Normally, this isn't too much to look at. All that remains of the once impressive large arena is an oblong field with a mound running down the center. We passed by it a few times both on the first day we landed in Italy, and in the final few days before we left, but it was on this day, during the middle of our trip, that it was decorated with strange white globes, which weren't present before or after. Upon our return, we discovered that this was created by Giancarlo Neri, called Maximo Silencio. At night, the globes glowed and shifted colors. There are several nice videos that can be found through google. It really was interesting, and I wish I'd have been around at night to see the actual display. Here is a link to a good summary video.
Underneath a portico of the church is a large disk bearing a face. Some say it was a fountain, or perhaps a manhole cover. His eyes and mouth are simply holes, and it is known as Bocca Della Verita: the mouth of truth. It was featured prominently in Audrey Hepburn's Roman Holiday. So it goes that if you put your hand into it's mouth, and tell a lie, it will bite off your hand. I didn't test it.
Just across the street from the church are to remains of Forum Boarium, where in Roman times, cattle were sold. What remains today are two temples. One consisting of a circle of columns known as the Temple of Hercules Victor, the other, a rectangular structure is the Temple of Portunus.
Saturday, October 09, 2010
Yellowstone Exodus
After staying the night in the fabulous Old Faithful Inn, we packed our bags, and headed to the hotel's restaurant for breakfast. We ordered the buffet, which came with juice and a hot chocolate for each of us, but we had to specifically ask our waiter to bring the hot chocolate, since he did not offer to do so. The hot chocolate was VERY GOOD, but Jake spilled his before even taking a sip, which was a real tragedy, especially because they didn't offer to bring us a replacement. We were put off by the poor service, though the food was very good.
After that we went out for a walk along the boardwalk the led out and around the many geysers in this area. We spent some time hanging around Old Faithful to see if it would go, but got tired of waiting and continued up the trail. We arrived at the Grand Geyser and I began reading the information about it. It is the tallest predictable geyser know. It's much larger than old faithful. it erupts about twice daily. Before it erupts, it begins to churn/bubble strongly. As I read all this, the pool in front of us began to churn. I thought, OK, some geysers do that for hours before an eruption. Then it said, "moments later the geyser erupts" So I'm like hey Jake, it's about to go, and there it went. There were several volunteers who document the geysers, and all remarked on what a good show it was putting on. According wikipedia, it gets as much as 200ft tall. It went on for several minutes, and when it finally died down we wandered further up the trail.
We then walked to the morning glory pool, and as we were headed back down the boardwalk there, we noticed a large lone male buffalo drinking from the opposite side of a stream, no more than 40 yards away; this was during breeding season, when males were feeling especially aggressive, too. Well, we stopped along the trail, confident that we were too far out of range to bother him, and watched. A young woman, who had not been reading the signs about saying on the boardwalks, and not harassing the animals, thought that the 15 foot wide stream was enough of a buffer, and left the trail, and cut through some trees to get a much closer and unobstructed view, and began taking pictures. The buffalo, which obviously felt threatened, stopped drinking and gave her a long look. At which point she smartly backed off, but only about 5 feet, until the buffalo returned to his drink. Realizing that she wasn't moving off, the buffalo then crossed the stream, and ambled casually towards her. She, smartly headed back for the boardwalk, and up towards the morning glory pool. Jake and I stayed still to avoid the buffalo's notice while he stood squarely upon the boardwalk and gazed about. Finally, satisfied that he had made his point that he was VERY LARGE, he continued on his way, up into the forest.
We continued our walk and saw lots of other geysers in various stages of activity, when we suddenly realized it was nearly checkout time at the hotel. It was again near time for Old Faithful, so I reserved us some seats while Jake went to get our luggage from the room and check us out. He returned in time for us to watch the geyser, which really isn't anything like as spectacular as the large ones we'd already seen, and in addition to that, the boardwalk is much further away that it is from other geysers, still as probably the most famous geyser in the world, it's a must to see.
From the Old Faithful area, we headed south to West Thumb, then turned east along the norther edge of Yellowstone Lake, finally turning north at Lake Village and cutting through Hayden Valley, which is the place to see buffalo, and wolves possibly. While we saw none of the latter, we got a fairly close encounter with the former. Along the way we saw 2 males butting heads, and further on We noticed a small group of buffalo coming towards the road. 2 females, 1 calf, and a large bull, who was pawing the ground as he came, stirring up dust and grunting. We had pulled into a parking area, but stayed in the car doorways in case he should head our way. This group crossed the road a little behind us and caused a traffic jam.
The main problem was one car. The car would creep up an inch on the buffalo every time it got the chance, and every time, the male would stop and turn and lower his head towards the car. You'd think that driver would have learned to stay still, but he just kept doing it, and managed to make the buffalo pretty angry. He even made a move to headbutt the grill at one point, but stopped short, and finally moved his family off the road.
The sun was setting, and we still had quite a ways to go to leave the park. After darkness had set in, we encountered still more buffalo, having to creep our way through the dark night to avoid a collision with a movable wall. Finally, we exited the park at the north east entrance, and pulled over to sleep at the first shoulder wide enough for our car, completely exhausted, but very satisfied.
After that we went out for a walk along the boardwalk the led out and around the many geysers in this area. We spent some time hanging around Old Faithful to see if it would go, but got tired of waiting and continued up the trail. We arrived at the Grand Geyser and I began reading the information about it. It is the tallest predictable geyser know. It's much larger than old faithful. it erupts about twice daily. Before it erupts, it begins to churn/bubble strongly. As I read all this, the pool in front of us began to churn. I thought, OK, some geysers do that for hours before an eruption. Then it said, "moments later the geyser erupts" So I'm like hey Jake, it's about to go, and there it went. There were several volunteers who document the geysers, and all remarked on what a good show it was putting on. According wikipedia, it gets as much as 200ft tall. It went on for several minutes, and when it finally died down we wandered further up the trail.
We then walked to the morning glory pool, and as we were headed back down the boardwalk there, we noticed a large lone male buffalo drinking from the opposite side of a stream, no more than 40 yards away; this was during breeding season, when males were feeling especially aggressive, too. Well, we stopped along the trail, confident that we were too far out of range to bother him, and watched. A young woman, who had not been reading the signs about saying on the boardwalks, and not harassing the animals, thought that the 15 foot wide stream was enough of a buffer, and left the trail, and cut through some trees to get a much closer and unobstructed view, and began taking pictures. The buffalo, which obviously felt threatened, stopped drinking and gave her a long look. At which point she smartly backed off, but only about 5 feet, until the buffalo returned to his drink. Realizing that she wasn't moving off, the buffalo then crossed the stream, and ambled casually towards her. She, smartly headed back for the boardwalk, and up towards the morning glory pool. Jake and I stayed still to avoid the buffalo's notice while he stood squarely upon the boardwalk and gazed about. Finally, satisfied that he had made his point that he was VERY LARGE, he continued on his way, up into the forest.
We continued our walk and saw lots of other geysers in various stages of activity, when we suddenly realized it was nearly checkout time at the hotel. It was again near time for Old Faithful, so I reserved us some seats while Jake went to get our luggage from the room and check us out. He returned in time for us to watch the geyser, which really isn't anything like as spectacular as the large ones we'd already seen, and in addition to that, the boardwalk is much further away that it is from other geysers, still as probably the most famous geyser in the world, it's a must to see.
From the Old Faithful area, we headed south to West Thumb, then turned east along the norther edge of Yellowstone Lake, finally turning north at Lake Village and cutting through Hayden Valley, which is the place to see buffalo, and wolves possibly. While we saw none of the latter, we got a fairly close encounter with the former. Along the way we saw 2 males butting heads, and further on We noticed a small group of buffalo coming towards the road. 2 females, 1 calf, and a large bull, who was pawing the ground as he came, stirring up dust and grunting. We had pulled into a parking area, but stayed in the car doorways in case he should head our way. This group crossed the road a little behind us and caused a traffic jam.
The main problem was one car. The car would creep up an inch on the buffalo every time it got the chance, and every time, the male would stop and turn and lower his head towards the car. You'd think that driver would have learned to stay still, but he just kept doing it, and managed to make the buffalo pretty angry. He even made a move to headbutt the grill at one point, but stopped short, and finally moved his family off the road.
The sun was setting, and we still had quite a ways to go to leave the park. After darkness had set in, we encountered still more buffalo, having to creep our way through the dark night to avoid a collision with a movable wall. Finally, we exited the park at the north east entrance, and pulled over to sleep at the first shoulder wide enough for our car, completely exhausted, but very satisfied.
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