Thank you, Mrs. Harris

Skip and I had been talking about going to Yellowstone "someday" since our early courting/married years. To make that dream come to fruition was an exciting experience. We were finally here!

What we didn't know was that we would fall in love with the Grand Tetons along the way. We drove through Jackson Hole trying to find the airport where a car was waiting for us. Since we planned to be there six days it made sense to rent a car to travel around and between the parks.

I followed the RV with the directions from the car rental place and entered Grand Tetons National Park. The drive through the park was breathtaking. From the meadows arose mountains the likes of which I had never seen. They surpassed the Rockies in beauty because they were so close and so high. Expecting a touristy town between Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, we found they flowed seamlessly into each other. Flagg Ranch was between the two on John J. Rockefeller Memorial Highway which joins the two parks, no kitschy town or tourist trap between.

The view from our campsite was wonderful. We could see the Tetons through the trees and whenever we were there we checked the lighting because the time of day changed the way the mountains looked. My favorite was sunrise or sunset when they ranged from pink to purple to apricot. At night the stars were so thick you really couldn't pick out constellations. (I think it's a silly hobby based on the false belief that the stars are all on the same plane.) On the night we got home late from Yellowstone we could see the Milky Way, I think!

Our first morning we drove to Yellowstone to see Old Faithful. Warnings about bumper to bumper traffic and road construction (saw our Recovery Dollars at work on every interstate highway in every state and every National Park we passed through.) did not damper our adventurous spirits. Layers of clothing, picnic lunch and snacks, water, camera, binoculars all packed and we were on our way!

There was a wait of about a half hour not long after we entered the park for road construction. So you turn off your engine, open the windows and breathe. We drove through parts of the park which burned in '88 which was coming back. Trees there were about 5 feet tall. Some of the dead trees still stood dwarfing the new growth. These forests need the fire periodically. The lodge pole pines have two types of cones. The regular ones that drop seeds each year and serotinous ones that are coated in wax and only release during the heat of a fire. So the trees have a cleared area to start their life. Another area must have burned more recently as you could still smell the residue of smoke and the new trees were much smaller.

The rest of the ride to Old Faithful wasn't bad. They are constructing a new visitor's center there and it was VERY crowded and seemingly disorganized. It was about noon and parking was difficult to find. Because I had to go to the bathroom we switched drivers Chinese fire drill style and I ran to find the ladies room while Skip found a parking space.

Then we found that Old Faithful was not far away. We joined the throng of waiting people, but couldn't get close enough to the Park Ranger to hear his lesson. We walked around the way and found a place to wait. We were not disappointed, it erupted and was very cool.

We decided to do the hike around the area, most of it paved or boardwalk, to see the other geysers, mud pots and other weird geothermal stuff going on. Much of it smelled like rotten eggs. Some of it flowed right into a creek...wonder how that affected the plants and animals... We were there so long that we were able to see Old Faithful erupt three times from three different vantage points.

We saw lakes and waterfalls, canyons, mountains and plains. All were beautiful. The best time to see wildlife is as the sun is setting. We saw bison, elk, moose, mule deer. There was a variety of wildflowers that changed with the elevation and rainfall of the area. I loved the alpine forget-me-nots, but did not get a photo.

We realized that we were too far from home to eat dinner there and decided to splurge on dinner at the Canyon Lodge. Skip had bison and I had trout My trout was fabulous. We toasted to our adventure bringing us here.

Mrs. Harris was a farmer's wife who loved the land. She managed the farm after her husband passed and continued teaching. She told her 4th graders about visiting Yellowstone and that Old Faithful was one of the most magical things you could see. She told her class that if they ever get the opportunity, they should see it. That stuck in Skip's head all these years. If you know Skip, you know he hated school, but he loved Mrs. Harris. She read stories aloud better than anyone he can remember and she planted a seed. That seed grew to make our visit bloom. Thank you, Mrs. Harris; you were right, it IS a magical place and everyone should go there.