Wyoming Wanderings

While in Yellowstone we crossed in and out of both Montana and Wyoming.  However, once we departed Yellowstone it was all Wyoming.  Our first stop was Cody, Wyoming. 

We traveled about 15 miles north of Cody, Wy to a place called Heart Mountain Relocation Camp, where in 1942, thousands of Japanese, following the attack on Pearl Harbor,  were held. At that time, there was a serious concern that Japan was preparing for an all out attack on the West coast.  Fear arose that the many ethnic Japanese living on the West coast would sympathize with Japan due simply to their ethnicity.  Some credence was lent  to this feeling by the Nihau Incident, which immediately followed the attack on Pearl Harbor.  The incident involved a civilian Japanese national and two Hawaiian-born Japanese on the island of Nihau violently freeing a downed, captured Japanese naval aviator.  President Roosevelt, pursuant to the Alien Enemies Act, issued Presidential Proclamations 2525, 2526, 2527 designating Japanese, German and Italian nationals as enemy aliens.  Information was used to locate and incarcerate those designated foreign nationals for the duration of the war. While the Alien Enemies Act and the subsequent Presidential Proclamations were completely Constitutional, what happened next is a dark and disgraceful page in our national history, one not many of us learned about in school. On February 19, 1942 FDR issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized military commanders to designate "military areas" at their discretion, "from which any or all persons may be excluded", whether citizen or non-citizen.  The West coast commander, Lt Gen DeWitt, issued Civilian Exclusion Order No. 34, ordering ALL people of Japanese ancestry, whether citizens or not, living in designated zones to report to assembly areas for movement to "relocation centers."  Military edicts, like this one, included persons of at least one-sixteenth Japanese ancestry.  Of all those relocated to "camps" such as the one at Heart Mountain, Wy, 62 percent were US citizens.  The next two pictures are of some of the original buildings of the Heart Mountain Relocation Camp.  The museum had a nice interpretive building showcasing what life was like for those caught up in the relocation movement.

The girls pose in front of the Homesteader Museum in Powell, Wyoming. You can read more about the museum at this link: Powell, Wyoming Homesteader Museum 

Bever Homestead is an original 1911 homestead house owned by homesteaders O.E. and Ruby Bever. This newly renovated home was donated to the museum in 2006. 

A picture of the homestead as it looked in 1913.

Hailey inside the homestead kitchen,  one of two the only two rooms.  

A picture of early Powell homesteaders arriving by horse drawn wagon.  You can see the Heart Mountain in the background. Hearty folk out here!

Hailey really got a kick out of the horse drawn farm equipment.  She seems to really enjoy the farming idea! 

Hailey is at it again!  She models a circa 1930's farm tractor.  

An interesting fact about this area I did not know.  I suppose you could not get more remote and have all the food, water and shelter required than out here in Powell, Wyoming! 

Who would've guessed that Heidi would turn 13 in Cody, Wyoming!  

In the streets of Cody, Wyoming; Hailey calls for "More Cow Bell!" 

Hailey spotted this creature in a store in Cody and asked me; "Dad, what kinda animal is that?!"  I said ; "A jackalope of course!" 

You'd think she's been deprived!  Don't believe it! 

Sushi in Wyoming?? Well, given our new found learning about Wyoming's connection with Japanese....why not?!  Heidi requested sushi for her birthday dinner! 

 Cowgirls, up!  A first for the girls of Team Breitmann!  I had attended this very same nightly summer rodeo when I was a kid.  The girls also got to partake in the nightly kids "calf scramble"  when all the kids get a chance to try to capture a red ribbon of the tail of two calves turned loose in the arena!  What a hoot!  I did this with my brother many years ago!  

We spent an overnight in Buffalo, Wyoming and to our surprise we were greeted with wild turkeys right outside our motor home door.  Hailey tries to catch one!  No luck.  Too bad.  They looked delicious! 

Is that an early Airstream camper?!  We are glad we travel in something quite a bit nicer than this!  Well, it's time to saddle up and head on out for South Dakota!  

Yellowstone!

Where O' Where has our summer been?!  We are lovin' it!  I took this picture as we were preparing to depart from West Glacier, Montana.  This was around 10 am.  

Q.O.T.R.  (Queen Of The Road!)  Or as I like to refer to Stacey, "Queen of my double-slide!"  Stacey takes the wheel as we make our way through the roads less traveled en route toe Yellowstone.  We took two days of driving thru the "Big Sky" State.  You can see out Stacey's window at the spectacular views we had during our journey. 

As  we were about to make our turn off of Mountain Hwy 83 and onto Hwy 141, I took this picture to the Northwest.  It is  of a massive wildfire deep within the Lolo National Forest.  I had never seen anything like it and at first I thought it looked like a volcanic eruption or a massive explosion.  While we were pulled off the road taking pictures,  a US Forest Service worker also pulled off beside us to take pictures.  We asked him what we were looking at.  He explained what it was we were looking at (wildfire) and the white portion of the plume is actually ice crystals forming as the smoke cloud is pushed far up into the freezing level.  That should give you some idea of how hot the fire had become!  He said that it can be particularly dangerous to firefighters, when the weather conditions become such that the center column of cool air collapses downward and blows the fire out in all directions.  This usually occurs in the afternoon.  This particular fire was so far away that we were entirely unaffected.  

A view out the front window as we drove towards the Helena National Forest.  We ended up staying the night at Fort Harrison, just outside Helena, MT for one night.  Fort Harrison is a Montana Army National Guard facility and they happened to have a Family Camp that was built just the past year.  The next morning we took Hwy 287 south out of Helena then Hwy 12 (Lewis & Clark Hwy) to 89 South to Livingston and then  on into the North Entrance of Yellowstone.  Along the way, we saw lots of cattle and prong-horn antelope on the stretch of 89 from Mineral Springs to Livingston.

Here it is!  The North Arch entrance to Yellowstone National Park!

The whole Team and the dog (Molly) at the North Entrance to Yellowstone!  Did you know that Yellowstone was the first National Park to be establish ANYWHERE in the world?!  President Ulysses S. Grant signed an act that made it a national park in 1872.  The park is 2.2 million acres in size and ranges portions of the States of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.  Getting around the park is relatively easy utilizing two inter-connecting North & South "loop" drives.  The park  has three distinct areas:  the Lake area, The Tower-Roosevelt area and the Mammoth Hot Springs to Old Faithful area.

We camped in the Lake Area on the shores of Lake Yellowstone at a place called "Fishing Bridge".  This is a picture taken from the bridge of the same name.  The area right around Fishing Bridge is the spawning ground to the Cutthroat Trout. Ironically, Fishing Bridge is closed to fishing due to past years over fishing practices during spawning season. 

Heidi takes in the beautiful view of Lake Yellowstone.  The lake sets in the southeast corner of the Yellowstone Caldera (more on that later).  The lake is North America's largest high-altitude lake (7,333' elev.)  and is 20 miles long by 14 miles wide, offering 141 miles of shoreline.  The average August surface temperature is 60 degrees and bottom temps never rise above 42 degrees.

All this high-altitude stuff makes us hungry!  One of our "house rules" is that the cook does not do dishes...therefore, it dawns on Hailey...hmmm....maybe I'd better give this cooking thing a try!  So, here she is cooking us spaghetti!  She did awesome!  Oh, and she was so over joyed to not have to do dishes! 

Across from our campsite, Hailey and Heidi construct an Indian Tee pee.  Here you can see Hailey, as she took one of our camp chairs and has made herself "at home" in Yellowstone!  She is reading a book about an Indian girl, which she read in a day and a half!

Hailey examines all the different butterflies under a stereoscope.  I pulled a wide range of them from the grill on our "assault vehicle" that accumulated on our trek to and through Yellowstone!

Remember, I mentioned the Yellowstone Caldera?  Well,  much of Yellowstone we see today is remnants of a massive volcanic eruption, leaving a HUGE caldera, measuring 30 by 45 miles!  Now, that is one big volcano!  In fact, much of the driving loop and Lake Yellowstone lie within that old Caldera.  The Yellowstone volcano is still very active 3-miles beneath the surface, where molten magma still seethes.  The magma underneath results in Yellowstone having some impressive geothermic features ranging from fumeroles, geysers, boiling mud pits and hot springs with temperatures over 199 degrees!

Hailey poses near a crystal blue hot springs.  Why is it so clear?  Well, it's so hot that nothing can live in it!  Anyone care for a dip?  It would be your last!

An impressive fumarole. A fissure in the ground spews out super-heated steam and sounded like an old-fashioned steam locomotive.  

A small hot spring that isn't quite a geyser that is just roiling with heat and steam!  Sure hope this boardwalk holds up!  

Hailey and I pose near "Spasm Geyser".  We actually got wet from this geyser and it was still very warm from this distance!  We ended up smelling like sulphur!  Yellowstone has more geysers than anywhere else in the world and is home to more than half of all the world's geysers. Hailey says:  "Smells kinda like you, Dad, after a good Mexican meal!" Nice.  

Boiling pits of mud!  These geothermic features are very acidic in nature and along with micro-organisms, as well as limited water supply, decompose the surrounding rock into clay & mud.  Weird!  The picture can't capture the rank smell akin to rotting eggs.

The Grand Prismatic Spring.  It is the largest hot spring in North America and is named because of it's striking coloration of blue, green, yellow, orange, red and brown and are like the dispersal of white light by an optical prism.  Additionally, when the sun is at the correct angle, the light passing thru the rising steam also causes a prismatic effect.  So, there is a prism on the ground and above the water.  Simply stunning and hard to capture on film.  And who says God doesn't have an original, artistic touch!

The gals pose for a picture over Yellowstone's Firehole River. The river is surrounded by geothermal features, which empty water into it and in certain areas raises the river temperature to as high as 86 degrees.  Early trappers named the river for the steam that rises from it making it appear to be on fire.

Runoff from Excelsior Geyser into the Firehole River. It is dumping 4,500 gallons of 199 degree water per minute into the river!

Here we are at the world's best known geyser.  Old Faithful, faithfully erupts every 40 to 126 minutes.  We stuck around to witness two of them. 

Old Faithful...there she goes! Eruptions can shoot up to 8,400 gallons of boiling water to heights up to 185 feet! 

We attended worship service at the Fishing Bridge Amphitheater. The service was conducted by volunteers of the organization called; "A Christian Ministry In The National Parks".   Check them out here: Ministry in the National Parks

Hailey poses with her "Flat Ariel".  You've heard of Flat Stanley?  Well, this is Flat Ariel, with whom she is spending time with and documenting her travels with us.  She will send back "Flat Ariel" to her friend whom is also a part of a "full-time" traveling family.  Hailey  sent  a "Flat Stanley" to her friend to do the same. 

The caution on this sign was NO JOKE!  It was more of a vertical challenge than our short jaunt on the Bright Angel trail in the Grand Canyon!  Way to go Heidi, as she was the leader on this hike!  

Along the Uncle Tom's trail, we came across this mule deer that seemed to pose for me.

Halfway down Uncle Tom's trail and a view of the lower falls of the Yellowstone River.  The roar and the constant rainbow were awesome to behold. 

At the lower falls with Flat Ariel!

Firehole Canyon Falls. Photography does not due this justice, as I could not capture the sheer canyon walls.

Looking the opposite  direction down Firehole Canyon.  Due to the geothermal runoff into this river bringing the temperature up to comfortable swimming levels near here, there is a designated swimming area .  Too bad we did not have our swim suits with us! 

An impressive view from Artist point of the Yellowstone River Upper Falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  It is one of the most recognizable and most photographed spots in Yellowstone...for obvious reasons! 

Beauty among beauty!  How can one man stand it?!

Hayden Valley.  Home to bison, mule deer and elk. 

A close up view of a large North American male bison.  You can tell it is a male from not only the size but also the tell-tale black face and head.  Females also have horns, by the way. Bison were nearly hunted to extinctions by the time of 1871 with only 23-100 remaining in the National Park from a peak of 20-30 million!  Today, the park boasts a wild herd of 4,000 head and nationally, the USA has around 250,000, mostly in the hands of private ranchers for commercial consumption.

As we rounded the corner coming back from Lamar Valley, we are faced with this large male bison!  Excuse me, Mr. Bison can you please pick a lane! 

Lamar Valley.  Home to the wolves of Yellowstone that were successfully reintroduced in 1995 and continue to thrive here! We had hoped for a sighting but, no luck.  We did see coyote, a fox and elk. 

The Breitmann sisters take a lunch break with us outside the Northeast gate of Yellowstone in the town of Cooke City, after our drive through Lamar Valley.  We dined on bison burgers here! 

View of the North Absaroka Mountain Wilderness from the town of Cooke City, WY.

Hey, look..a grizzly bear!  We spotted this guy across the Yellowstone river from us.  I only had my iPhone to take this picture, unfortunately.  However, I did have a nice pair of binoculars to view him with.  While watching him, a park ranger shows up and informs us that he is familiar with this character.  He is an eight year old black grizzly and is dining on a bison carcass that had floated down the river to this point.  He also told us that the bear could easily swim over to our side in short order but, not to worry due to his preoccupation to the meal at hand.  Likewise, we were at a safe distance across the river to not pose a threat to him.  Thanks, Mr. Ranger!  Also, like something out of a National Geographic special, a large American Bald Eagle comes swooping down the river right in front of us!  Wow! 

Another Jr. Ranger badge!  Well, earned, Hailey!  We are off to Cody, Wy!  Cowboy, up! Err...should I say...Cowgirl, up!