A Walk on the Wild(life) Side

I was twelve the last time I was in Yellowstone. Our kids have never been and I’m not even sure Kevin has done more than just drive through. As such, there was a great deal of excitement for today’s visit to the park. And all the anticipation was not for naught. Within just a few minutes of driving into the park, Malia was able to start making check marks on her “wildlife to see in the park” worksheet. There were a few cars stopped so we figured there must be something to see and discovered a coyote out in a meadow. We advantage of our stop to snap a photo.

After only a couple more minutes of driving, we were rewarded by sightings of both elk and bison. So let’s talk about bison for a minute. We’ve all seen pictures. We know what they look like. But what the pictures can’t appropriately convey is the size of these beasts. Matthew pretty much summed it up when he exclaimed, “Those things are gi-freakin’-normous!” And they are.

Our main goal for the day was to meet up with Rachael and her crew at Old Faithful. As we waited for it to erupt and watched all the people gather around (the Asian tourists pushing their way right in front of everyone else whenever it suited their fancy), my family did not really know what to expect. Matthew was particularly lackadaisical about the whole thing. He just could not imagine what the big deal was. As I was the only one who had seen Old Faithful before, I assured him that it was worth the wait. And it definitely was. Even Matthew, who is already perfecting his teenage nonchalance, was impressed.

After we ate lunch and watched a magnificent geyser, we set about helping Malia earn her Jr. Ranger badge. Matthew, with some skepticism and a giant sigh, decided he would participate as well although he was nowhere near as excited as Malia was. In order to mark off one of their requirements, we attended a ranger presentation all about bison. Although it was aimed at young kids, I found it fascinating as well. We learned quite a few random things about bison, probably the strangest of which is the fact that they can jump 6 feet, straight up. The ranger told us that most people think that the myriad fences and boardwalks will keep the bison away, but that if they were so inclined, the bison could jump right over them. Malia thought that particular fact was amazing and was also impressed that their heads alone weight 200 pounds and they use their heads like snowplows to get to the grass during the winter. Matthew and Malia busied themselves with their workbooks while we waited for one more Old Faithful eruption, and once they had their badges in hand (and Matthew had said that he was actually kind of not sorry that he had earned it, classic teen double speak there) we headed out of the park.

We had another bison sighting on our way back out. In fact, there was a bison right by the side of the road. If I had rolled down my window, I could have petted its giant, furry side. I am smarter than that though, and we all stayed in the car with the windows rolled up. It did, however, further enforce our impressions of the hulking proportions of the animals. And it gave Malia an opportunity to observe in person such details as the bison’s dewclaws and its eyelashes. Scientist/girl tendencies showing up there, to no one’s surprise.

We also stopped at Grand Prismatic since, unlike the morning, there was no line to get into the parking lot. Although there was quite a bit of steam due to the cooler temperature, it was still pretty spectacular. The colors were amazing. Even the steam was multicolored! Ravens are very common in Yellowstone and Matthew and Malia stalked a particularly large one around the parking lot to get some pictures. Like Kevin and all the boys, Malia is becoming a shutterbug. She managed to capture quite a nice picture of that raven.

We all came away tired and pleased with our day’s adventures. The only fly in the ointment was the fact that I got, what is for me, a pretty significant sunburn. I know all you fair skinned folk of European descent are currently giving me a giant, audible eye roll, but I’m a big diaper baby about sunburn. I got burned enough during our horseback riding yesterday that I woke up with both arms pretty red. But it didn’t hurt at all and being inexperienced sunburn wise and fairly stupid about it as a result, it didn’t occur to me to do anything about it. By the end of the day today, I was most definitely feeling the pain. Daniel got burned as well and the two of us whined and griped about it while Kevin just rolled his eyes. For him, no blisters means it is not a bad burn. Nevertheless, he was kind enough to get us some aloe and sunburn pain reducing spray (See what I mean about sunburn stupid? I don’t even know what to call the stuff.) and teach us how to slather it on. I was definitely slimy yet satisfying. 😉

Our end of day animal count included many bison, a few geese and elk, a bunch of ravens, and a coyote. For only one day in the park, that was an amazing wild animal viewing day, especially for a bunch of city folks!