Tuesday, June 3, 2014

My deep. Dark. Dirty. Secret.


Up until this past weekend I had a deep, dark, dirty secret. Something to really be ashamed of… I am a 5th generation Montanan, and spent the last ten years living in Wyoming… and I had never been to Yellowstone. That’s right. Never. I know, I know – you are all reading this, with gaping wide open mouths, trying to regain your balance, asking “WHY? HOW does this happen?! Some travel agent!” To be fair to my parents – when I was younger my mom and dad managed the Frontier Town restaurant, and were handcuffed to the job. In the winter months when Frontier Town was closed, we took off to seek out warm weather in Mexico and Hawaii - which is where most of my travel background is. We moved home to the treasure state in August 2012, and I am really just now getting to explore my own backyard. So, although I had seen many beautiful pictures of our country’s first national park, nothing would prepare me for what it was really like!

I planned this trip almost a year out, as I wanted to make sure we could stay in The Old Faithful Inn. The Inn features a multi-story log lobby, flanked by long frame wings containing guest rooms. With its spectacular log and limb lobby and massive (500-ton, 85-foot) stone fireplace, the inn is a prime example of the "Golden Age" of rustic resort architecture, a style which is also known as “National Park Service Rustic”. It is also unique in that it is one of the few log hotels still standing in the United States. It was the first of the great park lodges of the American west. Initial construction was carried out over the winter of 1903-1904, largely using locally-obtained materials including lodgepole pine and rhyolite stone. When the Old Faithful Inn first opened in the spring of 1904, it boasted electric lights and steam heat.
The structure is the largest log hotel in the world; possibly even the largest log building in the world. In 2007 the American Institute of Architects conducted a survey to determine the 150 favorite buildings in America; the Old Faithful Inn ranked 36. The Inn, which was designated a National
Historic Landmark in 1987, is itself part of the Old Faithful Historic District. Old Faithful Inn is a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. I chose for us to stay in the historic wing, as I wanted the true experience. The rooms were modest, with only wash basins. A community bathroom was located at the end of the hallway.


 
I planned for a spring trip because I was hoping for mild weather, less crowds, tons of wildflowers and lots of baby animals. Less than three miles into the park we hit a buffalo traffic jam, with hundreds of buffalo backing up cars, and campers miles down the road. I loved seeing all of the baby calves being nudged and ushered by their mom or dad to move quicker. We also saw a couple of big horned sheep, deer and elk. One of my favorite animal sightings was watching a brand new baby elk learning how to walk. Although there were some bear sightings, we were too late to each gathering to catch a glimpse of one.
 

My favorite part of the park was all of the geysers, hot springs, fumaroles and mudpots! It seemed like everywhere you looked there was something bubbling up, spouting off, or steaming up the atmosphere. Yellowstone is home to some 10,000 thermal features, over 500 hundred of which are geysers, Old Faithful being one of the most famous and iconic, erupting every 90+minutes.
We loved sitting on The Old Faithful Inn’s deck, drinking a cocktail and watching it blow it’s top. Yellowstone Lake was beautiful. The water was completely still, and a perfect mirror reflection of the cotton ball clouds overhead. It was gorgeous. Yellowstone
 

Falls is such a famous waterfall, it has been photographed and painted a hundred million times. But, nothing really prepared me for the magnitude of the canyon and the power of all of that water. Absolutely awe inspiring. It was a fundamentally educational experience for me, with memories to last a lifetime with my family. I’ll be back much sooner than later!
 
 
 
 

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