2nd Week - Days Off

Unfortunately on my first day off I didn’t get to go kayaking because I was too late to sign up. Instead I went to the Canyon at a dramatic time of the lowering sun, visiting the raging falls for the first time and viewing it from above, below and by its drop off point – watching the billowing mist. I also attended a friend’s leaving dinner in the guest restaurant later on, what a relief to eat some decent food. The group of friends I have gotten close to are mostly all leaving in the next week, which will be sad. They are also my friends with cars, so it is likely to be hitchhiking for the rest of my stay. I think that it will, for the most part, just be the internationals left – though everyone is so nice here, apart from some hierarchy, I am sure more friends are to come.

On my second day off, Wednesday, Jordan drove me, Johanna and Todd in his car (All three from Minnesota) up to a mountain named Avalanche Peak, around 20 miles past Lake Yellowstone. It was only a 2 mile climb to the top; however it was tremendously steep in most areas so it took us many hours and we were blindly shielded from knowing the distance to the summit. We passed through dense woods with sandy bottoms, sweltering at the foot of the trail, but with each step higher the cool breeze growing stronger. For Todd and Jordan it appeared a daily stroll, while Johanna and I wheezed in each breath stopping at any chance. The sights differed at varying points, in one patch we traversed an emerald floored forest with pink and yellow flowers weaving through the grass, and then we reached a sliding grey rocky beneath, the stones gaining in size the higher we reached. And from the pinnacle we conversed with youthful strangers, inside a makeshift cave, and gazed at Yellowstone Lake along with the snow dotted hills and all blue skies around. We all split at the top, viewing from different points, me with my Rolleiflex in hand (which after much debating am glad I bought along) and Johanna talking to other Xanterra staff. Todd and Jordan decided to descend so we followed minutes later, although we could not tell if they had gone exploring off the trail, so waited a 45 minute period expecting them to meet us, Johanna sounded the eagles call but nothing. Eventually, we decided we would all end up at the car anyway, so began downwards and to our surprise found Todd and Jordan sitting peacefully on the trail just 150 yards down – I now know what it is like to have no mobile phone. We got to the Xanterra Lake Lodge just before dinner finished at 6.30 pm; our staff cards allow us to eat at any Xanterra location which is very handy. On the way back we also witnessed the sight of a huge black bear and three cubs sprinting across the open green lands, we stared in awe as the car behind was oblivious to this wonder.

On my final day off, me, Jordan, Johanna, Mary, a Malaysian guy called Brian who spoke faultless English, 3 people from the Czech Republic called Market (said as Marcata), Lucas and Adam and finally one Russian girl, Irena, all got in two cars driving through early morning Yellowstone. The roads in Yellowstone are all very good, they are few but well kept, therefore there is a lot of construction, of which we met on the way – sitting for 30 minutes. We were so bored while in the unmoving mile long line that we started a dance party between the jam, blasting awfully cheesy 80’s music from Mary’s car and dancing on the road as best we could – the people in cars kept on taking pictures of this enjoyable obscurity. We were headed for a 3 mile hike to Fairy Falls which overlooked Prismatic Lake, a large steaming rainbow pond, azure at center, then each outer ring from this changing from jade green, lemon yellow, a deep brown red and ending a carrot orange - all caused primarily from bacteria. The fall was just a trickle off a sheer drop high above, meeting a small basin and continuing as the river. We stayed and snacked, relaxing in the cooling spray from the cloudless day. We carried on a mile to see some geothermal features, walking through the dead and burned forests with many trees blackened to charcoal. The feature was a small pond, coloured like Prismatic, but with a near perpetually erupting geyser. The resulting stream bleached the trees powdery, or anything placed inside.

Later on we ate at the Old Faithful staff canteen; although we were not on time to see the geyser shoot (I keep on pronouncing it ‘geezer’ which people get a kick out of). They call Old Faithful the Disneyland of Yellowstone, which I can certainly see why. It is the most populated place, the car parks look like that of Wal-Mart and hundreds and hundreds line up around the geyser as if they were waiting for Shamu to pop up at any second. The food looked slightly better quality here, which is good in case I decide to extend my contract to work at Old Faithful through October. However, we met the canteen manager who was certainly not the nicest of people; we titled her as ‘The Mighty Bitch’, which she certainly deserved. She popped her head around the corner, like a snarling rat, and began hassling and shouting at us and her kitchen staff for multiple petty things. After lunch all 9 of us squeezed ourselves into a 5 person car, as the other car was half a mile away due to bad parking. 4 of us joined our bones together in the back and Adam lay flat across our laps, while the rest sat on each other, not a comfortable ride I can tell you that...or a legal one.

So the Czech’s left in Jordan’s car as they had to meet up with friends for camping, while the rest of us went to Boiling River just outside of Mammoth. Boiling River is a place where two flows of dramatically juxtaposed water temperatures meet up; the far side will give you hypothermia whereas the nearside will literally boil your skin. Therefore, everyone sits in a single filed line where these two rivers meet, while grabbing onto the clunky stones trying not to fall away on 1 and a half feet of water. It was a treacherous and painful walk along the bottom to get to an un-crowded part of the springs, especially with no shoes while trying not to fall into the freezing or burning areas. Though it was well worth it for lying in the surreal flows of gentle warm water; my feet drifted in Iceland while my back in the calescent Tropics. We met a guy who lived just 20 minutes away from Johanna in Minnesota. He had been enjoying the spring for hours, so the natural etches on his hands had wrinkled to a great pronouncement, looking something like Zodiac signs, and his skin turned pale from sulphur.

When we got back the car was heavy with our exhaustion, but we had promised the Czech’s we would go hang out with them at their campfire on the other side of Canyon. We didn’t pitch a tent because we had to wake early for work so visited for an hour or so, but none of us had anticipated the length and difficulty of the hike on the edge of the Canyon in the sheer black night. It is probably the worst time to hike because you cannot see the dangerous animals, there is a high probability of walking straight into one and this is the main time they roam. We had to shout, sing or whistle the entire time to ward off bears, our throats strained and sore at the end. The trail had at some points just 1 foot between us and the Canyon drop, leading to a tumbling death, which occurs more than you might expect; last year a woman was taking a picture of her family and moved backwards for a better perspective, unfortunately she walked too many steps that she instantly plunged below in her last step. Although, it was pleasant when we got there, the smoking fire casted off the nights' cool air with people boiling Spaghetti O’s in the tin and melting marshmallows. All of my five thick layers of clothing collected the sweet smoky wood scent. We didn’t get back ‘til 1 am.