2014 Announcements
’72 at the
Little Bighorn Battlefield and Yellowstone Park,
September 2014
Ed
Strauss writes:
From
as far as Texas, Vermont, and the Bay Area, classmates and guests
journeyed to Billings, Montana, for the start of the Class of 1972’s
epic visit to Big Sky Country. Once again Jim and Chris Robinson had
mapped out every detail with superlative care and forethought. On
Tuesday afternoon, September 9, some of us explored such Billings
highlights as the Army-Navy Store and Lou Taubert’s Western
Apparel. Our first rendez-vous was for cocktails and hors-d’oeuvres
in the lobby of the Northern Hotel that evening, followed by a
festive dinner there.
Early
next morning we set out, forty-nine strong (one more joined us en
route), in our comfortable bus expertly piloted by Shawn an adopted
member of the Crow Nation who became familiar to us by his first
name. We were heading east and south from Billings about sixty miles
through rolling grassland and sagebrush countryside to the Little
Bighorn Battlefield. First came a talk in the visitors’ center by
a park ranger, recounting the dramatic events of June 1876. Then we
were joined in the bus by an expert guide and commentator Noel Two
Leggings from the Crow Nation, as we toured the battlefield, in light
drizzle, along the crest of the ridgeline overlooking the Little
Bighorn River, to the scene of the Reno-Benteen fight and the summit
where Custer made his legendary last stand.
We
had hoped to enter Yellowstone Park via the legendary Beartooth
Highway but the road was closed for the season due to
earlier-than-expected snowfall (more than ten days before the end of
summer). So we took an alternate route south into Wyoming and then,
at Cody, turned due west along the Shoshone River, up into the
soaring Absaroka mountains and into Yellowstone Park by the East
Gate, arriving at the Lake Lodge, our home for the next several days,
just before dinner. Bright and early next morning, with frost and a
dusting of snow underfoot, we met our four guides from the
Yellowstone Association, a non-profit which undertakes educational
and conservation programs in the Park. Each guide spent at least one
day with each of our four groups – in which we self-selected by
degree of hiking prowess -- surveying a wide variety of the natural
treasures the Park has to offer. Our guides dazzled us with their
breadth of knowledge and lore, whether about "charismatic mega
fauna” (i.e. big mammals – bison, elk, pronghorn antelope, gray
wolf, bighorn sheep, mule deer), the massive forest fire of 1988, or
the 1877 trek of the Nez Perce across the Park. One day or another,
each group got to see many of the same highlights, except for those
who chose the most ambitious path: a climb up Mount Washburn, on our
third and last day in the Park, more than 10,000 feet high, for a
360-degree panorama of the Park’s northern half and its neighboring
peaks. Our daily itineraries ranged from Old Faithful to the Lamar
Valley; each day we crossed Hayden Valley, especially rich in
wildlife. We marveled at the steaming, bubbling, other-worldly mud
pots, fumaroles, geysers, and other thermals. (Half of the world’s
inventory of these geological wonders are located within the Park).
We enjoyed dinners at the majestic Lake Hotel and comfortably rustic
Lake Lodge and the Roosevelt campsite in Pleasant Valley.
Temperatures ranged from the 20’s to the high 60’s, so we became
adept at layering. Early Sunday morning we returned to the Billings
airport and then on to our respective homes, immeasurably enriched by
the enjoyment of myriad natural wonders while in fellowship with the
very best of congenial company.
Yellowstone,
Group 1-- Ed Strauss writes:
"Day
One: Geysers, Mud Pots, and Hot Springs.” Thursday morning, with
light snow and frost underfoot – one iPhone reported 26 degrees -
we gathered for breakfast in the Lake Lodge and then were introduced
to our guides from the Yellowstone Association Institute – our
fabulous, all-knowing, enthusiastic leaders/instructors for the next
three days: Carolyn, David, Juliane, and Owen. Groups 1 and 2 boarded
the big bus, again expertly piloted by Shawn, with engaging
commentary by Juliane and Owen, for our first look at the Hayden
Valley, rich in avian and mammalian wildlife.
We then turned west, crossed the Solfatara Plateau as we learned
about forest fires and blowdowns. At Norris Geyser Basin we began
following the Gibbon River and had our first glimpses at the
abundance of other-worldly geo-thermal phenomena: the Chocolate Pots
and Gibbon Meadows. (Merc adds that Groups 3 and 4 climbed into
passenger vans and embarked on the same itinerary. With little
difference in route, the several groups were treated to various
lengths of brief brisk outings amid the steamy springs and the somber
narratives of fatal visitor misadventures amid the thermal pools
casually referred to as "terminal selection events” by our
guides.) At Madison we met the Firehole River and marveled at the
Fountain Paint Pot and nearby thermals in the Midway and Upper Geyser
Basins, leading us right to Old Faithful where we enjoyed our box
lunches and were dazzled by this world-renowned natural icon (we were
treated to two eruptions, right on time – about 65 minutes apart).
We admired the spectacular Old Faithful Inn (1903-04), said to be the
largest log structure in the world, and traced the trails and
boardwalks of the Upper Geyser Basin, which alone contains about a
fourth of the world’s geysers. Our return trip followed the same
route in reverse, with a stop at the Mud Volcano and Sulphur Cauldron
in Hayden Valley. Dinner was in the dining room of the majestic Lake
Hotel, the oldest in the park.
"Day
Two: Wildlife Watching on the Northern Range.” Friday the 12th
we rallied extra early for a look at "critters,” setting out at 6
a.m. Guided by David in one of the small buses, our route traversed
the Hayden Valley, then continued north through the Washburn Range
and Dunraven Pass.
Merc Morris Adds:
On
the shoulder of Mount Washburn, vans 3 and 4 pulled onto an overlook
to watch as a bull elk pushed two cow elk down the steep slope
towards the road at a blind curve for oncoming traffic. There were
tense moments as we watched the elk negotiate the steep roadside cut
looking as if they might at any moment tumble in front of a vehicle.
Thankfully no tragedy to visitor or resident animal transpired and we
embarked again for our wolf watching destination. The caravan turned
east onto the North Eastern Entry Road at Roosevelt Tower and
eventually rolled to a crowded stop at what would be our wolf
watching prominence, a high bluff off of Slough Creek Campground
Road. All available clothing layers were mustered to service in the
morning cold as we took a short hike to join a cadre of other early
risers peering through the precise optics of wildlife spotting
scopes. Sharp-eyed observers narrowed our field of view as we panned
a the grasses and vegetation of a river island approximately 600
yards distant for glimpses of the black, gray and white shapes of one
of the park’s more reliably viewed packs. Guide Carolyn then
treated us with a fascinating narration of the surges and ebbs of the
wolf population since the reintroduction into the park.
Following the wolf
watch, the groups returned to their buses and followed the course of
the Lamar River into the Lamar Valley where they were treated to one
of those inexplicable, hurried movements of bison from one side of
the valley, across the river, to the other. We were told by our
naturalist guides that this is what bison do and no one knows exactly
why.
The groups parted
ways again two buses continuing on to a parking turnout to ascend a
trail that skirted forest to Trout Lake, a beautifully nestled
natural lake surrounded by tundra and one bull bison napping
contentedly beside the lake. It was a timely cue and the hiking
group fanned out across the tundra for a hillside lunch above the
bison and then proceeded to walk around the lake detouring
respectfully uphill to avoid the bison that also decided to saunter
without care or alarm along the footpath. Nice Bison….
On the return to
the vehicles, some sharp-eyed hikers pointed out the tiny, but bright
white shapes of mountain goats mingled into the tree line on the
10,500 foot Thunderer Peak across the road where our buses were
parked.
Ed
Strauss Continues:
In
the Lamar Valley we had further close-up views of bison herds and
pronghorns. Two groups continued to lunch under towering cliffs at
the Soda Butte Creek Picnic Area we visited the Hartman Gallery in
Silver Gate, just outside the park’s northeast corner, where we
were treated to a slide show and commentary by wildlife and nature
photographer Dan Hartman, in the tradition of Western wilderness
storytelling. Everyone assembled for a chuck-wagon cookout dinner at
Roosevelt Lodge in Pleasant Valley.
Merc Morris on the Mount Washburn
Hike:
Saturday was the
much anticipated hike of Mount Washburn, the summit of a mountain
range completely contained within the park. Following a brief stop
the Lower Falls Overlook, the buses carrying the Mount Washburn
hikers departed for their jumping off locations: parking turnouts at
Dunraven Pass south of the peak and a parking area on the mountain’s
north shoulder accessed by Chittenden Road. Our hiking groups would
start at opposite sides of Mount Washburn cross over the top and then
descend to the side opposite their starting point. Our intent was to
rendezvous for lunch at the base of the fire observation
tower/observation deck atop the 10,243 foot peak. Each group would
ascend approximately 1500 feet over the two mile hike. The two
approaches were markedly different: the Chittenden Road route serves
as the vehicle access for the fire tower a route easily driven by
passenger vehicles. The Dunraven Pass "trail” followed an
abandoned access road once open to motoring park visitors. In its
day it was narrow, unguarded and very much a white knuckle drive to
the summit. The hike was breezy and open to say the least.
The Dunraven Pass
group summited slightly ahead of the Chittenden Road group who had
slowed their pace to observe a herd of bighorn sheep climbing
slightly behind them—completely oblivious to the now hushed tigers
above them. As that group of hikers continued, the Dunraven hikers,
higher on the mountain, were treated to a view of the hikers and the
herd of sheep crossing the road after the hikers passed. Way Cool.
Cool, too were the
view and the breeze atop Mount Washburn. Fifty miles away, the
jagged outline of Grand Teton was a blue silhouette against the sky.
Astonishingly, except for that peak and one other near Grand Teton,
everything visible was contained in the park boundaries. The scale
was astonishing: the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone appeared as
jagged-edge groove in a forest and most of what we could see, most
visitors never do. According to our guides, less than 1% of the
Yellowstone visitors ever see the back country.
One other moment was not to be missed and that was the photo
opportunity provided by Bob Wright who packed his class banner to the
summit. Following lunch and the group photo, each group completed
its hike by descending to the opposite trailhead. Back in the bus
and on our way back to the lodge with a quick stop at the Upper Falls
of the Yellowstone River. We were tired but invigorated by the
camaraderie and scenery of our most ambitious day in the park.
Ed Strauss on the Grand Canyon of
the Yellowstone and the journey home:
Saturday
the 13th, while the more ambitious Groups 3 and 4 summited Mount
Washburn, we followed our customary (but never routine) itinerary
across Hayden Valley, this time halting at the Canyon Visitors Center
and, along with Group 2 and led by Carolyn and David, we had our
first awe-inspiring look at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, from
the South Rim, starting at Uncle Tom’s Point lookout for a view of
the Upper Falls (109 foot drop), then a hike through the backcountry,
past Clear Lake and across a field of bubbling, steaming
hydrothermals, to Lily Pad Lake and our spectacular, vertiginous
picnic site near Artist Point and a dramatic view of the hugely
photogenic Lower Falls (308 foot drop), then by bus back across the
Hayden Valley, with a stop at the bucolic, peaceful Nez Perce Ford
picnic area on the banks of the Yellowstone River, soon reaching our
home base at the Lodge, bidding fond farewells to our fabulous
Yellowstone Association instructors, and enjoying a festive buffet
dinner punctuated with toasts and locomotive cheers. Sunday morning
the 14th we packed up, boarded the big bus, and headed
east along the north shore of Yellowstone Lake and out the park’s
East Gate, retracing in reverse our route of entry, and through the
Shoshone National Forest to Cody and the Billings Airport, and home.
What a treasure chest of memories we have to savor of this magical
wonder, the world’s first national park, created exactly one
hundred years before we graduated from Princeton. Let’s hear it for
’72!
