Yellowstone -- Fifty plus years later -- Part I

                                                    Rockers on the porch at Lake Lodge

As worker bees fifty some years ago, we wished to sit in these rockers and enjoy the view of Yellowstone Lake.  Last week I did just that.  Inside, the lobby had newer furniture but hadn't changed much either.  The dining room where I waited tables was the same as long as I turned toward the windows that looked out at the lake and ignored the cafeteria lines.  I considered eating there, but didn't.  I had good chicken and potato salad that needed to be eaten the night I stayed in a cabin at Lake Lodge. They have renovated the cabins and attached them in groups. I stayed in the one with the door in view.  Inside they had shower stalls, sinks, toilets, hot as well as cold water and a heater I didn't turn on.  Nothing fancy, but t was good to have a hot shower (2) and shampoo my hair. 

I knew that the Fishing Bridge cabins were gone, but it was still strange to see only a general store with a coffee bar and a short-order bar-stool "restaurant" and a gas station where a cafeteria, a Hamilton stores gift shop, and many cabins had been.  Behind the gas station, a few of the original cabins were standing, but my camera app malfunctioned so those photos didn't turn out nor did the one I went back to Lake Lodge to take of the dorm where I lived both summers I worked there.  The wing where I lived looked the same.  Across and back from the road was the Fishing Bridge Visitor's Center, and through the back door, I could walk right out on the beach/shore of Yellowstone Lake, which I did the afternoon before I left to come home.    

I looked at the Bay Bridge campsite from the entrance the day before I checked in and was concerned about being in a long row of tents out in the open.  I somehow misread and thought the toilets wouldn't be the flush variety.  Fortunately, I was assigned to a campsite in an added area, on a hillside backing up to the woods.  I also did a better job with my tent there and located it as much under the large pine trees as possible for shelter when it rained.  And the "comfort station" in our area looked almost new--it even had a hand dryer where you put your hands down inside to dry them--no hot water, of course.  

The folks nearer my age were camping in RVs and campers, not in tents.  I was in a "tents only" area, and the young people stuck to themselves.  A young German woman camped with her "man" down a couple of campsites came to say "hello" while he was napping.  They recognized my tent from the campsite in the Tetons so knew it was the American woman who was by herself, she said.  And I met the couple who moved in next to me late the second night on the Mt. Washburn trail.  I recognized his "Cardinals" sweatshirt and could have told him I had heard him snore, but I didn't!    

My first night at the Bay Bridge campground, I attended the 9 pm forty-five minute ranger talk.  I arrived early and sat near the front where a campfire was inviting.  The woman sitting with her husband near me was friendly, and we visited.  They were from Illinois, not far from Chicago and were sharing an RV with relatives.  The subject was Fishing Bridge and its history--why the cabins were destroyed, fishing from the bridge stopped, and the story of how tourists feeding the bears was stopped over time.  It was in that process when I worked there, but bears continued to come to the roadside to beg for food in those years. The cut throat trout have become endangered because lake trout were illegally introduced in the 1990s so that was a big part of the ranger's talk too.  

My only full meal out during my trip was breakfast at Fishing Bridge--prepared to order after my first night camping at Bay Bridge.  I also got to re-charge my phone during the time I was there--about a 60% charge. 

Since that was my camera, the charge was important!

No bears were along the roadside; however, the bison were.  My drive to Canyon and beyond took me through Hayden Valley where the buffalo roamed.  A pair were fighting on a slope next to the road, snorting and pawing the first time I encountered a herd.  I did not roll down my window to snap their photograph.  

I spent a lot of time hiking down to the foot of lower Yellowstone Falls and to its brink, and hiking along the Yellowstone canyon ledge.  I will write a separate blog about the canyon and the falls, canyon and other falls.