The Yellowstone trip provided a great opportunity for observing the moods of nature through many different natural features: wildlife, geothermal features, and children. Simeon, normally fairly buoyant of disposition, sometimes seemed a bit…something…during our time in Yellowstone.
Just before the trip, he unearthed this hat that had belonged to my grandfather. I think that my brother asked me to hold it for him when we were in Michigan last fall, and I somehow ended up taking it home. Simeon has now claimed it…Rob may or may not get it back.
Of course, on a road trip, there are the inevitable questions like, “Are we there yet?” and, “Are we almost there?” Our first day’s rest stop for lunch was not quite halfway to our destination in Idaho, a fact that daunted our fearless travelers quite a bit. But Sim managed to keep his cool and race around to get some exercise. 
For some reason, though, the first morning at Yellowstone, he did NOT want to be photographed. I could get side shots or top-of-the-head shots, but not face shots. Why? It’s still a mystery.
A side shot of the younger half of our children. They were both enjoying the hot springs, but Sim was not enjoying our attempts to memorialize his visit there.
And then, suddenly, he decided to go ahead and get on in this photo…?
A lovely couple we encountered on this hike took our family photo. It was only at the last moment that Simeon decided he’d be in it, which is why he’s somewhat off to the side. I’m beginning to wonder if someone told him about the old idea that photography steals one’s soul.
Michael and Sim liked to have pictures of the boys taken at regular intervals. What better place than the petrified tree? Apparently there’s a hike that leads to a petrified forest, too, but we’ll have to save that one for when we can take a hike without the petrified (with terror) 7-year-old. Maybe when she’s older she’ll be a bit more willing to venture a bit on trails in the woods?
Sometimes Simeon was wildly enthusiastic about having his photo taken. I’m not quite sure what this was even about, but it was pretty fun, I can tell.
One day we took a stagecoach ride, which was interesting and fun. There’s a guy riding shotgun (well, in this, he was taking the picture for us, so you can’t actually see him) who regales tourists with stories about the landscape, history, and wildlife around them on the ride. Our guide told some jokes that Simeon loves. For example: “Do you see that snow up on the mountain? We call that Indian snow. You know why? Because there’s Apache here and Apache there.”
Sim didn’t get the joke at first, but when we explained it, he absolutely loved it. If you see him anytime soon, you might hear it.
Tess, on the other hand, slept through most of the stagecoach ride…
We passed by the marmot hotel, which is what the stagecoach staff call an enormous pile of rocks on the hillside, because a whole ton of yellow-bellied marmots live there. They’re pretty cute.
On our way out, Sim didn’t see them, but on the way back, he did – much to our relief, because he got pretty upset when he was the only one not to see certain wildlife. We even saw baby marmots. Cute!
The Norris Geyser Basin was pretty awesome. And stinky. Simeon loved the sulfur smell, he said it reminded him of eggs. Above you can see him avoiding the camera again; those are his shoes to the side of me on the bench.
Minutes later, however, he was more than happy to pose with hot springs and a steam vent behind him. Why the change? The mystery remains.
Simeon actually slept more than Tess in the car. There were a couple of days that he took two naps, which he hasn’t done in years. Of course, there were late nights and lots of activity during the day, so it wasn’t too strange that he would succumb to the white noise and gentle motion of the car.
The mud pots were striking and Sim’s favorite geothermal feature. This one has a huge bowl of mud around it that has built up from the mud bubbles bursting and flinging mud for so long. Crazy! They make lots of inappropriate noises and they stink, both excellent reasons for small boys to like them. I said something about not wanting to sit down to dinner with a mud pot, and Simeon thought that was even more funny than the Indian snow joke, and repeated it even more frequently.
We all thought it was totally interesting how certain geothermal areas would be barren wastelands of hot springs and steam vents with no life around them, and others would have moss, grass, bushes, and trees all over the place. Speculation as to the reason kept us busy for a long time.
More mud pots. They have something of a hypnotic effect…watching the mud bubble, bubble, bubble.
We also spent a fair amount of time speculating on wildlife – the scat, of course, but also on certain rub marks we noticed on lots of trees, and why there were lots of downed trees in certain areas, and what on EARTH the bison and elk thought they were doing, wandering around certain geyser basins.
Sim’s ideas were very creative, when we could prevent his sisters from interrupting and saying, “No, Sim, it couldn’t have been that, because [insert her own creative idea here].” Since half the fun was letting everyone try out a theory, this was annoying. We did end up reaching an agreement about how to listen to different theories without needing to bash anyone else’s into the ground. Simeon continued floating his, despite his sisters’ attempts at correction.
Bubbling mud is cool.
Each of us has his or her own list of things we want to do when we go back to Yellowstone some day. Being the first to see wildlife is high on Sim’s list, since he didn’t get to be the one to call out about new wildlife too often. (Of course, this was partly because he didn’t pay much attention to what was going on outside the car window as we were driving.) Visiting more stinky things is also on his list. I hope we get the chance go back and work on those lists.
No comments:
Post a Comment