9-11-09 Friday

Friday, September 11 a time to remember
The Flag was flying at half mast as we entered the North or Gardiner Archway of Yellowstone. Early that morning while still at the KOA with internet service, several of my friends had shared with one another where they were at that moment on 9-11-01. Not having ever been to Ground Zero myself I could only relate to that feeling after being at Oklahoma City just a few weeks ago. My other reminder is that Nick and his buddies have been working to give freedom to others – freedom of choice whether the right choices are made or not, they will have that choice.
Shortly after entering the park and before getting to Mammoth, there was a large herd of elk. They are in the rut season so one of the two bulls was really tooting his horn. Our path headed east toward Roosevelt. This is the area where Teddy R brought the Rough Riders and the cabins and lodge are still there. That part of the park is already closed up for the winter with the anticipated snow and less park visitors. Wrong – they are so surprised that we are still coming after Labor Day and had to open another section of Bridge Bay Campground. It will be closing on Sunday morning and we all have to move to Grant Village.
We busied ourselves around hunting this campground and were lucky to get in at all. Luck would have it that we got the space next to the new restroom. We took a fast trip to Old Faithful Visitors Center to make reservations for a Ranger led hike for Saturday morning. We got the last 2 spots as the hike was limited to 15 hikers. The Ranger talk for the evening was at Old Faithful. Old Faithful performed well for us as a prelude to the presentation. A ranger who has worked in the park for 36 years gave the presentation “Footprints in Yellowstone.” He related stories of explorers and the founders of the park and that evolution. He, too, loves this park and has many stories to tell. My favorite was that a woman attended one of his presentations in the park. She presented the park with the journals of her father, DeLacy, when he was exploring the park in 18__. He was really here hunting for gold or other resources for himself. He should have told of the beautiful things he found here and gotten credit for that. However, he simply stated that there was nothing of any value here. This is probably what saved the park for us to enjoy because Grant declared it a National Park in 1872.
After the presentation we hurried to the camper to prepare for the hike on the path DeLacy traveled from the south by Lewis Lake, beside the Shoshone Lake, and up to the Yellowstone River.
Good night and wait for the alarm at 6:00am.