Mudslides and Easy Waves...

Just under a week in California was for the purpose of a warm recovery from the chills of Yellowstone, but it didn't quite work out that way. When it wasn't raining, it looked like it was about to rain, and they say 'it never rains in California'. Well, they do have to fill the dams sometime, we suppose, and it was nice to relax, and do some soggy people watching.

We drove 280km north of Los Angeles to stay with Maggie, a dear friend, in Arroyo Grande, a town near San Luis Obispo for a couple of days. Our departure was late, so the drive was at night, and our trusty Garmin navigator thought it was a good idea to take a shortcut, off the obvious US101 freeway, over the CA154, a mountain pass. This narrow, windy road took an eternity for about 50km, but at least there was little traffic.

Arroyo Grande itself is a charming little town representing a proud local community, and thanks to Maggie's guidance, we found excellent coffee in a friendly Branch Street cafe. One day the weather held off log enough to sit outside and enjoy it, but the other day, persistent drizzle (after a severe overnight storm) forced us inside. In reasonable weather, Maggie showed us round, and we saw a Monarch butterfly habitat where we were instructed by enthusiastic volunteer guides, and enjoyed visiting seaside towns, having a great lunch at Moro Bay. This town was busy mid-winter, so it must really buzz in summer.

Delightful cafe with great coffee in Arroyo Grande's main street.

Elvis and fan out the front of a store on Arroyo Grande.

The drive back to LA down the US101 was even more fraught, because when we arrived in Santa Barbara, a city jammed between mountain and sea, the through road was totally closed by flooding and mudslides. The few backroads through the town were also closed, mud was everywhere, and a (not very) helpful policeman told us we would have to back up to Santa Maria then take the I5, a detour which would add 350km to the journey! No other alternate was apparent. We found a nearby Starbucks, rather crowded with other stranded travellers, where a grapevine was running with also (not very) helpful gossip and information. After an hour or so there, a man in a Sherrif's uniform told us that one of the town's local roads, CA192, was now open and we could use it to bypass the US101 closure. He was right, we navigated through wet, muddy, hilly and wealthy suburbs of Santa Barbara to get back to an almost empty US101 right on the coast, where we found that most of the traffic appeared to be locals rubber-necking at the storm damage. In the end, this particular 3 hour drive took about 7 hours.

We had been redirected off the US101 before we arrived at this mess. [Santa Barbara Independent]

We had to ignore these signs and drive through several of these zones to bypass the US101. [Santa Barbara Independent]

The other half of our California interlude was spent in Santa Monica, a chill-out zone we have enjoyed in the past. The rain persisted, but it was nice to walk the town and the fascinating pier between showers, but we still managed to get pretty wet.

A rainy day in California, but still the crowds enjoy Santa Monica Pier.

So much rain has fallen on Santa Monica that lakes in the beach have to be drained.

Somehow we knew in advance that it would be nice to stay somewhere warm and touristy to unwind before coming home. We had a week to kill, could not find anything in Mexico which appealed, couldn't find any logical connections to Tahiti, so in the end we chose Hawaii, Honolulu and Waikiki. It was a good decision, and we enjoyed warm beach weather, the odd tropical downpour, and some great sunrises and sunsets, not to mention cocktails and other good stuff!

The dawning sun peeks up between tall buildings on Waikiki.

Laziness kept us in Waikiki where we knew everything would be available without effort. Other islands like Maui, Lanai, Molokai and Hawaii did sound good, but we had to get there, so didn't bother. We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn, right in the centre of the beach, and that was a good choice too. Not too big, not too touristy, but within easy walking distance of everything, and our room was a very spacious suite on the top floor where we had no less than three balconies. Cross ventilation was a breeze! Someone asked us if we had the Donald Trump Suite - we exaggerated and said there was gold plumbing.

Waikiki is an ambiguously interesting place. On one hand, it is hideously overdeveloped and way too crowded. Maybe because they were established long long ago, hotels have been allowed too close to the beach along west Waikiki, and public access is ireegular and rough. Ugly narrow concrete paths cling to the edge, when something beautiful could have been there. Some stretches are devoid of sand - we suspect it has been lost to storms and bad engineering.

No room for personal space in front of Waikiki's iconic Royal Hawaiian Hotel.

Tourists enjoying an off-beach cruise, one of many operating all day in Waikiki.

Benign conditions are the great appeal at Waikiki.

Waterproof cell-phone bags are a sales hit in Honolulu.

Enjoyable ball game at the beach.

Boys attempting to impress the girls on Waikiki.

On the other hand, Waikiki (and the rest of Hawaii) must feel like paradise to winter-weary Americans who are here en-masse to escape sub-zero temperatures and polar vortex driven winter storms. It is warm, sunny and delicious here (latitude much the same as Townsville, Queensland), and there can be no beach, none at all, in mainland USA, that looks as good and enticing as Waikiki and any others here. The water has that beguiling turquoise hue, and the iconic Waikiki surf, those small but long rolling waves keep coming in day after day, safe and appealing to both beginners and locals. A never ending stream of catamarans and outriggers take visitors out for langourous cruises, riding such gentle wavesback to shore.

Waikiki is people watching paradise. The city is flooded with tourists, and by our observation, Japanese outnumber even mainland Americans. Japanese must be just as keen to escape their winter, and it's less distance from them to travel than even the closest USA mainlanders, according to a taxi driver.

We Sydneysiders live in a beach culture, so it's amazing for us to observe the behaviour of tourists on Waikiki Beach. It's clear that many of them have never seen the ocean before, never felt sand on their feet or dipped into (the mildest) of surfs. We saw people wearing expensive shoes onto the beach, turn their back to the water (always for a selfie) only to have those shoes swamped. Whole families, it's clear none of them can swim, venture out into deeper water with floaties, blow-up rings or even rented surfboards being all that is keeping them afloat. The lifeguards here must be vigilent, but lucky the surf is so benign. Beach umbrellas and chairs can be rented, and there's no concept of personal space on the sand - any square metre is fit to be occupied.

Surfers stay out in the water until it is dark.

Sunset cruise off Waikiki.

As dark sets in at Waikiki, elated surfers make their way back to shore.

A popular cultural show in the atrium of the International Centre.

Magnificent tree in the garden of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.

We tried and succeeded at doing not much at all in Waikiki. A slow start every day, then a beautiful swim at the beach, followed by really excellent espresso at Kona Coffee in the International Centre, breakfast wherever (but Basalt proved to be good quality at the right price), and a fresh squeezed orange and ginger at Jamba Juice by which time it was midday. Then a stroll around town or through the shops until happy-hour at Firepit at the Sheraton where, on almost every day, we managed to score the best location, within splashing distance of the incoming waves. Dinner was whatever grabbed our fancy - there's plenty of good restaurants available, although crowded.

Mudpots and sleigh-rides...

On our last day in Yellowstone National Park, we travelled towards the West Entrance in a convoy of three Bombardier Snowcoaches ("bombs"), a rather old mode of oversnow transport which will be familar to winter visitors to Perisher Valley in NSW, Australia. They were made in Quebec, Canada, and the 1953 model one we rode in, Chip was named for its likeness to a particular buffalo.

The quickest way to get a good view from a Bombardier Snowcoach was through one of two sunroofs. Love that spare tyre!

Not far from Old Faithful Village is the Black Sand Basin, named from crushed obsidian (volcanic glass) scattered around from an old lava flow. Here we followed a boardwalk to explore an eerie landscape around a huge and steamy hot-spring called Sunset Lake. Interesting features here included frosty or frozen lodgepole pines including many which were burnt out in Yellowstone's worst ever bushfire in 1988 which grew from several "controlled" burnoffs and eventually affected 36% of the park.

Morning sun over the steamy water features of the Black Sand Basin.

Drew Thate, Expedition Leader, sharing the view of Sunset Lake with one of our group.

Stark view of a lodgepole pine skeleton, a victim of the 1988 fire.

Frost covered lodgepole pine near the Black Sand Basin.

Many Yellowstone pines have serotinous cones which need heat to release seeds, thus ensuring their survival after bushfire.

Swirling steam and sub-zero temperatures frosted up our hair!

Prior to the 1988 fire, it was already understood that forests can be regenerated by fire, and the fire was even then said to be "overdue". Lodgepole pines are partly propogated by serotinous cones which only yield their seeds at temperature (when a resin envelope is melted), and we saw that huge areas of Yellowstone forests consist for tall, stark skeletons of old burnt out pines, beside healthy tracts of shorter trees 30 years old.

Our three Bombardiers lined up to study the 1988 fire devastated forest along Tangled Creek.

This is the junction of Firehole and Gibbon Rivers, and it's here in September 1870 that an expedition, marvelling on Yellowstone's wonders, formed the idea of preserving the area for "public enjoyment". In 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant established Yellowstone as the first National Park in the world.

A side road goes down the deep and pretty Firehole River canyon and past Firehole Falls just before it joins the Gibbon River to become the Maddison River.

Near a bridge over the Madison River we encountered this bison crossing the road to join its herd.

Bison dozing after foraging in the snow for food.

Coyotes (canis latrans) prey on cattle and sheep (as well as smaller critters), so used to be hunted. Very adaptable, they are now abundant in Yellowstone, aided by decline in wolves.

Past the Basin, we stopped at Fountain Paint Pots, a full house collection of strange and active hydrothermal features including hot springs, geysers, fumaroles and mudpots. Again, to protect us and the landscape, a boardwalk with interpretative signage guided us round keeping us out of the boiling waters. The paint pot colours here are due to various oxidation states of iron in mud, and the name "Fountain" is from Fountain Geyser (40m high, every 4-6 hours except when it goes rogue) in the area, itself named because of its appearance. Uniquely interesting is the Red Spouter which formed only as recently as 1959 as a result of a strong earthquake.

Strange landscape, but we weren't in the presence of spacemen. These two are from a snow mobile tour.

A technicolor hot creek backed by frosty pine skeletons.

The sun blotted out by steam, bubble bubble boil and trouble at Fountain Paint Pots.

Eerie alien appearance of this mudpot at Yellowstone's Fountain Paint Pots.

Drew Rush, National Geographic photographer, admiring Red Spouter, a thermal feature only dating back to an earthquake in 1959.

Frozen pinetree in the Fountain Paintpot area.

This lodgepole pine was probably burnt out in the 1988 Yellowstone fire, and is now a frozen skeleton.

Heat loving micro-organisms like cyanobacteria create the greens and browns seen here.

We exited Yellowstone National Park at the West Yellowstone entrance in Montana, and switched from Bombardiers to a regular coach for an 80km drive (all downhill) to Big Sky, a ski resort in Montana, where we stayed at the Lone Mountain Ranch. The LMR is one of about 50 in the National Geographic's Unique Lodges of the World collection, and it was a treat to stay here, even if only for one night. Each couple had their own very rustic but comfortable cabin, complete with a bed so big it evoked John Denver's song Grandma's Feather Bed, and an honest to goodness vinyl record player, complete with a bunch of C&W albums! After a NatGeo farewell reception, for dinner, we took a sleigh-ride up a hill to an unpowered, oil-lit cabin called North Fork where we enjoyed "family-style prime rib" (mmmm!) and were entertained (in the gloom) by an acoustic guitarist singing her own compositions. And then a brisk sleigh-ride back down the hill!

This is where we were turned around from the park twelve years, but what were we thinking anyway? Winter roads are uncleared!

The front door of our Lone Mountain Ranch cabin, Black Bear.

Can't beat a great big bed and a cozy log fire in a luxury lodgepole pine cabin.

Our Lone Mountain Ranch cabin had no TV but did boast a vinyl record player complete with some great country music albums.

Several sleighs took us 15 minutes up hill on a groomed cross-country trail to North Fork for prime rib dinner.

Playing by oil-lamp, this musician entertained us between course at the North Fork cabin.

We saw much wildlife in Yellowstone, but sadly not a single wolf, not at any distance. Apparently, we were unlucky - "half the time" NatGeo expeditions will at least a glimpse a wolf. We heard from others in our group that a "kill" by a wolf pack of an elk had been sighted only a day or two previously, and saw this information reported on "sighting noticeboards" mounted around the park. There are only about 100 wolves in the park (https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/wolves.htm) in 11 identified packs. Trouble is, wolves and packs are not confined to the park, and can be shot legally in season outside the park. Dan Hartman, who follows the packs closely (http://wildlifealongtherockies.homestead.com/) told us the sad story of the alpha male of the already depleted Lamar Canyon pack being killed legally near his house, a death which will almost assuredly bring an end to the pack.

Stunning and envy inspiring image of Wapiti Lake Wolf Pack, Yellowstone by Barry Judd.

Summer satellite view of YNP showing photo taking locations and density for this expedition.

More Yellowstone images here.

The Upper Geyser Basin...

The world-famous and uber-popular Old Faithful Geyser sits in the Upper Geyser Basin (UGB), at an altitude of 2240m, in a high point of the supervolcano caldera, and in the south-west quarter of Yellowstone National Park, bisected by the Firehole River. In this spectacular zone of hydrothermal activity, Old Faithful is itself nothing special, it is not the tallest or largest, but it is very regular in its eruption schedule, and the 1900 vintage Old Faithful Lodge is positioned right in front of it.

Old Old Faithful Inn is the classic accommodation choice in Yellowstone, but it's only open in summer.

Between eruptions, Old Faithful puffs steam, sometimes not so much.

One look at Old Faithful, and you just have to wonder what is underneath! What arrangement of plumbing causes its eruptions? Why are they regular? Why are they not perfectly regular? Numerous formal and hand-written signs predict the time of Old Faithful's next eruption, and the claimed accuracy is plus or minus 10 minutes. We couldn't really establish where these predictions come from, and in particular, whether the prediction for the next one is dependent on the actual time of the previous eruption or how long it lasted. But there is ample historical data available. Intervals between eruptions have been between 40 and 125 minutes for 20 years. There's a bimodal distribution of waiting times, with one cluster covering 45-60 minutes, the other 70-90 minutes, and, significantly, longer waiting times produce longer eruptions, (2 and 4.5 minutes respectively). Average waiting times are slowly getting longer - it was 66 minutes in 1939, but nowadays it is a highly predicatble 90 minutes. It's said that this slow-down is partly due to "abuse" by visitors throwing stuff into the geyser's vent. Early visitors did their laundry in the vent!

Crowds gathered as the predicted time for an Old Faithful eruption approaches.

A kind passer-by took this pic of us waiting for the next scheduled eruption of Old Faithful.

This pine, said to be the most photographed tree in the Park, gives scale to steam venting from Old Faithful Geyser.

Old Faithful's eruptions are quite modest compared to others. Boilng water shoots vertically up to 30-60m in the air, and then steam blows off according to the wind direction. We saw other impressive eruptions in the Upper Geyser Basin - one was at a distance from Grand Geyser, the tallest predictable geyser (60m every 7 to 15 hours), and the other was Castle Geyser (25m every 10-12 hours) where we were on the spot!

Grand Geyser has the largest cone in the Upper Geyser Basin.

Near Castle Geyser, a footbridge crosses the Firehole River.

Castle Geyser only erupts twice a day. It has the broadest cone of any geyser in the Upper Basin.

Thus we discovered that Old Faithful's eruptions were not that spectacular. Steam is venting all the time, with the intensity increasing at the eruption. Stand in the wrong place and the wind blown steam plume can obscure the eruption altogether! So, to capture something different, we decided to try some eruption photography at night. There is no lighting on the geyser, so exposure times were 30 seconds, and hands were frozen. Standing to the east of the geyser, with a moderate wind from the north, the steam plume creates a magical fan from right to left. The view is almost the same during the eruption, except the vertical blast of boiling water comes starkly into focus. And we even caught some shooting stars!

The vertical eruption of boling water is clear, then the extra steam is blown away by the wind.

Like a boiling kettle, Old Faithful emits steam between eruptions. Here, a few minutes away from an eruption, steam is taken off by the wind.

Yellowstone National Park has about 10,000 geothermal features, with the highest concentration in the UGB which boasts a network of boardwalks allowing us to walk around in relative safety (people have did getting to close to thermal activity, and as mentioned in our previous blog post, the boardwalk did not protect us from being harassed by bison). Several walks around were very worthwhile with there being many photogenic sights to be seen, as our images will attest. Starting early in the morning, it was -23C, so rather chilly!

We walked all around this region of the Upper Geyser Basin as far as the Morning Glory Pool.

Old Faithful geyser venting steam as it builds up to an eruption.

Eerie and mysterious is this artistic mudpot in the Upper Geyser Basin.

Looking towards the morning sun in the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park.

Many hot springs in the Upper Geyser Basin are named, not sure what this pretty one is called. Castle Geyser can be seen in background left.

Under threatening skies at dawn, bubbling pools and springs of the Upper Geyser Basin drain into the Firehole River.

Hot water from Liberty Pool flows into the Firehole River.

Early morning view over a vent in the Upper Geyser Basin.

Appearing to have twin vents, the Riverside Geyser sits right on the edge of the Firehole River.

Good temperature for a brisk walk around the Upper Geyser Basin.

In the UGB, there over 500 hydrothermal features, of which 130 are named, but one most interesting is Morning Glory Pool which used to be beside the main road to Old Faithful, and thanks to its convenient access, suffered vandalism, blocked vents and cooling from thrown-in trash. Vandalism was eventually controlled by relocating the road!

This bison near Norris Pool seems to like the warmth of the Yellowstone thermal activity, but possibly there is just less snow there, and it's easier to forage.

This bison ponders crossing the Firehole River near Morning Glory Pool, but soon decides against it, and wanders into the scrub.

Beautiful Morning Glory Pool was named in the 1880s but its proximity to the then road led this beautiful pool to suffer vandalism where coins, trash, rocks, and logs were thrown in, contaminating it and blocking its vents, cooling it. Yellow is bacteria that formerly coloured only the periphery of the spring now spreads toward its center. The road was moved away from Morning Glory to save it.

We stayed two nights at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge (1999), about 100m from the geyser and which, although recent, is designed in a classically opulent lodge style. With the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel closed for renovations, the Snow Lodge is the only accommodation open within the park in winter. Accordingly, it was crowded woth groups like ours and individuals, and the one restaurant was hard to get seated in. Despite its name, the Snow Lodge is open year round. We had a very comfortable ground floor room, no TV, facing out to an ice skating rink.

Our abode for two nights was the Old Faithful Snowlodge (1999)

Warming up in the cosy Firehole Lounge in the lobby area of the Snowlodge.

Big carpark and a flyover make for a terrifying vision of Old Faithful in summer!

More Yellowstone images here.