A River Boils Through It

A river boils through it, and it was good.  

There are things in life that just don't make sense. All those "how did that happens" and "you gotta be kidding me's" are in that group  Well 200 degree water flowing out of rocks into 40degree trout water is one of them.

You see today is Sunday. Or as my daughter would say. "Sunday in the Park with George

... Craig"

This is where I do church on Sundays out here. That im-famous place called "boiling river".  Truth is I've been here twice in 8 days to bask in all it's glory and to pray, ponder and let the waters waft over my soul. The above rock formations are Zen-ish creations by Asians who made it to this spot..  Remarkably there are more Europeans and Asians and Aussies in Yellowstone than Americans these days. That is with the exception of Fly Fisher-people.

It kinda gives the bears a better choice of meals these days, cause I think they've gotten bored with overweight Americans in RV's. The Euro crowd is slim, trim, clean, polite and speak very good english I might add. So what's not to like there. Come see the most beautiful park in the world and fall in love with America.

Now boiling river is full of trout in spite of the Spa crowd.. {sidebar} opps. an unopened cheap beer just floated by me..  Ahhh. I saved it and gave it to 4 "Canyon" workers sitting across from me smoking menthol's.  That was a no no.. beer in a river. Any River...

So as I said trout are here and the base of the river down from these hot springs has allot of green moss and plant life.  I guess the hot water breeds that.  Well, or its the suntan oil and soap people use up stream thinking it won't hurt anything.  

Now after taking the shameless self photo in the river for my loved ones you will see minutes later a beautiful Elk crosses right behind where I was sitting. This big male took his time while upstream the ladies and yearlings (about 15) crossed the river. He was downstream protecting the area. So beautiful they are.

That reminds me of the 1/2 rack of elk antlers I found; or better yet ran into in the Lamar River a few years ago. Walking waist deep in the Lamar I walked into a rack of submerged elk antlers. ya.... ouch.. Thank you for saving private ryan God. 

So water soaked and there for years, they were extremely heavy and I carried them back to my truck only to be greeted by a park ranger. With a kind smile he said "hmmm what ya got there?". Doing my Craig T best, I tried to sell him on the fact that I was saving a life by taking them away.. 

Well, like your children leavin the house with your  clothes or car keys in hand, it didn't much matter what my story was. .  Sir, he said. "you can kindly carry those back out in the sage brush a100 yards or so and let em be..  Argggg. There I was again. Sinning and breaking laws only to willingly put them back and keep telling myself "if I ever drive back here again, I'll look for em"..

Animals in Yellowstone.

I'm remembering now in the 70's I  fell down a hill here once , and was chased by a black bear. Only to scream  "in the name of Jesus stop".   Well he/she did thankfully, and I've been coming back since and hoping to avoid them by staying in the park of the park where the most reside...  hmmmm 

Scopes and Animal area 51'ers'.

Like my last post I'll say there are so many people who come with just large spotting scopes and cameras to view these animals in native habitat. Pretty amazing and people get gored and hurt every year tryin to get the "great" shot.

Where I camp in Slew Creek, there is a natural buffalo/deer/bear crossing 10ft from my tent location.

The wranglers use this path early and late in the day to take those on horseback and mule up to the highest elevations as well.  

One morning I'm having coffee.  As you see my tent on the left and that path on my right there. This big male makes his way slowly across the river and passes me while I'm drinking my french press.  So beautiful and capable of so much destruction..

I cross the same stretch to fish a half mile upstream toward the meadows and those rocks there in the stream are very slippery and easy to trip on. I'm amazed how the buffalo, elk, deer,bear and horses cross it so easily. 

 I need a wading stick and going "real" slow to cross it.

Get to the Point and (de-barb please).

Come to think of it the last time I went up the path this week I hooked myself in the pointer finger with a small "Midge" dropper fly. Buried that hook all the way up to the bead head  where ya tie it on.

That did end fishing for that day as I had to but the head of the hook off, clean off all the dressings  and use a leatherman to twist and pull that hook all the way back through the finger where I could then cut the barb off and (woosh) you can pull it clean through so easily at that time.   Yup that's just what I did.

Come to Dinner Dear Deer

There was the deer at my tent eating dinner yesterday along the river when I got back from Soda Butte Creek. She didn't care a lick that I was there and just kept on eating till I got within 6ft of here to get into my tent.  One more reason you  can not leave any food or beverage or cooking utensils in your tent, or you're likely to have visitors destroy it. (Sidebar) Hey just a reminder that on blogspot you can click on any of these pictures to see native sizes. :) :) just saying.... look at the hide on that buffalo. AND you should know every photo on these journeys is done on my HTC hero 8mp phone..

The sheep are another huge attraction here for the rubberneckers. The ability to traverse these cliffs, is, amazing and they create rock slides on the park roads on a regular basis.. Not very sheepish is you ask me.

And Finally

I leave Gardiner and head to "Pray" MT over to the paradise landing where I can camp along the Yellowstone with a few other crazies.. :)

Fires in the park have created such stunning sunsets here this last week, and also messed with how clear the stars are at night. Not happy about that.. Stars at 3AM are one of my fav. attractions.

Alas, I can not finish without another pic of a fat  cutthroat on Slew Creek taken on a #8 MadamX hopper quazi terrestial pattern.. 

Next and last blog will be about some of the people I met along the way.

Below is Al. A 62yr old  Vietnam Vet., fishing/hunting guide from WI who's been comin to Slew for over 20 years on his vacations. We spent a day together on the Soda butte and here he was relaxing with an ice tea before we headed back to camp.

Till next time, Find some hot water and soak in it. It might not be where A River Boils Though it,
but it will be good.