Tag Archives: Fly Fishing

Repetition is Good

This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls. – John Muir What I learned, Day 10: FullSizeRender 140 We miss Lifepoint!  It was great to wake up this morning and stream in the service.  What a great message for my boys to hear! IMG_0412 My wife shouldn’t accidentally send me pictures if she doesn’t want them publicly disclosed.  That’s actually something she is learning.  I already knew that. IMG_0401 IMG_0403 IMG_0407 Some things bear repeating.  Boys wanted to fish again.  So far that is the thing they say is their favorite.  Still didn’t catch anything.  And untangled two gnarly knots. FullSizeRender 137 FullSizeRender 139 FullSizeRender 138 IMG_5247 There are colors that exist that are too intense to describe.  None of these pictures have filters.  The bottom pictures is the Grand Prismatic Spring.  What amazes me is this actually exists on planet earth.  What is even more amazing is that you see it at every turn. We took a short drive on a side road and saw several more springs and geysers.  All with the same blue hue. FullSizeRender 135 IMG_5260 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZNTAUEoh2A Don’t sit downwind.  The screams you hear in the video are everyone getting wet.  We wanted to see Old Faithful one last time.  She was predicted at 2:18 and arrived right on time.  Lasted about 4 mins 10 sec.  In the background you can see Old Faithful Inn.  Would love to stay their one night in the future.  BEAUTIFUL building! Another thing I learned, or maybe it is something everyone else will learn when they read this, is that I can alter the schedule and go off the spreadsheet.  We are pulling out a day early tomorrow to hit one day in the Tetons.  We were looking at our route to Yosemite and it added too much time to the driving.  Instead we’ll just make a day of it! Route/Itinerary: Yosemite National Park.  West Entrance, Madison, Old Faithful

  • Fishing the Madison River
  • Midway Geyser Basin
  • Firehole Lake Drive
  • Old Faithful

What Goes Down Must Come Up

The world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark. – John Muir

What I learned, Day 8:

I learned how to embed videos!!  Now you’ll get to see what I’m talking about instead of relying solely on my description.

FullSizeRender 122 What goes down, must come up.  Our first stop of the day was Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  It was probably the one thing I couldn’t wait to see in Yellowstone.  Sure, you can see it from above.  But why when you can see it from below?  So down we went the Brink of Lower Falls Trail.  Here again maps fail you at scale.  The trail didn’t look too bad.  And several times we thought we were nearing the end.  Why not?  The water was right there!  We could hear the falls!  But switchback after switchback down we went…. down down down.  No one warned us about up up up.  They did look winded coming up.  But they were all so unhealthy looking.  Nope.  All of us look unhealthy coming back up.  The air is thinner too so everyone is breathing heard.  Fortunately it was well worth the effort.  It was one of those moments when you get down to the bottom, your knees weaken, you grasp the handrail with white knuckles, and maybe say a choice word in your head.  It was magnificent.  One of my favorite things I’ve done so far. FullSizeRender 127 FullSizeRender 123 IMG_0347 FullSizeRender 124 FullSizeRender 131 FullSizeRender 125 FullSizeRender 130 Yes, it really is that color.  Every time I saw pictures of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, I thought, “Why do they have to put that old timey filter on it?”  It just has an appearance of an old photograph.  But it really is that color!  These photos have no filter.  The whole canyon looks like it is oversaturated, over contrasted, and over the top.  It is breath-taking.  By far the best spot in Yellowstone. FullSizeRender 128 This guy is an idiot.  That’s all I have to say about that. FullSizeRender 120 FullSizeRender 116 The elk don’t care you are there.  These females were just enjoying their morning.  What you can’t see is to the left a baby elk romping around.  The bull we saw at the Canyon.  If you see a traffic jam, its probably elk… or maybe these… FullSizeRender 119 FullSizeRender 118

The bison don’t care you are there either.  Just don’t get too close.  That big one in the picture was grunting a lot as we passed by.  I just figured it was best to keep moving.  I love the candid moment in the video…. “What’s nursing mom?”  Another discussion for another day. FullSizeRender 129 FullSizeRender 117

Blue means hot.  The center of these pools are around 198 degrees.  Some of them can be more acidic that stomach acid.  And they all usually smell.  But they are so beautiful to look at.  Deep blue colors that look like the ocean waters of the caribbean. IMG_0374 IMG_0382 Fishing is good for the soul, even if you don’t catch anything.  A majority of Yellowstone is fly fishing only.  We have spinner rods.  What I learned is that a fly is too light to cast.  That is why fly fishing uses the weight of the line and the whipping action.  So to fix the problem they sell you little clear bobbers.  Worked like a charm…. except we didn’t catch anything. Kids could have cared less.  And I have no idea why Wyatt is ducking.

Route/Itinerary: Yosemite National Park.  West Entrance to Canyon.

  • Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
    • Inspiration Point
    • Artist Point
    • Brink of Lower Falls
  • Noris Basin