A Full Timer Musing

[honda03842]

I've written a number of times of a full timer benefit, time to learn and read.

I'm now reading a book on the formation of the planet Earth. The section I'm on is describing the formation of the Hawaii islands by the Hawaiian Hotspot, The hotspot is a large deep magma chamber. It's eruptions have created the Hawaiian Islands. Actually it's created a chain of islands that extend to Siberia.

The remnants of these islands are called the Emperor Seamounts and can be clearly seen in the attached picture, stretching 3600 miles across the Pacific. It is believed that the hotspot is relatively stationary and that the bottom of the Pacific ocean moves creating the chain.

In the attached picture Hawaii is in the middle, North America to the right and Asia to the left. Be sure to double click the picture.

Another prominent hotspot is the Yellowstone hotspot. The following link has info on that. I recall that Craters of the Moon is one of them.

Strictly this may not be a forum topic but it is an inkling into the freedom of full time retirement and Yellowstone, a place everyone should go.

Yellowstone hotspot - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The above link to the Yellowstone Hotspot shows the chain of Yellowstone Caldera. We've only been to two but now the others are on my list. So much to do...

[marijke]

Thank you Norm/ Ginny,
I love maps, this one's a beauty!

[honda03842]

All RVers eventually get to Yellowstone, at least I hope so. It's geologically one of the most unique places on earth, right up there with the Grand Canyon.

I provied a link to the Yellow Stone Hotspot previously but here's two interesting maps. The first is like the chain of Hawaiian islands that extend back to Siberia except these are all eruptions that took place on land. My intent is to take a trip and visit them all in the next two years.

[marijke]

Why thank you again! This fall, my sister (and hopefully brother- in law as well) are coming from Holland. We'd like to visit Yellowstone, and from there eventually travel to Baja California, taking our time. Is it possible to visit Yellowstone in October or November? We all look forward to family time ;-)
In 1976 I travelled the USA, Oregon, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas. Mostly by Greyhound. I have never forgotten the kindness, hospitality, and humor of your people. We all shared many stories, food, ideas. It was a wonderful time and I so look forward to seeing new places and faces in your country!

[honda03842]

Marijke.

October is really about as late as you can go to a non-snowed in Yellowstone. Our son has camped there in early October to awake finding himself deep in snow. I would guess November it's snowed in.

I will say September is great.

[honda03842]

When Ginny and I first married we put a map of the USA on our living room wall and put tacks in the places we hoped to visit in our life time together. The map is really long forgotten but I'm sure we've been to all of the places 'tacked'.

My suspicion is that they were the well known places like Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon... all definitely worth a visit, particularly at the times of the year when there are fewer tourists.

What we've really learned in our travels is that there are a lot of wonderful places to visit that had amazing creation events like the Snake River Canyon that will make your head spin in wonder. Twin Falls Idaho is worth a visit.

[slowpat]

Saw or read something that the Yellowstone Caldera worked its way across part of Oregon also. Tomorrow is the 35th anniversary of our most active volcano's big eruption. Should you want to visit St. Helens, the road should be open right now. We haven't had the usual mountain snowfall so it is unusually early to be able to drive up to Windy Ridge--the harder to get to but good viewing spot.

[John Linck]

Originally Posted by marijke

Is it possible to visit Yellowstone in October or November?

Sure you can visit Yellowstone in November. We tent camped a few days at Yellowstone in early November of 1972. Delightful - with very few visitors and lots of wildlife. Fortunately they hadn't winterized the thermal features yet. . True there was a few inches of snow in the campground and car chains were required at times but we had a great start to our 2 month/10,000 mile camping trip thru the West (BC to San Diego). Later at North Cascades National Park we laughed as we warmed up stopping down the two feet of powder snow in the campground to pitch the tent. Funny, we were the only campers in the campground. Three weeks later we enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner at the Ahwahnee lodge at Yosemite. We couldn't afford a room, but the $9.00 turkey with all the trimmings was great. The next day we found a bear in our trunk when our backs were turned as we ate our lunch at the campsite picnic table. He left very reluctantly as I yelled and waved my arms. Thankfully bears are much rarer in the valley these days and I always remember to keep trunk lids, doors and hatches closed.


I remember we had two rolls of 36 exposure Kodachrome for the whole trip. On recent similar trips I shot nearly 2000 digital exposures.

The biggest drawback to camping this time of year turned out to be the short days and long nights. But since it was our honeymoon we didn't mind so much.



John

[honda03842]

It was depends on the weather. Early October may be safe though our son was buried on October 11th.

Here's a link to park closing:

Opening & Closing Dates of Facilities - Yellowstone National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

[honda03842]

Originally Posted by slowpat

Saw or read something that the Yellowstone Caldera worked its way across part of Oregon also. Tomorrow is the 35th anniversary of our most active volcano's big eruption. Should you want to visit St. Helens, the road should be open right now. We haven't had the usual mountain snowfall so it is unusually early to be able to drive up to Windy Ridge--the harder to get to but good viewing spot.

We have visited a couple of times. The upper visitors center is a delight, particularly their movie presentation of the last eruption. A reminder of how insignificant mankind can be in the scheme of things..