Escaping Yellowstone

by Larry LaVoie

  “Listen up,” Elliott raised his voice. “We are coming up on Hot Springs, that’s just outside Mammoth. I’m going to take you to the hotel. We will hole up there until we are rescued. We don’t have power, but there will be plenty of blankets and there are several wood-burning fireplaces.”

  “And a bar,” Chase yelled. “I may be fired for it, but I don’t give a damn. Drinks are on the house.”

  “Music to my ears,” Elliott said.

  Elliott pulled up to the hotel and stopped in front.

  Cody stood by the front door of the vehicle. “Listen up everyone. There is ash falling outside. Wrap a scarf or put a cloth over your nose and mouth. Don’t breathe it in and try not to tramp it inside the hotel.”

  The door to the hotel was unlocked. He opened it, wondering if they had left in such a rush that they had forgotten to lock it. He left the door standing open.

  “I’m going to my office and get that battery for the satellite phone,” he said to Lisa.

  “I’m coming with you,” Lisa insisted.

  “I have some masks in my office,” Cody said. “Try not to breath in the ash, the stuff settles like concrete in your lungs.”

  “Where do you think it’s coming from?”

  Cody thought for a minute. “I’m going to shoot straight with you. Ash in this area could be a big problem. You notice the wind isn’t blowing. This is either fallout from a major eruption and the upper elevation winds are drifting it in our direction or we’re are sitting on top of a new volcano. We can’t stay here.”

  “You mean it could get a lot worse.”

  “This kind of event hasn’t happened in Yellowstone in seventy thousand years. Staying in the park any length of time under these conditions will not turn out favorably. We don’t want to be here when it gets worse.”

  “Can we get out?”

  “I wish I could answer that. At this point, the best we can do is get the sat phone charged so we can make some calls.”

  “But the roads are blocked.”

  “I know.”

  They stopped in front of Headquarters Building.

  “This is where I work, or where I used to work,” Cody said. “We need to go around back.” He led her in through the back door. The only light was from their flashlights. “I’d give you a tour, but it doesn’t matter anymore,” Cody said, removing his scarf from his face. Lisa did the same. He stomped his feet to remove as much ash as possible and walked down the hall to his office. He pulled out the sat phone charger and the extra battery. “You see anything you think will be useful grab it.” He picked up a book marked USGS that was a directory for all the offices. Lisa picked up a larger flashlight. “Do you have extra batteries for this?”

  “Maybe in the store room.” He grabbed a key and led her back down the hall where he opened a door to a storage closet. He handed her a plastic garbage bag and started tossing things into it. Extra batteries, penlights, every box of dust masks they had, a box of pencils and a sharpener. He opened the dust masks, handed one to her, and took one for himself. He slipped the elastic fasteners over his head and let the mask hang below his mouth. “In times of emergency, it’s better not to rely too much on technology. Ballpoint pens won’t work with this abrasive ash.” He grabbed a bottle of water and handed it to her. It was frozen solid. “Carry one of these close to your body to thaw it out. It may save your life. Power’s been out for a while; I doubt we’re going to find any liquid water. He pulled a small first aid kit from the shelf and tossed it in the bag. Then he took the box of garbage bags and added them to the mix. “Unless you see something you can’t live without, this is as much as I feel like carrying.” She closed the bag, and handed it to him. He slung it over his shoulder. “Do you think the kids will mistake me for Santa Claus?”

  “Oh, my God, what time is it?”

  Cody checked his watch, it was 6:08. “We better get back to the others. We need to have your dad make a call and see if we can be rescued, or…”

  “Or what?”

  “Or we need to get on the road again.”

  “Nobody’s going to want to do that,” Lisa said.

  “I know, but that hotel won’t be protection for long if the ash keeps falling, or the volcano decides to erupt for real. Then we’ll be dealing with magma bombs, flying rocks, and who knows what else.”

  “You’re not saying that to make me feel better,” she said.

  He leaned down and kissed her. “Believe me, I wish I could tell you some good news.”

  Back at the hotel, Cody got the satellite phone from Elliott and replaced the battery. He handed the phone to Nathan. “We need a miracle.”

  Everyone was gathered in the lobby where the fireplace already had flames curling up from a burning log. Chase walked in with a tray filled with glasses of wine, bourbon and a martini, no olives. “You guys want anything from the bar,” he asked. As he passed by, he leaned down to Cody and said, “We’re in luck. The cases under the bar all seemed to have survived.”

  “Finally, good news,” Cody said. He wanted to warn everyone not to drink. If Nathan couldn’t find help, he would ask them to take to the road again. His Jeep was in the hotel parking lot along with Elliott’s old truck and Catherine’s Subaru. They had transportation to get them out of the park, but would be stopped by the landslide, just a few miles out of town. He looked over at Nathan. He seemed to be having a hard time getting anyone on the phone. Standing beside Lisa, Hilda raised a martini to her lips. Mike was sipping on a glass of whiskey. Wendy and the kids were standing in front of the fireplace. His parents were asleep in overstuffed chairs a few feet away. Blake was engaged in a conversation with Chase, who had stopped long enough to down a shot of tequila. He wished he was as oblivious to the impending disaster as they seemed to be. He glanced over at Nathan.

  Elliott interrupted his thoughts. “I’m sending Blake and Mike to gather blankets. It’s pretty obvious everyone will want to stay in this room.”

  Nathan came over with the phone. “I can’t seem to make this thing work.” He handed it to Cody.

  “What number are you calling?”

  Nathan gave him the number. He didn’t want to insult Lisa’s father by asking if he had punched in the country code. He dialed the number and got static and a poor signal warning. “It’s the ash. It’s blocking the signal. We have to get beyond it or the phone is useless.”

  “How do we get away from the ash?”

  “Drive,” Cody said. “But I was going to suggest we do that anyway. There is no telling if the ash will get worse. Another few hours of it and driving out of here will be out of the question, too.”

  “It sounds like you’re suggesting we leave,” Elliott said. “We’re all tired. We need rest.”

  “If we can’t reach anyone, then yes, I’d rather take my chances with the elements than drown in ash. There’s a volcano nearby and it could erupt.”

  “None of us have slept in two days,” Elliott said.

  “I know,” Cody said, sympathetically. He would give anything to catch an hour of sleep. “I’ll tell you what; I don’t think it’s safe to stay here. There’s a volcano that’s spewing ash. They do that before they start spitting out lava. Underneath this park is enough magma to bury Yellowstone in several hundred feet of that stuff. If we can get away from the ash cloud we can call for help. Maybe we can get out of here alive. I know one thing for certain; no helicopter is going to come to our rescue with this much ash in the air.”

  “You don’t sound like there is a choice,” Nathan said.

  Cody pursed his lips and shook his head. “No, sir, I don’t think there is. If it’s any conciliation, the temperature is up to minus eighteen degrees.”

  “You’re the expert,” Nathan said. “If you say we go, I’m with you.”

  “I suggest everyone get ready to leave while we make certain the cars are filled with gas and warmed up,” Cody said. He looked at Elliott, who had been quiet for a few minutes. “We need your car and Cathe
rine’s too.”

  “I can get the van from the infirmary?” Elliott said. “It has all wheel drive. We can get a lot more of us in there.”

  “I can hold five or six, maybe more in my Jeep.”

  Cody was out the door before Lisa was aware he’d left. She had been talking to Wendy. “Where’s Cody?” she asked her father.

  “He went to gas up his Jeep,” Nathan said. “We’re going to get far enough away to make a call.”

  “But wouldn’t we be better staying here. To go back out into the cold…” She didn’t finish her sentence, but thought, would be suicide.

  “Baby, no one is going to come to our rescue. They can’t fly aircraft through this much ash. Elliott is getting the van from the hospital; there will be room for everybody.”

  Blake came in the lobby with his arms stacked so high with blankets he could barely see to walk.

  “I got blankets,” he announced dropping the stack to the floor. Mike entered behind him with just as many.

  “We’re going to try and get out of the park using the cars,” Nathan said to them. “Cody and Elliott have gone to gas up their vehicles.”

  “This is bullshit,” Blake said in a loud voice. “First you tell us we’re going to stay here until help comes and then you say we are going to go back out into the weather. I’m not doing it.” He marched over to Wendy and grabbed her arm. “You and the kids are staying behind with me.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Your brother wants to take us on another wild goose chase, back out into the cold. The kids will die from pneumonia. We’re not going to do it.”

  Wendy swiped his hand from her arm and marched across the lobby. “Nathan, what’s going on? Is it true we’re leaving again?”

  Nathan explained why they had to leave. She went back to the fireplace and woke her parents. “Mom, Dad, we need to get ready to leave. Cody has gone for the car.”

  Getting ready to pump gas, Cody realized this would most likely be the last of Yellowstone he would ever see. Gardiner, Montana is the gateway to Yellowstone Park on the north. The town of less than 900 year-round residents, rests on the Montana side of the border only ten miles from Mammoth. The town is home to the historic Roosevelt Arch, a huge rustic stone structure spanning the highway. The cornerstone of the arch was laid in 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt. If they could reach Gardiner, there would be help available. Most likely, the highway leading from Gardiner would be free of snow and well maintained. In fact, it was the same route Cody had used when he picked up his family from the airport in Bozeman and brought them to Yellowstone. It seemed like a lifetime ago. He had lost track of the days. He knew the road well and felt there was a good chance of making it to the town even if they had to walk through or around a landslide. He knew the situation in Mammoth was deteriorating rapidly. The amount of falling ash had reduced visibility considerably since he and Lisa had walked from the hotel to Headquarters only minutes earlier.

  Elliott started the auxiliary generator at the gas station. It took a little finagling to get the fuel to flow without credit card service, but Cody located the pump switches in the office that turned on the pumps and they topped off their tanks. As a precaution against the ash getting into their engines or clogging their air filters, they grabbed T-shirts from a rack in the service station store and wired them in place over the air intake to catch some of the ash before it reached the air filter. Satisfied they were ready to make the next leg of their journey, Cody and Elliott parked in front of the hotel.

  “Wendy and I aren’t coming,” Blake said. “We can stay here and wait for help. At least we won’t be risking our lives out in the cold.”

  “I’m going,” Wendy said. “And I’m taking the kids. You heard Cody; it isn’t safe to stay here.”

  “She’s right,” Cody said. “The ash that’s falling isn’t likely to stop and could get a lot worse. No one is going to send a rescue craft into a sky filled with volcanic ash. We are on our own.”

  “You don’t know that,” Blake said, grabbing Tyler and holding him close to him.

  “We haven’t been able to reach help on the satellite phone,” Cody said. “We’re only ten miles from Gardiner. If we all work together, we can make it that far.”

  “You said the road was closed.”

  “It is. We’ll walk around the slide. We need to get out of here.”

  Cody reached out for Tyler. “At least let the kids go.”

  Blake held Tyler tight to him. “You’re going to get us all killed. It’s your fault we’re here in the first place.”

  “We can argue fault later. Right now, we have to leave.” Cody reached for Tyler again. He glanced over at the people filing out with Elliott. “Come on, Blake, everyone else is leaving. We need to go, now. My Jeep is warmed up.”

  Wendy had been waiting to see if Blake would let Tyler go. She became frustrated and came up to Blake. Her face was six inches from his. “The kids and I are going,” she said.

  George and Susan were standing beside her. Susan was clutching Meghan.

  “Let the boy go,” George said. The words were no longer out of his mouth when the building began to shake.

  Tyler fell to the floor and Cody grabbed him before losing his footing and falling himself. He got up. “Come on, we need to get to the Jeep.” Cody ushered everyone toward the door. “Blake, I’m not going to ask you again.” Cody turned his nephew over to his mother and walked back to Blake. He decked him with a right hook. Blake hit the floor hard. Cody rubbed his fist. It had been a long time since he had hit anybody that hard, in fact it may have been the first time. It was more painful than it looked in the movies. He grabbed Blake by the front of his coat, lifted him to his feet, and marched him out the front door. He shoved him in the back door of the Jeep beside Wendy.

  Lisa was standing outside under the covered entry to the hotel.

  “Come on, get in the van,” Nathan called to her.

  “I’m going with Cody,” she said.

  Cody opened the door for her.

  Volcanic ash was falling in large fluffy flakes. Streams of glowing ash were dropping like stringers from a ticker tape parade. Cody got behind the wheel of the Jeep and started to drive. It was slow going. Visibility was near zero and the roads hadn’t been plowed.

  At the edge of town, the earth rose and fell dropping off two feet. Cody gunned the Jeep and jumped the gap in the road as it was still forming.

  Elliott, right behind Cody, saw what had happened and didn’t have time to react. The van jumped over the small cliff and landed hard ripping off the rear bumper. He temporarily lost control and the van spun sideways. He spun spin the wheel sharply bringing it around, nearly flipping it in the process. He slammed on the brakes and stopped. He could feel his heart beating in his chest and was certain everyone else could hear it, too. Both of the vehicles were equipped with two-way radios, and Cody, catching the skewed headlights and erratic movements behind him, grabbed the mike. “Elliott, do you need assistance?” The transmission was filled with static even at the close proximity of the two vehicles.

  “We’re okay. I didn’t see it coming. How about warning me next time?”

  Cody was watching Elliott in his mirror. He saw the sky light up behind them. “I think that was a major eruption. We need to move,” he said. He handed Lisa the mike and pressed the gas pedal down.

  “Roger, I’m coming up on you.”

  Cody drove as fast as he could through the snow. “Keep an eye on them,” he said to Lisa.

  Lisa was already watching what was going on behind them. The sky glowed red from a ball of fire and magma that was rapidly rising. It had turned from night to day in an instant, or more like sunset. Lightning flashed in the ash cloud and strangely the ash stopped falling in front of them. It was as if someone had flipped a switch, turning off the ash and turning on a giant red lantern. Visibility improved and the ground glowed, reflecting the red cloud that was now coming in their direction.
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  “What’s happening?” Lisa asked.

  “I think it’s a lava flow,” Cody said, speeding up. “How are they doing in the van?” He didn’t want to take his eyes off the road.

  “They’re right on our tail.” She couldn’t take her eyes off the reflection of the bright red mass that appeared to continue to grow with evey beat of her heart.

  Cody sped up and was soon traveling thirty miles per hour through six inches of snow. It required his complete concentration to keep the four churning wheels tracking down the center of the highway.

  “I think it’s catching up with us,” Lisa said.

  Cody had seen the difference in the light. It was brighter, now. He nudged the Jeep up to forty, all four wheels spun frantically trying to find a grip.

  Elliott had a slight advantage with Cody in the lead. He could clearly see the tracks from the Jeep and concentrated to stay in them. He, too, saw the cloud of glowing gas overtaking them.

  “What the hell is that cloud?” he called on the radio.

  “Steam and hot ash, lava, a lahar, pick any one of those scenarios. We just missed a major eruption.” Cody heard a roar like a freight train and glanced to the side of the road where the Yellowstone River ran parallel to them. A ten-foot-high wall of water, ice, and debris was coming down the river in a tsunami-like wave. It would be hitting the bridge right where they need to cross the river. If it washed out the bridge, there would be no hope for them. It would consume them along with the mass of hot ash and lava that was overtaking them. They would be trapped.

  Elliott saw it, too, and was only inches from the trailer hitch sticking out the back of Cody’s Jeep.

  “See that? I’m not sure the bridge will hold.” Cody said into the mike. “We need to make it over before it hits.”

  “We don’t have a choice. We need to get across before this cloud catches us.”

  “I’m going for it. Wait until you see if I make it.”

  Cody pushed the gas pedal to the floor. The Jeep see-sawed, swerving back and forth, barely under control as it picked up speed. He shot across bridge and started up a steep incline. He glanced in his side mirror just in time to see the wall of water hit the bridge, jump the bank, and cover the highway. As Cody sped up the hill he watched until the bridge disappeared. He slowed trying to make sense out of what he was seeing. He had told Elliott to wait. There was no chance for them. He slammed on the brakes too late. He plowed into a wall of debris. Just as the airbags deployed, they were hit hard from the rear.