20060913 - Yellowstone

On Wednesday (09/06) we drove to Yellowstone. It was smoky, foggy, or smoggy I am still not sure which. It did not smell like smoke, it was too warm to be fog, and seems a bit away from town to be smog. At any rate the distant mountains were pretty vague.



In addition there was miles and miles of old burnt trees. Finally we got to real live trees. We got a site in Fishing Bridge RV Park. This Campground has bears so they only allow hard sided vehicles. It’s a little scary, I don’t think I will be walking after dark. Rich kept telling Max that he did not want to get out and become bear food. Since Max did not understand, I expect that Rich was teasing me. In this area of the park we do not have either phone or internet access. We are meeting our friends Bob and Connie (Blog = http://sqdncr.blogspot.com/ ) here. They arrived a few days after we did. The four of us will be touring Yellowstone together.

Yellowstone is famous for wildlife, geysers, hot springs, mud pots, fumaroles, Terraces, Yellowstone Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone River.

As we were driving around Yellowstone we were looking for wildlife. We saw (and photographed) Bison, Elk, Moose, Coyote, and Sheep. Unfortunately we did not see any bear and although we saw Canadian geese and pelicans, I was never able to film any.



Many times we would see herds of Bison in the distance





And sometimes they would be up close and personal. Somehow they thought they owned the road. Imagine that!



We saw elk both in town (Mammoth Hot Springs) and in the distance.



We saw a mother moose and her baby.



We saw a coyote in the grass (in the distance).



We saw sheep in the distance.





At Upper Geyser Basin we saw several Geysers including Old Faithful.



This one was really bubbling



These were especially beautiful



These look like somebody broke through the crust, a real reminder to stay on the wooden trail.



In West Thumb Geyser Basin Trail and Mammoth Springs we saw Hot Spring Pools. Aren’t the colors gorgeous?





We saw Mud Pots in several areas: these are from near Old Faithful, and West Thumb Geyser basin. In the second photo the pot was making a deep thumping noise.



On our way to Mammoth Hot Springs, we passed Roaring Mountain where the road goes near these fumaroles.



This is what the walk ways around Mammoth Hot Springs look like.



Does this not look like snow?





In Mammoth Hot Springs, they had amazing terraces. The white ones no longer have water flow. The color comes from micro-organisms that live in the heated water.





We spent several days driving around Yellowstone, part of one day we drove and hiked through Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon.





While we were driving and hiking through the Yellowstone‘s Grand Canyon, we saw both the Yellowstone River‘s Upper and Lower falls.





We stayed at the Fishing Bridge Campground. Fishing Bridge used to be a major fishing area when the Cutthroat Trout were running, however, the fishing nearly decimated the run so now there is no fishing from Fishing Bridge. Fishing Bridge crosses the Yellowstone River shortly after it exits Yellowstone Lake. In May shortly after the lake breaks up (after being frozen during winter), the trout spawn and the birds take advantage of the availability of food. It sounds like that is the time to be here if you want to see birds.