YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

Wow!  A day trip to Yellowstone. I imagine we will get used to this but right now it is so cool to be so close to such beauty. We all owe a debt of gratitude for those who had the foresight to set aside land for our National Parks.

Cindy & I left around 8:15am and headed west. We past the Jackalope in Dubois, drove through  Grand Tetons NP and headed north. Only 8 miles separates the 2 parks. We got into Yellowstone around noon.

All the while we drove we had our eyes open for wild life. Nothing. Here I thought we would see herds of elk, buffalo, antelope, anything but instead we saw a ground squirrel. One ground squirrel. That changed by the end of the day.

Yellowstone is huge. The area most often visited by tourists is laid out in a huge figure 8. We had entered from the south and we had a limited amount of time so we decided to do the lower portion of the 8 and save the upper until next time. So we ended up visiting Yellowstone Lake and Falls, a few different geyser basins and mud pits and Old Faithful. It may not sound like much but we were busy. Oh, Old Faithful is simply one of many geysers in the park. It just happens to be the most famous.

As the day progressed the animals started to show themselves. First a coyote hunting for rodents loped into view.

Coyote on the prowl

Then buffalo, a few elk (they are BIG animals), a couple of sandhill cranes, and some very big black birds. I don't know if they were grackles, ravens, or simply blackbirds. They looked big enough to be wild turkeys.

The following scenes give you an idea of what we saw.

Around Yellowstone Lake:

Around Geyser pits

Around Geyser pits

Yellowstone Lake

The geyser pits at the south end of Yellowstone Lake are very interesting. We spent a lot of time walking around.

The Lower Falls: We will get a better look next time.

A week or so ago a young woman lost her life at the Falls. It was her first day of work and she slipped and was swept to her death.

Bubbling pit:

Buffalo encounter:

Just watch. Here are 2 very large bison eating alongside the boardwalk. When people walk by they are 2 feet away. If for ANY reason these bison felt the urge these moms, dads and children would have been in serious trouble.

"Why does the bison cross the road?" This is a trick question. At one point on our adventure one bison was walking down the middle of the road leading a parade. He wasn't intimidated one bit. He was leading and that was that. We followed behind while cars from the other direction slowly passed by. He finally left the road when he wanted to "relieve" himself.

Old Faithful: Our final destination.

At the end of the day we joined hundreds of others from all over waiting for Old Faithful to be faithful. After she blew we got in the car and headed home.

What a day. It was in the upper 70's and partly cloudy. We made it home at 10:30pm and will be returning again.