Buffalo Traffic Jam

It seems clear that I will never finish chronicling our Yellowstone Trip in it's glorious entirety. So I'll compromise and include the highlight of the last day: the drive out of the park. We were 10 minutes from the west gate when traffic came to a stop. I leaned out the driver's window, and this is what I saw.







As always, the idiot commentary is the lowpoint of the film. Sheesh, would that woman shut up already?!

Yellowstone Post #3

I am more than a little embarrassed that it has taken me two months to finally finish off the record of our trip to Yellowstone (June 11-14). I almost didnt' do it, but there were some choice shots that I had promised to share. So here we go.

The second day we spent at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. I didn't even know there was such a thing. I wasn't sure what to expect. I wasn't disappointed.

Lower Falls

Lower falls up close. Just to the right of the brink of the falls you can see the teeny little people standing on the lookout.

And now I am one of the teeny little people taking pictures from the brink of the falls. Hearing and watching all of that water plunge over the edge was awe inspiring. I love waterfalls.

The view looking north from Lower Falls. Amazing.


Upper Falls. I think it's cool how the river makes a 90 degree turn just before plunging off the edge of the falls.

Nathan and Megan found themselves a hiding place in the cavity of a rock. Luckily there weren't any snakes in there.

After the Canyon, we headed back to our hotel, but before we got very far, we were stopped by a traffic jam. Of course, you have to get out and see what all the fuss is about. This time is was worth it: a Grizzly mama and two cubs just 30 yards off the road.

An eagle flying. Really, it is!


Ah, here's a better picture.

Yellowstone Post #2

After seeing all those buffalo, we arrived at the geysers. Which is an understatement. While Yellowstone is famous for Old Faithful, there are hundreds of other geysers and hot springs in geyser basin. Our first stop had a variety of things to see, but most overwhelming was the smell that greeted us as we approached the steaming pools: sulphur! Yuck.

Here is miss Megan posing next to the first of many colorful hot spring pools.

One of my favorite things was this pool of white mud that was boiling! Watch the video to see (and possibly get motion sickness).



At this particular stop, we were lucky to coincide with a busload of Japanese tourists. So while this geyser video is nothing special in and of itself, the dialogue in the background is funny. Imagine yourself being jostled by short pushy people rushing past you along the narrow boardwalk, then suddenly stopping in front of you to take pictures of one another in front of EVERY geyser. Repeat. It was rather amusing. Sort of.

Then we were off to the Granddaddy of them all: Old Faithful. I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that this is the best photo we got... since we arrived right at the tail end of an eruption. How far did we drive to see this?

We started off down the boardwalk to see more sights, and saw another bison grazing languidly next to the steaming base of Old Faithful.


While waiting for Old Faithful to build up steam again, we walked geyser loop, looking for other interesting things to photograph. In the upper left is Castle Geyser, but it's pretty obvious that my kids are the main subject of this particular shot.


I don't remember the name of this pool... but isn't it pretty? How interesting to think that that hole leads down deep into the earth.


Susan and Nathan engage in a little drama over the binculars. Ah, the joys of family life.



In this short, Karianne shares her most profound thoughts about this spunky little geyser pool, while Susan tortures Megan in the background.



We spent over two hours waiting for Grand Geyser to go off. It is reportedly taller and more impressive than Old Faithful, but goes off less often. It's next door buddy, Turban Geyser, would tease us about ever 20 minutes with an underwhelming display.



Someone in the crowd suggested that we offer a sacrifice to the geyser to induce it to erupt. Karianne and Susan offered up their little sister.

After annoying the gathered crowd for over two hours, we became hungry and tired, and left for the long drive back to our hotel. The big bison herd was just finishing their road crossing as we approached, which meant that we didn't have to sit and wait for them. Thanks, guys.

Next.... Day two.

Yellowstone Post #1

Finally, after being home for 3 1/2 days, I'm ready to blog about our trip. I don't know what it is about traveling, but it always takes me a few days to recover. I guess I'm getting old. No need to comment on that factoid, please.

Not having been to Yellowstone National Park for about 25 years, I didn't remember much. My parents took me for a day trip, and all I remembered about it were the mud pots and the colored pools. Oh and a chipmunk eating a cheeto like corn on the cob. Pretty pathetic, huh? So, I wisely ask Tom if he wouldn't be in charge of our sightseeing itinerary.

Obviously, Yellowstone is famous for its geysers, particularly Old Faithful. That was our first destination.

We had a hotel in West Yellowstone, Montana, and entered the park through the West gate. It wasn't long until we saw a small herd of buffalo. We stopped and took more photos than necessary, because we didn't realize how ubiquitous bison are in Yellowstone. We saw at least three more herds, each larger in size than the previous one, before we got to geyser basin.

Awwww! Isn't that calf cute? The cow is shedding her winter fur, hence the spring frumpy look.

A pair of cows with calves. I wouldn't want to get too close to those horns, would you?

Notice the exceptionally happy looks on these faces? That's because we're only one hour into our first day. We're not exhausted yet.

This was taken on the road to geyser basin. There were at least 100 animals + calves in this herd.

A little side trip to see beautiful Firehole Falls. I absolutely love waterfalls.

And a bonus! A pair of elk cows and their calves were grazing downstream from the falls.

Ok - that's enough for today. I'm gonna break it up into short posts instead of one gargantuan thing that nobody wants to read. Tomorrow - the geysers!