Our trip to Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming - September 2008...
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Jackie and I took our vacation time, the motorhome and towed, and our six cats, and went to visit Yellowstone National Park. We entered through the North Gate, which I missed taking a picture of, so here's a view of the East Gate. We spent 10 days in the park and we took over 5,000 images but we can only show a few of them here and they may not be in the order they were taken. Artistic license, of course! |
| We had reservations at Fishing Bridge Campground but, somehow, we ended up being placed in the Lake Village Employee's campground. Not being ones to look gift horses in the mouths (or elswhere!) we quickly slipped into our assigned site... |
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We immediately noticed evidence of large animals in the area. Hmmmmm. A quick sniff and a look at our reference guide and we were sure it was from a Bison! |
| Yep. There's one of them critters, now! These things made the weirdest grunting and growling we'd ever heard; except for my stomach before dinner, of course... |
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We gased up the towed (at $4.29 a gallon!) and headed off to have a look at the park. We drove south towards the West Thumb area of Yellowstone Lake and stopped to look as some of the geothermal activity there... |
| This mud geyser was making some interesting patterns as it bubbled and splashed. It was almost mesmerizing to watch and it made sounds like a pot of split green pea soup on a low boil.. |
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Nice boardwalks made walking around the area much safer as some of the ground is thin crust over hot geothermal features. Note the cloudy sky on this day. We had a bit of spitting snow and hail this evening and the coolness made for lots of steam here... |
| Ahhhhh. Nature's hot tubs... Except that these "hot tubs" are boiling. The water is very clear and inviting, though. The brown colors at the extreme lower left are bacterial mats. These Thermopohiles and Extremeophiles can live and thrive at temperatures and acidities that are very high. We'll see more of them later on... |
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Some of the area looks blasted and indeed it has been. At times this area has erupted violently and when it does the landscape takes the beating... |
| Lots of mud pots. This one's about 6 to 8 feet across. The hot steam contains lots of sulphuric acid which leaches the surrounding soil into the pit where it becomes a sticky, boiling pot of mud. Note the algae and bacterial growth around this one. Also note that it's slowly sinking but that could change at any time. Hopefully, not while we're standing here looking at it.. |
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Moving on... Jackie and I were hoping this one was a wolf but when we reviewed the pictures later it was pretty clear that we were looking at a coyote. We saw this one (or one very good "look a like") many times as we drove around this side of the park... |
| Jackie and I really enjoyed seeing all of the animals in the Park. Mule deer were prevalent and, if you're a wannbe amateur photographer (like me) with a new Canon 40D (like me), you're really going to have a good time here (we did!). This nice buck is still in velvet but that will change soon... |
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Jackie spotted this Pelican paddling down the Yellowstone River so we stopped to take 20 or 30 pictures! I'd always considered Pelicans to be birds of the oceans but apparently I was mistaken. We saw several more in the far distance later... |
| We stopped to visit the "Dragon's Mouth" Spring in the "Mud Volcano" area of Yellowstone... |
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This thing made quite a bit of noise and I wish there was some way to convey to you the smell. Rotten eggs and dog farts, maybe (not cats, of course!). All of these things smelled pretty badly and some of them could start your eyes to watering if you were around them to long... |
| The water surging out of this pool flowed over these brightly colored rocks. More thermophile bateria life here. It's clear from bacteria like these that life will take a foothold wherever it can find one... |
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Thick, dry, cracked mud provided a nice study in texture and looked a lot like Dragon's skin... |
| Some animal died near this boiling spring. I was told that some of these things are acidic enough to dissolve a body to bones in a very short time. I was pretty sure that Jackie wasn't mad at me but I didn't stand between her and any pools during our stay, either! |
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Almost looks like the ground is burning. Or else someone's having one heck of a barbecue. The Yellwostone river is across the road in the backlground here.... |
| Another thing that Yellowstone has is crowds of people. We were visiting in the off season and still experienced some crowds. We couldn't imagine what it would be like visiting here during the height of the season but I'm sure we would have enjoyed it less... |
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Artist's Point in Yellowstone National Park. Is there anyone who visits the Park and doesn't take a picture from here? Not me; I took around 50 or so. A very large canyon with Hoodoos reminiscent of Bryce Canyon and pretty falls way down yonder at the end.. |
| But a 300 MM image stabilized lense brings the falls in nicely... |
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We met Bob and Mary through an Internet newsgroup called "rec.outdoors.rv-travel" also known as "RORT". They are "retired" and were working at Fishing Bridge RV Park in Yellowstone while we were there so we dropped in for a visit. They're having way more fun than any two people should be having! Notice Mary's nice, new, Yellowstone Park hat... |
| Bob and Mary are very comfortable in their very nice Winnebago Adventurer with all the comforts of home. Of course, it is their home since they live in it full time. Satellite Internet keeps them connected... |
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Here's another nice Mule Deer buck with his antlers still in velvet. I seemed to catch a lot of animals with their mouths open or their tongues out... |
| No shortage of these big fellas, either. Bob and Mary had told us that this spring, the animals were in tough shape from a difficult winter but this time of year, they were sleek, fat, and happy... |
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Here's a turkey we saw as we were driving to the Wal*Mart in Cody, Wyoming one day... |
| I was teasing Jackie heavily about driving all of the way to Wyoming just to go to a Wal*Mart but as we're driving back into the park we see this fine Grizzly bear! Nice of him to stand in front of the flowers like that. Of course there's 25 people alongside the road taking pictures and we're standing next to a guy talking into his little video camera. "This is our bear, Mike", he's saying, "And he's a big one. Yep. This is our bear..." Sheesh! |
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We followed the bear for quite a ways as it munched it's way around and up the ravine. There was a ranger helping to keep all of us tourists back away from the bear (not that Jackie and I had any intention of getting close enough to draw the bear's attention!). I've zoomed in here quite a bit to show the bear eating a mouthful of plant... |
| Lots of smiles on the faces of this portion of the crowd. Many of us had just seen our first Grizzly in the wild. We overheard one fellow say that he's been coming to the Park for years and this was the first Grizzly he'd seen... |
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Elk were one of the animals we'd hoped to see and hear during our visit and we were plenty pleased when these two young bulls posed for us. They're both fat, sleek, and healthy. The spike bull on the left is still in velvet but the bull on the right has rubbed the velvet off of his antlers. They're both still too small to challenge the herd leader for a mate, this year. We took a hike into the woods, one evening, and Jackie got to hear her first Elk bugle from close by.... |
| Here's another view of the younger bull. I was telling Jackie about some of my youthful experiences bowhunting for elk and had mentioned that we sometimes had smelled the elk before we had seen them. I don't think she really believed me until she got a whiff of them for herself here in Yellowstone... |
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We're at 8,000 feet, or so, and it's September so we woke up to frost on the pumpkin (or sagebrush, as the case may be) a couple of times... |
| But the frost burned off early as it warmed up and some of the sagebrush was still in bloom... |
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We came across a momma Bighorn sheep and her baby feeding alongside of the road. This is one of my favorite images of momma... |
| The youngster looked a lot like momma but, of course, its horns are just nubbins... |
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We were fortunate to see some Antelope. This is the first time Jackie has ever seen Antelope in the wild. There's a doe running by in the background and I caught this buck just as he was wheeling around to chase after her. Few animals can run like the antelope. They just seem to flow across the ground.. |
| Of course, we drove to Mammoth to see the hot springs and pools. The water flows out over the edge depositing minerals and providing a great environment for more bacteria and algae producing some fabulous colors... |
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Jackie enjoyed using the binoculars on the flora, fauna, and geological features of the Park... |
| The pools above this formation have retreated but they left this tortured looking feature... |
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More beautifully colored rock from the steaming pool above... |
| Nature has built a layer cake over the years... |
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Looking down on the same feature from above gives one a sense of scale... |
| Boiling pools of mineral rich water continue to build the hill higher... |
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These trees were blasted by a violent event in the past... |
| But this bee doesn't care about that or what might happen tomorrow. It's just interested in this thistle blossom. The cold has the bee moving slowly... |
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This fellow was hoping that we'd provide its next meal. We don't feed the animals so it was barking up the wrong tree (so to speak)... |
| This calf Elk doesn't need (or want) us. It just refuels from Momma whenever the desire arises. Momma waits somewhat patiently for junior to finish... |
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Man, that tasted good! Of course, it's just plain good manners to wipe your face when you're done... |
| This bull Elk was taking a nice, relaxing snooze. The rut hasn't started in earnest, yet, but his antlers are polished and he's ready to guard his harem from all challengers... |
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We stopped to look at one more interesting and colorful feature before leaving the Mammoth area... |
| Another of Yellowstone's many waterfalls... |
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We've been going and doing so much that even Dozey is tired! |
| We took a hike in to see the Natural Bridge and on the way in we saw some deer. The Mule Deer gets its name from the size of its ears. This doe had one of her ears clipped somehow. We assumed it was probably done to distinguish her from other does but we did see several animals with radio collars, as well.. |
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This chipmunk perched on a stump and watched us walk by. No one was going to be clipping its ears! |
| Most of the hiking trails had these signs posted on them. Not designed to make one feel comfortable walking quietly in the woods. But, as hard as I was wheezing from the altitude, there wasn't much chance of us surprising a bear in the woods... |
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Only a mile and a half later of what would have been very easy walking at any other altitude, we reached the Natural Bridge... |
| Elk had been using this four inch pine tree to rub the velvet from their antlers. Feels good to the elk but it's hard on the tree... |
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Of course, you can't visit Yellowstone without seeing Old Faithful. We actually visited it twice. The first time the day was cloudy and gray and taking a picture of steam and hot water against a gray sky didn't really work too well. This day it was pretty. We sat down on the bench and pretty soon someone sat down near us and pulled out a cellphone and called somebody. "Hi. How ya doing", and a pause. Then, "Oh, we're just sitting here in front of Old Faithful waiting for it to erupt." So Jackie and I moved to another spot so we wouldn't have to listen to the rest of the conversation but shortly somebody else sat down next to us again and pulled out a cellphone. Jackie and I looked at each other and began mouthing, "Oh, we're just sitting here in front of Old Faithful..." Sure enough, they called someone up and that's exactly what they said! |
| We walked around the geyers basins in the Old Faithful area (and north of there) of the park. This creek was running out of one of the hot pools from left to right, in this picture. The water is crystal clear amd steaming and the range of bacterial colors in the creek is simply striking... |
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This feature is called the "Mustard Spring". Didn't do anything while we were there but note how the rich minerals in the water have formed nodules around the perimeter of the spring... |
| I handed Jackie the camera to hold while we rested on a bench and what does she do but take a picture of some old bum sitting beside her! Get a job, you bum! Oh, well. At least he's a handsome devil... |
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Here's another picture of that little creek. The water's only six inches deep in the deepest portion but the color created on the bottom by the bacteria is incredible and vibrant... |
| This was called the "Jewel Geyser" but it just sat and bubbled. The days was clear but very cool which made the pools steam and pictures more difficult to take. Remember that many of these have an eyewatering odor, too... |
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Another pool filled with crystal clear, boiling water... |
| We saw this interesting little trailer pulled by a pickup. Looked nice but a bit too small for us and six cats... |
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There's some colorful landscapes in the geyser basins. This one resembles a toxic waste dump... |
| We stopped to watch the "White Dome" geyser erupt. Very nice! |
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We watched this Black Bear cross the road just a few miles east of Fishing Bridge. It was limping on its front right paw and looked thoroughly stressed. There were three rangers keeping traffic back from the bear in an attempt to lessen its stress. Note that the bear is radio collared. Bob and Mary told us that might mean that this bear has been a problem around campgrounds in the past so it's being monitored. If you enlarge the photo and examine the front right paw you'll notice a claw that seems out of place and might have been the cause of the limping... |
| And, most everywhere we went, the Buffalo. They were starving earlier in the year and there was a large die off this past winter but you'd not know it to see them now... |
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The winter was fast approaching but this young fellow bounced and frollicked alongside his mother without a care in the world. Ahhh, youth... |
| A lot of people were enjoying the catch and release fly fishing in the various Yellowstone rivers... |
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This Bison was taking a snooze beside the Yellowstone River... |
| We spotted some nice Mule Deer bucks feeding in a field so we stopped for pictures. Of course, within minutes, there was a crowd with us taking pictures as well. One lady started talking to Jackie. "Ohhhh, look at their big, fuzzy horns", she said. "And their little faces. Aren't they so cuuuute? And don't they look just like deer?". "Oh, yes", Jackie answered with a straight face. "They surely do." |
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Another of the bucks... |
| We joined another group to watch this young, bull Elk feeding in a field. Looks like his mother taught him to wash his face, too! |
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Sometimes, scratching that hard to reach itch can feel so darn good... |
| And the obligatory sunset picture. We very much enjoyed our trip to Yellowstone National Park. We preferred watching the animals, when all was said and done, to looking at the geothermal features but we both thought it was wonderful to see them both so close in the same area. Now we'll get to look forward to returning! |
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