August 13 - Critters

The two closeups of the bison were shot from our truck.  They were laying right along the road.  The first buffalo caused a LONG traffic pile up.  The mule deer was right near the Dragon Cave and the bison in the last photo were across the road from the cave.  We walked down a path to get the photo, but the bison were across the river from us.  Our friends saw one idiot get within 12' of a bison so he could get a photo.  He was lucky that was all he got.

August 13 - Changes

Things don't stay the same very long at Yellowstone.  This steam vent is at the end of the parking lot where we parked!  New hazards can bubble up overnight and there is no way to predict if the ground that was safe to walk on yesterday is going to be safe today.  Some pools are acidic and can burn through boots.  More than a dozen people have been scalded to death and hundreds have been burned and badly scarred.  It's a good idea to stay on the boardwalk! 

August 13 - Dragons Breath Cave

This is such a cool place.  I shot a bit of video but could not capture the rumbling, growling sounds coming out of the cave.  The sound is caused by steam and other gases exploding through the water and forcing the water to rush into hidden caverns inside the cave.  Every now and then, water will boil out of the entrance, (the dragon's tongue) but not nearly so vigorously as it did back before 1994 when the water would splash all the way to the boardwalk.

August 13 - Sulphur Springs

This is the most smelly part of the park we have visited so far.  Lots of good old rotten egg smell here.

August 13 - Grand Canyon

These photos were taken in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  Pretty nice, huh?

August 13 - Artists Paint Pots

This is a place we hadn't visited before and are glad we didn't miss it this time.  Pretty amazing stuff!

August 12 - Potluck

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Our friends, Ron and Donna, and their grandson,  Justin, just happen to be in Yellowstone area the same time we we are so we got together.  In fact, we are parked right next door to them in Baker's Hole National Forest Service Campground.  Their friends, Earl and Linda, are here too and we all got together for a potluck.  We played some music afterward and Galen gave Justin a guitar lesson.  It was close to 10pm before we walked home in the dark with me wondering if there was a grizzly hiding in the bushes.

August 11 - Baker's Hole Campground

We stayed at the beautiful Grizzly RV Park in downtown West Yellowstone, MT our first two nights in this area.  Even at $46 a night it is tough to get a site for any length of time so we moved three miles to Baker's Hole, a National Forest Service Campground for $14 a night.  No water or sewer hookups but we have good electricity and grizzly bears.  What more could we want?  EEEK!  The good news is that only one grizzly strolls through here about once a month.  The bad news is that it was here three weeks ago!  The Madison River flows along one edge of the campground and following the path along the river makes for a very pleasant walk.  (The weather has been perfect and that is good, too.)  We saw a bald eagle on our walk yesterday afternoon.  Moose, bison, and elk also hang out along the river sometimes.  We'll be here until at least Sunday.

August 10 - Yellowstone Elk

We were on our way home with Ron, Donna, and Justin when we spotted these elk along the road so stopped to take photos.  We didn't crowd the elk in the bottom photo.  It came to us and we blazed away with our cameras.

August 10 - Yellowstone

It sure is hard to pick just a few photos from Yellowstone, but I've done my best.  Unfortunately, no photo, no matter how good, can do Yellowstone justice.  It is amazing to watch and hear the mud boil in the paint pots and see the water boil in the springs and feel the warmth of the steam as it blows over you.   It is somewhat terrifying to know that the earth's crust is so thin that if you step in the wrong place you could fall through and be boiled alive, which is exactly the cause of most Yellowstone deaths.  I just learned that Old Faithful eruption times need to be calculated each morning when the Ranger comes in at 8:00 a.m. (during the summer) so you can't check the day ahead.  These last two photos were taken at the Grand Prismatic Spring which is extremely colorful so most people were were taking photos on that side of the boardwalk, but I couldn't resist shooting the patterns and reflections on the other side of the boardwalk, too.