Yellowstone National Park, WY

(West Thumb: Katy's so hot, she makes the water boil!)

Thursday July 12, 2001 When we first drove in the east entrance Tuesday evening, we passed a grizzly bear cub about 10 yards off the right side of the road. Some moron had gotten out of his car to take better pictures; not real bright considering that Mama Bear was probably close by. The last couple of days we've driven around to the geothermal areas in the park: West Thumb (by Yellowstone Lake), Upper Geyser Basin (Old Faithful), Midway Basin, Lower Geyser Basin, Norris Geyser Basin (aka Porcelain Basin), and Mammoth Hot Springs. Tee hee, I made Katy walk a whole lot. Her legs are sore now, but it's good for her. The hike that really did her in was down to Red Rock for a beautiful view of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and the Lower Falls (on the Gibbon River, I believe). The geyers were pretty awesome, especially Riverside [Geyser] in the Upper Basin.

Day One: Geysers Galore!

(Kepler Cascades)

Upper Geyser Basin

(Lion Group: group of 4 geysers connected underground.)

(Grotto Geyser)

(Riverside Geyser: look at it go!)

I'm going to take a moment and compliment myself on my astounding photography. This picture of Morning Glory Pool looks exactly like the picture in the trail guide brochure. I am so good. All right, enough babbling.

(Old Faithful, as if you needed to be told.)

Midway Geyser Basin

Lower Geyser Basin

(Virginia Cascade)

Inspiration Point

(Lower Falls seen from Red Rock; you can feel the spray from here.)

Lake Country

(where we camped in Lake Country at Bridge Bay)

Day Two: Geothermals Continued

Norris Geyser Basin

(Green Dragon's Spring: pretty boring but good name.)

(Porcelain Basin)

Mammoth Hot Springs

Day Three: Canyon Country

Artist Point

	(Left: Lower Falls from top of Uncle Tom's Trail) (Above: Lower Falls seen from Artist Point) (Below: Upper Falls)
(Grand Canyon of Yellowstone from Artist Point)

Uncle Tom's Trail

The Wildlife

Thursday July 12, 2001 (cont'd) The wildlife here is phenomenal. Other than another full grown grizzly bear running across the road, we've seen several herds of bison (buffalo), many elk, osprey, ravens, and even a ptarmagan. The last ran around our camp for awhile, even [going] so far as to peck at our marshmallows and climb on my car. Katy was delighted by the grey "chicken's" antics. I was . . . not so pleased.

(Katy's photographic work, not mine.)

Friday July 13, 2001

Took the afternoon easy after hiking down steep "Uncle Tom's" trail to get down into the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Late in the afternoon Katy was reading in the tent and I was resting. We heard someone behind our tent (in another site) blowing up an air mattress with a foot pump. Next thing, I see a neighbor taking a stealthy picture of the air mattress activity. "That's odd", I said. As I stand up, the neighbor says, "You know there's a buffalo behind your tent?" The noise was the animal breathing.

Quietly we got out of the tent. Sure enough, a great big bull bison was happily eating grass and dandelions about a foot from our tent. I snapped a picture and then sat on the picnic table to watch and admire. He then eyed us, lumbered towards us, we quietly moved, he turned and went on to another camp site while passing under our clothes line. Since his back just brushed the line, we know he was about 5 feet, 6 inches at the back.

As a postscriptum, a new neighbor came in at 6am the next morning. They had an air mattress that woke me up. I woke Katy up and told her there was another bison outside.

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