Final trip to Yellowstone, part 2

After doing the bison thing in Hayden Valley, we continued on around Yellowstone Lake, and headed towards Old Faithful.
 We were joined at our picnic lunch near the Continental Divide by this raven.  You know, it’s hard to get a good picture of an all black bird with his black eyes closed shut.  :(  These are pretty crafty birds, and I’m sure he was just waiting to see if we left any scraps behind after our lunch.  No way, Jose!  This is a national park and bear country.  No scraps for you today.  :)
After getting to the summit of Craig Pass (8262’) we stopped at Isa Lake, which was covered with blooming lily pads.
Wouldn’t this have been a great place to see a moose?  No such luck.

As we zoomed past the Old Faithful exit and continued down the road to Madison, I decided to take the Fire Hole Lake Drive one more time.  There are plenty of geysers to view along the way, but none were erupting this time.
I chose, instead, to get some pictures of the colorful outlet from Firehole Lake.  That white stuff is not snow, but mineral deposits left from the hot springs.  If you look closely at the picture on the left, you can see the imprints left by bison as they visit here.

Further on, I took another detour down Fountain Flat Drive.  There were two nice female elk grazing by the roadside.  Wouldn’t you know, that two young Asian fellows decided to walk up to the elk for a picture.  What were they thinking?
The elk, of course, decided to move on and get out of Dodge.  I guess I’ve had enough of people encroaching on the lives of these animals.  :(   STAY IN YOUR CAR!!!

I made a good amount of progress on my getting ready to roll chores today.  Jim, my neighbor, was a great amount of help as we checked out my new air compressor and pumped up the tires of the rig and toad.  The compressor performed perfectly, but what a hassle it was on several of the rig’s tires to even get a reading on the pressure gauge. The two outer tires on my dual tires on the back are so hard to get to the tire stems that I’m not sure I can do that myself.  :(
I don’t think I have the strength or long enough arms to do what he did today.  I also got the outside rug aired and packed up, and put the Blue Ox toad hitch back on the rig, among other things.  Tomorrow I’ll tackle all the inside stuff, do laundry, and unhook everything except the electrical cord.  I should be out of here pretty quick on Monday  morning.  :)

I did receive an email today from one of my readers telling me that I was way off base with thanking Teddy Roosevelt for helping to establish Yellowstone National Park.  Turns out he was only 14 at the time, and certainly wasn't in office yet!  Oops!  Guess I'd better check my details before making a statement like that again.  :(  Thanks Grant, for setting me straight.  :)

I leave you with one last parting shot of Yellowstone…
                                                                   THE END!!!

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy

The Call of the Wild

I awoke with the enthusiasm of Marlin Perkins this morning, and was ready to tackle Yellowstone’s Wild Kingdom!  :)  Of course, there was no film crew from Mutual of Omaha, but I pressed on without them.
First up was the female elk herd along the Madison River.  I don’t know why all these females don’t have young.  I guess it’s hard to find a good man.  :)  You can see that the elk on the right has a radio collar on her neck.  They are fairly easy to see along the river in the early morning.

After getting through the construction on the way to Norris Junction, I headed for Canyon.  Along the way, there was another bear jam.  Usually that means a bear is way up in the woods somewhere, and you probably need a spotting scope to see it.
But today was different.  A grizzly bear was feeding not very far from the roadway.  Of course, people were foolishly scurrying about getting closer and closer to the bear to snap a picture.  I was able to get this shot without ever leaving my car.  I just don’t understand why people will endanger themselves and their children by dragging them within feet of a wild animal.  How could you be so stupid?  And why do they have to harass the wildlife?  Ugh!
On a different, and less aggravating, note I’d like to ask you more experienced users of Picasa3 out there if you think it’s possible to eliminate this blue post in the photo.  I tried, but didn’t have any luck.  I’d appreciate your input.

After I turned right at the Canyon Junction, I decided to turn off on the South Rim loop, which I hadn’t done when my sister was here.  It lead to the overlook for the Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
I took this same shot of the Lower Falls in 1970 when I was a sweet young thing and tenting across the West.  :)  I remember putting my polarized sunglasses over the lens of my point and shoot camera at that time.  It really had a dramatic effect on that long ago photo.  The myriad of colors in the rocks of this canyon is astounding.

I continued on through the Hayden valley to once again enjoy the massive bison herds.
I’m thinking this guy could use a little time at the hairdresser’s.  :)  He’s sure packing a bunch of debris.
Notice those horns already growing on these little ones.  I’ve read that bison don’t see very well, but with those big noses, they must have exceptional olfactory skills.

I’d have to say that today was a great trip into the ‘Wild Kingdom’.  This place just takes my breath away.  :)

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy

A mixed bag of tricks

Holy cow, did we ever have batch of thunderstorms roll through overnight!  It didn’t make for a very good night’s sleep, but I did sleep in until 7:00 this morning.  I’ve also noticed that this rig doesn’t rock and roll as much as my old one.  That’s a good thing.  :)

I’d like to welcome Susan to the list of folks who read my blog.  Normally, I personally thank them on their respective blog sites, but Susan doesn’t appear to have one.  So, I hope you find my posts interesting.  :)

After the rain stopped, blue skies prevailed, so Emma and I spent the morning outside.  I decided to finally tackle a chore that I’ve been putting off for way too long.  In my old rig, I had one of those thirty gallon tote bins that I used as a sort of end table.  It was a catch all for all sorts of things.  I really don’t have a place for it in this rig, and it’s been sitting at the foot of my bed for the last five weeks, which really hinders my making the bed each morning.  It’s hard to get around.  So today I went through it’s contents and eliminated about twenty pounds of unneeded stuff.  I really whittled it down, and was able to store the remaining few items in it and put it in one of the basement compartments.  It’s amazing how good I felt about finally getting something done that I’ve been procrastinating about.  Sometimes, you just have to make yourself do something.  :)

The wifi connection in the park was out today which really interfered with my morning blog reading.  :)  I think it was because the park office was getting a new roof, but who knows.  I was able to catch up online this afternoon.  Along about 4:00, I decided that Emma and I should take a late afternoon ride in Yellowstone, thinking that maybe there wouldn’t be so many people so late in the day.  Ha!  That sure wasn’t the case. 
I was hoping to see a variety of wildlife in the late afternoon.  Thwarted again!  There wasn’t much around, and most of it was quite a distance away.  These cow elk were on the other side of the Madison River…
as well as this family of Canada geese.
This was the best I could do for today.  I sure would like to photograph a bear, or a wolf, or a moose, but I’m thinking I won’t get much of a chance to do that now that the very busy season at the park has arrived.  :(  And you won’t find me getting out of the car to climb up a hill to see a bear.  I’m just a bit smarter than that.  :)

The 4th of July is almost upon us, and I think I’ll sit tight in the campground for weekend.  The roads may not be very safe.  While I was in Yellowstone this evening, there were two emergencies.  One was a single car accident.  What a mess that car was!  I think the other one was even more serious.  There were all sorts of emergency vehicles along the side of the road, and a stretcher waiting for someone to be brought out of the woods.  Ugh!  I hope someone didn’t have a horrible encounter with a grizzly.

I think I’ll be okay to take a side trip away from Yellowstone tomorrow, but after that I’ll be a homebody for a few days.  I’m told I will be able to see the fireworks at the rodeo on Saturday night right from my rig.  I love fireworks, so I’m looking forward to that!

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy

Another Yellowstone day

Emma and I were on the road well before 8:00 this morning.  Our plan was to drive the upper loop of the figure eight roads of the park.  We did that in addition to the West entrance road and just about all of the Northeast entrance road.  I was hoping for some outstanding photo opportunities.  The forecast said partly cloudy skies, but the morning was spent with overcast skies.  :(
First up was this doe elk just relaxing and “chewing her cud.”  The chewing can be seen better in the header picture.  I think it looks like she wants to say something.  Couldn’t you just picture one of those cartoon bubbles coming out of her mouth with a snappy comment?  Some people know how to do that with their pictures, but not me.  What do you think she wants to say?

I don’t have too many scenic shots from today’s 200+ mile drive, since lighting conditions were not very good, and I couldn’t take the hikes to see Tower Fall and a few other views because of having Emma along. 

The thing that was most noticeable to me on this drive was the dramatic increase in visitors.  There were so many cars on the roads that it reminded me of being in a major city!  I don’t blame all those people for wanting to see this magnificent park, but I just wish they had come until July.  :)


I’m trying a new technique with two pictures side by side here that I learned from a post in Rick & Paulette's RV Travels blog.  It’s lunch time on the left, and a minor disagreement between two cows on the right.   Rick is quite the guru with Live Writer, and I’m trying to implement some of the things I’ve learned from him.  :)

As Emma and I moved on from Tower/Roosevelt toward Mammoth Hot Springs, I was getting hungry and wanted to stop at a picnic area to walk Emma and consume the lunch that I had packed.  Every place that we pulled into was jam packed with no where to park.  Ugh!  So, we drove through Mammoth Junction (what a mass of humanity that place was!), and turned south towards Norris.  The reason I wanted to stop at an official picnic area is that they all have a bathroom!  That was a paramount need by this time.  :)  Finally, about 2/3 of the way to Norris, we found one vacant picnic table!  What a relief!  Emma was, literally, relieved as well.  As I enjoyed my sandwich, Emma investigated the area.
“I know something’s in this log…I can smell it!”
“I’ll try the other side!”
“I know it’s here somewhere!”
Here’s the little culprit that Emma couldn’t quite get to.

In all my drives through the park, I have seen evidence of the great fires of 1988.  As I think I’ve mentioned, I was here during the summer of 1988 and experienced the magnitude of these fires.
Twenty-two years later, the devastation of these fires can still be seen.  This area had a dense population of Douglas fir twenty-two years ago.  Douglas fir is usually quite resistant to fire, but the high winds in the summer of ‘88 produced such hot fires that most trees did not survive. 
You can see some rebirth on the forest floor, but it is a slow process.  Other areas of the park have seen a better natural reseeding of the forest.  Some species of trees only open their cones, for seeds to emerge, after a fire.  In the great scheme of things, 22 years is just a blink of an eye, and that was really brought home to me today.

This has been a rather long post today, so I’d better say…
THE END….once again.  :)

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy

Back to Yellowstone

The plan for today was to visit the northeast portion of Yellowstone.  Emma and I made it through the construction between Madison and Norris, and headed for Canyon Village. 
That’s where we were to take a left turn and head north toward Tower Fall.  We made it to Canyon, but the road to Tower Fall was closed.  I don’t know why, maybe because of the snow we had yesterday.  So that put a crimp in my plans.  I decided to head south towards Fishing Bridge.  That was another section of the park that I hadn’t driven yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first stop was Sulphur Caldron.  It is aptly named…smells just like rotten eggs!  :(  I couldn’t stop at Mud Volcano since I had Emma with me.  I took a right at Fishing Bridge…

and stopped along Yellowstone Lake for a picnic lunch.  Two weeks ago, when I arrived at Yellowstone, the lake was frozen.  There was not a bit of ice today.  I guess spring has really arrived.

The picture just doesn’t do justice to the view of Yellowstone Lake along the road to West Thumb.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I finally encountered a male elk, until a huge motorhome almost ran into him and he fled.  That guy ruined everyone’s view.  :(

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because of all the rain lately, and the snow run off, all the rivers and falls are full to capacity and stunning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can’t spend a day in Yellowstone without getting some Bison shots.  :)

 

As I headed for the west entrance, I decided to turn down Firehole Lake Drive again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This time, two of the geysers were erupting as I traveled by.  You know, they’re almost as spectacular as Old Faithful. 

 

With the weekend upon us, the RV park has filled almost to capacity.  I think I’ll leave Yellowstone to the weekend warriors for a few days.  I really must clean house and do some laundry.  :(  I think I’ll try to figure out how to use my onboard washer/dryer tomorrow, but if the weather’s as good as today…who knows!

THE END!!!

 

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy