A day at home

We are finding that after a few days of non-stop sightseeing that we like to take a day off and hang out around the motorhome.  Today was one of those days.

I've been getting a little lax in my walking and exercise so I made it a point to get in a good 30-minute brisk walk this morning.  Later I decided to wash Moose with Sandy's help and then I washed the Honda.

This park is unusual in that they allow guests to wash their vehicles.  Many do not.  This is definitely a higher end RV park.  But it is not a resort.  We generally do not stay at resorts because we don't use the swimming pool and many of the other amenities.

Yesterday we went into Yellowstone.  It is a grand and glorious park and there is a ton of history. I learned that for a while the park was under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army and there was a large fort maintained in the park.

There are so many vast and beautiful vistas.  Fortunately, the park roads have lots of turn outs where motorists can pull over to take photos.  And, often as not, motorists are prone to stop anywhere wildlife is spotted.  Here are some of yesterdays vistas.

Magnificent Yellowstone National Park

Note:  The Blogger software that hosts my blog is acting up today and there are huge gaps between photos.  I can not control this frustrating situation.  Sorry.

Today was day two of four that we will spend in Yellowstone National Park.  The park is huge, containing 3468 square miles.  I don't think we will get to see all of it. Yellowstone is the world's first national park, established March 1, 1872 by the signature of  President Ulysses S. Grant.

As we drove through parts of the park we could not help but marvel at how fortunate we are to have not only Yellowstone, but so many other national parks and monuments as well as state parks that preserve so much of nature.  I was trying to imagine what the park would look like today if it were not preserved.  No doubt the lakes would be surrounded by resorts and condos and millions dollar homes, and property owners would be complaining about wildlife  -- if any were still alive.

Fortunately, the parks are ours to enjoy forever.

Wildlife is abundant and this is THEIR home so we need to be careful as we drive and walk through their land. This big Bison was meandering alongside of the road.

Everywhere we have driven, we have seen water.  Lakes, rivers, backwaters, creeks, small streams and marsh areas are never far from view.

Rainwater that falls in front of this sign runs toward the Atlantic Ocean; rain that falls in back of it flows to the Pacific Ocean.

I really liked this scene with snow-capped mountains in the background and steam escaping in the foreground.  It makes we wonder what use Native-Americans made of the park's thermal areas. 

  





















 We stopped for lunch alongside a lake and found some friendly Gray Jays.  This one was fond of seven-grain bread.  I let one of the Jays have a few bites of my plum -- after I had all I wanted.

  




















After lunch we looked at some more hydrothermal areas of the park.  This one is called Dragon's Mouth.  The name fits.

Sandy liked this small body of heated water because of the brilliant green grass and small bubbles that sparked. 

We came upon a small herd of 25-30 Bison grazing.

Look at the face on this guy.

What a magnificent symbol of the American West this guy presents. 


More tomorrow.  Stay tuned. 

The Grizly & Wolf Discovery Center, Our First Trip Into Yellowstone and The Money Shot

Today was a beautiful late summer day here in Yellowstone.  The temperatures were autumn like and the day was sunny.  We started by going back to the Grizly & Wolf Discovery Center in the town of West Yellowstone.  This is a not-for-profit 501(c) (3) corporation dedicated to research and education about grizzly bear and wolves in Yellowstone National Park.  The bears living here were destined to be put down.  The wolves were acquired as pups.  I didn't think we'd get many close up photos of bears and wolves in the park, so here are a couple.

The attendants at the Discovery Center hide fruit and nuts in piles of branches and rocks to keep the bears interested in finding their food.   We saw one grizzly flip over a boulder larger than a bowling ball with its nose.

The Center tests garbage containers with resident bears who are willing to try to obtain the foods placed inside.  Looks like the bears are doing a fine job.

After driving for less than 10 minutes into the park I took this photo of surrounding snow-capped mountains.

We learned from our trip to Yosemite this spring that whenever traffic on park roads slows down that  there is usually wildlife nearby to view.  This holds true for Yellowstone as well.  After 30 or 40 minutes of driving we were alongside a large and long meadow in which we saw quite a few elk.

When you see two large bull elk this close together you know it is not to discuss the weather.

These fine ladies were probably uppermost in their minds.

We could hear the sound of antlers colliding with a loud cracking sound even from a couple hundred yards away. This was round one of a long fight, so we continued toward Old Faithful.

We waited less than 30 minutes for Old Faithful to erupt.  Pretty cool for a column of hot water. 

While waiting I spotted this little 3-footed chipmunk who was looking for a snack. He was a real crowd pleaser.

Then we headed over to see some unusual hydro-thermal features of the park.  We learned from one of the exhibits that Yellowstone Park sits atop an active volcano.  It is this pool of molten lava and heat and superheated waters that creates the amazing thermal activity in the park.

This is not snow.  It is dissolved minerals as are the yellow bands near the top center of the photo.

Sometimes we could feel the heat and smell the sulfur and other chemicals from these pools of hot water.

On the way home we saw this magnificent elk.  While he was close to the scene of this morning's battle, I don't think he was the loser because there are no marks on him.  We did, however, see the same herd over which the battle was waged and the big bull elk was resting in the grass with a herd of at least eight.


Stay tuned.