Yellowstone NP - The Adventure Continues

Tuesday, July 13th, and we drove back into the Park again today to the Old Faithful Geyser Basin for a trip around the boardwalk paths behind the old boy. We didn't get to this area either in 2007 or this week so we had to try it. They have some beautiful springs and geysers back there so I took a movie of one of them spouting off for us. Old Faithful was getting close to blowing so we stopped and found a nice place to take a movie from behind it, using several trees to frame the eruption. Very nice effect. The wind was blowing hard so I made good use of my tripod to steady both the DSLR as well as the Kodak movie cameras. Temperature is still holding in the upper 60's, fairly consistent each day that we have been here (upper 30's at night). Should pull out Wednesday morning for Billings, Montana as an overnight then on to Hill City, SD for Custer State Park and Mount Rushmore. More after getting to Hill City.

Painted Bison

For those of you who have been in West Yellowstone, you know that one of the common sights in town are the Painted Bison around town. We can't have a blog without a picture of one of them. This Bison was outside of the Wolf and Grizzly Discovery Center with others spread out around town.

July 11th Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center

Sunday morning we slept in on an overcast rainy day. The clouds were hanging below the tops of the surrounding mountain peaks so we decided to just spend the day at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center here in West Yellowstone. There is an interesting exhibit building as you walk in and then paths among the large cages holding some wolves and another holding several bears. The wolves were taking their mid day sleep and would only raise their heads every once in a while. A naturalist held a "seminar" over at the bear area which was very interesting, then they put up some bird food in tree branches and apple chunks under various piles of wood. I did get a good 30 minute movie of the talk and the bears coming out to find the seed and apples. Christine and Laura, I got a Teachers DVD on bears and wolves that I will bring back with me. It is to be used in a computer in the classroom to teach about the animals. Hope that you both find it interesting.

July 8 - 10 Yellowstone National Park

Picture of the back of the Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone.

We arrived at the Lionshead RV resort Thursday afternoon early and set up (getting good at that). Friday is Carolyn's Birthday so she got breakfast and flowers when she got up, then drove up into Yellowstone for the day. Treated her to dinner at "Bullwinkle's" in West Yellowstone. Happy Birthday Carolyn.

Saturday we had breakfast and drove back into the park to "Old Faithful" and the basin. We had a nice walk down the outside trail toward the Riverside Geyser and the "Castle Geyser" then back down for lunch and a view of "Old Faithful" in the afternoon. On the trip back home we saw several single Bison, no herds through and stopped for awhile to watch part of the Madison River Elk herd as they grazed close to us. Of little note in descriptions of the Yellowstone area (noted in the Colorado Springs area also) is the phenomena of the EXPLODING MAYONNAISE. Anna, particularly has experienced this personally. At around 6000 feet altitude, mayonnaise in a plastic container will tend to be come over pressurized on the inside and come out forcefully when opened, much to her surprise. She had a laugh at Carl today however as he opened a tube of suntan lotion, and had to quickly put his finger on the hole to stop it erupting.