Yellowstone Day Hike, Part 4 UPDATED

Just wanted to share with you our day hike that we did on our Memorial Weekend trip to Yellowstone. We went on the hike on Sunday. It was hot and sunny that day. WE hike in the area of Tower Falls about 8 miles. We started on the Stagecoach Road that is used in the cumer months to give people stagecoach rides to a BBQ spot. We had to skirt by some buffalo at the start of the hike and at the end. I got some pictures at the end so you'll see in a minute. Our hike started out in a meadow/sage brush covered land. We saw tons of gophers running to their holes when they heard us coming. Then we cut through a tight valley that followed a creek and it was more wooded with big boulders and rocky landscape. We also saw lots of flowers along the trail so of course I had to stop, much to Erik's dismay, at about every flower trying to get a good picture. I did slow us up a bit! Here's a few we saw in that valley:

A prairie rose:

A sticky geranium:

Here's a nice shot of the trail, Erik and Elk Creek.

We came to a spur trail about halfway through our hike that connected to another trail that lead to a suspension bridge over the Yellowstone River. From the bridge we saw the river far below and beautiful in it's power. After lunch I found a spot where I could see both the river and the bridge. Maybe it will give you a small sense of what it was like to be there. Some cushion phlox on the trail after lunch:

Goofing off while replenishing our water.

After lunch our trail followed the Yellowstone River up on a ridge. This spot offered amazing views:

We also saw the two big horn sheep on this part of the trail. (see post about animals for the picture). Here is another one of the variety of views we had on this hike.

And this is the very end of the trail. We had to pass by some buffalo. They do not look very close but when you see how BIG they are you really don't want to get too close to them.

Overall, a wonderful hike, not too hard and beautiful scenery! Hope you enjoyed trekking with us! Stay tuned for the final Yellowstone enstallment: More Beautiful sites around the park. Later.....

Geysers and Hot Springs and Mud Pits, Oh MY!

What would Dorothy have thought if she had landed in Yellowstone instead of OZ? What did the early explorers think? Can you imagine seeing a geyser shooting up out of no where? Even in today's well educated and vastly diverse world they were a wonder to see! Our first day in the park we went to places like Fountain Paint Pots, Upper Geyser Basin and Old Faithful area. But even the following days we saw geothermal areas everywhere in the park. It was really interesting and stinky with sulfur at times! Here are some of the better pictures that we got of various geothermal activity.

I'm not sure the name of this one but it was one of the few pictures we got that wasn't obscured with steam. The air temp was low even thought it was sunny and about 70 the wind seemed cooler, thus lots of steam.

This one's interesting because of the vivid color but it was full of steam so the actual blue green large pool was masked in white.

Here's a nice shot of Old Faithful showing it's stuff:

Some places just had yummy green and yellow bacteria growing in those hot spots. Here's a closeup of one.

I love this shot of the wide view of the geyser area near Old Faithful.

Here's another wide view shot with more geysers in it. The river is called Firehole River.

The two of us in front of a geyser.

This was taken at an area called Mud Volcano. This is a buffalo awfully close to the "Churning Cauldron".

And last but not least is a picture of the view over the Mud Cauldron and Yellowstone River.

The geothermal sights of Yellowstone were a wonder to see. If you ever get a chance to see them it will be well worth it!

Hope you're enjoying these installments from our trip to Yellowstone. Check back tomorrow for other beautiful sites we saw. Catch you later!

Yellowstone N.P. Part 2: Animals Big and Small

While in Yellowstone we saw LOTS of animals. Driving just about anywhere we saw bison, bison and more bison. In fact, in Montana it's big news about the bison that are getting outside the park because the risk spreading bruscelossis (a disease) to the cattle population. So they've been "hazing" the buffalo, flying helicopter and such to herd them back into the park. Here's some of the pics we got of the buffalo:

Oh NO! Trouble in Blogland...... pictures aren't loading right now. SO, I'm off to work this evening and next. Check back on Monday for the continuation of the Yellowstone story. Sorry!

EDIT 6/4/07: Hopefully my computer will cooperate today....let's see where was I...oh the huge buffalo. Here's a shot of some buffalo by the Madison River.

some of the buffalo were huge. here's a picture of one of the biggest that we saw.

This one was right in our campground!

and the last buffalo picture is a big guy that knew right where to go:

But we didn't just see buffalo we also saw....

Marmots:

Big horn sheep (young ones):

Elk:

a black bear:

We also saw a grizzly bear, a couple pronghorn antelope, lots of gophers and birds galor. We just didn't get pictures of everything!

Hope you enjoyed the animals today. Tomorrow check out the Geysers and Hot Springs. Until then....

Yellowstone N.P. Part 1

Well, we've been busy lately. I started my new job at St. Patrick's Hospital doing what I was meant to do all along but got a way from: taking care of people. I'm really enjoying the work and the hospital. I think it's going to be a good long term place to work.

Heading into the Memorial Weekend we asked our selves: Should we go to Yellowstone? adn we decided a resounding YES. The west entrance is only about 4 hours away. We left on Friday afternoon and stopped to camp for the night about 30-45 minutes outside of the park on Hwy 191 in the Gallatin River Valley. It is a narrow valley/canyon and it was cool/cold when we camped there. The little bit of water left in our supper dished has iced over by morning. It was a very nice campground right on the river. We stayed in a 3 person backpacking tent that Erik has had for some time but never let me in on the secret....it's like the Taj Mahal! (that is whenyou're used to a small 2 -person backpacking tent!) Here's some pics:

Our Tent Set up near the river

View of river from campsite:

Pumping water in the morning: The next day we headed into Yellowstone. We saw lots of animals and geysers and great sights. (pics and details will be in following parts). In Yellowstone we stayed in a very nice campground near Yellowstone Lake. We were right by a meadow and buffalo, deer and hawks would show up. Here's a picture of that campsite:

Well, That's it for today. Check in tomorrow for Part two: Yellowstone Animals big and small.