Yellowstone

We spent our first day in West Yellowstone taking it easy.  In the morning we drove over to Earthquake Lake, the lake formed from an earthquake in 1959 killing 28 people when the hillside slid down across the Madison River, immediately blocking the water.  There were many families camped out all along the river that night.   19 of the folks were buried alive under tons of rubble, and the others drowned as the waters rose in the dark.  A very somber event.  Looks nice and peaceful now.

The cut on mountainside on the left is where the slide originated, you can see where
 it goes across the cut to form the lake

After lunch Jan and Karen walked into town to check out the shops, then went to the IMAX theatre, and the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center.  I took it easy and got a few chores done.

The next day we left at 0515am to head into the park.  Jan and I have a favorite overlook where we love to see the sun come up.  Karen was game even with the horrendous hour and joined us.  The park is very smoky, there are several active fires, so visibility depended on the wind direction and speed.  We were hoping to hear the Bull Elk bugling out across the valley, but the rut really hasn't started in earnest yet.  It is quite a sound.  No luck.

Good morning

I should mention that the hour we left is required for the distance, it is 52 miles to our viewpoint from the campground, one of the disadvantages of staying outside the park.  Our other disadvantage is we are too big to stay in almost all the campgrounds in the park.  Jan and I will leave even earlier in a day or so to be able to get to Lamar Valley to hopefully see some wolves, it's 73 miles!  We also wanted to show Karen as much of the park as possible as she is leaving us Thursday.

This is a Yellowstone traffic jam!

A shot of the ringleader who brought the group across the road in front of us.

In his prime, getting ready for the coming of winter

There were many Bison everywhere as usual, here's a couple of teenagers with mom.

Yellowstone is our favorite park, as they say, "The first and the best!"  We have been here about 10 times over the years and could come back every year.  There is always something new to see, the park is constantly changing, as fires burn off areas, the areas in recovery, different weather, animals moving from place to place, an amazing variety of topography and scenery, geothermal and geyser activity.  It is fantastic!  The park was opened in 1872 as our first National Park.  The main entrance at that time was the North entrance, this is the portal that was erected welcoming visitors to the park.

Here is a representative view of one of the geothermal areas active in Norris Geyser Basin.

A bubblin' and a steaming

We saw tons of Bison, a Kit Fox, a Coyote, Pronghorn Antelope, and Elk.  As I said the Elk rut is soon to begin, but for now the Bulls are still hanging out by themselves, feeding and growing their horns in preparation for the battles.

Bull elk

Meanwhile the cows are moving around in groups, having to eat morsels next to the roads, just kidding.

Eating small morsels along the road

We had a long day, did 175 miles in the Jeep, hiked a mile or so, walked around various features, took hundreds of photos and didn't get back until nearly 5pm.  We were 3 tired puppies!  Have to rest up and hit it again the next day!