Day 13 - Yellowstone

Pictures have been updated at the blog page titled Yellowstone pictures. This is the last update to Yellowstone pictures, as we leave tomorrow morning for Great Falls, MT on the way to Glacier National Park.

Today was to have been a leisurely drive around the entire park just looking for animals and stopping for one last eruption at Old Faithful.

We had barely gotten inside the park when we came upon a large group of cars pulled off the road. The male bald eagle (from the eagle nest we saw the very first day) was perched up on the very top of a tree across the little river from the road. Of course, I had to jump out and take his picture - 3 times. They are the first new pictures in Yellowstone animals. He is on the tree right in the middle of the picture - you can clearly see his white head.

Then, on into the park and we head south towards Old Faithful. I had been a little disappointed in the geyser when we saw it on Wednesday. I thought it was a little weak and I wanted to give it one more change. On the way to the site, we came upon a walkway (just past the Midway Geyser Basin) to Fairy Falls. So, off we went. Then we realized that the walkway we were on was the one mile walk to the access trail to Fairy Falls. The total, one way walk was 2.6 miles. We had promised ourselves that we would not take any long walks today since we were driving the entire circumference of the park!!! So, we walked out a little ways and then turned back to the car.

On to Old Faithful. She was scheduled to erupt in about 20 minutes from the time we arrived. So, we decided to walk around the walkway to the back side of the geyser to get a different view. I found a place to take the pictures where the sun would not be directly in my face. Jimmy called our friend Jim Bennett in Corinth to update him on our trip. While they were talking, Old Faithful made a minimal eruption. I, for one, thought it was over since it was not much less than the one we saw the other time. So, down to the cell phone I went to give Jim the web site for this blog. I no sooner hung up than Old Faithful put on a most spectacular show. It went for about 4 minutes and the spray was at least two times higher than we had seen it on our previous visit. I have appended the pictures that I took today to the Yellowstone Geyser set of pictures. I kind of just held the button down on the camera and let it take pictures.

After the show, Jimmy went in to talk to the rangers about where to find bear. They told us to head north towards the Hayden area. But, they also told him that it would be just plain out old fashioned luck if we were to see one. So, up to the cafeteria for lunch and on to the car for the drive.

It was my turn to drive. We had to go back over the mountain passes that we went over yesterday when it was sleeting. Today, it was absolutely glorious. No rain. No snow. No sleet. Almost no motorcycles. As we came out of the pass, Jimmy started looking down into the meadows through the binoculars looking for bear. None to be seen. We saw some buffalo (they are everywhere), but no bear. We had just about given up when we saw lots of cars pulled off the highway - rather helter skelter. Obviously, they had seen something important, and we needed to join them. So, I pulled off the side of the road (actually off the road vs. just kind of off the road) and we traipsed off across a hilly meadow to see what was going on. There was a black bear. Now, we didn't get close enough to determine if it was a black bear or a grizzly bear or an adult or a cub. But, we did get to see our second bear of the trip. One couple that we talked to had two children. The little boy had made a wish to see a bear when he blew on a dandelion. He got his wish, and we got ours.

The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful. Just back to West Yellowstone and to the RV for a night of relaxation before we head out in the morning.

I did forget to include one funny thing that we saw yesterday. As we were heading out of the park, we saw our second wreck of the day. It was an RV which had apparently backed its rear wheels off the roadway. It was just sitting there with its front wheels on the road and its underbody on the curb. Yes, the wrecker was there to pull him out!!! Maybe it was a rental unit!!!

Till tomorrow.