Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone felt enormous... I might even go as far as saying it is enormous.  There is so much to see and tons of people taking advantage of the sights.

We were hoping to see some brown bears in the wild, unfortunately at the time most bears hang out in the high country.  Instead, we went to the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center.  They have lots of fun facts and displays.  There focus is on co-existence.  The problem with grizzlies getting too familiar with humans is the big theme and what we can do to prevent that.  Of course, they give instructions on what to if attacked.  This begs the question.  How good would you be at playing dead if your head was in a grizzly bears mouth?  We read some accounts of bear attack survivors who were convincing enough and they lived to tell about it.  

They look pretty cute and cuddly to me.

Photogenic wolf.

Be the bear.  This a bear trap used to capture problem bears with the hope of relocation.  GRRR

RV twins.  Both RVs have the same "Fly" front plate too.  

Upper falls in Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

I love this shot that Jim took of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  

I didn't really know much about the volcanic activity in YS until I saw it first hand.  This is muddy hot spring is Dragon's Mouth.  

How could we go to YSNP without visiting Old Faithful?

The geysers and hot springs create an interesting landscape.  The mountains in the back are showing new growth while still revealing some of the charred stumped resulting from the 1988 fire.

I love the contrasting colors resulting from the sulfur.  If you stand downwind, you can get a nice facial.  It reminded me of Florida in August.

The water from this hot springs flows into a river called Firehole.  We fished in the river.  It's quite scenic and has some areas were swimming is common.  Elk and buffalo sightings are common, but have become old hat for Jim and I.

Some of the terrain doesn't even look earthly.  

 

I really didn't feel photogenic.  I'm wearing my fish-finder sunglasses.

It looks inviting.  There is a book called "Death in Yellowstone:  Accidents and Fool hardiness in the First National Park".  It describes some of the ways people have died in the park, lighting, animal attacks, falling in hot springs and more.  There is a story of a man who jumped into a hot spring after his dog fell in.  The spring measured 202 degrees fahrenheit.  The dog died pretty quickly and the man died of few days after said bad decision.  One hope of a book on death is that if one becomes aware of the history, one won't repeat history.

There are a bunch of what I call baby geysers in certain spots.  There is a walkway that takes you to each of these.  It's really tempting to step off the walk way and get a closer look.  There are even foot prints near the baby geyser that would lead a rascally person to surmise that it's okay to break the rules just his 0nce.   Luckily we read about the dangers ahead of time and once again left unscathed. 

Jim and I are currently in Yosemite.  Cell phone and internet are only available at the Ahwahnee Hotel.  The hotel is said to be haunted as it's built on an indian burial ground.  So far nothing suspicious has come to pass, but I'll let you know.

Thanks for reading.

Greetings from Missoula, Montana

It's been a long time, but I prefer posting with pictures and that has proven to be tedious if not impossible.  The two pictures in this post are the only ones I've been able to download since the last post.  We've been asking around and may be able to purchase, yet another, gadget to boost our reception.  We spent the holiday in West Yellowstone and Yellowstone Park.  I'll give more details as the photos become available.  For now, it's story time....

Jim and I hired a guide to take us fly fishing in YSNP.  YSNP is known for its fly fishing and we weren't disappointed.  Jim was on fire.  He was catching fish left and right.  I was so happy for/annoyed with him.  The guide, Casey, and I were down stream working on my backhand, when we see a bull elk galloping toward Jim.  We shout to Jim, since he was sooo busy catching fish, he hadn't noticed.  This was a beautiful mature bull, nice rack.  Mind you, elk are not thought of as super aggressive animals, but this "massive beast" is coming up on Jim with a bit of speed.  Jim remains calm and starts waving his arms and calling to him in a dominant voice like you would to a horse or to cattle.  He's so cowboy.  But the bull's not stopping.  In fact, it hops into the river just above where Jim is wading.  

Meanwhile, Casey and I are far enough away that anything we did would be too late should the unthinkable happen (and believe me we were thinking it).  

Jim reeled in his line and slowly made his way to shore.  He told me later he saw a dead fall and was planning on jumping under it should the bull charge.  

Both Jim and the elk exited the river, but the elk still seemed interested in Jim.  The bull moved closer, but at the last minute the bull past Jim by and galloped down the river past Casey and I.  Casey and I grabbed our jaws off the river floor and made our way over to Jim.  Casey was astonished to say the least as he's been a fishing guide for the past three summers and had never heard of nor seen such behavior.  Feeling a great sense of relief, our dark senses of humor quickly took over as I accused Jim of spraying himself with elk pheromones.  Casey jumped right in mentioning his worries about liability and signing waivers.  

This story as written here is as close to the truth as it gets.  Should Jim relate this story at a later date, Casey and I will back up whatever he says, regardless of whether or not it contradicts this blog post.

Roaring River valley, RMNP

We arrived today in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.  So far, we really like it here and plan on staying an extra day.  Next stops are Seattle and Vancouver.  We'll stay over night near Seattle and quickly move on to Vancouver.  In Vancouver, Jim is going on a wild life expedition, while I go on a meditation retreat on Salt Spring Island.  Next, we come back down and check out the Seattle area and gradually head south till we hit San Luis Obispo, CA.  

Till next time, never underestimate an elk.