Yellowstone, America's First National Park

Post for August 11th

Next stop was Yellowstone.  We took a family trip here 12 years ago.  It was interesting what Kelly remembered from that trip.  She didn't remember a lot of it, so for the most part this was like her first visit, which was exciting.

After a brief stop at Lewis Falls we headed to Old Faithful.  We arrived just before a predicted eruption and joined the thousands of people waiting to see Yellowstone's most famous attraction.  As we waited, we kept our eye on the darkening sky behind us which was soon followed by thunder.  Yes, we had brought the bad weather with us!  Old Faithful erupted and then everyone made a dash for the visitors center.  The rangers warned everyone to stay indoors until the storm had passed.

Old Faithful

After the ranger told us that the bigger storm was coming from the south and dropping half-inch hail we decied it was time to head north toward Mammoth Springs where we were staying for the night to try and avoid the hail.  On the way up we could see the lightning towards Mammoth so we stopped at Norris Geyser Basin to check out the geysers there.  Lots of interesting thermal features to see and we weren't getting rained on too much.

We finished the run up to Mammoth where it promptly started pouring.  The desk clerk told Kelly that she could pull Jane in under the overhang if it started hailing - now that's an understanding staff!  Fortunately there wasn't any hail with this storm, so Jane just got a good washing instead.

Not looking good coming into Mammoth Springs

One of the great things about this trip is the number of people we've met who have been interested enough in Jane to strike up a conversation.  As I'm typing this post up there's a biker group from Australia on their way back from Sturgis talking outside.  We had a great time talking to them earlier as they were admiring Jane and Kelly was showing them all the mods.  Kelly later admitted that she didn't understand half of what they said!

Our second day in Yellowstone had much better weather.  There was still some haze from the fires farther west, but otherwise mostly sunny.  If you've ever been to Mammoth you know there afre lots of elk hanging around the hotel.  Often it's hard to avoid them.  How's this for yard maintenance?

Keeping the grass nice & tidy

We checked out the travertine terraces at Mammoth and then headed back south for more geyser viewing.

On the wayway south we came across a black bear by the road.  Here's my "artistic" shot of him.  Keep in mind that the Mustang is moving in one direction, the bear is moving in the opposite direction and the photographer is trying to change settings from shooting something that's been around for hundreds of thousands of years to something on the move in trees.  Unintentional or not, I like it!

Black bear on the move

Back to the thermal features, we checked out several areas on the way back to Old Faithful, our destination for the evening.  The areas were very crowded but well worth the stops.  That's Yellowstone in summer though.

As we toured the geyser basin we heard a loud roar and appropriately named Lion geyser erupted right next to us!  The mist and water dropping on us was surprisingly cold.

Lion Geyser

We even saw some wildlife on the geyser trail, including an Osprey eating a trout it had caught.

Osprey

As we were walking from our cabin to the lodge to get some ice, we heard the best quote of the trip so far.  A girl and her mother were walking toward us and the girl exclaimed "Hey Mom, it's the cool Mustang people!".  Mom, who was on her cell,  looked slightly embarrassed, but we loved it!

More to come the next day on this story...