June 18: The Road to Yellowstone

Sunday June 18

Happy Father’s Day! Joe and Gary got calls from their kids to wish them a happy day. We got a campground inside Yellowstone for tonight and will move to another place tomorrow. We didn’t have reservations so it took a while to find a plae that had two sites vacant. But we did, and we unhitched and headed out to see some of the park.
Yellowstone is HUGE!! Two million acres of protected forest. It’s about 75 miles across from one side to another. So today we explored the west side, close to oru campsite. Saw beautiful snow-capped mountains, lake Yellowstone, which is also huge, and bubbling pools of sulphuric acid from volcanoes that erupted years ago and are still festering. Beautiful running rapids, waterfalls and the “Grand Canyon” of Yellowstone. Yesterday someone went over the edge and fell to her death off the side of one of the cliffs. Anyway, it was a beautiful day. Also saw lots of wildlife – Bison, pelicans (!!) elk, deer, and a crowd of people were watching a grizzly bear along the river. Stopped at an ice cream shoppe before heading back to the camp. Had a headache so took a nap, Gary cooked soup and we all went our separate ways. Moving tomorrow to a site outside the park near Ashton, Idaho for 3 days. Will come back to explore the rest of the park, including Old Faithful. Tomorrow.




Some of the road was a bit rough...there were spots where there was no guardrail and a very steep drop-off. It was a challenge trying to look at and photograph the scenery while holding on with all your might going along these narrow roads...!

Sometimes, we just snapped pictures because there was something pretty to look at...

...and sometimes we snapped photos of the wildlife sharing the road!

They're pretty scary looking, huh?

Look closely at this photo...those are pelicans in the air!

This is Dragon Mouth Springs where we got a glimpse of what was to come the rest of the days we were in Yellowstone. Hot geysers are everywhere and it's really dangerous to walk near the water - it's extremely hot and some is highly acidic.

But...we did get to spend some time relaxing by the water. This is Joe and Joan (above) and Gary and me (below) at Yellowstone Lake, with the Grand Tetons Mountain Range in the background.