August 16. Day 14

Aug16 - day 14

We left the campsite at 7:10 am and in a 41 degree morning with lots of fog and mist over the lake and river.  Visibility about 75 feet in some spots so we crept along so as to not hit an animal at that early hour.

This was the day to travel up to Mammoth Hot Springs, which is pretty much at the north entrance to the park.  took a couple hours to get up there and the drive was really enjoyable.  The northern area looks totally different than the central and southern areas.  Much more rocky, like Rocky Mountains and a lot of cedar trees, where the others areas have mostly pines.  

Good thing the drive up to the north is so gorgeous, because many of the hot springs are inactive now.

They go dormant for a year or more and then become active again.  Lots of inactivity now.    Quite a disappointment.  

On the plus side though, I did not realize that Fort Yellowstone is at Mammoth and the buildings and grounds are immaculate.  Some of the buildings are being restored and will be even more beautiful.  What a great posting that would be for an army family!  It is only about 10 minutes from Gardiner, Montana.

Also, I was able to buy an hour of Wifi time in the restaurant there.  Most of the coverage here in the park is Verizon and we have AT&T (of course).  We do get some service at the Canyon village area but that is about an hour from where our camp is.  The Wifi this morning allowed me to post two blog entries and clear a ton of junk email.

And of course, we can't start a day without bison on the road!  Lol! Jim says that if I don't do a few bison paintings, he will go in and erase the 400 or so photos I have of them (so far).  He is teasing of course, but I have become rather obsessive at getting the "perfect" shot in terms of pose and lighting.  And some of shots are made while Jim is driving down the the road and the bison I'm trying to photograph are 2 feet from my car window.  So exciting!  I do plan to edit a lot and only keep the ones that really appeal to me.

I do have to tell you that people often take the bison for granted, even though there are warning signs all over about the danger of being closer than 75 feet.  They are wild and strong and can injure someone seriously.  Look at these idiots I photographed this morning.  Wayyyyy too close!

Three and a half days here have allowed us to see most of what we came for.  If we were experienced hikers and had all the paraphernalia to scare off bears, I could stay a lot longer.  

My big disappointment is in not seeing a bear nor an elk.  Plenty of bear and elk scat scattered around to remind me that they do actually roam around here.  Just would have been so thrilling to see a bear.  We have seen plenty elk on our trips to Colorado in the past.  As it is, we have decided to leave here Sunday instead of waiting until Tuesday and spend a couple nights near Jackson Hole so that we can experience the Tetons.  (And Jim is just thrilled that they have more bison for me to photograph!  Tee-hee!). My favorite things here in Yellowstone have been the views of the lake, river and falls, Old Faithful, the bison and just the majestic beauty of this vast wilderness every where we looked.  I don't have enough words to express my gratitude to the folks who had the vision to preserve this amazing place!  We had no idea of the size of this magnificent national park!

Tetons, here we come!  Another exciting new place to see!  Yay!  The adventure continues!