Yellowstone

It is a volcano!

We looked at the thermal areas of Yellowstone from the Travertine terraces of Mammoth to the predictable violence of Old Faithful. We took ranger guided walks and explored on our own. We looked into crystal clear pools [ too hot for even the heat loving bacteria ], peered through sulphur rich steam at red blue green brown and black pools [ various types of heat loving bacteria] and marvelled at the gloopy little geysers in some mud pots [ acidic ]. We saw elk come in to drink in some pools and heard stories of elk and bison using the thermal areas like electric blankets in winter, stepping carefully over the boardwalks to find a comfortable spot for the night. We also heard from the ranger at Norris of wolves from the Hayden pack patrolling the boardwalks at night looking for any weaklings.

Oh yes the picture is of a small "volcano" that used to be used by fisherman to cook their catch.

Lots of wildlife.

We saw deer, elk, antelope, many many bison, coyotes and best of all wolves. [ See the separate entry below. ]

These elk were young bucks practicing their jousting at a Thumb geyser basin pool.














Some coyotes
have learned to beg by the roadside and the rangers are working hard to stop people feeding them. We saw this one and she was looking cute and posing for the camera.

We got special warnings about the bison.
An average of three attacks occur annually. Four fatalities have resulted from these attacks since 1975. Despite these warnings when bison walked through the campsite people got out and walked towards them. We were hiding behind our RV.


I was hoping to see ospreys as the streams around Yellowstone lake have been a hot spot for this spectacular bird. However mans interferance strikes again and they are now not common. Why, The bigger and more prolific deep swimming lake trout introduced to make the fisherman happy have taken over from the shallow swimming foot long cutthroat trout. However we did see this cheeky raven breaking into a motorcyclists chocolate stash.


We saw no bears but we did see evidence of bears in the form of bear poo. On the ranger lead walk about animal sign and tracking we learned how to differentiate between grizzly poo and black bear poo. He said

“If you look carefully and then smell it, the one that smells faintly of bear spray and contains small silver bells is definitely grizzly.”

People.

We watched tourists “doing” Yellowstone in a day Many companies offer special trips to do just that some even offering a retro coach. We liked the pace at which we did it but admired the scurrying ants heading to the next observation point.




The best moment for me was the wolf pack coming down from the high country in the Lamar valley. See the post below called Wolves.

One surprise was how busy the park is even in late September. Perhaps it was the excellent weather we had, bright sunny days with little wind. Many of the campgrounds were filling by mid-day and the rangers have no mercy, there is absolutely no boondocking in Yellowstone so many were forced out of the park at night, burning lots of fuel, so much for their "Green credentials".

We are in Jackson Hole at the moment, south of Yellowstone and Grand Teton staying in the priciest park we have stayed in but Jackson Hole is where the rich and famous come to holiday with mant "names" owning property here. We picked up our mail here and will be heading to Salt Lake City soon where Carol can do some genealogy as well we get to look around Mormon central.