Yellowstone, Part Two

                                         

We headed out pretty early the next day and spent a full day seeing the many sites of Yellowstone.  It was not the least bit crowded.  I doubt there were more than 30 people in the viewing area for Old Faithful.

We started to take a path just off of the Old Faithful boardwalk, but soon found that it was closed due to a bear sighting the day before.  We just missed our chance to be eaten by (I mean SEE!) a bear!

                                         

 I believe this is Sapphire Pool in the Biscuit Basin area.  I couldn't believe the intensity of the color, especially against the gray of the rock.

 I was a teeny bit disappointed that Grand Prismatic Spring was not very visible from the board walk.  The aerial pictures I'd seen were incredible.  It was still pretty impressive though!

 I took a parking lot picture as proof of the lack of crowds.  Compared so some of the sights, like Old Faithful, this lot looks quite full!

 We spent some time at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  It was quite a sight!  There was a very friendly man with powerful binoculars watching (I think) peregrine falcons.  He was very nice and let us look through the binoculars.  I never could find the darn birds, so I just had to pretend. ;)  We learned that he was starting a new job there at Yellowstone the next day.  He seemed pretty excited!

 You can't tell in the picture, but I'm standing on a little bridge with the water rushing underneath.  Kind of a weird feeling!

Seemed like there was an incredible view of the falls with each bend in the trail.  We didn't even begin to see all that Yellowstone has to offer, as I think that would take quite a long time!  We were glad to see some highlights though!

Our First Day at Yellowstone!

When we arrived in Yellowstone, it was pretty gray and cloudy.  We stopped at the Yellowstone Foundation for a bit of information.  It was in a cool old building that had been a general store, but I failed to get any pictures.  We were there in April, which is really before the Yellowstone season gets going.

 There were some good and bad points to that.  The best part was that nothing was crowded.  There wasn't much traffic and the parking lots were empty or nearly empty.  The bad part was that parts of the park weren't open yet, like the road to Yellowstone Lake.  We learned that it's not just the amount of snow that causes the roads to be closed, but how packed it is due to snow mobiles.  It takes a long time to chip away at that or for it to melt.

 The volunteer at the welcome center suggested roads for us to drive where we were the most likely to see animals.  We watched and watched for a moose or bear, but didn't see either.  We did see lots of elk, who were obviously not concerned about us at all!

 I think the most interesting thing we saw that day was the Norris Geyser Basin area.  I've just never seen anything like it.  I though that Badlands looked otherworldly, but this doesn't even look like it is really on earth.  A very strangely beautiful place - and stinky too!

Devil's Tower and a Long Lost Twin

Next stop was the Devil's Tower National Monument.  You can read the legend of how Devil's Tower came to be here:  http://www.devilstower.net/legend.html

At a rest stop just outside Devil's Tower, I saw this unsuspecting fellow who looks a lot like our friend Kevin.  It wasn't easy to get a picture without him noticing, but here's my best attempt!  We may have been giggling a little too loud - the poor guy probably thought we were nuts!

We enjoyed several picnics along the way...looks like we've already cleaned up from this one!

Have you seen the episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where Marie takes a sculpting class and makes a sculpture that she believes to be abstract, but everyone thinks is SOMETHING else?  She tries to donate it to the church, but the nuns won't take it after the shock of seeing it.  Anyway...we kinda thought this wind or smoke sculpture had some of the same, er, qualities. ;)

Sturgis and Spearfish Canyon

The next day, we headed out toward Yellowstone.  We took it easy and made a few stops along the way.  We had to see what all the fuss is about in Sturgis.  I'm not sure what I expected, as it certainly wasn't Bike Week.  Sturgis is just a quiet little town - with a LOT of tattoo shops!

Next we took a scenic highway through Spearfish Canyon.  We saw several beautiful waterfalls,

 including this one called Roughlock Falls.

 It was a very peaceful place!

Mt. Rushmore

From Wall Drug, we headed to Mt. Rushmore.  The weather was perfect!

On the recommendation of friends, after leaving Mt. Rushmore, we took the Needles Highway.  As you can see on the GPS, it was pretty curvy!

Here we are at a scenic overlook off the Needles Highway.

Next, we drove through Custer State Park where we got an up close introduction to some buffalo!  I made my mother very nervous with my window rolled down taking pictures! ;)  

Badlands National Park

In April, we loaded up and headed west.  One very long day of driving got us near Badlands National Park in South Dakota.  This was our first major stop on our vacation.  Badlands is a pretty cool place.  Kind of looks otherworldly we thought.  

I love how blue the sky looks in the west.

After some time climbing around on the rocks and checking out the visitor center, we headed to the famous Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota.  It was quite a place!  It went on and on and on and held every possible souvenir you could possible want, plus a bunch that you wouldn't want!  We had lunch in the cafe before hitting the road again.

Hello? Is anyone home?

This old blog has been getting a little dusty lately!  I have lots of pictures on the camera that need a place to go, so I will give it a whirl.  First, a February and March update.  

 My Grandmother celebrated a big birthday!  I won't say which one, but I will say that she does not seem that particular age to me.  Last summer, she asked me to type up some stories and memories she'd written down.  I was awfully slow to get it done, but I finally got started and it turned into a cool Blurb book with lots of pictures.  I'd hoped to get it done for Christmas, but I didn't so it because her birthday present.  The neat thing is that it's not just a present for her, but for her kids and grandkids as well.

 I turned fauxty!  Read carefully - I said I turned fauxty not FORTY!  My funny office mates decorated our office with lots of signs and lights, all saying I was 40.  It was pretty funny.  My birthday is not in March, and I am a few years yet from actually turning 40.  But try telling that to the people who walked by and saw the decorations!  My protests of "I'm NOT 40!" were met with chuckles of "yeah, I turned 39 a few times too."   So we decided it was my fauxtieth birthday.  Clever, huh?  I did insist on lunch out, which is our birthday tradition.

 I met up with friends for the annual St. Patrick's Day parade.  My friend Dawn and her boys were able to join us this year.  Wonderful godmother that I am, I taught Colby how to flip a bar coaster off the edge of a table.  Of course, he was immediately much better at it than I am, but I'm still taking credit for him learning that particular skill. ;)

Last summer, my friend Melissa (on the left) made, and I do mean MADE, me read The Hunger Games.  It didn't sound like anything I would be interested in, but once I got started I couldn't put it down.  Then she MADE Jenny (in the middle) read it as well.  We were hooked and all went to see the movie together when it came out over spring break.  We can't wait for the next one!

Those are the highlights (at least what I have pictures of!) of February and March.  Next up...April when my parents and David and I embarked on a journey west!