On through Yellowstone

From Devil's Tower, we headed across Wyoming to Cody.  I was particularly impressed with all the wildlife on the open range.  Lots of deer and antelope. There were lots of snowbreaks too.  I'm sure they need them.

The best and worst part of the trip was going over the range of mountains.  We got up to about 8800 feet elevation, doing the hairpin turns all the way up.  The views were beautiful, but I'll have to admit to some trepidation near the top until we got down the other side. 

Cody is a nice size town, close to 9000 population.   They had another nice KOA, though not a match for the scenic appeal of Devils Tower.

We made it to Yellowstone National Park bright and early, while the crowds were light.  I fell in love with the place.  Everything was so natural, and plenty of turn outs for observation.  Turn your head to the right, there's water streaming through the crevices off the mountain.  Turn to the left and there's apt to be a bison, or deer.  My very favorite thing was an early morning treasure of seeing a momma moose with her little one trailing behind her, getting a drink at a stream.  My thoughts are that the little one couldn't have been more than 2 or 3 weeks old.   That was the only moose-sighting, but pretty special.  Sorry to say, didn't see any bears.  There were lots of bison.  We'd see anywhere from one or two at a time, to 20 or 30 grazing together.  Plenty of room to pull over and take pictures, though getting out of the car is discouraged.  

As we rounded one curve, it was fun to see a bison walking down the opposite lane of the road...with a bus and about 6 or 7 cars trailing behind. 

We saw the upper and lower falls, and Artists Point, and the mud volcanoes.  I didn't realize, having never really read up on Yellowstone, but it pretty much sits on top of a huge volcano.  All kinds of geological activity has occurred there over the years...and we're talking lots of years.  They estimate in the millions of years on about all of the formations. 

The other impressive thing...it's so clean.  Everyone is very respectful of the site, and you don't see a speck of litter.

Of course, you don't go to Yellowstone without seeing Old Faithful.  We had to wait a bit, as it had just let off steam, so we had a seat at the visitor's center.  There are benches all around the area in front of the geyser, but we figured we could see just as well where we were, and it was more comfortable.  During the interval, there's a constant small release of steam from it, as well as several other smaller geysers.   We had to chuckle when Old Faithful blew, and all the steam drifted in the breeze right across the crowd at the far end and they all took off running...they should have had a clue from the steam that was already spewing!

Feel free to click on any of the pics to enlarge.  The geyser is a bit blurred, but you'll get the idea.

We've taken a break in Boise for a bit so Carl can mow the yard and take care of a few chores, but I'll be back.  That's it for now!