Yellowstone

We have spent several days at Yellowstone. It is such a big park that it takes a long time to drive around to see things. Then if you get caught in a traffic jam because bison are crossing the road, (happened to us a couple of times!) it is even slower! We stayed at an RV park so that we could have hook-ups after 4 days in the Tetons with no hook-ups. Everything needed charging! We were also told to keep everything inside as there was a grizzly bear in our area! We didn’t ever see it, but the ranger was keeping people out of an area nearby because the bear was close to where we were. Our first drive was to see Old Faithful, the obvious destination! We not only got to see Old Faithful twice, but the Beehive Geyser behind it, which only goes off several times a week. It shoots twice as high as Old Faithful. Other days we did short hikes around the many bubbling mud pots, multi-colored and/or varied formations of the geysers or steam vents, plus the waterfalls, river, and Yellowstone Lake. The last day we enjoyed a short bike ride to Natural Bridge, a picnic by the rapids of Yellowstone River, and catching up on things (like laundry!) Even had buffalo patties for dinner!

No cell phone service, nor is there any place to connect to the internet in the Park. I’m finding it is not as easy as I thought to get on-line, so we apologize for not posting on the blog often enough! Finally got on-line at a KOA campground in Buffalo, WY -- we're using our KOA Gift Certificates -- thank you, Christ Church! We had to drive many miles out of our way today, going west and north instead of east to get out of the park. The Columbine Fire that has been burning uncontained for days meant the east exit was closed -- lots of smoke in the park much of the time we were there. Driving north there was another fire in western Montana -- a smoky day! Jason is on a bulldozer crew right now dealing with the wildfire that has been burning for weeks in Santa Barbara County, so we have been thinking of him during this time.