Montana Interlude

 

Page 2 - Friday, June 15, 2001

Today we plan to go to Yellowstone.  We get up at 6 AM (early for Gretchen).  Breakfast is at 8 AM.  Each breakfast will be wonderful.  As I recall, today it started off with a fruit cup.  That was followed by a baked southwestern omelet that had beans in it toped by salsa and sour cream.  It was accompanied by fried potatoes and a home made sweet roll/muffin.  Orange juice and coffee/tea were also served.

 

After breakfast (about 9 am) it is off to Yellowstone.  We go in the west entrance through the town of West Yellowstone.  We stopped at a municipal building that had a Park Service employee.  We buy our pass and get maps/info about Yellowstone.  Now into Yellowstone we go.  It is about 10:30 am.  We plan to take the loop south and then to the east and then north to exit out the north entrance.

 

Here are the photos.

Photos along the Firehole River.  In the first picture are some fishermen.  In the park, they must release what they catch.  Pat is in the 3rd picture.

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An elk along the highway - there must have been 25 cars stopped to take photos and look at the elk.  There were 2 or 3 elk here.

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Geyser Basin

Fountain Paint Pot - many small geysers.  All throughout this part of Yellowstone, there is geothermal activity including geysers.  In the fourth picture, Pat and Gretchen are walking along the boardwalk.  

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Another photo opportunity, this time bison along the road.  Again, there were many cars stopped and taking pictures.  Gretchen got the second picture out of the car window.

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Old Faithful both before shooting water way up and while erupting.  Two pictures of Pat and Gretchen in front of Old Faithful as well.  When Old Faithful goes off, it shoots water 50 or more feet into the air.  It is quite a sight.

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Another elk.

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Some more geothermal activity.

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Yellowstone Lake

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A male elk laying in a meadow.

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Upper and Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

This was a spectacular sight.  The canyon walls appear to be painted and both waterfalls were fabulous.  The first 7 pictures were taken at Artists Point.  The lower falls are in several of them.  In the 6th picture, Pat and Gretchen frame the lower falls.  The last picture is of the upper falls.

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Scenery while traveling from the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone to Tower Falls.

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Tower Falls

We hiked down to the base of Tower Falls.  Going down was relatively easy but the climb back up was more strenuous.   It was a steep path.  Gretchen and I are in the 6th picture.  The last 3 pictures show Gretchen on a big rock in the middle of the river.

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Scenery while traveling towards the North Exit.

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A Mother and Baby bear.  We were fortunate to get this shot.  The bears were heading for the hills.  Again, looked for stopped cars blocking the road.  There must be wildlife!

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Two elk in Mammoth Hot Springs keeping the grass under control.  There must have been 20 or more elk in this town.

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We leave Yellowstone around 8 pm and head back to Bozeman.  The north entrance is closer to Bozeman than is the west entrance.  It is about an hour back to Bozeman.  We stop at Spanish Peaks Brewery for dinner.  The food was excellent and the beer was cold.  We get back to Fox Hollow around 9:45 pm.  We have a homemade cookie and head for our beds.  It has been a long busy day.

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