Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 915/09

(Just now posting two days of activity. Yellowstone is a wireless free zone.) Day Two in Yellowstone and having a blast. We did the usual touristy things like visit Old Faithful, have lunch at Old Faithful Lodge, and took a couple of hikes to see the different geothermal activity. The hike I enjoyed the most was to Fountain Paint Pot. It showcased the whole gamut of geysers, mud pots and fumaroles. Spastic Geyser was the award winner. It continuously spouts water and steam in a pretty impressive show. Earlier in the day we had waited at least 40 minutes for Old Faithful to perform. It was a weak showing at best. The air temperature was cool enough that when it finally spouted, all we really saw was a huge cloud of steam. This in turn condensed and rained on us. Not what I exactly had in mind! Lunch in the old lodge was great fun. (Today’s picture is mom and I at the entrance. Mom had talked for weeks about visiting this lodge. It was special to share it with her). We had a corner table near both sets of windows where we enjoyed a leisurely meal chatting and joking around. We were definitely in vacation mode. We had plans to spend the evening playing Skip-bo, but after our long day sightseeing, eating dinner outside at our campsite and a fair amount of story-telling, we decided to call it a day. Tomorrow we head in different directions – the family heading for Glacier National Park while Ned and I head for Big Sky Country.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming 9/14/09

We woke up this morning to the sound of soft rain falling on the winniemobile and had anticipated a cool and rainy day. Au contraire! By the time we were up and about the skies were blue, there were wispy clouds hanging around the top of the Tetons and the air smelled that rich piney smell after it rains. Truly divine! (Picture of the day – Mr. Ned looking mighty fine in front of the Grand Tetons). We had agreed to connect up with the family at noon, so decided to make good use of our time this morning. We did a little site-seeing through-out the park, visiting Jackson Lodge and enjoyed a mid morning hike at Jenny Lake. My favorite morning so far! After we connected with the gang at noonish, Ned and I decided to forge ahead into Yellowstone Park and try and get everyone campsites for two days. Along the way we spotted a Bison next to the roadway – very cool. We had a fun late afternoon & evening, drinking wine and sharing a meal. We took a little stroll down to Yellowstone Lake and got some great shots of the cloud reflections in the water and dusk. A light rain begin in the evening, just in time for bed.