Yellowstone--Unterwegs

Apparently I've done something horrible to my wrist. I didn't do anything that I can think of, but I can't move it the slightest without pain shooting up and down my arm--and that's on a full dose of Advil. I hate typing with one hand! But I could barely get my contacts in and out today. I'm NOT playing the piano tomorrow!

I do want to post about today, though, because we finally made it to Yellowstone again. There was a bit of snow on the roads (in shadow), but the roads that were open were plowed. (There were a lot of roads that were NOT open--the only way you knew there was a road there was by the random road signs sticking their heads out of fields of snow.) It was crisp (around 32 degrees) and pretty. We saw over 100 buffalo, when in the past we've only seen a few. (Many more in Grand Teton.) We even saw a baby one just wandering down the road on the outskirts of the town of West Yellowstone (not the park side).

So, first some photos of along the way. We had snow on our roof when we left, but a couple thousand feet in elevation adds more than a couple inches! Here's just past Ashton on the 20, going north:



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Yellowstone--animals

There were a TON of buffalo!!! The kids counted over 100. I've never seen so many in the park. Also we saw a gopher, and a great blue heron, and a dog waiting for his person in the Old Faithful visitors' center. Apparently, once the tourists go home for the night, the buffalo gather around the thermal features to roast marshmallows and tell ghost stories, because there was a ton of er, buffalo poop in all those spots. Here, up in the big geyser basin just west of OF, we have bear and buffalo tracks.



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Yellowstone--Old Faithful and nearby geyser basin

Old Faithful: do not go see it in the summer. It's like Disneyland. In April it's not bad. We hung out in the interactive visitors' center until it went off. People were satisfied. It was a good day to do it.



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