Travelin' Road Show: Wed/Thurs Jul 3 and 4

Friday, July 5, 2013

Wed/Thurs Jul 3 and 4 - Yellowstone

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!!

WED JULY 3

NEXT STATE ON THE GROWING LIST

Enjoyed a great drive from Idaho Falls to West Yellowstone and arrived shortly after noon in time to set up and take a much anticipated drive into Yellowstone National Park. All sites were booked up in the Park so we ended up having to stay in an RV resort about 7 miles outside ... but the site is nice and we have lots of room. The drive from the park gate of Yellowstone Park to Old Faithful is quite long and it took us about an hour to get there, but it was worth it. We were fortunate to arrive just before it 'blew', which happens every 90 minutes or so. It was quite impressive. The park itself is just full of geysers, steam pots, sulphur pots and mud volcanoes etc etc.... fascinating and somewhat awe-inspiring to see such natural phenomena. A tiring day ending with a lovely BBQ'd chicken dinner at the RV.

THAR SHE BLOWS.... INCREDIBLE SIGHT

NO Not me!!!! ... the little puff of smoke in the background!!!

The two young geezers in front of the big old faithful geyser.

THURSDAY JULY 4th - Happy Independence Day USA

Cascade falls on Yellowstone River

Quite the day today. Started off very slow with a lazy breakfast. Janice feeling more than a little homesick, so we hightailed it out to the National Park and spent the whole day touring the lower loop (about 75 miles), stopping for short trail walks and views along the way.
We decided to blow off a bit of steam by taking a more adventurous short hike along the Rim from Uncle Tom's point to Artists point... a fairly steep trail up and down along the South Rim of the 'Yellowstone Grand Canyon'. It was a great hike one way, but no sooner had we started the return journey when suddenly the skies went black, lightening and hail and wind threw themselves at us and Janice forgot all about her constant fear of meeting Grizzly bears along the track and her speed was quite awe-inspiring ...the return journey was accomplished in half the time. Needless to say all the photos were taken on the way out to Artists Point. Continuing around the loop we stopped at various mud pools, geysers, and the inevitable photo ops of wild life. We saw mule deer, mother and baby elk, a bull elk, raven, and herds of Bison... but alas no bears :)).

A Roadside snack for this big guy

We also made another stop at Old Faithful and once again.. perfect timing... 10 minutes only to wait. The sun was coming down and the Geyser gushed out looking quite beautiful. We continued back toward the town of West Yellowstone capturing some views of a fantastic sunset. It was late getting in to town, so we missed the parade but, as the fireworks were to begin at 10pm, we grabbed a fresh pizza, parked the truck on the main street, and sat on the tail gate eating pizza and watching the show... great fun.