The Wandering Goose :: vol 13 :: Rocky Mountain RV Park

Yellowstone Again!
We spent the majority of a non-driving day in the car, driving.  It just doesn't seem right.  But, we are here again in sweet Yellowstone National Park, and we just couldn't NOT take advantage, plus Royal needed to see a few things.

We crossed the 45th Parallel

 Sadly, we didn't see a bear today, and hardly any buffalos.  Shocking, since we saw so many buffalos just a month ago!  This one was walking down the road and scared the heck out of Royal when he saw it.  I was looking about my window and I hear Royal shout, "Oh crap!  What is that!?!"  Oh, just a lonely little buffalo, wandering down the side of the road.

Today, it seemed, was a day for elk!  We saw a few right as we were waiting in line to get into the park.

Then, this lonely one munching on some grass.

Then, this herd standing alongside the road!  The only herd we'd found that had an elk with some antlers on it!

 And then there was this little spectacle, of them running down the sides of the road.  I rolled my window up for fear it would reach right in and bite my arm.  I have no idea why it would want to bite my arm, but there are "dangerous animal" signs all around, and I wasn't taking any chances!  :)

We visited some old and new places.  We stopped at Sheepeater Cliff, named from the Shoshone Indians who used to live in the area.  The cliff is formed from basalt lava that cooled 500,000 years ago.

And we took a little hike down Gardner River, because the kids were already complaining about being in the truck again and needing to use their legs.

Then we drove by Roaring Mountain - one of the hottest places in the park - the magma is only 1-2 miles below the surface here.

Then we stopped in at Artists Paintpots

And then drove south so Royal could witness Old Faithful and we could have lunch.  I didn't take any pictures here because, well, I wanted to watch the whole eruption without my camera in my face.  :)  Then we started heading back north and stopped at Black Sand Basin, which has a couple geyers and some really beautiful colored pools, like this one.

And since the kids were tired of getting in and out of the car and just couldn't walk anymore, we didn't stop at anymore areas, but took a couple scenic detours on the way back.  First we hit up Firehole Lake Drive.

And then Firehole Canyon Drive, which had some really beautiful waterfalls, but I don't really have any pictures because we were just driving through and sometimes it's hard to take a decent picture out the window while moving and trying to avoid getting random people in the picture.  :)  And that pretty much was our day.  Long and hot and fun and staring out the window at beautiful scenery that I'm just not sure when we'll be able to see again.  Tomorrow is another driving day.  One day closer to home!