A River Wild!

Welp, we are wrapping up our Yellowstone visit. We've learned so much and have seen more than we can possibly write about. It's just an enchanting place! And all God's doing! We've been able to spend time in all 5 Yellowstone countries now. I think Roosevelt and Canyon countries are our faves. I sure don't want to travel here in the winter, but at the same time I'd love to see the park in the winter. They say Mammoth Hot Springs and the geysers are pretty amazing in winter.

7-23-10: I drove up to Chico Hot Springs and swam a couple of hours in the natural warm water of the hot springs. The resort and pool were not natural. But the water was. And very soothing.

My Old Faithful

Old Faithful - right on schedule

7-26-10: Took a drive to Old Faithful. Noticed on the way down that Madison Visitor Area was closed and rangers everywhere. We wondered if there was another buffalo attack. Old Faithful is indeed faithful. They have a schedule of when it's going to spew. And hundreds of people are there to watch. The eruption only lasted maybe a minute. But very pretty. (Did you know that back in the day, Gen. Sheridan and his soldiers used Old Faithful to do their laundry?)

Geyser Country

More Geyser Country

White Dome

Saw lots of other pretty things in Geyser Country. White Dome Geyser, Firehole Geyser, Surprise Pool, and much more. Madison was still closed when we drove back through. Had to be serious – still rangers all over! David went flyfishing on the Madison River.

Eagle on the Madison River

Trumpeter on the Madison

Saw a picture-perfect bald eagle there perched on top of one of the leafless trees. Saw a few others later and our trumpeter swan again. Tonite we watched YouTube of the July 20th buffalo attack around Old Faithful. Infuriating. They had thrown a can at it and provoked it. Tonite we also saw online that the Madison Visitor Center was closed most of the day today because VP Joe Biden was visiting there. Sigh. OK, I'm a diehard democrat and I wouldn't mind having a word with him. But shouldn't there be rules about bringing politicians into Yellowstone? Seems like it could hurt the environment somehow to have such an unnatural presence there.

North Entrance

Falls in Canyon Country

Canyon Country Buffalo

Yellowstone Grand Canyon

Osprey Nest in Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Yellowstone Grand Canyon

Lower Falls 

Interesting info

Breathtaking

David's touch

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

7-27-10: Spent time in Canyon Country today. Wow!!! The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is amazing. Went to overlooks where we got great views of Upper and Lower Falls. Saw magnificent osprey and eagle nests – along with the birds in them.

Nearing Lake Country

LeHardey's Rapids

Lake Country

Yellowstone Lake

A bit of the Tetons

Our daily traffic jam

Went on to Lake Country from there. Hayden Valley, LeHardey's Rapids. At LeHardey's I witnessed a couple trying to save their yellow lab after she slipped in. (I was on that boardwalk without David, cuz we were taking turns staying in the truck with Rocky). They did save her – after they both slipped in as well. Whew!! She looked so much like my granddog, Bailey. It happened really fast and all 3 were limping when they came out. A sidenote: it's totally against the rules to have dogs on the trails and boardwalks. I know this because Rocky and I got “kicked out” of a trail area at Madison on our first day and the ranger very politely gave me a copy of the rules. I guess they were afraid Rocky would scare the wildlife (politicians) there.

The Divide

Back to Lake Country – stopped at the Continental Divide.
Drove through Virginia Cascade Drive. (I think that may be closer to Mammoth Country, not sure) Beautiful falls. But ole Killing Joy was a nervous wreck while I was driving that road. It's a one-laner and less than that at some points.

7-28-10: There was a bear attack tonite at Soda Butte (pronounce “butt” by us) campgound. It's a beautiful area northeast in the Lamar Valley area. I was encouraging David to flyfish there. But I'm rethinking that now. It was a terrible deal. A grizzly and cubs tore into 3 tents while the campers were sleeping. No food left out or anything. Just random. Killed a man and injured 2 others. The story can be found online.

Our 1sr Griz -- on our last day in the park

Focused on grazing

Griz

Same Griz

7-29-10: We saw our first Griz this morning about 7:40 in Mammoth Country. It was grazing near the road and David got some great pix. Very pretty with cute ears!

Canyon Country Trail Ride

All Hands on Deck!

Whew!

Yee-haw!

Head em up!

Bec and Copper

Riding through the Canyon Country

Trail Riders

My Wranglers and Me

Trail Ride Wranglers

I took a horseback ride in Canyon Country this morning. Soooo fun! On the trail we saw one buffalo and a herd of elk. And whistle pigs (google that) all over the place!!! Just a beautiful ride. Thankfully there were plenty of wranglers there to help me on and off my horse! Not as easy as it used to be!! One guy's horse put on a show for us. Buddy kept getting off the trail and running off with his inexperienced rider. Funny. A couple of the buckaroos kept rounding him back up. One of the wranglers that rode with us was born in TX – so we could understand each other.

David went back to the Grand Canyon while I rode horses

Lower Falls

Breakfast Time

King of the Canyon

Last stop in YNP

We may make a couple of more trips into the park before we leave on Wednesday. I'm taking a half- day raft trip (prob only a couple of hrs) down the Yellowstone River Monday. Was hoping to do the Gallatin River cuz that's where “A River Runs Through It” was filmed.  And that's so important. But the Yellowstone is very pretty and much closer to where we staying. And the outfitters are called Flying Pig and I like saying that.

Taking the rafts down by rope

Way down yonder

Yellowstone River at Gardiner, MT

Ready to push off

Hey Honey!

8-2-10: rafting the Yellowstone was wonderful!  david and rocky drove it and got some great pix.  sending ya a few.  i thought at one point rocky was going to try to come in after me as we floated past them.  everyone in the boat yelled "hi rocky" and he started heading toward us.

A STEEP switchback trail to the raft

This was the hardest part 

the toughest part was climbing down that hill to the boats. dang!  it was a switchback trail and luckily we had paddles to use as walking sticks.

Are we going in circles?

A coooold swim

Here we go!

it was a class 2-3 river.  beautiful and had some good rapids and holes, but not too tough. the scenery was outstanding.  we got to stop and swim at one spot.  water was about 60 degrees.  had a hot spring at one point.  but we didn't get out into that.

This young fella is riding the bull.

and i got to ride the bull!!!  that's when you get to ride on the front of the raft, with your legs dangling over the front and hanging on the rope. Really fun going thru rapids like that. We hit a pretty good hole when I was on the bull and the water knocked me back into the boat on my butt. Fun! david didn't catch that on his camera.  but the outfitter's photographer got it.  however, i didn't want to pay $31 for that pic.  so i will just write about it. LOL

A little help from my friend

Made it

Fun!

our guide was so funny.  the first couple of holes we hit he would holler "oh my God" or "uh-oh"!  which made us feel safe. His name was Weston and is a college student/river guide/singer. Lives in a chevy astro mini van. He grew up in this area, so he really gave us a lot of good info about the area.

End of the Stretch

Seriously?  We gotta carry it to the truck?

Used Flying Pig outfitters in Gardiner, MT. It was an 8 mile stretch, took about an hr.

When we leave here Wednesday, we are heading to New Meadows, Idaho to spend some time with Jerri and George. Jerri and I have been friends since 2nd grade. So looking forward to seeing them and their neck of the woods!

Chuck and Linda – let me know if there is anything in New Meadows that you want pix of!



More later,



Killing Joy and Backside Keeping (anal retentive)

PS-- I really like my Indian names that Linda Sue and Mindy came up with better!! Ya'll were much nicer.

PPS--Still no luck finding a Sonic. Went to Bozeman today (7-31-10) and the closest thing to a Sonic that the GPS could find there was a MaSONIC lodge about 70 miles away. We did not go to it.