8/6/08

Arising to some cold temperatures (in the 40's) we headed for breakfast at the KOA where Uncle Eddie informed us that he would be leaving after we road to the Canyons in Yellowstone Park. So, we let the sun warm things up a bit and then headed out to tour the park. For some of the trip we had to retrace our route from the day before, but you never know what kind of wildlife will crop up. We had seen some cow elk the night before, but of course they had left the area by the time we came back through. Yellowstone has a certain appeal to it, but is almost other worldly with its mud pots, fumeroles, and boiling springs and some of the most varied terrain we have seen on this trip. There was also a forrest fire raging that had already consumed 8000 acres and the smoke partly obscured the mountains in certain areas of the park. The park has numerous waterfalls, rushing streams and lush meadows along with the moon-like terrain. Wildlife was not as numerous as the last time I visited, but we did see significant numbers of buffalo, and elk. Some other tourists that Bear talked with saw bighorn sheep crossing the road in front of them. We are still looking for a bull elk. Arriving at the Canyons, we headed for the cafeteria and a cup of coffee to send off Uncle Eddie. After watching him ride off into the smoke, we headed for the Canyons where we were treated to large crowds all vying for a parking spot to view the waterfalls. The scene at the lower falls was rather ugly so we passed them up and found a spot to park at the upper falls. Yellowstone sits at a fairly high altitude and is basically a volcano with a crater that is 30 miles by 45 miles wide. Since the last eruption was 640,000 years ago, the rim of the crater is not well defined. As we continued our loop without Uncle Eddie, we found some herds of buffalo and then found Yellowstone Lake, a huge lake that is home to shore birds like pelicans, canada geese, sandhill cranes, and other waterfowl that nest on its isolated islands. There we sat on a bench for awhile and watched some kids play in the mud thankful that we didn't have to clean them up. Continuing on we found a bald eagle sitting in a tree and stopped to take his picture. It is not hard to know when wildlife is around as cars just stop in the middle of the road so the occupants can gawk at the scene. The day was rather gloomy with some sprinkles so we headed out of the park and stopped at Bullwinkle's for dinner. It got the name because its owner is a hunter who pursued a moose his entire life and finally got one. Baked beans came with everything on the menu, but that was not a problem since we had our own tents. I attempted to write this blog last night, but the mosquitos were maddening, worse than Glacier, and then it started to rain. So, we headed off to the tents and to bed, or whatever you call a sleeping bag and ground pad.