Yellowstone

Yellowstone, established in 1872, started the whole national park thing, not only here in the U.S., but all over the world Bob chose a perfect time for us to visit, after Labor Day. The summer crowds were down, the weather cool, and we lucked out with only cool winds to deal with and a little flurry of snow the first day while driving. It's actually possible to see the highlights of the park without ever leaving your car. You can have a whole adventure just doing that. You will be highly amused (well, that isn't the word Bob would use) with your fellow tourist ahead of you on the road.

This also might not be your idea of a wilderness experience: Sitting on a bench with a thousand other people waiting for Old Faithful to spew, but we did it, and as Bob says, "checked the box." It really was quite nice, although she was late by 14 minutes. Old Faithful isn't always on time, I suppose. The boiling water pits, various steam vents, and geysers are really quite something to see, and that is what most people are intrigued about. I do have an appreciation for all that activity, but for me its the wildlife I love the most.

Thousands of visitors spot wildlife every year, but I loved that it happened to us. Most of the critters are spotted without even getting out of your car. The first day, we went around a bend and saw a GRIZZLY BEAR on the bank, happily munching grass, then a buffalo walking along the road, another day an entire little herd of the majestic guys along the Yellowstone River, 4 or 5 bighorn sheep too far up to really capture on camera, and a giant elk with his entire harem (entourage of female does)!!!

And then there's the hiking. Less than 10% of the park's visitors venture into the backcountry. On this morning's hike, we didn't meet a soul, but we did see a gorgeous bald eagle, some buffalo bones and tracks, big horn sheep tracks, and bear poop!---all equally exciting to me. Then we went on an after-lunch hike to the grand canyon of the Yellowstone--really it was, with a spectacular waterfall, and stairs you could climb down (385 of them down, and then you have to come back up)--and at 8,000 feet elevation, there was a lot of heavy breathing in the woods.....

We're heading out for the Grand Tetons tomorrow, so the adventure continues.