[Devil's Tower]        [Granite Peak]        [Yellowstone]        [Grand Teton]

07/03-04/2007

Since Wayne and I hustled out of Montana, we were able to spend an extra day in Yellowstone. I've wanted to check this park out for years and the chance was finally here! We entered through the NE entrance after the scenic Beer Tooth Pass and immediately started seeing wildlife. Wayne told me that we just had to look for cars stopped in the middle of the road to see animals, and sure enough that's exactly the way it was! We came across tons of buffalo, some real close to the road and parking areas. We checked out Tower Falls and saw a bear shortly after with dozens of tourists following it with cameras. Next was a giant elk with the biggest rack I've ever seen. 
The Mammoth Hot Springs area was cool. Lots of thermal formations and funky colors from the minerals. We had a hard time understanding why someone would want to soak in the hot springs when it was close to 100 degrees though?! We were able to find one of the last campsites at Norris, then headed to Canyon Village for much needed showers. After dinner we went to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone then Lower and Upper Falls. Both of these were neat to see, especially the 300+ ft Lower Falls. On the way back to camp we hit the Norris Geyser area for some great sunset shots and bubbling springs. The occasional geyser was spewing steam and sulfur stink all around.
On the morning of the 4th, we hustled out of camp and saw the Artist Pots first.... bubbling pools of mud and sulfur. Next was Old Faithful. I couldn't believe the hundreds of people lined up to see Old Faithful! Even more of a disappointment was when it erupted!.... about 75ft of steam blowing out of a hole for a couple minutes. I've seen more impressive steam coming out of a coffee maker!
Still heading South we stopped at West Thumb and was a bit surprised to not see more boating activity. They had a cool visitor center though, and a good display regarding the fires almost 20yrs ago that burned 40% of the park. We both just about had our fill of touristy sight-seeing stuff and headed South towards Jackson and our much anticipated climb of the Grand Teton coming up in a few days.