Grand Teton is the more modern of these two national parks. Yellowstone has no wifi within the park unless you are some sort of hacker. So we have been "isolated" here with the very manageable throngs of people for two whole days now. I think. This hotel room seems like it is tilted. Not sure if that is because it really is tilted, or because we were that tired. The rest of the family is snoozing as I type. We have walked a lot (in the rain, mostly) and seen a ton of things.
I have no idea how to choose photos to post. I have taken a ton and even though half of them at least are terrible blurry shots of distant animals, some are really good. I'll just pick a few and you will have to wait for the rest.
Our last day in Grand Teton, we got up very early and looked for wildlife. We found lots of elk, but no moose. I really wanted to see a moose. It was not so rainy earlier in the day, so we went to Hidden Falls. There was snow up there! Young Adventurer liked that. Then we drove around doing some other sightseeing. We drove up through a construction zone into Yellowstone later in the day. It was getting wetter and wetter by then. We encountered a frozen lake and a lot of snow in the higher elevations. We also visited the Thumb Geysers and some other stuff on our way up to Mammoth Hot Springs area. We ate dinner at Canyon and then drove over the Dunraven pass, where it was snowing! Young Adventurer was elated! He had never seen it snow. We got to Mammoth after dark--very late.
We slept in the next morning and then went down toward Norris to go see "Thermal Features" and such. The family favorite was the Artist Paint Pots. We did several miles of walking all told but it was fun.
Today we woke up really really early and drove out to Lamar Valley looking for more wildlife. We had been steadily checking off our list of all the animals we could see on the trip. For a while all we saw was elk and bison way off in the distance. There were some baby bison, but too far off to see well. Finally, nearly to Silver Gate, we saw a bull moose way off in the distance. I was pleased because I really wanted to see a moose. Did I say that already?
A little further on, we hit the jackpot--a momma moose and her baby lying in a little glade not far from the road! We ate breakfast and watched her with one other guy. I was coveting his camera setup. Finally they stood up, and all the other people started stopping and taking out more cameras for me to covet. It was really neat though. I took about a hundred blurry photos and got a couple of sort of reasonable ones. Then we drove to Cooke City because Danjo and I were desparate for coffee, and had a good, expensive breakfast in a place where the restroom was in the basement, literally. Young Adventurer noted that they had a Christmas tree down there. Then we headed back and saw lots and lots of other cool stuff. The best way to sum it up is that God is very creative. We've seen almost every animal we could conceive of seeing here, including a snake, two bears, and several very interesting birds--even what we think was a trumpeter swan way off in the distance--HUGE! We've also seen some pretty crazy landscape, a petrified tree surrounded by a fence so man, who just can't resist temptation, will not destroy what God has created, and lots of indescribable things. Tomorrow, Old Faithful.
I will tell you what the photos are below, and then, goodnight! They were in order but I added more and now they are not.
Mammoth Hot Springs today after the sun finally made an appearance. This was not my favorite place, but I may have gotten my favorite photo here. This is not it.
Amazonian Mud Pot at Artist Paint Pots.
Adventurers really loved this nasty vat of gurgling mud.
Sunrise at Grand Teton.
Grand Teton was more peaceful and less crowded than Yellowstone. I liked it a lot.
For anyone who is still unsure about how to photograph children petting bison.
It's snowing!! Someone said they had closed this pass by the next morning. When we drove through there was lots of old snow, but the new snow wasn't sticking.
Danjo the Magnificent and the kids chucking rocks onto the frozen Lewis Lake
Mommy Moose and her baby.
I think this is part of the grand canyon of Yellowstone. It was somewhere south of Tower Falls I think. We tried to go for a walk but it was raining and too muddy. I think there was a bear nearby too. Remind me to tell the story.
Urban Ranger, this is for you.
A black bear in a green pasture.
There are lots of green pastures here. This one was on a steep hill.
What do I win?
This is a beaver!! Really! We saw him (at least we think it was him) yesterday, but we couldn't tell if it was a beaver or a muskrat. We drove by the same spot again today so we got out and looked again. Sure enough, Mr or Mrs. Beaver was there, and this time we could see the tail. Now we know this is Narnia! We didn't see Beaversdam, but we did see beaver's house. Yes, I took a picture of that too, but I am not posting it. Wait till I get home.
I do have tons of pictures of elk and bison. Nice and up close. Elk with racks of velvety antlers. Bison eyelashes. A marmot fight. A family of geese. More. Even though I covet a better camera, mine's not bad. :-)
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