It poured rain all night, and we woke up to near freezing temperatures. It is grey and drizzling, but we dress in layers and venture out anyway. Elk were grazing right in front of the Mammoth Hot Springs hotel. Whee the bull was, rangers had the road blocked off so people couldn't get too close. Fall is their mating season, making them agressive and more likely to charge your car. We buy a hot drink to warm our hands, make a sandwich, and move on. Mammoth Hot Springs is one of the park's most active hydro-thermal areas. A huge underground magma chamber under the entire park provides the heat that fuels all of the hydro-thermal features. Water from rain and snow melt seeps deep into the earth and is heated by the magma (yes, I hear ... read more

Maybe it's not the destination that matters. Maybe it's the journey. Mapquest said that this would take 7 hours. But we found lots of things to see and side trips to take, so it took 12 hours. Driving through Fortuna, SD, we came across an abandoned military radar tracking station. Steve remembers going there in about 1963, while he was in the air force. It was part of the high line, which is/was the most northern radar tracking in the US. Wheat fields in Saskatchewan, changed into scrub and ranch land in South Dakota, which turned into corn fields in Montana as far as we could see. And hot! 95 degrees F! We saw a rock formation that looked like tables growing out the the side of the hill. And hay bales stacked up to look ... read more