Day 7 - First Full Day at Yellowstone

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Some quick Yellowstone facts:
2.2 million acres within an 18 million acres ecosystem
67 species
322 types of birds
36% of the park burned to the ground during all the fires in 1988
1,000 miles of trails
400 plus miles of roads (310 paved)

After all the driving the day before, we slept in and relaxed. For some reason, they charge to take a shower at Yellowstone. After seeing that they charged $3.25 for just one shower, we decided to use our small, but free shower in the RV (we saved over $68 this way!). Our site was back in the G-Loop, which was about as far from the RV park entrance as you could get. The nice thing was that it was downhill all they way to the gate. The bad thing: it was all uphill back to the RV. We rode our bikes around the RV park to get a feel for what we were in for during this leg of our trip. It was about a mile to the store and just over a mile to the Fishing Bridge, which you are no longer allowed to fish from. This is due to the fact that the Cutthroat Trout spawn right by the bridge and fishing there dramatically affected their numbers in a negative way. So instead of changing the name to No Fishing Bridge, The Bridge Formally Known as Fishing Bridge, or Don’t Fish Here Bridge, they kept the old name. After riding around, we relaxed a little before heading out for our first tour. It was called the Lake Butte Sunset Tour and we traveled about 26 miles. The tour bus wasn’t what you’d expect; it was more like a long car. In fact, they called it a touring car and it was built in the 1930s and was painted yellow. Also, there top was cloth and was rolled back so that we could stand up and take photos.

Our first stop on the tour was a small river just north of Fishing Bridge RV Park (FBRP). We walked on a boardwalk by the river and got to see some trout resting behind rocks. In Yellowstone, you can only use barb-less hooks and you must release any Cutthroat Trout you catch. This is due to the fact that some moron thought it would be nice to introduce some Lake Trout into Yellowstone Lake. This was a problem since the Lake Trout were decimating the Cutthroat Trout population, which the bears and other wildlife need for food. The Cutthroat Trout live near the surface and are easier to catch, while the Lake Trout are the opposite. If you catch a Lake Trout, you must kill it and report how many you kill to the rangers. We also saw a ton of different types of flowers. Our guide, Darla, was very knowledgeable and identified all the flowers. We also happened to see some Mule Deer in the woods by the river.

Our next, and final stop, was the Lake Butte Overlook. We were able to watch the sunset over the mountains on the west shore of Yellowstone Lake. The sunset looked spectacular even though it was a bit cloudy. We saw more flowers in this area, as well as, the moon rising over the trees in the east. We then returned to FBRP after 10PM to unwind and head to bed.

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Photos

Sam
Sam being Sam

Flower
Some Cow parsnip by a river.

Duck
A duck on a rock.

Deer
A mule deer hiding in the woods.

View
Sammie and her daddy. :)

Sunset
A view of Yellowstone Lake.

Sunset
Cool trees at Yellowstone.

Sunset
A view of Yellowstone Lake.

Moon
The moon rising over our touring car.