Blogs from Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, United States, North America - page 14

I started out at 8 a.m. this morning so I would have a chance to get a large portion of the park in today. As I was going to grab a coffee and a sandwich for breakfast I was pleasantly surprised when I managed to spot a grizzly. He was smaller but I managed to get a couple pics in before my camera died, hence the very important lesson of the day today. He came a lot closer than it looks like in the pic. It was very unique indeed to be that close to a grizzly in the wild. After that I went to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Many very good lookout points and the waterfall was pretty awesome to see and hear. Then it was more geyser and hot spring hunting. There are ... read more

Hello... Friday July 7, 2009 In Which the author Gets Yellowstoned! I would first offer an apology for the delay in posts; it’s an environmental conflict being in such a great place, yet still coordinating the use of electricity. Cell phone and internet are somewhat spotty here, but I traveled 12 miles from Norris campground, through a 15 minute hailstorm (yes, hailstorm) to wash some clothes, steal some electricity, and wash my own stanky ass! G Well, it’s been a week in Yellowstone, and I have a lot of different entries to type, as this park is so large (approx. 60 miles long by 60 miles wide) that there’s no simple way to present it. Much has been written about Yellowstone, and I’m hoping that my particular interpretations are entertaining and informative. To recap, Sophie ... read more

We got up really early today to go on our last tour while in Yellowstone. It started at 8:15AM and was called The Washburn Expedition Tour. It covered the upper circle of the “figure eight” of the park road system and we traveled 102 miles. Our tour guide, Dave, was new to the job and was probably our least favorite tour guide of the trip. We started up the east side of the lower circle before getting the to the upper circle. We traveled counterclockwise around the upper circle. The theme of the day was bison, bison, and more bison! By the road, in the road, away from the road, they were everywhere! After winding our way through the bison, we made our first stop at Tower Falls. Although we’d stopped at Tower Falls before, this ... read more

We set out from Seattle, WA mid afternoon on Monday, August 3, 2009 heading east on the I-90 and reached Spokane, WA that night. The next day we traveled through northern Idaho, which is tree-covered and far prettier than I would have thought, to the treeless expansive high country of Montana. We camped that night on state highway 89, 40 miles north of Yellowstone National Park. On Wednesday, August 5th, we passed through the historic Roosevelt Arch at the North Entrance into the park. Many of the natural features of Yellowstone, the mountains and river canyons, were similar to parks we have seen in the Northwest. But the hot springs, boiling lakes, steaming rivers, and mounds of mineral deposits were completely alien to both of us. We were pretty amazed that such a land existed on ... read more

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 ... read more