http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from North America , United States , Wyoming , Yellowstone National Park en-us Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:14:36 UTC Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:14:36 UTC Just when we thought the weather couldnrsquot get more extreme it did. Left Jackson in the morning and the road was covered in ice. The further we got down the road towards Yellowstone it got worse. Then it started snowing again further covering the bitumen highway although in the photos it just looks like a white road. The morning temp started at 11 deg F 11 deg C but warmed up for a http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-334456.html Planning is KeyWe begin today with one of our more difficult planning sessions. We have only one day to play with given weather predictions of rain cold and potential snow within another day or two. We have many options from which to choose but we need to plan wisely so that we don't end up in the same position as last night driving in Yellowstone in the dark without adequate lodging facili http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-334398.html Jackasses found on the trip so far1 Eating ice cream cones yesterday at the canyon a guy approaches two college age guys about reckless driving. Another guy comes storming up and started screaming and ranting about remaining calm on the road. Evidently he needed some calming as well. The driving doesn't surprise me... there are a bunch of crazy drivers passing on blind corners and speeding http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-328336.html On the first evening in the Park I took a guided tour at sunset to Butte which is a hilltop on the eastern side of the caldera rim. I was astounded by the scale of the caldera in the accopanying photos 1 to 3 which were taken a few days later almost everything except the most distant peaks are within the caldera. It is elliptically shaped and is some 72 Kms from the southwest to the nort http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-327630.html There was frost on the picnic table this morning I was certainly cold last night. Greg says that the campground is over 7000 feet in elevation. We got packed up quickly and headed to Mammoth Hot Springs which we drove through last night. We reserved a campground for tonight so we don't have to go through the same thing we did as last night... plus we get hot showers We did a little gift s http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-325783.html We stayed in the town of Jackson just south of Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. It was a great little town very much setup for the tourist and we could easily imagine it covered in snow in the peak of the ski season. We had an awesome drive in coming up and over the mountains from Teton Pass with a great view of the town from the top. We didn't have a great deal of time in the http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-324797.html Having mastered the art of cinematography using a tripod apologies to anyone who has to suffer through our learning curve in the first video clips and seen enough thermal features for now we decided that Yellowstone Canyon deserved another visit. This time it was to see the Upper and Lower Falls up close and personal. We definitely were not done with Yellowstone Park yet.There is a trail that http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-324462.html The day has dawned bright and clear and a FROST The car had ice quite heavily formed on the roof and a liitle on the windscreen.I successfully locked myself out of the unit while Gretchen was in the shower so took a five minute walk in my shorts and tshirt down the road in Dunedinlike temperatures expecting that she would be finished by the time I got back.Funny enough the guy from the next http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-322910.html As we had already come a long way from our starting point back at Grant Village campground and we still had a lot left to see that we hadn't gotten to we opted to stay Tuesday night at another place closer to the sights that we wanted to see the next day Canyon Campground. We had originally planned to leave Wednesday 0903 but since there were still so many sights left we adjusted our plans http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-322543.html It snowed That's right September 1st and it was snowing. We knew it was gonna be cold just by watching the temperature gauge in the car drop as we climbed in elevation but never planned for snow.After the few hours sleep at the rest stop we took Hwy 26191 through Jackson Wyoming and the Grand Tetons. I could move to Jackson in a second if it weren't so dang cold It is an adorable town w http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-321375.html This morning I silently curse Uncle Tom. Amazingly neither one of us has sore muscles but we each have a hip that is cranky from the walk yesterday. It is cold and wet again today. I have included a picture of the rainbow at the foot of the falls we saw courtesy of Uncle Tom. We saw some crows walking on a steaming hill that was funny because they were walking really really fast We heade http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-321104.html Finally a sunny day We head towards Norris another hydrothermically active area of the park. We see Steamboat geyser which is just spurting a few feet right now. It's still pretty impressive. Norris is one of the most active earthquake areas of the park. Small earthquakes trigger changes each year in the hot springs and geysers. Many hot springs and fumeroles steam jets have temperat http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-319695.html 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 ho http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-319185.html Armed with some information from the internet maps and books from CAA and reservations for accommodations based on reviews from Trip Advisor with best and cheapest being the criteria we are almost ready to go. Weather forcasts say expect daytime highs in the teens celsius translates to the 60's F with night time lows close to freezing. Brrr As if summers aren't short enough as it is http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-316965.html The first portion of the pictures were taken on the way to Wyoming I've never taken pictures before of the drive from Minnesota to Colorado so I decided that it was time.Mom John and I drove to Colorado to see our family lots of family We made a detour and spent a couple of days in Yellowstone National Park. It was John's and my first time there I can see why so many people travel from so http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-315853.html Hi everyone sorry for the delay in updating the blog but there was no service in Yellowstone. Before we left SD we went to and Wildlife Safari drive in a a place called Bear Country and is was very cool and the elk started to run right at us as we pulled in and it was a little scary. There were also wolves just walking around the vehicles with there cubs and there was a very large collection of b http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-315364.html Jim and I continued to have a great time during our last few days at Yellowstone. One day we stopped off at Daisy Geyser. It's a powerful erruption that happens only about every 3 hours. To get to Daisy Jim wanted to walk a 1 mile path that would avoid the Old Faithful traffic. At first I was scared. One mile is not a long way but what if there were bears It looked like a trail that wasn't used http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-314365.html Hi everyone We have been without internet access for a long time so we have a lot to report including one of the highlights of the trip. We left San Francisco and headed up the coast to Redwoods National Park. We stayed at a hostel and did very little for the weekend. It was some much needed and enjoyed down time on a busy trip. The hostel was directly across from the Pacific Ocean inside the pa http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-313007.html I'm on the road now heading north in Montana up toward Glacier National Park. Kristen and I spent the last two days in Yellowstone and even camped out by Lake Yellowstone so I didn't have Internet access. When we find a motel tonight I will try and update the pictures but they are packed in the back of the car right now. I also have heard from some of you that the videos are not accessible. I tr http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-312593.html Yellowstone National Park is not far from Bozeman. Just a short 2 hour drive and you are there but being school holidays and high season the traffic can be bad so we set off at 8am.We decided to instead of squashing everything into one day we would camp overnight and were lucky to book the last campsite at our destination inside the park Madison.It was a beautiful day and we had a nice drive http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-312113.html August 6thWe woke up at the ridiculous hour of 7am to clear the floor of stuff for the dorm carpet cleaners who never came. Lame. So I left Canyon and drove through miles of nasty smoke back to Old Faithful. I had a lovely short 5 hour shift and I grabbed a sandwich from the pub before going back to the dormhelliphellipBad Idea. The sandwich made me so sick I almost threw up and ended up j http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-310627.html July 31st My first day as a senior Things went alright. I had lots and lots to learn. It took me forever to do this thing called a bucket check so I got out a little late. I was exhausted so I went to sleep like a boring person August 1st I had the late shift againnnnnnn. But I love late shifts so that is alright with me. There was a Halloween party at the pub but I did not go. One because http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-310626.html I love sleeping on the floor at Lindsayrsquos dorm. I always sleep like a rock and I have the most vivid dreams. We slept wayyyyy too late and almost missed lunch. When we woke up we went to see the fire at Fishing Bridge. When we went there the fire was around 4000 acres but on August 13th it was almost at 10000 acres. After we talked to a ranger about the fire and had taken our pictures we http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-310622.html This will be a fairly brief offering since the pictures say a lot more than words. To make a long story excruciating we wound up covering much ground pretty fast between these two seemingly wondrous parks. I have to be honest and say that I was appalled by the hordes of people ravaging the Tetons which completely sapped my desire to do any climbing there for the time being. The fact that the nati http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-310309.html Hello to all......Day 5 and we are starting to get a little crazy What can be said for all this togetherness At times there's been moments when sisters and brother have started to argue like ages before... Dad He's looking at me Dad she's poking me Dad dad dad Speaking of dad for those of you who know him Yes he's been a handful on this vacation bad knee and all.One thing we'v http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-307341.html Hello to allI was thinking about this blog and what I have written so far and I just can't believe that I forgot to mention how bad the mosquitos wereI seriously would walk out of the cabin and immediantly get bit It was unreal. I guess one of the tour guides mentioned how this was the worst year ever for them Wouldn't that figure that it would be the year that we vacation thereWell here are http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-307131.html Hello to all from the Flagg RanchDoesn't this Lodge look so angelic Wait until nightfall............more about that later. First let's talk Yellowstone.All that we can say is its Awesome Especially Old Faithful. The sights were unbelievable but the AROMA was nothing to write home about LOLSeriously the smell was so bad at Dragon's Mouth it caused confusion and in our getaway from the http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-306568.html Hello Can you hear me now Now GoodTo all who has wondered about our whereabouts. We arrived at Moran Junction on Sunday. AKA the dead zoneNeedless to say when Maria planned the Back to nature tour 2008 her idea of back to nature was obviously different then what The Flagg Ranch provided More on that later.......Speaking of nature Tim found his inner calling somewhere around Rawlin http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-306545.html The wind has been crazy today. It is always bad but it appears to be exceptional today. It drives me crazy After we woke up this morning we met Amanda and Zac Lindsay's friends for lunch and Lindsay went to work. I drove out to West Yellowstone to update this and made a few stops along the way. Afterwards I'll head back to Old Faithful and try to prepare for my first day as a Senior Assistant http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-306517.html On Thursday I went to work and watched Hairspray with Aisha. We were both starving so we had an odd late night meal of chips oreos PB and J and candy. Friday was a surprising day. The Inn was slammed with guests and things were super duper busy. I got called into my managers office and ended up getting promoted to a Senior Assistant. It basically means I get more money guaranteed hours and http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/Wyoming/Yellowstone-National-Park/blog-306516.html