Yellowstone and Wyoming
Today we spent the morning and part of the early afternoon in Yellowstone. We ate more granola bars and fruit for breakfast (no free breakfast here). I realized tonight that I left my pillow there :( I have almost left it at most of our hotel rooms--even driving back to a few to get it. Love that pillow--maybe I'll try to contact them and ask for them to send it to me--it has an embroidered pillow-case that was a gift.
We took some photos of the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake.
Then as we were driving, I saw some people clustered near a
lake by one of the traffic turn-outs.
When I looked to see what they were taking photos of, it was bison on
the other side of the lake. So, we
pulled over at the next turn-out and took photos as well. By this time the bison were on the other side
of the lake from us.
Then we went on to the Sulphur Cauldron—Joshua claimed he
needed a break from the fumes—it was giving him a headache (!). Well, the traffic had been backed up with no
traffic coming toward us. Then we saw
why! A bison was walking down the road,
followed by a ranger’s jeep with lights flashing and a huge line of cars behind
it! The park guide said not to get too
close to bison because they can run more than 30 miles per hour (not that you
can tell that from watching them walk very slowly) and will gore you with their
horns (both male and female have horns).
The bison turned into the parking lot for the mud volcano (across the
road from us). The ranger just waited
near it. I went over to use the toilets
and had to ask the ranger if I could walk on the opposite side from the
bison—she walked with me to make sure I was safe. She said that while she was waiting, the bison
kept turning to look at her. Each time
she turned around so that it wouldn’t charge her. I got to the toilets safely and it was still
there later—with many people taking photos of course (and the ranger close
by).
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| Huge traffic back-up |
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| Here the sulphur smell was the stongest. It was much greener than it appears in the photo |
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| We weren't sure if the bison liked the sulphur smell or the heat from the heated water |
Later there was another traffic slow-down, this time people
were getting out of their cars to take photos of elk in the trees. We didn’t want to contribute to the craziness
so we kept on driving. A ranger was there
as well. A bit further on, we heard
shots from the trees, then saw some rangers come out of the trees with a rifle—not sure what they were shooting at. Maybe a rabid dog named Cujo?
At a slow down (not sure why), we took off on a side road
and saw the lower falls of the Yellowstone River near the Grand Canyon of the
Yellowstone (it's actual name)
.
Then, another traffic slow-down—a herd of bison crossing the
road! Adults and babies! You could see that some of the adults hadn’t
completely lost their winter coats yet. As we were driving, we kept coming up with what the bison were probably saying about all of the photos.
Then we saw some cool rock formations.
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| rain in the distance |
Further on, we could see huge fields of bison. It was interesting to think that a long time
ago, they covered all of North America, then were almost lost and not the
National Parks and their rangers are keeping them safe for all of us to see and
be inspired by. They are such huge,
majestic beasts. Very inspiring.
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| The sunset from our hotel on the east side of Wyoming |
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