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Entering Yellowstone National Park by 7am, we were hoping to see some
wildlife, and we were not disappointed! (8/14) |
Elena was ecstatic as we hung out with this eagle for a while in the
morning, shortly after entering the park. |
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We stopped to take a picture of this steaming area when all of a sudden,
from the right side of the road... |
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...came this coyote, not paying us any mind at all. |
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Why did the coyote cross the road? |
...Because breakfast was on the other side. |
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Our first buffalo sighting of the day. This one was relaxing by
himself, also not paying us any mind. We thought about getting closer;
I mean, what's the big deal? It looks pretty tame, and I'm sure we
could outrun it if we had to. |
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Well, I guess we learned our
lesson! Good thing we didn't get much closer! |
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Many folks on the road got a front row seat for the buffalo crossing; it
wanted to join the rest of the herd across the way. |
The thing about buffalos that I was not aware of was that they like to stand
in front of busses. Who knew?! |
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After crossing successfully, this buffalo did not want to, or maybe felt it
couldn't, walk down the slope. So back it went so it could walk down
the road a little further where the land was flatter. |
Rangers were called to help direct traffic. Apparently, buffalo always
have the right of way! |
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Just hangin' out with buffalo. |
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A short stop to enjoy the scenery |
Another short stop to enjoy the scenery... um, I mean enjoy the boiling mud
pots! |
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The world famous Mud Caldron |
The world famous Sulphur Caldron: (from the sign in front of the
caldron) Ten times more acidic than lemon juice, Sulphur Caldron sits
on the edge of one of the most active areas of Yellowstone's buried volcano.
Sulphur-rich gasses rise furiously here, filling Sulphur Caldron with
sulfuric acid. Incredibly, this muddy pool is teeming with life! |
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Sizzling Basin |
Mud Volcano |
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Kepler Cascades: "Located two miles south of Old Faithful, this
three-step cascade drops water over 50 ft as the Firehole River flows North.
The Kepler Cascades were actually named in 1881 for the 12 year old son of
Wyoming's territorial governor, Kepler Hoyt, who toured the park with his
father, Governor John Hoyt." |
"Standing at the peaked roof of the continent and the upper watershed for
two of the nation's most extensive drainage systems: the Snake and Columbia
Rivers, and the Missouri and Mississippi." |
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Inside the Canyon Visitor
Education Center, the sign above Elena reads, "Yellowstone National Park is
an immense, active volcano, one of the largest and most violent on Earth."
Geez, it would have been nice if someone let us know this BEFORE we started
walking on the volcano! |
The various highlighted loops
across the country denote multiple volcanic eruptions and how much they
affected the country. The blue circle on the top left indicates the
area affected by the Mt. St. Helens eruption in 1980. The largest red
loop denotes the Yellowstone caldera eruption that occurred 640,000 years
ago. Perspective people, perspective! |
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Elena sure is crazy about eagles,
even fake ones! |
A picture of visitors at Old
Faithful in 1958. |
