We stopped at a rest area in Idaho and found it was right in the middle of an old lava field. Hard to imagine that this area was once under molten beds of lava.
Our route took us by many farmers harvesting their hay. And, as you can see, the terrain changed the closer we got to Yellowstone.
We entered the park at the West Entrance and found that the road between Madison and Norris was closed due to road construction. It took us much longer to get around to Fishing Bridge Campground than we had anticipated. Our good friends from the Keys, Matt and Alice Albino, were already settled in their spot. They live on Long Island and had just spent time in the Black Hills, seeing Mt. Rushmore and visiting the Crazy Horse monument. They will spend the next few weeks visiting many of the national parks with us. We drove out to see what we could find and we had barely turned the first corner when we found a herd of buffalo!!!
The bison or buffalo are going into rut and we watched many of the older bulls chasing and squaring off with the younger bulls. In the next picture, you can see a pair fighting near the center of the picture. Interesting that the bulls were in constant motion, while the cows and young ones just tried to stay out of the way.
We also saw a herd of elk and a bald eagle on our way into the park.
We started our first full day in the park at the West Thumb Geyser Basin. It’s located on Yellowstone Lake’s west shore and contains geysers, hot springs and bubbling paint pots.
Big or Fishing Cone is a lakeshore geyser that stays submerged until the lake’s water level drops in late summer—like now. It gets its name from that fact that visitors used to catch trout from the lake and immediately drop them into its boiling waters to cook—it was referred to as “catch and cook”.
We crossed over the Continental Divide on our way to see Old Faithful.
We actually saw Old Faithful erupt 2 times while we were there. First, shortly after we arrived, but it was cloudy and doesn’t show up too well in the photos. And, later after lunch, we saw it go off again from the Old Faithful Inn. The sun had come out and it was a much more impressive show. We also found out that President Obama and his family had been here the day before. From what we heard, nobody was watching Old Faithful do her thing—they were all too busy trying to catch a glimpse of the Obamas.
The Old Faithful Inn is a magnificent wooden log structure. The fireplace in the main hallway is huge and I know my photos don’t begin to capture the scope of how huge the place is.
