Days 9-10: It's Yellowstone, Boo-Boo!

Trying to catch up 1.5 days worth in one quick blog at a coffee shop on low battery power! We are now in Jackson, WY, after last having blogged from Bozeman. In betwixt and between, we have seen probably the most interesting and beautiful scenery in the world: Yellowstone, with its 10,000 geothermal features, and the Grand Tetons.

We almost didn't make it down to Yellowstone from Bozeman yesterday morning. Awoke to a totally flat tire. Found a very nice tire shop. The fellow charged us $15 to fix the faulty valve. I'm loving Montana for that! Also loving it for the lovely KOA park in Bozeman. Very spacious sites, all kinds of campers, from families, to motorcyclists towing their tent gear behind them, to a vintage Airstream club convention, and people who were living there for the summer. (Have you ever seen canvas coverings for windshield wipers? Who knew?) Very cool.

Once we got to Yellowstone after lunch, we did a big driving (or driving and stopping) trip till sunset, going from Norris Thermal Basin north to Mammoth Hot Springs, across to Tower/Roosevelt, and down the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone to Fishing Bridge and our stay in a really icky RV park. (We were surrounded by behemoth coaches running their power the entire time and screaming hordes of children, with no separation between RV sites--something we've had thus far and will not settle without again! Yikes! Our little van was like that classic children's book, The Little House, where the big city is built all around the little cottage.) I couldn't do the scene complete justice, but here's a taste. Suffice to say we departed before 7AM today!



Got to see Old Faithful without all the hordes, as an added benefit to arising at 5:30AM. And how often does one get to say that they crossed the Continental Divide TWICE before breakfast? We saw bison (see the one taking a dirt bath below), elk, moose, mule deer. No bear or wolves, unfortunately, although we looked! Also trumpeter swans and eagle nests (no eagles, though.)

And here are some photos of the Yellowstone/Tetons sites of yesterday and today. If geology is of interest to any of you, the chapter on Yellowstone in Bill Bryson's wonderful history of science A Short History of Nearly Everything is awesome. I'd like to quote from it here, but am in a big hurry. Dog in hot car again, today.... Just go READ THAT BOOK. Fascinating stuff.

And we'll have the next 3 days or so to explore and admire the most gorgeous of all mountains, the Grand Tetons. Here are just a few of the amazing photos: