And Now For...

...thermo-features!

Twilight on the Firehole...taken during our Yellow Bus Tour...

The Grand Prismatic...from up on a hillside above the usual viewing area.  We scrambled up a ways.  Manfriend took the cameras and went even a bit higher, as Eldest and I were a bit skittish of the slippy slope.  Not so much for the going up, but anticipating the coming back down...intactly.  Oh, but this view was worth it.

Mammoth Hot Springs area.  Ridges and acres and layers of travertine...and a dead tree.

West Thumb, looking out on Lake Yellowstone.  This might be my favorite place.  It's usually our first stop, and therefore signals to me that we have really arrived.

A shot of the mud pots, doing their thing.  It's mesmerizing...hynotizing...we could have watched all day! And maybe fallen in...you know...just for the spa treatment....

Wonderful guy thought this looked like icing.  Which is sort of does. (...but what I thought about was what my girls said about Grandma's Protein Powder.  They only got it when my mother came to visit, and she would sprinkle it on Shredded Wheat, and only the big biscuits.  None of those new fangled bite sized ones for her!  Anyway.  It was a special treat, and they always said...'it was like icing' on their breakfast!)

PS.  Photo credits for some of these again to Eldest.  Thanks for coming with us on vacation.  We had a great time with you guys.

There's More

Today I have spectacular vistas and pastoral scenery.

The Tetons, rising 12,000 feet (plus) straight up from the valley floor.

Smoke from the fire that was burning while we were there.  Not too far from where we were staying, actually, but all under control.  No worries here!

Clear Lake, the destination of one of our hikes.

The Upper Falls of the Yellowstone.  Pretty spectacular really.

Honest.  I didn't do anything to this photo but resize it. Colors are straight out of the camera.  This sight take my breath away every time I see it.  Almost completely unchanged since first sketched by Moran.

Tetons again.

Approaching Shoshone Lake, another of our hike destinations.

And lodgepole pines.

(I am sure Only Brother's droid is choking on these photo ladened posts. And I am not quite done yet...almost but not quite...)

Wanna' See...

...some really cool wildlife?

Right beside the road.  I had the telephoto going, and the car between me and him.  Actually, there were others between me and him, too.  I think this is a grizzly, but not completely sure.  Check out the claws.  And yet, the wisdom of the park says the most dangerous animals in the park are the bison.  Which I believe.  These guys are just messier with their claws and teeth.

Coyotes, playing in the morning sun.

We saw five eagles on our float trip.

And three moose.

I see pelicans in N. Colorado, but this is a Yellowstone pelican, so special!

Momma Grizz and two cubbies

And we saw wolves!  On this evening, we were the first ones to spot and pullover (but not for long).  It was dusk and there were way over there.  But still.  We saw wolves!  We think, from our sources it was the Canyon Pack, which has the three adults, white, black, grey.  Also there were three or four little ones. (See a couple in the photo below.)  So so cool.

It was really an terrific experience.

PS The last several photos were taken by Eldest so she gets photo credit!

Well, hello there!  No apologies from me for being away.

See, there was vacation.  Then there was recovery from vacation.  The return week back to work was tremendously busy, too.  No rest for the weary, I guess.

However, this weekend gave chance to catch up, re-acquaint, touch base, and settle back in.

The week in Yellowstone was absolutely grand.  Grander than grand. The grandest ever!  Eldest Daughter and Manfriend made their connecting flight coming to, which I had come to realize may have been a weak link in the whole week's plan.  I was wrong, however.  The return flight, which allowed almost twice as much time for connecting, was an hour late departing.

That pooch was screwed pretty much from the git go.  However, time was made up in flight and cabin attendants said 'please let those like them get off first' and the gates were near each other on the concourse, so with the door closing right behind them! The two made it onto the plane.

Sans luggage.

Which was delivered to them the next afternoon.  Which, for what?  $25/bag, darn well should have been!

But back in Yellowstone, we hiked with rangers (about 17 miles total).  We saw wildlife and wildflowers.  We floated on the Snake River in the Tetons one evening.  We photographed Lake Yellowstone, Old Faithful, and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  We saw randy buffalo, and thermo-features of every ilk.  We took a ride in one of the old yellow buses. We swatted mosquitoes and viewed smoke from fires.  We ate cheeseburgers.  We had off and on cell phone service, no TV or internet, and manage quite nicely.

Funny though.  We downloaded photos a couple of evenings while sitting in the Lake Lodge.  We were asked by passers-by who saw us working the computer 'do you have internet?'  Alas.  We had to disappoint!  All we had were AWESOME PHOTOS!!

See.  Eldest and I had a plan.  When we were out hiking, one carried their kit lens (and by one, I mean me!) and Eldest carried her telephoto, which is more tele than my telephoto.  Mostly, we were riding from here to there, we both had on our telephotos, the better with which to photograph the critters.  And mostly?  The plan worked.

Want to see?

I am back, and I have photos (Yellowstone and others), news (both exciting and the mundane), and trite exclamations.

Such as...How can this be August already?

Be Afraid

Be very afraid.


Reservations have been made. Plans have been plotted out. Lists are being written.

T minus some days and counting…until our trip to Yellowstone/Tetons.

Eldest Daughter is coming with her ManFriend, neither of whom have seen the place. So Wonderful Guy and I will have the distinct pleasure of showing them the highlights. And the hotspots. And the wildlife.

Why the warning to be afraid? Because I just love Yellowstone. And the Tetons. And while I have managed to crank out the photos like crazy every time we have visited the place, it was BC.

That would be Before (new) Camera. Before I bought my coolio new dSLR last August, and knew (pretty much) how to use it (mostly). Eldest is bringing hers, as well.

So between the two of us? Maybe I should have a contest guessing the number of photos we manage to come home with? (I think we each took 200+ at the Philly Flower Show and that was inside, and only a half day!)

I will try to keep the vacation slide show to a minimum.

But no promises…

Six States Socks

I have renamed my Hedera socks to Six States Socks. I have knitted on them now in Colorado, Kansas, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. Wonderful Guy and I drove to West Yellowstone yesterday, and I knitted four rows of the heel flap just so I could call them that! The socks, they are not done, but I think perhaps they will be...on time.

Yes, I am back from vacation. Yes, it was a grand and wonderful time. The wildlife, the wildflowers, the wild thermo-features (the oh so technical term)...what can I say! Words fall woefully short, but much to the chagrin of Only Step-Son, who house/dog/cat-sat while we were doing the vaycay thang, I have tried since our arrival to tell him all about our adventures!

And this is the 3rd time I have been there, not counting when I was two years old.

I have over a gig of photos and movies, and that is because I don't take my photos at the highest resolution possible!

I did no spinning. We went ninety to nothing most days (except for the nap day!), and there was nothing for it but crashing when we arrived back at the cabin.

I did little knitting. We traveled by scenic routes only on the way there, and while driving there....well, I was the wildlife/wildflower spotter. Priorities, people! Priorities!!

Pix need to be more closely perused, but I part with this one. The wildflowers were absolutely crazy. Believe me, this photo is an accurate representation. This is the far side of Yellowstone Lake, across from the Lake Hotel and West Thumb, between the east entrance and Fishing Bridge....where we saw an eagle.

And one more thing....I found my first ripe tomato of the season when I got home. Five full days shy of August! Yessssss.