Yellowstone 2013: Part 1

Well, sorry it has taken me so long to get this up! To tell the truth, I took almost 3000 pictures on our trip and the idea of going through all of them was a bit overwhelming. For the blog, I've trimmed it down to under 250 and split it into two parts. This part goes from the beginning of our trip to the day we left Yellowstone.

We found a park in Oklahoma and stopped to stretch our muscles a bit.

"Bone Cabin"--A part of the Oregon Trail

In this and a few of the pictures following, you can see the wagon
ruts left by the people going on the Oregon Trail. Now that was pretty neat.

The rolling hills of Nebraska

This is one of my personal favorites. Ethan almost
looks like a satyr holding panpipes.

Mom and Gracie's "travel colors"

I was maybe three feet away when I took this picture.

One of the things that I found most interesting is how
vastly different the landscapes of America are, even from the road.

"Agate Fossil Beds"

They told us we could see the excavation site if we followed this trail,
so of course we did, hoping to see some fossils. It was two miles long
and we saw...

...this. Yep. That's pretty much all that was there. I was slightly
disappointed.

This is an old pool at Fort Robinson. 

Gracie got to ride a pony. When we got home and I asked her
what her favorite part of the trip was, she almost immediately
answered, "Riding Snowball!" (Don't ask me why it was called
Snowball.)

The Indian Cheif

The view from the Mt Rushmore visitor's center/parking lot

What I found most impressive were how real and
deep the eyes looked, especially on Lincoln.

This was probably one of my favorite National Monuments. The way
they had it set up, there was a white tombstone marking the place
where every US soldier was killed, and a granite tombstone where the
bodies of the Native Americans were found. So looking over the hills
and seeing clumps of white tombstones, or two tombstones apart from all
the others, it was easy to visualize the battle. Very cool.

This is the National Cemetery on the battleground.
It's a bit like Arlington, though not near as large.

Here, we're walking to the Pompey's Pillar Visitor's Center.

Pompey's Pillar

The Pillar holds the only physical evidence of Lewis & Clark's
expedition: Clark's signature, carved into the rock. "Pompey" was
Clark's nickname for Sacagawea's son, and he named the rock after him.

The view from the top

Haha, ok, so, this was our "home" in Red Lodge, Montana. Dad
asked me to check TripAdvisor for hotels in Red Lodge, and
this place--the Yodeler Motel--came up as highest rated. So, I told
Dad about it and he made reservations. Little did we know that it was
the motel where all the biker gangs stayed...that was interesting..but
it was still very nice. Very "quaint."

Driving up Bear Tooth Pass into Yellowstone

WE MADE IT FINALLY

Our tent

I did a lot of experimenting on the trip, especially with light
and shutter speed. In this one, Grace was playing in the river.
It's kinda weird, but I like it.

She watched "Man from Snowy River" and fell in love with Jim
Craig, so she was tipping her hat to us the whole trip. It was fantastic.

Our friendly neighbours: they were an older couple who lived in
the area and I'm pretty sure they spent the entire summer (or at
least the majority of it) in the park. They knew practically everything
about it and the wildlife and where the best spots were to see ____.

It's a bit hard to see, but in the middle of the picture is a golden
eagle's nest with two eagles in it. I think the white one is the baby.

Bison were the most common animal we saw. Seriously, they were
everywhere. And they didn't care a bit about people or crossing roads.

These particular bison just stood in the road for several minutes,
blocking traffic. 

You can't really see the main item of interest
in this one, but in the brown dirt patch in the middle
is a coyote den with baby coyotes. 

We saw a family of otters! I think there were about five of them
This particular one was eating several fish.

Yes...this was encouraging...

Mammoth Hot Springs

We had to pump our own well water, haha. I felt quite manly
and old-fashioned doing so. It was great.

The first bear we saw--he was about fifteen yards from us, trying
to cross the road.

Ok, I saw this guy's hoodie, and I was made immensely happy.

This was the view from our campsite at about
9 o'clock at night. It didn't get dark until around 10.

See?!

Hahahaha, this bumper sticker made my day.

The Grand Prismatic Spring

This sign was telling you to stay on the boardwalk...

but, you know, YOLO.

Everyone waiting for Old Faithful to blow

There she is! 

....I didn't even know what to say...

The stars were brilliant.

I saw a badger! That was cool.

Dad made a photographer-friend (the guy in the middle) from
Jordan. He, too, was helpful in letting us know where to find
certain things.

A marmot

...and a least weasel. 

We had a beaver in the river by our campsite.

"Oh, I'm hit!"