Saturday, June 22, 2013

Not just Old Faithful at Yellowstone...much more


Old Faithful is what most people think of when asked about Yellowstone but we found so much more when it comes to geysers. Hot springs, lava pits, mud pits, odd formations, fantastic colors....and, of course, the geysers.

We posted about 60 photos online so that you can view them at your leisure...there's no way we should be putting that many photos in a blog post.

https://plus.google.com/photos/100376105788369441882/albums/5892139888053559425



Here's a sampling of what we saw as we walked around the geyser fields and the hot springs fields. Of course, any one of these is much hotter than boiling water temperature.








Loved the sides of this hot springs pit. This was the only one we saw that had these formations. 




Bacteria growth.


More bacteria growth.



Okay, okay.....I put a good number of photos in here...couldn't help it. They were all so amazing.




There is bacteria that thrives in the extreme heat of the pits....and produces these colorful images. 

Looks so peaceful, you want to jump in but....that would be the end of you.


Old Faithful...every 75-85 minutes....off it goes. A big crowd starts gathering to watch. We saw it about 4 times as we walked around the geyser field.


Closer look at these sides of this hot springs pit. 


As you can see, every image was unique so, as we walked through the fields, (there were more than a dozen throughout the park) we never got bored.

So, we've shown the wildlife and now the geysers, hot springs, etc. Next up will be the breath-taking waterfalls. Stay tuned!

Kim and Steve

Oh, here's the link again should you want to view all the images:


https://plus.google.com/photos/100376105788369441882/albums/5892139888053559425

Friday, June 14, 2013

Yellowstone Wildlife

We came to Yellowstone for the geysers and Old Faithful and ended up taking more photos of the wildlife (animals) than anything. They were everywhere! What a treat to see them in their natural habitat.

Trails? We don't got to have no stinkin' trails when we got a road we can walk on.



We saw herds up to 45 in quantity.


Having a ball making a dust cloud...kinda reminds me of Pig Pen in the Charlie Brown cartoon strip.

...and lots of calves...

Mom!  Wait up!

This is looking out our passenger window.



Awwwww....cute huh?

Interesting that baby horses (colts) look like a horse and baby cows (calves) look like a cow but baby bison (also called calves) don't look like a miniature bison. Cuter for sure.

Mountain Bluebird, Male
Mountain Bluebird, Female. Babies inside maybe?
Raven...very large...and they were a lot of them.
Sandhill Crane. So awkward on the ground...

 but very very horizontal and sleek when flying. (It's right in the middle of the photo flying from left to right).


Great Blue Heron

Mallard Duck, Male

Canadian Goose

Marmot hiding in the rocks
A herd of Elk was at this stream almost every day.



Coyotes





One of the most fun we had was watching all the tourists (like us) get all geeky when they saw an animal.


This is called a "Bear Jam" because the people come to a screeching halt and pull off the side of the road (well, most of them anyway) to take pictures. Rangers, like the one in the orange safety vest, are constantly trying to prevent auto accidents....and to make sure no one hassles the animals.

Our new additions to the family. "Buff" on the left and "Smokey Junior" on the right....and proud new parent, Kim, in the middle.


We'll get to the spectacular waterfalls and the plentiful hot springs in the next blog post.

Kim and Steve

Kayaking again...finally!

Finally, we got back on the water. This time at Meacham Lake in upper state New York, just on the north edge of the Adirondack Mountains (yo...