August 12, 2009

Yellowstone NP

No entries for the last several days and this will not be too long.  Doing justice to Yellowstone in a blog entry is impossible.  We have been parked in West Yellowstone for three (four?) days.  We have entered and toured the park every day.  Yellowstone is HUGE.  2.2 million acres. That is 3437.5 square miles.  The distances between junctions which are major points of interest are LONG.  We have been out every day and not returned before 7:00pm.  At that point processing photos and writing is not a priority. 

Here is the required picture of Old Faithful.

My view of Old Faithfull Village:  Much like Disneyland.

Both have huge parking areas that are pretty much full.  Both have LOTS of people moving around in what seems like random movement.  Both have an event (parade/eruption) that draws people at a scheduled (semi-scheduled) time.  People start gathering about a half hour early to get good seats.  The event happens and people disperse to their random movement again.

Geyser Village does have Old Faithful Inn.  An historic hotel that is worth a visit.  Great architecture in the style of historic National Park lodges.  Each is unique and indescribable. Here is the outside but the inside is the uniqueness.

A few more pictures.  Here is view from what is called ‘Artists Point’ with good reason.

Proof we were here.

I thought this was fun.

It’s so big it needs its’ own parking lot.

Osprey nest with two fledglings.

Last night we had dinner with friends from Auburn in a Yellowstone campground.  Each of the three couples had been out traveling for some time and our travels managed to come together at a point.  We spent the evening sharing experiences and notes.  I’m afraid that we dominated the evening with our travels.  I apologize for that.  They had wonderful memories and experiences of their own and I wish we had heard more of them.  We will make great efforts to hear more of their travels.  It will take more evenings and more food and wine to hear it all.  Thank you Audrey and Gerry for a nice evening and a chance to experience buffalo meat.  :)

Today we sort of laid back.  Audrey and Gerry had suggested a ‘museum’ in West Yellowstone and we had no need to push on today.

We went to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center.  This is a not-for-profit live museum that showcases wolves and grizzly bears. All animals here have been rescued from situations that meant they could not survive in the wild.   Lots of learning to be had here.  We spent much of the day here.  They have six or seven grizzly bears that they rotate on exhibit often through out the day.  No bear is out more than 1:15 at a time. They also have a kind of junior ranger program.  One part is discussing the bears and how they find food.  When the bears are rotated (don’t ask me how they get the bears to leave the compound but they do) the kids are allowed in to the compound prior to the next bears entering.  Their task is to hide food for the bears to locate.  This assures that the bears are in prime viewing spots for a part of their time out.  Here are kids hiding food.

Here are bears finding it.

There are similar facilities devoted to wolves.

We also watched two movies that took almost two hours about restoration of grizzlies and wolves to Yellowstone.

All in all a nice day without any driving or dealing with crowds.