Yellowstone on Tuesday

While we're stuck in the Jackson Hole airport (a whole different story...) I'll do a little updating. Maybe if we can find free internet in Denver somewhere I can do some more. If I am awake. We're now on the red eye flight from Denver to Dulles. Where we'll see if we can sleep on a plane. Fortunately I don't have to work tomorrow. John, on the other hand, may be S.O.L. Poor boy!

Anyway - from a really long week ago...

We were still based in West Yellowstone, and we knew we didn't have to be at the Hall camp super early, as Kathy is a smart woman who enjoys sleeping in. So we got in to the park a little before 8AM and stopped at a few places that I wouldn't let us stop at the day before, because I am a freak about being on time. :-). We took a little drive down toward the river (don't ask me what river, I have no idea and no map in front of me - it's in my suitcase that is lord knows where right now). Pretty down there, and some mountains in the distance.

And here's the view from the other side of the river - also pretty, but not the mountain view from the other side. You get fire-burned buttes instead.

We also stopped at Terrace Spring, which I truthfully remember nothing about. It was not tremendously memorable, so good thing I took a picture or two!

And then we made a quick stopped at super packed and crowded Gibbon Falls, part of (surprisingly enough) the Gibbon River. Some nice folks from somewhere far away took this shot for us, and we then returned the favor.

We met up with those nice folks again at our next stop, Beryl Spring. This was actually a pretty cool little spring - deep blue color, and right above it was a super loud steam vent that sounded like a jet engine (man, do I wish I could hear a jet engine right now...)

A little further down the road John (the eagle-eyed spotter when it comes to people spotting stuff) saw some people off in a picnic area looking through binocs and running with cameras. So, of course, being the good tourists we were, we stopped, too. And wandered down the river a little ways to spot... two ENORMOUS elk bulls. They were right across a little river from us, just grazing away and ignoring us. There were pretty cool. Made me think of my hunter friend, Gary, who would appreciate their enormous racks. And no, Dave Telesco, my mind is NOT in the gutter here!
Once we had our fill of elk, we drove a bit further, only to get charged by a buffalo in the middle of the road. OK. Maybe not CHARGED. He was walking. Slowly. But those suckers look ENORMOUS when walking next to the car. Needless to say, we did not get out.

When Mr. Buffalo cleared the road (I think they enjoy causing "buffalo jams") we kept on toward Camp Hall, only to encounter another "elk jam" right by their camp ground. We did get out to take photos of them, but as we were now completely jaded by the other huge elk, we didn't spend too much time here. We certainly were not as impressed as the other people. By the next day, we barely looked up at elk. Yeah, yeah. Another freaking elk. Got it.

We got to Camp Hall just at the end of breakfast, had a couple yummy pancakes and sausage on the way out the door, and rode over to Artist's Point with them. Artist's Point overlooks the Lower Yellowstone Falls, in the Yellowstone Canyon, with the Yellowstone River running through the canyon. It's a popular, crowded spot - John and Jonathan's favorite kind of places! But it does give some really pretty views of the falls:

Katie and Gracie look cute for the camera.
Katie (looking pleased), Aunt Lissa, and Gracie in front of the Lower Falls

OK, I've got to turn the computer off, go run through security AGAIN, and see if we can catch a flight to Denver, finally. If we've got free internet in Denver I'll see if I can get on again. Although I might need to give the laptop to John for a while. I've been hoarding it. Except when I can't figure out how to get on line, and then he has to fix it for me. John's good like that!

Here's hoping we get home some day. I would LOVE to see my own bed!