Yellowstone (part 1)

Continuing our tour of some of this country's most beautiful national parks, we moved on to Yellowstone.  While driving the RV though the park to our national forest campground, we ran into a bear jam.  He was minding his own business, munching on something beside the road, when suddenly cars were stopped everywhere. Since Ron was driving the rig, there was certainly no place for him to pull over.  As he inched forward, Ron had a good view of the bear in the ditch, but I could only see his brown back.  Stupid me - why didn't I get up and move to the window behind Ron?  I am so indoctrinated not to get out of my seat while the RV is moving, but really . . .  So, no picture.

A little later, I took this classic bison-in-the-geyser-basin shot out the window.  It's really zoomed and cropped, so not the best, but I couldn't resist.

The next morning, as I was driving Ron and Diana into the park, Ron snapped these female elk right along the side of the road.

And a whole herd of bison.

Our first stop was at Black Sand Basin.  It's not one of the more popular ones, but I liked the colors created by the water running into the stream.

I wondered why there were dead trees if nothing had grown there for thousands of years.  We found out that the hot spots move or the drainage from the springs changes so new areas of vegetation are affected all the time.

At Upper Geyser Basin, we had some time to kill before Old Faithful was predicted to erupt, so Diana and I started out on the 1 1/2 mile trail to see some of the other springs/geysers/pools.  Heart Spring was a pretty blue, but I'm not too sure about the 'heart' label.

By the time we needed to turn around to go back to Old Faithful, I was really into seeing all the different shapes and colors, so I kept going.  I know that must seem like a weird decision, but you'll have to see the OF pictures on Diana's blog.

I don't know where they got these names, but this one was Wave Spring.

I passed Economic Geyser, which of course wasn't doing anything, but Beauty Pool was pretty.

Chromatic Pool was as colorful as its name.

And I was lucky when Oblong Geyser gave a little show just as I was passing.

There was a person there who reported the eruption on his walkie talkie.  He told me he was a Geyser Geezer.

Near the river was this colorful area, which I think was called Chain of Pools.

At the end of the trail was Morning Glory Pool, so named because of its rich blue color.

Well, it was blue when I was young.  The different colors depend on temperature and what organisms live in the spring.  The sign was blaming it on people throwing things into it over the years.

After I met back up with Ron and Diana, I saw a good-looking coyote.  He appeared pretty stuffed.

Although it wasn't the end of our day, I'm going to end with pretty Sapphire Pool in Biscuit Basin.  Now that's blue!