Yellowstone - Day Three and Four

Relaxing at the campsite after a tough day of fishing!

This one was part of dinner.

Since we could not get a good picture, we took a picture of a postcard!

Another pool!

Interesting marks on the ground by the pool

Another Bison

And the rest of his family!

Earthquake area - what is under Kirk used to be part of the mountain behind him.

The mountain used to go all the way to the edge of the river.

The last two days in Yellowstone were spent doing some sightseeing and fishing. On Day three we visited the sight of an earthquake that occurred in 1959 about 10 miles from our campsite. It was amazing to see what the devastation was and the power of nature. Half of the mountain crashed down on unsuspecting campers. 100 mile winds were generated by the force of the mountain collapsing. The result was that Earthquake Lake was created because the Madison River was blocked by debris.

After the educational part of the day, Kirk went fishing in a nearby river but some torrential rains drove us back to the trailer. It rained for several hours so we ate pizza and drank wine and then I worked until midnight on some HDR tasks.

Our last day here Thursday, was an exceptional wildlife day. Although it was supposed to be a quick trip to the last set of geysers we had not seen and then on to spend the rest of the day letting Kirk do some fishing. It took us over an hour to get to what should have been a 20 minute (at most) ride. Traffic looked like the Santa Monica freeway - backed up for miles. We both became very irritated until we realized it was because of the wildlife. We spotted a coyote then an eagle in its nest. Following that was a herd of buffalo so I took way too many buffalo pictures. When we finally got to the geyser area, we could not see any of the pools because of the steam. There was no wind so it did not blow away but hovered over the pools. It was a great disappointment. After seeing so many postcards showing the major attraction in this area - Prismatic Springs, we decided to go buy a postcard and take a picture of what we could have seen if we had been in an airplane over it. Even on a good day you could not have seen the springs as shown on postcards - they are all aerial views! So off we headed back to West Yellowstone so that we could travel another 15 miles for Kirk to fish. And here we were back in the same traffic jam going the opposite way for the same wildlife. It took us over two hours of travel to see 15 minutes of steam!

However, the day was not a bust. Kirk got to do his flyfishing for several hours while I hiked around the area. He caught 6 trout and kept two that we had for dinner. Yummy! Needless to say he was pretty darn excited!

We are packing up early tomorrow and heading northwest to Deer Lodge Montana.

Did I mention that Kirk broke a molar on our first day in Utah. Believe it or not we could not find a dentist in West Yellowstone and of course because of the July 4 holiday, there was no dentists available in Utah. Kirk was able to make an appointment in Helena, 50 miles away. As soon as we setup camp in Deer Lodge we are heading to Helena. The dentist was nice enough to say he would wait for us to get there. Once we get Kirk all fixed up, our plans while we are there are to golf and go to a folk festival in Butte. The Campbells Traveling Salvation Show will be whooping it up in the heart of Montana!