I'm forever behind on updating our blog - I still have yet to post about the conclusion to our Italy trip. And since we have elected to pack our summer full with all sorts of fun, I just can't keep up.  Pictures are what really have me overwhelmed and I'm not quite sure when I'll get on top of them.  But I decided that before I forget all the details, I would blog with or without pictures.

After we left my parents house in La Grande (July 5), we drove to the west entrance of Yellowstone.  Lee had never been and I hadn't visited since I was 7 years old.  So it was as if we were both visiting for the first time.  We camped four nights and made our way clockwise around the park.  We started our first day by heading to Artist Paint Pots and then on to the Norris Geyser Basin.   There were all sorts of documentation that implied the Back Basin of the Norris Area was a pretty exciting place back in the 90's, these days not so much. We really liked the feel of the Porcelain basin though.  It was really beautiful.    We originally thought we would go from Norris to our campground at Canyon, but then decided we needed to head north in order to visit Mammoth Hot Springs.  We were glad we made that choice.  The formations at Mammoth Hot Springs were super cool, especially where water pooled and fell over the cake-like terraces.

We were grateful for the long summer days so we could pack it in and still arrive at our campgrounds before nightfall.  After leaving Mammoth we made a couple of brief stops before arriving at Canyon, once to join the crowds straining their necks to see a mama bear and a couple of cubs.  We never saw the cubs, but got a glimpse of the mother.  The second stop was at Tower Falls - a busy place with limited views.  When we got to Canyon, we headed to the camp office to check in.  We were really impressed with what an operation Yellowstone runs.  The campgrounds are huge, it's unbelievably organized, and there are even showers as part of your camp fee. And after checking in and finding squatters in our campsite, the park did a great job of kicking the squatters out and even gifted us a free box of firewood for the inconvenience.

Day Two was another full day.  We went first to admire Upper and Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  Our favorite view point was Artist Point, but we also got up close and personal from Uncle Tom's Trail.  The morning sun was gorgeous and it may have been the highlight of the day.  From there we drove through Hayden Valley and stopped at the Mud Volcano area on our way to Yellowstone Lake.  I really had wanted to see a bear or two in the valley, that didn't happen - but we saw a fair share of bison!  We had lunch at the lake and then we hiked up to Elephant Back Ridge for what would have been great views of the lake if the afternoon storm hadn't rolled in.  The clouds were dark and before we got back to the car we were caught in the rain.  Fortunately the rain came and went and by the time we were settled into our next campsite at Grant Village, the rain had stopped.

One of the things that we quickly caught on to, was when there is a traffic jam on the main road, there is wildlife.  Every car stops, looks out the window or gets out of the car to see what animal is nearby.  We didn't stop very often, but we did stop twice to admire some impressive bucks- both 13 points.  There were some crazy tourists that got dangerously close to the animals - we couldn't believe their stupidity.  But, we loved seeing such gorgeous animals.

We saved the best for last - and spent our third and final day in the Old Faithful area.  The entire day was spectacular. We arrived and within 15 minutes Old Faithful erupted, we then took the long route through the boardwalks and lots of little geysers sputtered and erupted.  As usual, we were photographing fools and by the time we were wrapping up in one part of the loop, Old Faithful erupted again! The rangers were able to predict 5 other geysers within the park and that particular day, they were all erupting within a few hours of each other.  As we headed to Grand Geyser to wait for its eruption (largest predictable geyser in the world), the park was a buzz with excitement that an indicator geyser for one of the non-predictable geysers, Beehive, was active and Beehive was going to go within 20 minutes.  We rushed to that one and were lucky enough to see the enormous column of water spray close to 200 feet.  No sooner did we finish watching that eruption than we went straight to Grand Geyser and made it just in time to see that one erupt.  Our streak continued and we then caught Riverside Geyser, Grotto Geyser and Daisy Geyser.  The power and height of some of these geysers was amazing!  We felt super fortunate to see so many while we were there.  Before we left the Old Faithful area, we made sure we stopped at the Morning Glory pool.  The colors of that pool were gorgeous.  We loved the vibrant colors and the clear pools everywhere we went.

After leaving the Old Faithful Area we stopped at Biscuit Basin, Mid-Way Geyser and Upper Geyser Basins, the Fountain Paint Pots, and then at Firehole Falls.  All of them had various geysers, springs and pools. Our favorite was an unexpected surprise at Mid-Way Geyser Basin - Grand Prismatic Spring. The turquoise and orange colors were so intense - absolutely gorgeous.

We really enjoyed our three and a half days in the park   We feel like we got a good feel for the park and saw quite a bit. Had we had more time, we would have liked to have spent more time hiking on lesser beaten paths.   But, that's always the case.   One more national park down.   :)