We have  spent several  days touring Yellowstone National Park.  This is a recount of our first visit. The park encompasses 2.2 million acres and spreads into 3 states.   From our campground that is located in Idaho, we travel through Montana and then Wyoming to reach the park.  It was established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law in 1872 granting it the first national park in the world.  It is known for its wildlife, geothermal features, many types of ecosystems, canyons, lakes, rivers, waterfalls and mountain ranges.    The park is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest super-volcano on the continent.  Thousands  of minor earthquakes take place annually which keep  the geyser spouts  free  allowing them to erupt.  It is home to bison, elk, black bears, grizzly bears, wolves, moose, river otters, osprey and trumpeter swans.

Road from our campground to Yellowstone.

 The Fountain Paint Pot is named for the reds, yellows and browns of the mud in this area. The differing colors are derived from oxidation of the iron in the mud. The heat in the caldera forces pressurized water up through the ground.  Rising gasses cause the bubbling action. The bubble action in the mud varies with the seasons. In the early summer, the mud is watery from the high water table due to rain and snow melt. By the end of summer, the mud is much thicker as the water table drops.

There are geysers everywhere in Geyser Basin area.    Of course the most famous is Old Faithful.   We arrived at the Old Faithful parking lot around 10 am.     Not only could we not find a close parking space, we couldn't find any parking space.   I had no idea there were so many visitors this time of the year.   I know July and August is wall to wall people....and up to June 1 some of the roads are still closed with snow, so we thought arriving mid June we would miss the snow and people....WRONG!.   So we skipped it today with a plan to arrive much earlier on our next attempt.

 Yellowstone has approximately half of the world's geysers and  we did get to see some nice ones  along our drive.

Geysers everywhere!!

Jet Geyer

Hot spring = Celestine Pool.

We have seen lots of bison, a few elks but no bears.   I will be really disappointed if I don't see any bears.  Ron keeps promising we will see some before we leave.  Of course, he really doesn't know that we will, but for the time being it stops me from whining.

We saw several  fly fisherman.   The many rivers within the park are shallow and apparently ideal for this type of fishing.

Stay tuned for our continued "bear watch"

Hope all is well.