Friday, July 11, 2008

The Adventure: June 27: Yellowstone: falls and big bull elk!

We headed north from Norris Geyser Basin.

Here's a pretty scene overlooking a lot of trees. There were some discovery channel people down there filming some sort of interview so everyone was getting hushed by a ranger right here. You'd think they could go a little farther off the beaten path for that sort of thing. I guess if you ever see this interview and hear a loud truck in the background that will be B's claim to fame. ;-)

And here's a waterfall. I don't know what this is. My journal says we stopped at Tower Falls, so I'd have thought this is that, except in my photos this comes before Mammoth Hot Springs, and Tower Falls was after that according to the map, so.... essentially I have no idea. Maybe I didn't photograph Tower Falls, or maybe this is it. Or maybe I'm just totally confused. Yeah, that would be typical!

A scene from above whatever falls that was:

All along we'd been seeing a fair amount of female elk, most of which we did not stop for, having seen a lot on the 26th. And there was the occasional far-away group of little bachelors, but the big boys had been pretty elusive up til now. I think we actually stopped to get some scenery pics in this pretty valley and then realized there were two bull elk way the heck out there. Again, love this camera. I could not have gotten these shots with my little camera.

Pretty valley, can you see the two elk?



Uh oh, getting grumpy with eachother!



Interesting that the one on the left is ear tagged.

So northward we went from wherever this was and stopped at Mammoth Hot Springs for lunch. What a zoo, there were a ton of people there. Did not walk around the hot springs itself, just did a drive-by photo on the way out. I don't know what that odd geological formation there in the foreground is, and I shall also refrain from mentioning what we called it.

Next we stopped at Lower Yellowstone Falls and went to a place called Artist Point. Wow yeah, gorgeous. If it wasn't for the gazillions of tourists, I could have stood there and stared at this place for a long time!




A sleepy bull elk by the side of the road on the way out.

Next stop: Yellowstone Lake, and bald eagles!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Doesn't it do wonders for your eyes and your soul to to look down those canyons and across the landscape as far as you can see? Somehow you don't get the same feeling looking down a canyon of slapped-together 2-story behemoth houses squeezed together in Elk Grove. It's just wood and rock in a different form, after all, but it makes your gut ache. JJ

Katherine Plumer said...

Is it any wonder then why I want to leave here? :-)