June 9-12
Our generator broke the last night we were in the Grand Tetons so we huddled closely to keep warn during the night. It was so cold that I got up during the night & covered Bennie up with his duvet. He was still covered in the morning which was a shock since he normally shakes things like that off. Without the generator we also had no coffee so we scrambled ourselves together & headed for the nearest restaurant. Wasn’t exactly the breakfast experience of our dreams but they did have fresh coffee! I bought the first stove top coffee pot I saw that day & put it to use till the generator was working. It makes delicious perked coffee! We did find a station in Yellowstone a few days later that was able to fix our generator so we now can make heat & light when we need it.
We actually had no trouble getting into Yellowstone. The snow at this time of year seems to lay on the ground but not on the roads. The elevation in Yellowstone is so high that it snowed most of the time we were there. I got lots of use out of the thrift clothing I bought in Jackson Hole. After becoming oriented at the first Visitor’s Center we came to & securing a reservation at a camping area in YNP, we headed along the lower loop to Old Faithful. We arrived there about 30 minutes prior to her next eruption. It was cold & windy but we hung out with the multitude (not too bad this time of year) until she decided to “blow!” What a spectacular sight we had before our eyes. No picture can capture that event! It was such a thrill to be right there & see it for our very own eyes! Of course, I did take pictures, but you know, pictures just don’t do something like that justice. After the eruption we joined up with a group listening to a ranger & he was explaining just what makes these eruptions occur. Old Faithful is the only geyser of the many many geysers in the park that is predictable, hence, her name. The ranger said there was another geyser close by, named Beehive that erupts once a day & it’s eruption is much larger & longer but they are unable to predict the timing on it, so it is really hit or miss. Well, guess what? The next day when we were driving along the lower loop & passing the Old Faithful area, I asked Dad to stop so we could check if it was close to the time for Old Faithful to erupt & we did stop & found it was just a few minutes till the time. We stood their watching when suddenly near by Beehive spouted out & gave the most spectacular show you can imagine & then suddenly OF went off! So we actually saw the 2 best geysers in the park erupting simultaneously! It was unbelievable & we loved every minute of it. We learned from the ranger talk that YNP is sitting on top of a volcano & that the park is a huge crater on the top of the volcano. So driving & walking around you see many types of geological & land formations – geysers, bubbling mud pools, & fumeroles as well as water falls, meadows, mountains, etc. Yellowstone should be a "Must See" for all Americans! And then there is the case for visiting YNP to see all the wild animals & we did see many. Our favorite was seeing a mom & dad wolf with 2 cubs running from their den across a field into the wooded area. Spectacular! We also saw many elk & many buffalo, & a black bear & a couple of moose.
There are 2 driving loops in the shape of a figure 8 around the park & we decided to drive one loop each day. On one of our journeys around the upper loop of the park the traffic came to a virtual standstill & we crept along at about 3 mi per hour. “Uh oh!” I said. “The summer tourists are here!” After about ½ hr of creeping along we found that a large group of buffalo were in the road walking along &/or trying to cross the road. I put Bennie in my lap & showed him a big guy as we carefully drove by it & Bennie barked like mad & jumped down to hide in the back. Bennie’s very brave, we all know! Anyway, hope you enjoy some of the pictures we took in YNP. It was an incredible experience & it is a place we WILL return to in the future. We are all so fortunate to be able to call YNP “Ours.”
