Road Trip Update - Day 3.75

I dropped off Nadine at the Bozeman airport yesterday and I'm now in Grand Tetons National Park glamping at in a Colter Bay Tent Cabin where where I can get LTE cell service.  My cell phone is setup as a hot spot and my laptop is online so that I can continue my blogging while the sun sets over the Tetons.  Pretty slick huh?  

Last night was supposed to be down in the low 30's with a chance of snow.  It ended up being in the low 40's and I roasted in my new cold weather sleeping bag.  The Tent Cabin has thick sleeping pads on the bunks which absorb a ton of body heat to help keep you warm. Between that and my 30 degree sleeping back, I was sweating after a couple hours. Tonight I'm adding my blowup sleeping pad as a second layer to keep some colder air between me and the hot sleeping pad to hopefully stay a little cooler. Funny, I was scared of being too cold out here...

But, I'm getting ahead of myself.  Where was I on the last post? I think I was 3/4 through Day 3, so let's continue there.

Day 3.75

After touring the Upper Geyser Basin, we headed down to get a up close and personal view of the Grand Prismatic. There is also the Excelsior Geyser Crater that you walk by which has a ton of steam coming off of her.

 But the real star of the show is the Grand Prismatic.  There are different heat zones which are habitable by different flavors of algae, which is why you see different colors. Here are a few of my favorite shots.

 

We were starting to feel a bit tired after exploring the Grand Prismatic, so we decided it was time to head home.  Then we ran into a Bison Jam which was backing up traffic pretty bad, so we decided to head up a side road called Firehole Lake Drive which does a little loop towards the east then comes back onto the main road.  

Along the way we saw White Dome Geyser, which was interesting enough.  

But the real show was happening on the road.  A couple had parked their car to check out White Dome and shortly there after Nadine and I heard a pecking sound. We looked back and saw a Raven had decided it wanted to get someone's attention in the other couple's car. They were laughing and said, "Our daughter is in there, I bet she is freaking out". Well, the daughter was a little worried and hopped out of the car to see what was happening. 

As the pesky raven flew off, I was able to capture a closeup of the culprit on camera in case the daughter wanted to file harassment charges with the National Park Rangers. 

 And, then it was time to head back to the Ho-Hum Motel for some well earned rest.

 

The laptop battery is winding down, so I probably should call it a day.  Until next time.

 

Road Trip Update - First Few Days

1 week into sabbatical and I'm finally writing something on my blog. Nadine and I have been busy exploring Yellowstone, waking up early and getting home late.  So, there hasn't been a lot of time to write update my blog or do any editing on the, literally, thousands of photos. 

Today, we're heading to Bozeman, MT where Nadine will be catching a flight back to PDX. So, this morning I figured I'd take a few minutes to update my blog and upload some photos.  These are all straight out of camera JPEGs, editing takes time which I don't have much of right now.  Funny how you don't have time when you are on vacation. 

Day 1 

There wasn't a lot of highlights on first day of driving. We went west along I-80 then headed north on U.S. 97 through Goldendale then into the Yakima Valley. I hadn't been on that stretch of road for years. We then hopped on I-90, eventually stopping in Coeur d'Alene, ID for a night. 

The R with a clean bumper

Nadine giving directions to the hotel room

 Day 2

From Coeur d'Alene we headed into Montana, staying on I-90. One of the highlights was stopping at a rest stop near Anaconda where you saw this giant column in the distance.  Turns out it is a smoke stack from a copper smelter and is one of the tallest brick structures in the world.  We were on a schedule, had 6.5 hours of driving, so we didn't head in to visit it.

Later, we stopped in at Earthquake Lake. In the 50's there was a 7.5 earthquake that caused a major landslide that buried 27 campers and a dam that was built in 1917. 

Of course we had to get a selfy. 

 Here's a closer view of the slide.

And these 2 rocks surfed the slide to the other side of the canyon.

From Earthquake Lake, we headed into West Yellowstone and stayed at the Ho-Hum Motel. It is a bit dated, but the rooms were clean and the price was right. Just make sure to get a room that is upstairs or one of the single level rooms.  

Day 3

We woke up early and headed into Yellowstone National Park. First side trip off of the main road was heading up Firehole Canyon Drive to see Firehole Falls.

Then onto the Upper Geyser Basin to see Old Faithful and the what seemed to be hundreds of geysers and hot springs in the area. 

Lion Geyser decided to blow her top while we were there.  

 The colors of algae can be amazing. 

 

And then of course we had to see Old Faithful. We went around to the back side away from the crowds. You can see the crowds in the background near the Old Faithful visitors center.

After Old Faithful, we back tracked a bit and drove down to the Angel Falls parking lot to hike up to the Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook. BTW, this place is crowded and you had to fight your way to the front to get a view.

Crowded, to say the least.

But a very nice view once you got up front.

Down below the viewpoint you can get right up to the edge of the springs, but you don't really see the colors.  Still an interesting view.

 

Oh yeah, did you know there are Bison in Yellowstone? Just kidding, of course you knew that already.  This guy was hanging out by the parking lot when we got back to the car.

We then headed back to the Upper Geyser Basin to explore some more. Here are some highlights.

 Castle Geyser

Grotto Geyser

Chromatic Pool

Nadine taking a break

 I have a lot more photos, but of course I'm running out of time today. We need to hit the road for Bozeman soon. Until next time.