Artists Paintpots and Geysers

Rode into the park in the morning, and took a walk through the Artists Paintpots.

I eventually made it over to the Norris Geyser Basin. This first photo is of Steamboat Geyser, followed by various shots around the area.

Little Timmy after he fell through the surface?

A very tiny geyser:

After that, I rode up to Mammoth, and found elk wandering through town:

These are of Devil's Thumb:

On the way back, I took a 7 mile detour down a gravel road known as Blacktail Plateau Drive.

A petrified tree:

This next photo is of a female osprey, and two chicks. They were across the canyon from where I was, the male was circling overhead keeping a bald eagle away.

This is Tower Falls:

My dad swears there's a rock missing from the middle of the falls, I haven't had a chance to try and check on that. I was really irritates though when I seen this sign - the view from the bottom of the falls is wonderful, and I was looking forward to going down there all day:

The best part of the day by far though was the ride from Tower Falls down to Canyon Village. It was a freshly resurfaced, windy, twisty mountain road. I may have to go back tomorrow and find an excuse to take that road again.

Posted by rich ( Aug 16 2006, 09:59:04 PM CDT ) Permalink

Firehole Canyon Road and Rain (Tuesday)

We took a drive in the pickup through Firehole Canyon Road in the morning. Just after entering the park, we saw an elk:

Here's a picture from the canyon:

And this little guy was hanging out there, too:

We also stopped at the Fountain Paint Pots, here's a few:

On the way back, there was a female Osprey circling over the Madison River:

I caught an incredible sequence of her diving in the river, grabbing a fish, and taking off again. Here's one of the photos, you can see the fish hanging under her:

After going back to the cabin to pick up my bike, I returned into the park. Caught a photo of a buffalo:

And the Lower Falls on the Yellowstone River:

This is one of the Sulfur Caldrons:

Found this guy wandering through the Mud Volcano parking lot:

Here's Yellowstone Lake, taking from a hill next to the Fishing Bridge, it was starting to get very windy and stormy:

And here's the Fishing Bridge:

Do I even need to point out the irony?

And here's the last photo for the day:

I started back from Fishing Bridge, with the intention of stopping at all the various points along the way. Instead, I was greeted with a 2 hours rain storm, that included very cold mountain rain (not like we have in Iowa in the summer), lightening and high winds. The rain gear worked well, but I didn't have my waterproof boots or gloves on, so my hands and feet got very cold.

It was still a fun ride in the rain though, I was really impressed with how well the bike handled - I'm really going to hate coming back to the boring roads around home.

Posted by rich ( Aug 16 2006, 09:29:31 PM CDT ) Permalink

I'm Riding in the Rain

I'm sorry there was no update yesterday, I rode down to Fisherman's Bridge mid afternoon, and just after I started back, a thunderstorm hit. I spent the next 2-3 hours riding in heavy rain and lightening. I did have rain gear along, but after getting back rather late, I really didn't have time to put together the usual posting.

Yesterday morning, I managed to catch a sequence of photos of an Osprey diving into a river to grab a fish, it was incredible to see.

We're headed to Earthquake Lake this morning, and I'll try to have something for yesterday and today posted this evening.

Posted by rich ( Aug 16 2006, 07:50:01 AM CDT ) Permalink