A full day at the park today, with lots to see. We tried to hit all of the major attractions, but the park is 2,219,789 acres in size, so let’s just say we maybe saw less than half of the park, and only the really important parts.

Started the day at Mammoth Hot Springs, which included a number of pools and springs throughout the area. Once of the more colourful was Minerva Terrace:

Water does actually flow over the terrace, but at a different time of year. Guess that gives us a reason to come back, huh.

Saw a lot of other areas as well, including Norris Springs (a large walkabout area with many small pools and springs throughout), Porcelain and Black Sand. Later in the day, however, we made it to Midway which was highly recommended and we saw why:

The next place to go was (of course) Old Faithful. Talk about a park built around a geyser. This area was definitely the most commercialized as well as the most crowded. Old Faithful erupts an average of every 97 minutes these days, but it varies between 30 and 120 minutes so it was anyone’s guess as to when it was going to go. We sat down and set up to watch and then proceeded to wait just over an hour until we saw some action. By that time there were hundreds of people sitting on the benches that circled Old Faithful. Away she went:

Now we can say we’ve done it…

On the way back through the park to our motel, however, was when we had some real fun. It was later in the day, so there were many more animals that decided to appear. We saw a Buffalo on the side of the road (complete with suicidal tourists stepping right up to it), along with about 50 deer that decided to cross the road as a group – safety in numbers. We were 3 cars back from the front of a line that had to wait at least 5 minutes for all of the deer to cross. Very cool, got a few shots of them too – but they were pretty fast.

Further along, I stopped on the side of the road to get some pictures of 8 deer that were grazing down at the bottom of a hill and was all proud of myself for catching some “in the wild”. Then we got back to Roosevelt Village and there were over 50 of them just hanging around town, pretty much running the show. Talk about taking the wind out of my sails ;). We even had a family of 3 deer try to use the crosswalk and get lost on the whole “get all the way across the street” concept. And then get testy with us, all of 6 feet away as we were the front car, waiting for them to move:

Pretty eventful, lots of miles on our feet so it’s going to be good to have a day “at sea” resting in Provo, UT on the way to Bryce Canyon on Thursday.

Double hit today, stopping by Craters of the Moon National Monument on the way to Yellowstone. Fairly short drive from Twin Falls, which was good because we (I say we but mean Marilyn) slept in a bit. But that was fine, allowed the camera store to be open so I could pick up a 77mm Circular Polarizer (mmm geek photo speak). Got to Craters about midday and yes, it was hot. It’s a big place, with a 7 mile or so driveable route around it. We took that option and stopped at various places, including the Devil’s Orchard, Inferno Cone, Spatter Cones and the North Crater. Drove past the Big Sink, which had a lot of lava flows to look at (long since stopped, don’t worry). Devil’s Orchard had many lava rocks and dead trees, along with new growth:

Again too many pics to post with this blog. I’m going to be very busy when we get back figuring out which 5 out of 100 I keep ;).

Anyhow, made it to Yellowstone at about 5:30 local time (Mountain Time) and proceeded to drive through the park as our Motel was in Gardiner, MT which is north of Yellowstone. We came in through the west side via Idaho…

I’m thinking of writing the park to suggest a name change to Jellyhead. I’m pretty sure tourists have to check their brains at the door because oh man they lose all ability to think. Mini rant coming up. The driving speed in the park is a maximum of 45mph. OK, no problem, that’s pretty darn fast. But not fast enough to stop people from stepping out in front of your car because they thought they saw a furry photo op across the road. And not fast enough to stop people from screeching to a halt for the same type of furry photo op. Stopping right on the road and clicking away. It was a zoo, to say the least, just to keep from hitting people or cars, nevermind small creatures (one marmot tried hari-kari with our car, but missed by 6 inches). Anyhow, hoping tomorrow won’t be as bad but won’t be surprised to hear about someone from Malibu seeing his first bear and his first Dodge bumper at the same time.

I’ll post on Yellowstone and have some pics for you all tomorrow – for now it’s R&R in the Motel overlooking the river and bustling Gardiner. Oh, and for the record, the local bartender called Gardiner “Godawful Gardiner” and wondered what a couple of Canadians were doing here….

Made the trip from Enterprise, OR today. Original plan was to go through Hell’s Canyon (in the daytime this time) and go to the Overlook point to take some pics. It was closed, however, due to the fact that it was basically on fire. Not sure if the area was actually still on fire or not, but they weren’t letting mere tourists anywhere near it. Even still, we had to take the drive through the canyon to at least take the chance, plus it was kind of on the way to Twin Falls. That drive was, well, let’s see if I can give you a mental picture. You know that Zoom Zoom commercial from Mazada where the road spells Zoom Zoom? This was kind of like that, only it was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious – about 20 times. Fun to drive in the mini tho, and practically no one around ;).

So we get through that drive and cross over into Idaho at this funky old earth/concrete dam (Mare has pics, don’t worry). After that, we’re driving down what looked like a road covered in dirtballs. Then Mare sees a crow fly down, pick up a dirtball and fly off. Hmm. Then we take a closer look and the dirtballs are moving. Great. Time to pull over and check this out. Turns out crickets like to use the road to hang out in Idaho. Not just normal crickets… black mondo crickets the size of my thumb:

Imagine him thousands of times over a couple of kilometers. Fun.

Anyhow, finally cross into Twin Falls (after Mare driving while I did a major powernap for 2 hours). We came across this great bridge, way up high over Snake River and a canyon. I look down and what do I see? A GOLF COURSE! Way cool – Canyon Springs Golf Course, to be exact:

Tons of pics to post on Flickr when we get back, but that gives you an idea. Wild, would have loved to have given it a shot.

Wouldn’t be Twin Falls if we didn’t go see some kind of waterfall, so we headed to Shoshone Falls – the “Niagra Falls of the West” (well, that’s what the brochure in the hotel said):

Again, many pics including a nice sunset right at the falls. No clouds tho, so not super-colourful. But hey it was a beautiful day and a great way to end it.

Off to Craters of the Moon National Monument tomorrow, then to Yellowstone Park. Should be a good photo day…