Yellowstone National Park
An exercise in fascination. No other location can equal this!
This page is just a sneak preview. I am putting this together in an RV park in Arco, ID. More to come later.

The following were taken on our first & second day in YNP. First day we headed south to Ol' UnFaithful (at the present time, eruptions are from 65 to 92 minutes apart), and second
day north to Mammoth Hot Springs. Both days were cool, but sunny and beautiful. Spent a good part of both days touring hot springs and geysers. Although we got to OF, there
are no pictures. Why? I took a movie of it, not stills... ergo, no picture. Suffice to say it put on a whale of a show.

The locals let us know right away that they don't get chummy with the tourists!	Believe it or not, this pool actually is filled with water. Verrrry clear water.
One of the tributaries of the Firehole River	Bubble, bubble, toil & trouble... Wonder how long has this been going on?
According to the available info, this is a biological mat	A turquoise beauty in the Lower Geyser Basin
Again...	A small pool off the Firehole Lake Drive
Firehole Drive: this one does small geysers on an almost continuous basis	Firehole Lake itself. The entire lake is hot.
These rivers, of which there were 5 or more, are the output from Grand Prismatic Spring, and the Excelsior Geyser pool. Interestingly, the Excelsior Geyser erupted in bursts from 50 to 300 feet high in the 1880s, but stopped after 1890. Even more interestingly, on September 14, 1985, it roared back to life with 47 hours of constant eruptions. Nothing since. Just try and predict when this one will go again!!
Output of the Grand Prismatic Spring. The colors are ever-changing, and fascinating beyond words!	The hills are alive, with the sound of steam vents. This one is in the area called 'Artists Paint Pots'
More of 'Artists Paint Pots', this time from above. And, yes, they are filled with water That very same ultra-clear stuff.	Aquamarine pool near the Steamboat Geyser, which unfortunately must remain nameless

This was the third day of touring... sadly, the sky was giving notice of the weather to come, and therefore no sun. Pictures just don't have any pizzaz under those conditions.
For me, the visit to Mammoth Hot Springs was a mind-blower. Why? Because the Mammoth Hot Springs that I observed when I was here 20 or so years ago, was nothing
like the Mammoth Hot Springs that we see today. Now it is probably 10 times as big as it was then. It is constantly building, with parts dying, and other springs bubbling
forth to create new terraces. The parts I saw back in the 80s were all dead, and new springs had taken their place. One of the places that they had built walkways had been
overwhelmed, and so the walkway had to be removed. I couldn't help wonder what they will do when the ever-building springs begin to overrun the buildings that now are not that
far away. ?

Tower Falls. In glorious form. Interestingly, many years back when at this same location, two weeks earlier in time, Tower Falls was no more than a large popsicle. It was totally frozen, no water flowing!	The cliffs are every-changing in color. Apparently a lot of sulphur in this one.
Mammoth Hot Springs. I was wonderfully fascinated by the white striations that occurred in all of the live springs. They are not water, but white colorations, but only in strings among the other colors	Terraces that didn't exist in the 80s when I visited before
I loved the colorations in this little spring!	All of the terraces end up like this with a myriad of little pools ringed by small walls of their material. What in the world causes this particular phenomena anyway?
This one demonstrates the incredible variability and constant change of this spring and others. This new spring and its attendant terraces are in the middle of a complertely dead area that has been that way for a considerable time. What caused it to come alive again? I know the One who knows, but He's not talking! ;-)	This little guy was a lot more friendly than those stand-offish buffalo. He was a regular ham. He remained right where you see him until I finished taking pictures, putting on pose after pose. He only hopped to the safety underneath the boardwalk when I put away the camera!
Good grief, Maude, call the 'sterminators. Our yard's got Elks!!

Last day and what turned out to be our exit from the park. That wasn't what was planned, but, 'Life is what happens when you are making other plans'. Or maybe when your
Creator intervenes. Had planned on camping at Lewis Lake CG. And taking a couple more days to see the parts of the park that I have never seen. However... one has to
summit Craig Pass (8371' more or less), and in spite of the relative lack of snow lower in the park, I eventually discovered that about halfway up it turned to glare ice and
that continued most of the way over the pass. With a 25' trailer behind, one does not just whip a 'U-Turn' and go back the other way, and this was with tires that have seen
better days, not unlike myself. Once off the pass, and at the point where the stress lessened to the point where one could actually think, we continued in the persistent
snowstorm to Lewis Lake CG, and discovered that it was inaccessible due to snow. I don't give up easily, but it was obvious that this Yellowstone trip was over!

This guy wasn't inordinately successful as harems go. His only had 2 ladies in it!	He attempted to get amourous with one of his 'chosen', but at this point she told him to buzz off! Success apparently does not come easy for him.
A trip down the Firehole Canyon revealed falls after falls. This is a busy river.	And another place in the Firehole Canyon.
What the portable home looked like after camping overnight in a lightly-used picnic area. Why camp here you say? It had gotten dark, the place we had originally planned on camping had about 12" of snow on the ground, ie., no place for a trailer, and when I pulled into this place it was snowing so hard that I couldn't see much of anything. Time to pack it in, eh?	Another one of the decidedly unfriendly locals. My first time to see a griz outside of a zoo!
He's looking more than a little disgruntled that we forced him off the road. It was waaaaay easier hiking up there!	Another one of the locals... no, wait a minute, that's one of my locals!
Perfect snow camping rig, eh? NOT!