National parks – Adventures of Roy and Laurie

September 22, 2018

Yellowstone National Park….The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Great hiking trail along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

We have never been to the Grand Canyon in AZ so have no idea how this compares but, my was it beautiful.

The old saying goes….”like water under the bridge” but we can change that to “like water over the falls”.

During a different part of our day long hike we actually got to see all the water going over the falls.

This picture was taken right next to those lovely falls.

We wondered what it would be like to sit and slide down the canyon walls through the portal in the picture and into the water. I think that would be a one time only occurrence!

This old guy decided that the “eats” were better next to this guy’s tent in the campground than on the open range.

Pretty sure this was the same bison that loitered in our campground earlier in the morning. . We found him enjoying lunch as we left the campground.

These shots were taken on a different hike, further upstream on the Yellowstone River:

September 19, 2018

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming….Day 1

We were not sure if any park would beat the scenery of the Tetons but we were willing to give it a try in a few more northern parks before we get snowed out. As the Tetons and Yellowstone are only a literal “Yellowstone’s” throw away from each other, why not check out Yellowstone? Of course, as the ranger at the visitors center said “Old Faithful is a must as it is on everyone’s ‘chore’ list”.

In our minds we figured to fight off thousands of visitors to see Old Faithful but this crowd was easy to deal with. Very cool eruption indeed!

We actually prepped for this wonderful sight by having breakfast at the Old Faithful Inn. A really cool log structure with all sorts of neat architecture etc. It is billed as the largest log structure in the world. When we were done, we found that we could sit on their porch and watch Old Faithful so we would not have to deal with the throngs of folks getting off the tour buses.

Who is that guy not wearing hiking/biking clothes?

Oh what would we pay to have this clock on our mantle at home. Oh yeah, we don’t have a stone chimney to put it on!

Laurie is relaxing a bit before we head out on the hike du jour.

The hike of the day was to Fairy Falls and Imperial Geyser:

We are not sure why this is called Fairy Falls but my is it pretty. As it is a 12 mile round trip to see it there were not many folks there.

No, that is not a really long selfie stick. There were a few souls who walked the 6 miles in to check it out and they volunteered to take our picture..

We even dipped our hands into the warm creek that is just downstream of the Geyser. The water there was hot but not scalding anymore.

The path from Fairy Falls to Imperial Geyser was lined with Autumn colors.

We had Imperial Geyser all to ourselves. It erupted for a few minutes, stopped, and then after a few seconds of silence, it would erupt again. Not as powerful as Old Faithful but there was no one else there to see it!

We decided to walk this path up a huge, steep hill only to find out it wasn’t a people path at all. It turned into a herd path shortly after cresting the top. After walking on it for a while we found some bison resting and having lunch near a lily pond.

On the way back we stopped to take a picture of what is called the Grand Prismatic. One can see it from the road so that is where all the people were today. The colors are absolutely amazing…..and I am shade colorblind!

We found a heart-shaped geyser! (All I need to do is Photoshop an R&L into the center of it) Check the clarity of the water. The hole in the middle is actually very deep.

September 18, 2018

Grand Teton National Park: A Hike to Bradley Lake

We went on a shorter 7 mile hike to visit Bradley Lake and Taggart Lake. We simply cannot get enough of the views we see with the jagged peaks of the Tetons in the background!

You will notice the haze surrounding all the mountains. This was caused in part by smoke from wild fires out west. This was about as clear as we saw over our 3 days in the Tetons:

Lunch time at Bradley Lake. We could have stayed there all afternoon including a nice nap but…..

This little critter was so hungry he seemed to be eating the pebbles!

I think he phoned ahead to a relative on the beach that there were people coming. This guy was not very shy. No feeding the wildlife though.

A few more wonderful views of the Tetons near Taggart Lake: