DONE! But here's what I look like now!

This whole process of cataloging the pictures and uploading them and whatnot has been exhausing! I am so glad to be DONE, but they are there, preserved for posterity, right? So it was all worth it?

But this is what I look like now...

this photo was taken by a lady who posts a very entertaining blog called Confessions of a Pioneer Woman. She is a former city girl who married a rancher and lives in the middle of nowhere. She takes amazing photos... Anyway, they were checking the cows for pregnancies and she has a montage of pictures of the "expecting" ladies. This one was taken at exactly the moment they were... how can I put this delicately? confirming her good news? But I feel like I look like this most days so I have adopted her as my spokes-cow.

Geyser Hill pt. 1

Geyser Hill pt. 2

Old Faithful Area Trail pt. 1

Morning Glory Pool and Trail

Day 3 in Yellowstone

I forgot the loop to Virginia Cascades on the way back from Canyon! It was so pretty and quiet. It was another of those places we normally would have missed, if not for the head's up from the Garners. There weren't many people there so it was lovely.

We originally planned on just 2 days in Yellowstone but we missed seeing the boardwalk loop behind Old Faithful when we were there on the first day. N had seen a picture of a pool there called "Morning Glory" and she really wanted to see it so Dilbert, N, H and I got up early and headed back to the Old Faithful area early in the morning. The fog was amazing at that hour. We made it to the Geyser Hill area and did the hike which ended up being 3 miles, round trip (check out the slide shows for pictures of this area). It was worth it, though.

After the hike we went back to West Yellowstone. We had planned on going rafting down the river or boating on Hegben Lake but it was far too cold. Instead, we gathered the rest of the group and headed to town to do some souvenir shopping. We all got hoodies and goodies and had fun looking at all the junk for sale. While we were in one store, bnlfan_1 and Teah were offered jobs for next summer so Yeah! we may be back next year!

Yellowstone Day 3

Another full day in the park, this time going north to Mammoth, Tower-Roosevelt and the Canyon area. The kids were THRILLED to spend another day in the car, driving around, looking at NATURE.

We started with another waterfall, Gibbon Falls, which was breathtaking. The pictures did not do it justice (but what pictures do?) Then on to the Norris Basin. We saw a lot of Elk and one cute fox along the way. Roaring Mountain was very neat, looking like an enormous pile of smoking poo, but still worth looking at (that is for the kids). The Sheepeater Cliff was another very interesting turn-out. We had fun scaring the kids at the Golden Gate, but we made it past without anyone dying. The view of the valleys up there was spectacular (I am running out of adjectives).

Mammoth has changed a lot since I was there, 20+ years ago. It has dried up a lot but it is still amazing to see. We saw this moose, yes, it really is a moose, and a very sickly deer on the way to Undine Falls.

I was disappointed the trail to the base of Tower Fall has washed out and is inaccessible but the kids were not disappointed at all. I must have overwhelmingly disappointed because I didn't take a single picture there! We also stopped at Wraith falls. From here, the Canyon country opened up with breathtaking views in every direction.

Again, I was disappointed that Artist Point was closed so we took a hike to a lower viewpoint of the Lower Falls. Wow.

After that we made our way back to West Yellowstone, exhausted. How lucky we were to have hosts who stayed behind to cook and clean for us. It was better than a hotel!