Lower Geyser Basin

Our first real stop was the Lower Geyser Basin. The Lower Geyser Basin encompasses nearly 12 square miles, with a large variety of thermal features, including mud pots, geysers, pools, springs, and fumaroles.

The largest thermal area of the Lower Geyser Basin is the Fountain Group. From the parking area, 0.5 miles of boardwalk trails pass a sizeable assortment of geysers and springs at the edge of quite a large barren region of deposited minerals and very little vegetation. As you walk out along the boardwalk trails, it looks like a giant wasteland with plumes of steam rising everywhere.

The Fountain Paint Pots, temperature 202.8°F is a location where many small vents bubble noisily through thick, clayish mud of varying colors and consistencies. The mud is composed of clay and fine particles of silica broken down by acids and grinding action. The tinting of the mud in colors of pink and gray from iron oxides is derived from the original rock. The bubbling action results in escaping steam and gases - mainly carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. Yes, it definitely smells like rotten eggs.

Just south of here is one of the most colorful pools in this area, the Celestine Pool.

Midway Geyser Basin coming up!

Madison River and Firehold River & Falls

Entering the West Entrance to Yellowstone, we followed along the scenic Madison River. The Madison originates in Yellowstone and flows in a northerly direction for 140 miles and is one of Montana’s premier wild trout rivers. We selected a lovely picnic spot, and as luck would have it, the weather began immediately spitting some rain. We didn't let that dampen our spirits, we just ate quickly standing up!

At the Madison junction, we turned right and followed along the Firehold River and stopped to enjoy the first of many picturesque waterfalls.

Next stop - the Lower Geyser Basin.

Arriving at Island Park, ID

We made the 4-hour drive from Ogden to Island Park, ID with our friends, Bill and Debby.

We were so excited to see them and to have the opportunity to spend this time with them. After stopping in Ashton at the Henry's Fork Foundation, we scooted down the street to a drugstore with an old fashioned soda shop. We were treated to delicious huckleberry milkshakes. Huckleberries are apparently a big deal here. They're kind of like blueberries but sweeter I think.

Bill and Deb have friends who generously loaned their cabin, located in Island Park, to us for this vacation.

The cabin was centrally located to everything. It had indoor plumbing and heat, and was only 35 minutes from Yellowstone. Who could ask for anything more? Perfect!

Yellowstone.....here we come!

Firearms Museum

Once we hit Ogden, Brent was anxious to visit the John M. Browning Firearms Museum. Located in the Ogden Union Station,

the building also houses a train museum and a display of antique automobiles. The Browning Museum has original models of firearms designed by John M. Browning. These include rifles, shotguns, pistols, machine guns, and cannons. I just sort of blew through it, stopping to look at some of the shotguns I was most familiar with. Brent, on the other hand, slowly, painstakingly, and very thoroughly enjoyed every single solitary display.

Thank goodness it's only a small museum. Otherwise, we might have missed Yellowstone entirely!

Bryce Canyon

Bryce Canyon is spectacular. A road follows the plateau rim for about 18 miles with various vistas for viewing. Each of these views are beautiful, but when you finally reach the vistas in the Bryce Amphitheater, it is incredible.

While we were there we couldn't drive the entire 18 mile road as they were doing a "prescribed fire." These controlled burns are done when there is a lack of natural fire, resulting in a high fire risk and a change in the forest structure. The prescribed fire is used to restore the forest health and reduce risk of wildfires. Anyway, because of this, we started our viewing at the Natural Bridge. This natural bridge was not formed by a stream as true natural bridges are. This would be more acurately called an arch as it was carved by both rain and frost erosion from the top of the rock.

The next viewpoint is Farview Point. Here ponderosa pines begin to give way to Douglas fir and white fir.

At Swamp Canyon you begin to see more of the hoodoos. A hoodoo is a pillar of rock, usually with fantastic shapes, left by erosion.

The Paria View is located just outside the Bryce amphitheater in an area that was carved by the Yellow Creek. The Paria River Valley and Table Cliffs Plateau form its backdrop.

Bryce Point gives you the southern-most view of the Bryce Amphitheater. As you can see, the hoodoos are very clearly defined. You're pretty high here and the air is noticeably thinner as you hike around.

Inspiration Point is just about the center point of the amphitheater. When you look down on these pinnacles and spires, it's just breath taking. Unfortunately I don't think the camera captures the incredible colors which I understand change with the sun.

We decided we were starting to run a little short on time, so we skipped Sunset and Sunrise Points. There are over 50 miles of hiking trails throughout Bryce. With my arthritic knees, we knew I wouldn't be able to hike to the bottom of the canyon and back up, so we decided a trail ride was a good opportunity to get a close-up look at the beautiful rock formations. Brent had the camera, so there are no pics of him. Although, we did purchase one taken while on the ride, but I didn't take time to scan it in. All I will say is that the cowboy said he tried to match up personalities of the riders and the mules. Brent's mule, Bonnie, ate everything in sight and farted throughout the whole trip. Hmmm, that cowboy knew what he was doing! LOL!

Here's a pic of me and my mule, Jewels. Jewels was a clever, sweet, even-tempered girl! A great picture of our guide, Brandi, down among the hoodoos.

This formation is known as Thor's Hammer. Brent did a great job snapping these pictures. Between the movement of the mule and the bright light, he had no idea if the pics would turn out or not. I think he did a pretty good job.
The end (so to speak) of a fantastic 1-day trip to Bryce Canyon.
Stay tuned for more of our trip.

Mossy Cave & Waterfall Hike

We knew we couldn't do both the canyon country and Yellowstone all in one trip. Since we weren't leaving Ogden, UT for Yellowstone until Wednesday, Brent and I took Kim's suggestion that Bryce Canyon could be done in one day. I'm so happy we took her suggestion. Bryce is simply breathtaking.

We arrived in SLC around Noon, rented our car, and made the 4 hour trek to Tropic, UT which is just a few miles from Bryce. We stayed at a lovely B&B called the Bullberry Inn. Nettie was a lovely hostess and we had a great breakfast with homemade bullberry jelly. Yes, there is such a thing as bullberries. Who knew?

Anxious to take in as much as possible, we got an early start (surprise!) so we could do a short hike to the Mossy Cave and the Waterfall. These were our first views of hoodoos as we hiked in.

Beautiful, right? Yeah, but wait until you see the post from Bryce Canyon itself!

Anyway, continuing on, here are some pics of the Mossy Cave. It's really not much of a cave - more like a large overhang. But, there's springwater dripping in and it is very moss covered. It's probably a good thing that the view on the walk in and the falls were a little more impressive or I might have been sorry I made the hike!

Here are some pics of the waterfall. You can see there was a photographer at the bottom, just waiting for perfect light to snap some photos.

Above you saw the pic of these wind-blown arches from the other side. I don't think the pictures show how red some of these rocks really were.

Now, it's over to Bryce Canyon!

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N WOOHOO!

Over the next few days, I'm going to try to post some pics from our long-awaited, whirlwind vacation. First, we hit Bryce Canyon in Utah, visited friends in Ogden UT, and they gave us an incredible guided tour of a small part of Yellowstone. We had a fantastic trip...until we got stuck in Cincinnati on the way home. Ike did plenty of wind damage and as a result were delayed a day returning home. Now it'll be back to the grindstone, hopefully a little refreshed.