Devils Tower

During yesterday's 295-mile drive, I kept finding myself humming the same five musical notes: Re, Mi, Do, Do, So.... By the end of the day, I was able to tie the music to its place: Devils Tower National Monument. Devils Tower enjoys a prominent place in America's History, as our first National Monument. It's also earned a place in American pop culture as the alien landing pad in the climax of Steven Speilberg's 1977 classic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Devils Tower stands nearly 1,300 feet above the surrounding terrain, which features brillant red sandstone cliffs above the Belle Fourche River. Our stop for the night was the Devils Tower KOA, which sits adjacent to the monument.

See! We aren't kidding. Devils Tower was just outside our Imax window. With such an up close and personal view, we didn't even venture up to the Visitors Center. Instead, we shot about a zillion pictures of the monolith in all kinds of light. Overnight, I listened closely to hear those familiar five tones and see the colorful flashes of light, but we heard and saw nothing. No close encounters for us this time. But, this certainly was a fun and interesting stop.

Along the way to Devils Tower, we coordinated a brief meet-up with our friends Dwight and Sally and their traveling companions. This foursome of road warriors is on their first-ever RV trip. They left Kansas City a few days ago and have already visited Mount Rushmore and Devils Tower. They were headed west on I-90 toward Cody as we were headed east, so we coordinated a rest stop along the highway. They shared many stories of their adventures and misadventures, but they all have smiles on their faces. Thanks, guys, for making the time to stop and say hello. We wish you a safe, fun and trouble-free journey to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons and home.

With a quick and relatively easy travel day, we made our way to South Dakota today. We looking forward to hooking up with family here soon and checking out those famous faces. Stay tuned.

Yellowstone Lake

With less than a week left in our stay near Yellowstone, we decided to make one last trip into the park. We packed a picnic and headed for Yellowstone Lake. Shortly after entering the park we saw our requisite bison for the day.

We chose the southern route to the lake, which took us by the lovely Firehole River and many steamy geyser basins.

We made a stop along the Firehole to check out Kepler Cascades, a couple of miles south of Old Faithful. The cascades make multiple drops over 150 feet. They look and sound beautiful!

We enjoyed our picnic lunch near the West Thumb Geyser Basin on the shore of Yellowstone Lake.

This basin has a little bit of everything. Paul led the way around the boardwalk through the basin and along the lakeshore as we passed mud pots, springs, pools and geysers.

The geysers were dormant during our visit. But, the pools and springs were very colorful.

This beautiful blue pool is, in our opinion, misnamed. What do the good folks at Yellowstone call this place? Black Pool. Really!

Isn't this a beauty? Paul declared Abyss Pool the coolest thing he's seen in Yellowstone. At 53 feet, it's one of the deepest hot springs in the park. All that hot water gives it lots of jewel-toned shimmer.

Looks like we definitely saved the best of Yellowstone for last!

North Yellowstone

The roadways in Yellowstone National Park are laid out in roughly a figure eight. Today we decided to travel the top half of the "eight" and take in the sights of the northern part of the park. We've noticed a significant increase in car traffic in the park, which makes road construction extra time consuming.

Our first stop of the day, if you don't count road construction, was the Artist Paintpots area. This small thermal area features colorful basins that bubble and dance along a one-mile boardwalk loop.

And what are these visitors to the paintpots gawking at?

It's a mudpot! This seething pool of sulfuric acid, silica, clay and dash of water was fun to watch, but not so pleasant to smell. By the looks of the white splatters on the boardwalk, there are days when the mud really flies. Visitors, beware!

Nearly half a million years ago, the Yellowstone Caldera deposited a flood of hot lava. As the lava cooled it formed these columnar joints known as Sheepeater Cliff. Today, it's a great spot to enjoy a picnic lunch.

A busy turnout just south of Mammoth Hot Springs offers two noteworthy sights. Rustic Falls has a unique and interesting shape as it flows into Golden Gate Canyon.

Turn around from Rustic Falls and you see Golden Gate Canyon. The canyon walls take on their golden hue as a result of lichen on the rock. That precarious roadway is Yellowstone's Golden Gate Bridge. Not quite the same as the bridge we knew in San Francisco, but it's impressive, nonetheless.

Mammoth Hot Springs was interesting. Mostly, it was very crowded. We took in the views at part of the Upper Terraces. We left the lower portions for another day.

Off the beaten path a bit at Mammoth Hot Springs sits Orange Spring Mound. There are several vents in this monster mound. The mixture of water and bacteria deposits gave this side a shimmering, almost scary look.

On the back side of the mound, this happy little vent bubbled away, covering the mound in more shimmering water.

We were treated to several animal sightings on this trip. This is how you know a bear is nearby. It's a mob scene! We did see the bear wandering along the tree line some distance off the road. But, we had to keep our eyes on the stupid bystanders. Here, the park ranger was encouraging traffic to keep moving. So, we did. See the guy in the left side of the photo? He walked right out in front of our moving Jeep...with his children! Thankfully, nobody was hurt. And, the ranger gave him a tongue-lashing.

This trio of cow elk caused a minor "animal jam". So, we got a quick "drive by" shot.

The highlight of today's critter spotting came on the trail to Wraith Falls. We had to manuever our way through an animal jam caused by a bull elk grazing along the road. It just wasn't worth the fight to get a picture of that guy. We were ready for a stretch, so we decided to enjoy the one-mile round-trip hike to this 100-foot gently sloping cascade along Lupine Creek.

After a minute or so on the trail we were greeted by a bull elk. Isn't he beautiful?

Unlike the animal jam down the road, we had this guy to ourselves. And, he put on a magnificent show! He posed for some 80 pictures. (Aren't you glad we decided to just show you two?)

We left our gorgeous friend resting in the grass. Soon he was greeted by other camera-toting hikers. (See, he wasn't very far away!)

On the opposite end of the size scale, we spotted this little ground squirrel just up the path.

On the way back from the falls, we spotted this pair of marmots on guard in the woods.

A few steps later we saw what they were protecting. This is one of several babies with the pack. Before we got back to the Jeep we spotted an antelope, too. Unfortunately, he was too far away for a photo.

We wrapped up the northern Yellowstone loop with a trip over Dunraven Pass, at 8,859 feet. After that, our trip home was all downhill!

Yellowstone

With a rare appearance by the sun, combined with temperatures in the mid-60s, Yellowstone National Park was the place to be today. With nothing on our agenda but exploration and fun, we piled into Gordon and Juanita's big black truck and headed to the park. It seems we weren't the only folks who decided to get out and enjoy the change in weather. This fly fisherman looked quite content wading in the Firehole River.

While the main roads of the park were fairly busy today, peaceful settings could be found just off the beaten path. We enjoyed a private show at Firehole Spring, which was living up to its name.

Continuing along Firehole Drive, we couldn't miss White Dome Geyser. This cone-type geyser is unpredictable, compared to its more famous neighbors. It erupts at intervals ranging from 15 minutes to three hours. We didn't stick around for the show, but we really enjoyed the view.

Our featured destination for today's tour was a visit to Old Faithful. With 20 minutes or so to showtime, a crowd was already gathering.

For a half-hour or so we kept our eye on the prize. With a bright blue sky spotted with a few fluffy clouds and the light breeze carrying the steam off to our left, we were well-positioned to capture some stunning photos of this natural wonder.

Then, just as the great geyser began to put on a show, the breeze shifted. In an instant, we were immediately downwind. The column of steam blocked our vision and, showered us with "geyser rain", as dubbed by the young girl immediately to my right. Old Faithful looked more like a white tornado.

Cue the wind once again. With just seconds left in the show, the breeze shifted back and gave us a clear but brief look at a wee bit of Old Faithful.

With our steam bath behind us, we stepped inside the nearby Old Faithful Inn to admire the 106-year-old beauty and find some lunch.

The centerpiece of this classic National Park Service Rustic log lodge is its massive 500-ton, 85-feet tall stone fireplace. The towering and quite modern-looking fireplace clock was built in 1904. The pendulum alone is 20-feet tall.

Excelsior Geyser Crater is a hot spring in the Midway Geyser Basin. The Excelsior Geyser pool discharges some 4,000 gallons of nearly 200-degree water per minute into the Firehole River. It's quite a sight!

Once upon a time, Excelsior was an active geyser that erupted 300 feet into the air. Since 1890, it has boiled shades of blue as a beautiful hot spring.

Grand Prismatic Spring is the largest hot spring in the United States. It lives up to its name, with vivid colors that change throughout the year. This time of year, the microbial mats are orange and red. The water in the center of the pool is a deep blue.

The earth and water around the edges of this boiling lake create some dramatic effects.

On our way out of the park, we stopped to take a look at a herd of wildlife. Paul and Gordon obeyed the rules and didn't go past this very important sign.

No bears could be seen anywhere. But, this herd of bisons and calves looked like they were enjoying their sunny afternoon in the park, too!

There's much more to see in Yellowstone. We look forward to making several trips back to see it all before we move on. Thanks, Gordon and Juanita, for a great day!

Welcome to Yellowstone

Our lovely park is just 20 miles or so from the west entrance to Yellowstone National Park. So, we're planning to make several trips there during our stay at Red Rock. We made our first trip this morning. Our friends Pat and Ed, whom we met in Port Aransas last winter, were staying north of Yellowstone and are planning to leave tomorrow. So, today was the day to catch up with them. We met for a tasty lunch and lively conversation at Canyon Village Lodge. It was great to see them both. We look forward to seeing them down the road.

It rained most of the day. The rain tempered our sightseeing, but didn't keep park road crews from working. We hit this delay each way today, and spent a total of 45 minutes just sitting.

Road construction wasn't the only thing stopping traffic in Yellowstone today. We got caught in an "animal jam" as this bison and his buddy strolled along the park road. And, when these big boys want the road, they get it! We didn't mind the wait.

Our rolling home is feeling quite comfortable these days. You see, this is moose country. We've heard of folks spotting these creatures in Yellowstone and near our park. The only moose we've spotted so far have been in gift shops and such. In West Yellowstone, MT we stopped for groceries and saw this spot across the street. Now, that's our kind of place! And, it appears to be for sale. Anybody want to buy a moose?

We look forward to spotting some real moose soon as we explore the area in and around Yellowstone.