Another Yellowstone day

Emma and I were on the road well before 8:00 this morning.  Our plan was to drive the upper loop of the figure eight roads of the park.  We did that in addition to the West entrance road and just about all of the Northeast entrance road.  I was hoping for some outstanding photo opportunities.  The forecast said partly cloudy skies, but the morning was spent with overcast skies.  :(
First up was this doe elk just relaxing and “chewing her cud.”  The chewing can be seen better in the header picture.  I think it looks like she wants to say something.  Couldn’t you just picture one of those cartoon bubbles coming out of her mouth with a snappy comment?  Some people know how to do that with their pictures, but not me.  What do you think she wants to say?

I don’t have too many scenic shots from today’s 200+ mile drive, since lighting conditions were not very good, and I couldn’t take the hikes to see Tower Fall and a few other views because of having Emma along. 

The thing that was most noticeable to me on this drive was the dramatic increase in visitors.  There were so many cars on the roads that it reminded me of being in a major city!  I don’t blame all those people for wanting to see this magnificent park, but I just wish they had come until July.  :)


I’m trying a new technique with two pictures side by side here that I learned from a post in Rick & Paulette's RV Travels blog.  It’s lunch time on the left, and a minor disagreement between two cows on the right.   Rick is quite the guru with Live Writer, and I’m trying to implement some of the things I’ve learned from him.  :)

As Emma and I moved on from Tower/Roosevelt toward Mammoth Hot Springs, I was getting hungry and wanted to stop at a picnic area to walk Emma and consume the lunch that I had packed.  Every place that we pulled into was jam packed with no where to park.  Ugh!  So, we drove through Mammoth Junction (what a mass of humanity that place was!), and turned south towards Norris.  The reason I wanted to stop at an official picnic area is that they all have a bathroom!  That was a paramount need by this time.  :)  Finally, about 2/3 of the way to Norris, we found one vacant picnic table!  What a relief!  Emma was, literally, relieved as well.  As I enjoyed my sandwich, Emma investigated the area.
“I know something’s in this log…I can smell it!”
“I’ll try the other side!”
“I know it’s here somewhere!”
Here’s the little culprit that Emma couldn’t quite get to.

In all my drives through the park, I have seen evidence of the great fires of 1988.  As I think I’ve mentioned, I was here during the summer of 1988 and experienced the magnitude of these fires.
Twenty-two years later, the devastation of these fires can still be seen.  This area had a dense population of Douglas fir twenty-two years ago.  Douglas fir is usually quite resistant to fire, but the high winds in the summer of ‘88 produced such hot fires that most trees did not survive. 
You can see some rebirth on the forest floor, but it is a slow process.  Other areas of the park have seen a better natural reseeding of the forest.  Some species of trees only open their cones, for seeds to emerge, after a fire.  In the great scheme of things, 22 years is just a blink of an eye, and that was really brought home to me today.

This has been a rather long post today, so I’d better say…
THE END….once again.  :)

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy