We've been back from our magical Yellowstone/Teton/Jackson trip for a little while and I intended to post before this, but I caught some kind of nasty cold virus and am just now coming up for air. Our trip was fabulous! We started out and also ended in Jackson, a darling town with great restaurants. That is the one thing fairly lacking in Yellowstone - good food. We'd been warned though, so just didn't make it a priority knowing we had reservations in Jackson to assuage our foodie souls.
 |
| The fireplace is 85 ft high |
 |
| railings are original made of local lodgepole pine |
 |
| Old Faithful Inn - built in 1903 |
We stayed at the Old Faithful Inn for three nights which was quite the historic experience. We were lucky to get in - many make reservations a year in advance. Much is original and the lobby area is astounding. You can see the Old Faithful geyser out the windows and the people watching from the mezzanine is fun. We got to see Old Faithful erupt 4 times while we visited.
Another thing we were warned about in Yellowstone was no cell, tv, or internet service. That is a authentic old style phone booth, although we didn't try it out to say it worked. Yellowstone is well known for encouraging concentration on nature which is not a bad choice. It was probably good to be unplugged for 3 days. We are too wired these days.
 |
| Old Faithful geyser- goes off every 90 minutes or so 24/7 365. |
 |
| bubbling mud pots off Lake Yellowstone - they reside at the bottom of the lake too. |
 |
| very deep hot springs by Lake Yellowstone - not for human use |
 |
| that's blazing hot steaming water going into the river - not fog |
 |
| another unnamed geyser - there were so many! |
 |
| steam vents everywhere |
The world's largest collection of hydrothermal features reside in Yellowstone. Hot springs, geysers, mud pots, fumaroles (steam vents), and travertine terraces. It's one big mass of boiling bubbling escaping water and steam from the earth's core that covers many miles in Yellowstone. Everything is carefully planned for idiot human behavior with boardwalks and danger signs everywhere, but still people fall in or walk in to this stuff every year never to be seen again. It's actually a bit scary for me to really think about what's going on down there, say when the "big one" is happens. Scientists say no time soon... maybe. 😧
 |
| truly an old massive male |
 |
| in the steam fog as we left Old Faithful for Teton |
 |
| female big horn sheep |
 |
| this moose was on Ohio Pass close to our house as we left on our Yellowstone trip |
And now the animals. We saw everything they have to offer except bear. Of course bear have been in the news again at Yellowstone, this time a grizzly attacking a lone hiker, but we saw nada. We did see moose, pronghorn, wolf, elk, big horn sheep, sand hill canes, and bison - hundreds everywhere. Did not get photos of every animal and were fooled a couple times when the big car pileup was either for nothing or in one case - geese. Huh. Yup, car traffic jams all over as the animals rule, not the cars.
A selection of waterfalls and rock formations in other parts of Yellowstone. It's enormous and lots of crisscrossing to see everything. All breathtaking.
We headed into Teton which is right next to Yellowstone. Some iconic peaks and views. The truth be told, we started in Teton after we arrived to Jackson at the beginning of the trip but there was a haze of wildfire smoke over everything. Pictures were no good. Happily a few days later the smoke had cleared as we drove back into Teton. Lucky!
I'll end with a few photos of Mark fishing. He tried two different areas with sadly limited success. Wrong advice from someone at Orvis which was a surprise. A reason to go back for a purely fishing trip!
