30 May - spent a good part of the day hiking a trail called "Elephant Back"....not sure why the name. It was strenuous four mile hike that climbed to the top of a mountain for a beautiful view of Lake Yellowstone. Hiking the wilderness here knowing you are not at the top of the food chain (grizzly bears) makes the hike a little more intense. We were prepared with bear spray and eyes wide open. Besides, a friend told me I don't need to outrun the bear, just Kathy :-)
Elephant Back hike view of Yellowstone Lake
Late afternoon was spent exploring the last section of the park that we hadn't taken a close look at....the West Thumb and Grant Village area. As we explored the area we arrived at an animal jam early enough to get a pretty good look at a grizzly...that was exciting. Kathy said looking at him through a zoom lens looked like he was about to get her......she was back peddling.
Kathy's Bear (as seen on facebook)
Temps overnight dipped to 26 degrees and you know it, the propane ran out at 4:30 A.M. so yours truly had to go outside and change the tank......Brrrr. Just thankful we had two tanks and a full one for back up.
31 May - This is our last day in the park and we had some admin things to do in preparation for our departure in the morning. After that we took another ride just admiring the beauty of the place and the animals.....found a couple buffalo locking horns.
Buffalo (fighting or playing?)
Decided to do dinner at the Lake Yellowstone lodge....to celebrate my brother Don's birthday (if we needed an excuse). The restaurant came highly recommended and we were not disappointed. The dining room offered a beautiful view of Lake Yellowstone with the snow capped mountains on the far shore. A perfect ending to a perfect visit.
We've had a great visit to both the Yellowstone National Park and to the Grand Tetons National Park. We've soaked up some unbelievable scenery, saw and photographed many animals and traveled countless miles......great time here but now it's time for us to head farther north.
First, I thought I'd leave you with some observations from the Yellowstone part of the trip.
- A new term - "Animal Jams" - that is the traffic jam caused when a large animal is spotted in the forest beside the road and everyone stops to look and photograph.....some don't even bother to pull over before jumping out with their cameras.
- Four way stop signs - I have never seen so many people that don't seem to understand the concept of taking turns....they caused as many traffic jams as the animals. They were not being rude in not taking turns, they were being so nice that no one would move.
- Georgia Plates on your vehicle - seems like alot of folks are interested in talkng to us (or maybe hearing us talk) when they see the Georgia plates. We have met some wonderful folks here....some from Knoxville Tennessee (we both don't like Florida Gators so we hit it off), Virginia, Oklahoma, and some really nice Canadian friends from Ontario we shared stories with. We even met a lady that grew up in Spalding County Georgia. (that is where we live now)
- Asian Population Decline - Really, there cannot be many more of them at home because they are ALL here....some trying to drive the Cruise America rental RVs on the opposite side of the road than they are used to....beware! Really a stalemate at the four way stop signs!
- Selfies - that is obviously the thing to do these days....we feel lost without a selfie stick.
- Mountain Air - when people tell you the air is thinner here, belive it. At 8,000 to 11,000 feet for an old boy from the Atlanta area it get's hard to breath. Especially since I am a year older than when we arrived last week.
- Tee Shirts - I've learned that a girl cannot have too many souvenir tee shirts.....not just one from evey park...one from every gift store in that park. (Several for those wondering)
So for now - Say good-bye to Yellowstone
The End
(sorry, I couldn't resist)
