Where is Yogi??

We drove from Bozeman to Yellowstone today and continued the volcano theme of the western part of the trip. While I still think Yosemite has the most beautiful landscapes, Yellowstone has an abundance of fearless wildlife and geysers. In fact, Yellowstone has the most geysers in one area than anywhere else in the world!
We later found out that all hotel rooms in 100 mile radius were sold out due to hunting season. (more on this later) No wonder – the wildlife practically jumped in the car with us! How hard could it be to hunt them?! We were greeted by a bison munching grass beside the road near our car, a coyote sauntering across the street without concern for traffic, many many elk either lounging or eating, deer were the cute but commonplace critter.

Geysers were loads of fun as they would surprise you by spouting off right behind you when you were poised to take a photo of the one in front of you. Of course we saw Old Faithful and it was right on time. The colors of the travertine formations from the geysers are made of bacteria that thrive in extremely hot, sulfuric conditions. There is a place in Turkey (lots of volcanoes there) called Pamukkale that has similar formations.
It is a wonder to see the continuing impact of volcanoes in our landscape today. Virgins beware!!!

Hotel rooms became an issue around 7pm when we decided to find one in Grand Tetons National Park- just south of Yellowstone. After a warning from one hotel in the park, I started calling around and found that yes indeed, rooms were not available. That is, normally priced rooms were not available!

You guessed it, Mark and I ended up in a resort, overlooking the Grand Teton range. Our room, complete with stone fireplace, in-room Jacuzzi, granite countered kitchenette, full gym, pools and hot tubs. We were determined to get our money’s worth, well, as much as we could. So we took a bottle of port to the roof Jacuzzi, at 10pm, to find a sky deep with stars. Wow! While we were soaking, a hotel staffer showed up to say he was locking the door so no one else could come up as they were closing the Jacuzzi, but we could stay as long as we wanted. Ya, our Private Jacuzzi!! Ok, that was, say, $45 worth of the price. The kitchen where we’ll make breakfast…about $20 worth. If I work out…another $20. Internet access $10. Not sure we’ll be able to make the total price sound reasonable, but we sure plan to make the best of it!!! I guess we’ll start calling around first thing in the morning to find another room that is more like $100 range. Yikes!

Observations of the area during our drive - casinos are everywhere. Not the big flashy ones, but ones that are attached or next to the Motel 6 or the gas station. Log homes and barns are the standard, with metal roofs. The tone is very conservative politically. We see signs of extremism like the billboard to help prevent the killing of pets (it appears these are in dogfights), large dogs are the norm, as are the humans. We are noticing a distinct growth in girth after crossing into Montana. hmmm.

Contest: Clue - we found out this week that the car trip mileage resets at 2000 miles. But dont worry, I just add 2000 to the current number.

Food and Drink: Ok, we are at Yellowstone, so we had to have buffalo!! The Buffalo carpaccio we had at the hotel restaurant was mouth watering good. I will have to stop thinking about its cousin beside the car today.