Happy Trails with Mike & Ellen Taylor

A grizzly bear! What an exciting thing to see in Yellowstone National Park! We've made 3 trips into the park since moving to our present campground at West Yellowstone, Montana. We've found that we're more excited about the wildlife and scenery than about Old Faithful! Sightings having included an osprey (not as large as an eagle but pretty spectacular), many elk, several herds of bison and their calves, pronghorn, mule deer, a wolf (wow!), and this grizzly bear. Yellowstone NP is really immense, with varied scenery--several fast-moving rivers, huge Yellowstone Lake, rocky cliffs, wide meadows, geysers, geothermal hot springs and mudpots--all on top of a massive caldera, or basin, caused by a volcanic eruption 640,000 years ago. All that thermal activity is really fascinating and unusual. And smelly! Mike identified it as smelling like an old radiator! I think it smells a little like eggs boiling. We missed seeing Old Faithful, but didn't really mind because of the busy tourist area that has built up around it. Instead we enjoyed many of the other attractions in the various geyser basins. Seeing all the wildlife has been a highlight of our trip; we still hope to see a bull moose and a trumpeter swan.

We have not uploaded our pictures yet because of a very slow internet connection. Hope to do so soon. We really want to share all the fascinating things that we've seen.

Our campground is on a large, deep lake--Hebgen Lake--that has only very recently lost the last of its ice. There's a wide dirt/sand beach, which will disappear when the lake is full in mid-July. Max and Gracie are loving running and chasing each other, and sniffing elk tracks and driftwood. They don't get to go with us into Yellowstone, since dogs are not allowed anywhere in the park except the parking lots.

We're planning a visit to a bear and wolf museum in the town of West Yellowstone this weekend. And, of course, we'll be watching the Indy 500 on Sunday!