Day 6- Yellowstone National Park

We got something of a late start for our first full day in Yellowstone, and by that I mean we were out of our still fairly cold cabin by 9 a.m. Today, our mission, should we choose to accept it, was to hike up Mt. Washburn. It's one of the higher peaks in the park, and a popular hike. We decided to take the easier route up, which was still a 5+ mile round trip hike.

Also, as you might expect, there's some elevation involved.


The handlers did have a tough time slogging their way up the slope and getting passed by fitter and more experienced climbers. Along the way, we ran into these guys.



Note that the handlers are technically violating the park's '25 yard' rule with regard to non-carnivores. However, it would have been technically impossible to climb past these guys and stick to the rule as the herd of bighorn sheep had arranged itself all over the trail.

Almost there...

Ta Da! Easy as pie. I'm not even winded!

This little guy apparently lives at the top and has a pretty good life begging fearlessly from hikers catching their breath in the ranger fire station there.

There and back again!

After the handlers caught their breaths, high fived (well, actually, they totally blew the high five) and got themselves settled in the Sexy Scion, we headed out to tour the northern loop of the park.

Just for clarification, the main roads running through Yellowstone are in a figure 8 shape. Today, our "plan" called for seeing the sights along the top 'O' of the '8'.

Handler 1 caught these two playing in the grass and started a "coyote jam" when she jumped out to take photos.

If you hadn't already guessed, the scenery in Yellowstone is spectacular!

The Calcite Cliffs.

The Yellowstone River.

Undine falls.

Eventually, we made it to Mammoth Hot Springs, where we intended to grab a late lunch. The handlers had heard there were often elk at Mammoth, and they were not disappointed.

Sadly, a bunch of idiot tourists who obviously had not seen the graphic videos of elk and bison attacks that are on the Yellowstone webiste, and otherwise ignored the above sign, were making the rangers' work hard. There were two or three of them running around trying to keep these morons away from the wildlife.

Some time after the picture of this doe was taken (while the handlers were enjoying an excellent burger inside a building) a bunch of these idiots approached the same animal as she patiently fed on grass. They got closer and closer...then this one woman walked right up to the doe and started HAND FEEDING HER GRASS.

It was at this point that Handler 2 jumped up and went over to the window with his camera to try and get the video of the carnage that he, and everyone else inside the restaurant, was sure would ensue.

Luckily, no one was hurt, but the rangers gave the idiot woman a strict talking to.

Here's a hint folks. Elk are wild animals. They choose to laze the day away in the middle of a human village (it's a real village...with school buses and everything...right inside the park) not because they are tame but because, short of using a bullet from a high powered rifle, the humans cannot stop them. They are not cute. They are not pets. They will bite the hand that feeds them, and then gore them out of spite.

Moving on, here's the Mammoth Terraces. They're a series of calcite shelves that have formed from mineral water bubbling to the surface. They are in constant flux as some dry up and other new springs become active. The handlers were just about on their last legs at this point, but they found the springs interesting.

On the way back to the Sexy Scion, they noticed this guy hanging out on someone's front lawn and decided to get some photos.

They were honoring the 25 yard rule, when the bull started to move towards them, bugling for his does. The handlers backed off and Handler 1 suddenly noticed that they had managed to get between the bull and the does (which had been hiding out of sight some 100 yards away). They quickly retreated to the Scion, but then watched with a large number of others as the bull proceeded to wander around the parking lot and the mammoth terrances, bugling and putting on a show.

When the ranger finally made it around to control the crowd, the handlers decided to take off. We still had a good half of the northern loop to complete!

Oh, did I mention that Handler 2 didn't appreciate the scenery of this trip quite as much as Handler 1? That's because of driving conditions like this.

Our next stop was the Norris Geyser Basin, where we got to see our first geyser! Here is Steamboat Geyser going off, though not with a full eruption (which hasn't been seen since 2003 and which is apparently much more impressive). We were pretty impressed as it was.

And some more thermal features.

Handler 2 really wanted to see the Artist Paint Pots, but we were losing light rapidly. We made our way as quickly as possible to that area. However, we felt we had to stop and photograph this lovely bison.

They really are everywhere in Yellowstone. It got to be "Hey, what are those people looking at?! Oh...it's just a bison. Whatever, keep going."

We made it to the Artist Paint Pots before the sun went down, but...ummm...welll. We were underwhelmed.

After that we headed back to the lodge for mini-cheeseburgers at the lounge (which were actually pretty good) and a rape cabin that had warmed up significantly while we were gone. Yay!