UPDATED 10/28/17

We apologize for not visiting or telling everyone we were in CT, but we where only there for a few days and in that time we visited family, went to the wedding, and saw doctors for eyes, physicals, blood work, etc.  It was a busy few days and the wedding was great (congrats to Phil and Jamie).

 

Last you read, we had left Kanab on Sept 3rd.  We drove home by way of Yellowstone National Park.

Now Yellowstone

We decided to head North and take I-90 back home to CT. We have already traveled I-40 and most things in-between. So we left the bunkhouse, spent one night in Salt Lake City, and stopped along the way at The Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Hole Wyoming.  Jackson Hole is a very nice touristy town. We could not see the the Tetons due to the smoke from forest fires in Idaho. (This turned out to be the same visibility issue we had in Yellowstone.) I did take a picture of a picture to show you what I should have seen  LOL

<< I will download pic a little later>>

…….

We soon found ourselves on the west entrance of Yellowstone.

So we continued through the Grand Teton National Park and into Yellowstone from the south. We had booked a hotel at the west entrance. This, unlike the hotel location in Yosemite, was a great location.We spent 5 days in Yellowstone. It is another amazing National Park. Yellowstone is different from all the other parks we have been to. It isn’t necessarily a hiking destination because you can see most of the highlights of Yellowstone from the road of just a 1/2 mile of less hike  .The geology and wildlife here is AMAZING.

Each day we headed out around 7:00 a.m. and saw such beautiful mountains with flowing streams and so much more. Some mornings the fog (not smoke) was hoovering over the geysers and streams. It was breathtaking.

….
We saw so much, I don’t know where to start.

…
Wildlife – we saw lots of bison (some causing traffic jams – lol), elk (at one point there was a herd in the stream), birds, antelope????, and a grizzly bear eating a bison. Yup, you read that right. It was far away and everyone was really ok with that. He are the pictures I took and then zoomed in. Not the best, but you can see the bears profile as he stood up. (BTW, this prompted me to buy a new zoom lens – yay!)

We also saw some 2 legged wildlife fly fishing. He was having a great time.

…
Waterfalls – Upper and Lower Yellowstone falls. The quick walk to the top of the lower falls was well worth it. As you look down to the bottom of the falls you see the mist and many tiny waterfalls off to the side of the canyon. Another small hike to a viewpoint where you are looking back at the falls was incredible. You can see the fall and there is usually a beautiful rainbow visible.

…
Geysers and hot springs – Well of course we saw Old Faithful, but did you know that there is a geyser hike behind Old Faithful where you can see tons of smaller and a little less predictable geyser and many hot springs. There are also other areas to see geysers and hot springs, well pretty much all over the park. Some just along the road, others have walkways so you can get up close. We came across on geyser that goes off every 12 hours for about 20 minutes. The water is so blue and it is mezmorizing to watch.


We went to Mammoth (town at the north entrance) to go in the boiling river. The boiling river is a short 3/4 mile hike to a spot where you get in the river and TRY to find a happy medium between the boiling hot water coming up from underground which joins the icy cold river as small water falls. You can have one leg is REALLY cold water and the other leg getting way to HOT all at the same time. It was nice to sit and listen to the river racing by at 8:00 a.m. A few elks also decided to stop by. Great morning.


We also visited Yellowstone lake and many other geyser areas. The clarity of the water and the colors are incredible. Some of them look like white waterfalls, other brightly colored holes that seem to go deep into the earth.

 

There is one called Dragons Breath. It has steam coming out of a cave like hole where you can hear the water boiling in an underground cavern. Very cool and appropriately named. The most amazing hot spring is the Grand Prismatic. The colors are almost to beautiful to describe.

   
Yellowstone is definately a place where you just stop and think “wow, we are sitting on a hot spot where you witness and come to realize, with respect, the forces of nature and how the earth alive just below your feet. It could all be gone in one eruption”.
We are grateful we got to experience and see this wonderful place.
_______________________

…
After leaving Yellowstone, we headed to Mount Rushmore National Park. Along the way we realized we were passing right by Crazy Horse. So of course we had to stop. It is going to be huge. They are done the face and part of the hand and are working on the horses mane and the rest of the hand right now. Mount Rushmore can fit inside it.


We arrived at Mount Rushmore at night and decided to see the structure all lit up. What we didn’t know is that everynight in September they have a presentation about the carving of Mount Rushmore and each of the presidents. They ask all the miliary in the audience to come up on stage and thank them for their service (Mike was up there). It was so cool to see the faces of the presidents as the lights break the darkness.


We did go back in the morning to see Mount Rushmore in the daylight. The short little walk goes to a small museum and takes you closer to the base of the structure. I kinda felt like you were looking up the presidents noses, but the path was so well done and maintained. It was very peaceful.
I found out…
– due to the instability of the rocks they could not finish the carving they way it was originally built
– you can spend time in jail if you try to rock climb up to the time
– there is a room built right behind Abe Lincolns head (it was suppose to house important historical documents, but that plan changed, so it remains empty)
– while they were carving, they had a power drop every Monday morning. They found out it was caused by all the women where using their new electric washing machines. They put in a bigger power system and this solved the issue.
– unicorns MAY exists (LOL)

    

________________
Next stop was The Badlands National Park. We only had time to stop at Wall Drugs (a place that started out as a small drug store near the badlands and because they decided to offer free water, turned into a small village within itself) and take a drive along the scenic road through the Badlands.


__________________
We drove 7 hours a day for the next 3 days to get back to CT. Now I know what some of you are thinking “You were HERE and didn’t tell us”. We are sorry, but we had to head out to our next workaway adventure and only had time for a short visit with family, attend the wedding (which was wonderful) and get to the many doctors appointments we try to keep up on.
_________________

After a few days in CT we headed to North Carolina, spent a few days with David and Tristan, packed, checked our mail, and headed to the airport  to start our next workaway adventure – Grenada

Think to always remember…

NEVER kick a cow chip after it rains!