Day 17 - No Lions, No Tigers, but Two Bears, Oh My!

We left early this rainy, cold morning.  It rained a lot during the night.  A little thunder, but nothing serious.

We decided on Old Faithful and the Canyon area for our last day at Yellowstone.  Good choice!  We had considered going to Old Faithful yesterday, but thought there still might be a lot of people from Memorial Day.  Good thing we didn't go there yesterday.  Nine people were struck by lightning there!  Here's a link to the story:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/06/02/lightning-strike-yellowstone-national-park-injures-people-waiting-old-faithful/

On the way to one of the areas, there was a bear with a cub.  I didn't have the telephoto lens on the camera, but blew the photo up.  It's a little blurry.  Mama is to the left.  Look carefully to the right and you'll see baby bear with his nose up in the air.

Everyday we pass a bald eagle next on the main road.  You aren't permitted to stop so I always shoot through the window hoping to see the eagle.  We did today!

Chrissy has been spending much of her time under a blanket on the front seat.  We're afraid she's doing to become a victim of SDC - Spontaneous Dog Combustion.  She also has on a sweater as it's cold.

How cold is it?  Here's a photo of Lake Yellowstone near West Thumb.  Still frozen!

We moved on to the geyser area.  It's here that I wish Bill Engvall was with me.  SO MANY people really needed their sign!  Oh, check out Bill Engvall here:
http://www.billengvall.com/

These people needed their signs:
Parents who let their kids scream at the top of the known decibel levels humans can hear
Those "smart guys" who think the "don't step here, it might break and you'll burn to death" signs don't apply to them
Those two couples walking four abreast on the walkway and not letting anyone pass

You know it's bad when you hear kids telling their parents how dumb some people are!

We visited my favorite geyser:  White Dome Geyser. It's off the main road and goes off every 20 minutes.  You can stand really close to it, too.  So many people drive up and take a photo of it waiting to go off and then leave never knowing how close they were to really seeing it.  Recorded it on the Flip recorder and I'll get it up on YouTube soon!

I visited the mud pots and other geysers, too.  All on Flip.   Two guys behind me were trying to figure out what the smell coming from them was.  I looked at them and said "Egg Salad."  They died laughing and said "Bad Egg Salad."  Heard them tell some other people the same thing!

At Old Faithful we left Chrissy in the truck in her cage.  We placed her pink blanket over the top of the cage and left the window open some for her.  It was cool outside and we were parked in the shade of a large tree.  Rangers said it was acceptable as she can't go on the walkways.  Oh yeah, signs for those who had their dogs on the walkways.

We enjoyed lunch while waiting for Old Faithful to be turned on again (seriously, a lady asked David last time what time they turned it back on!).  We waited about 15-20 minutes before it went off in all it's glory.

Old Faithful Inn.


Back to Chrissy.  She was glad to see us and stayed between us on the seat.  All of a sudden she's jumping up on the seat and looking over the seat to where her cage was.  Confused us for several minutes until we realized that her pink blanket was back there!  As son as I got it and covered her up again, she was perfectly fine!

Best photo of the day (for me).  Twin calves next to mama next to the river.  There are so many new babies everywhere in the park!  These two were really cute!

See ya down the road!

Jenny :)