First off, I really took this one myself--it's not a postcard or anything:
Yeah, Yellowstone is one of those places that makes everyone a good photographer. Quick sample, then I'm done:
Mammoth Hot Springs--pictures can't do this stuff justice
Mammoth Hot Springs again--looks like the set of a horror movie, huh?
The Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
And there is Old Faithful, which was good enough to erupt about 10 minutes after we got to it (it generally goes off every 80-90 minutes I believe)
And some more of these guys:
(I hear the tree bark in Yellowstone is to die for, by the way.)
Lazing about like they own the place--actually they pretty much do. These are tremendous, majestic creatures, as well as being, according to park literature, the most dangerous animals in the park in terms of threats to visitors--and that's compared to wolves and grizzly bears. Every single year visitors are injured by bison (nomenclature: colloquially known as buffalo, they are technically American bison). Apparently there have been three people injured so far this year. A woman in a park bookstore told me that earlier this year, a herd was crossing a street on either side of a car, and a girl put her window down to take a picture of a cow and her calf, and when the flash went off, the proprietary bull got mad and rammed the car, badly damaging the door. Park literature points out that bison grow to 2,000 pounds and can sprint at 30 mph, "three times faster than you can run." Not guys to mess with. Clearly, however, not everybody gets the message.
I got some pictures of some deer and some elk cows too, but let's face it--the bison are the coolest kids in town.
I'm going to let Bethany fill in the details later, because it's late, and tomorrow we have to drive 10-12 hours to Seattle. I'm afraid the tourist portion of our family adventure is nearing its end, and the family-and-friends portion is about to begin--which may cause the blog to suffer a bit (unless you want five days of pictures of us drinking and talking and laughing at jokes you can't hear). The whole reason we chose Seattle as our vacation destination this year is that my nephew Karl and his lovely new wife Michelle are having their official reception on Friday, so it'll be a big Groff family shindig--all four of my brothers, my mom, and assorted other family members. Also, as I lived in Seattle for a couple years (1990-92), I've got a couple old pals to hook up with. We're looking forward to a grand old time--as grand as it's been so far, but in a completely different way.
The Great American Slideshow isn't over yet though! We still have western Montana to drive through tomorrow, and that's got COOL landscapes--so STAY TUNED!
Oops, guess I wrote some after all.
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