yellowstone diary...and beyond

Boy, am I looking forward to coming home.  It's just around the corner.  In many ways, this time has just flown by here.  In other ways, I feel like I have been here forever.  About the only thing I wanted to do that I didn't get to do was join the 100 mile club.  To join it, one has to hike 100 miles during the season.  It doesn't count just walking around but actual trails.  I just didn't have the will power to do it.  Oh well. Speaking of hikes, my hiking boots went on a moderately strenuous 10 mile hike the other day.  I wasn't in them, but they did hike.  I lent them to Lora, my suite mate from Italy.  They were required so I lent her mine.  Actually, when I do hike, I just use sneakers.  The one hike when I should have used them, I didn't.  But then Rose and I didn't realize that it was a harder hike--the trail to Mallard Lake.  Obviously, I did survive it anyway. Work is getting old.  I can tel...

This group of pictures is from the overlook we just happened upon while looking for the trailhead.  I didn't want to confuse them with the others. But I did end up adding some photos that I miss on the previous blog.  More blogging tomorrow, but don't expect photos. Hard to see in the photo, but this area was the scene of a forest fire years ago. Following pictures are some I missed posting on the Storm Trail hike Flowers along the way More Flowers along the way Mushroon Probably elk scat, but maybe moose. Cool nest, no idea what kind

As I have complained many times, wifi at yellowstone park is rather poor, or non-existent, especially where pictures are concerned.  Today, Saturday, Rose, Steve and I headed out to West Yellowstone to use the Library wifi, do some shopping and getting a bite to eat where the food is actually brought to the table.  Probably Chinese, but that has yet to be decided.  Friday, Rose and I went on a hike in the Lake region of Yellowstone.  Because of miles and miles of road construction, we missed the trail head and went a few miles further. While looking for a safe turnaround place, we came across an observation point drive and took that to the top of the hill-Wild Serenity. What a beautiful location.  It overlooks 30 miles of lake then into an area farther from any road in the lower 48 states, with no significant development other than Grant Village, a site within yellowstone. So it ended up being a rather lucky mistake. After that runaround, we managed to find ...

As Ann Evans suggested for comfort to my soul, I found an interesting rock and took it for a hike on Thursday, thinking of Steve and what he has meant to me.  It was a peaceful and beautiful hike. He was a peaceful and beautiful man.  The details of the hike were in an earlier blog.  These are the pictures from that hike.  On Friday, I was able to catch Old Faithful erupting under a beautiful sunset. I thought that was an appropriate time time and location for the rock.  I kissed it goodbye, shed a few tears, and left it with nature, with beauty and a place where many, many, many people visit daily.  Here are some pictures of the hike and the sunset. Sunset at Old Faithful Geyser Close shot of flowers along the highway.  I like the juxtaposition of life and death it represents with the living flowers and dead tree. Long shot of previous picture Pretty flowers along highway A colorful pool  Rainbow Pool Ra...