GRAND CANYON OF YELLOWSTONE - CANYONS

The weather is chilly, in the mid 40s, the air is crisp and smells of an oncoming snow shower confirmed by leaden clouds, and the canyon stands in multi layers of colors that tell the story of its long history. The first look is one of awe and wonder at the beauties of this earth.

(Double click to enlarge pictures)

This part of Yellowstone is in the remains of an old (millions of years) volcanic eruption. This rock formation is the result of that eruption.

The canyon walls seem to be painted in brilliant reds, yellows, and subtle browns. The walls of the canyon are another of nature's splendor.




Looking through this snaking gorge, I felt like a spec in this magnificent canyon and river. While we are all doing something else, this river continues to rage through these mountains of rock.

GRAND CANYON OF YELLOWSTONE - THE FALLS

The waters of Yellowstone's Grand Canyon, at approximately 8,000 feet elevation, plunges 1,000 down the canyon. (Double click to enlarge photos). We experienced several snow showers while visiting Yellowstone.




Backdrop of the Lower Falls as it cascades to the floor of the canyon.

At the bottom of the falls a rainbow appears as the water rushes on its way.


















At the top of the Lower Falls, snow can be seen on the rock wall. After hiking to the Lower Falls, we were quite warm--and that was going down hill.

The water of the Yellowstone River thunders through the canyon. Walking the steep paths, the roar of the river is so great that it feels as if you are right next to the river instead of hundres of feet above.

The Yellowstone River as it calmly makes its way to the Canyon to become an untamed, raging river.

YELLOWSTONE GEYSERS, PAINT POTS AND HOT POOLS

It is a unique feeling to be around the demonstration of live volcanism around Yellowstone. It makes you wonder just when - or if - it will become active again. Our campground manager was telling us of the routine tremors that they experience. We saw catastrophic and fatal evidence of the unstable terrain along the road from our Howling Mad Moon campground some 30 miles North West of Yellowstone.

The Madison river drops from Yellowstone and passes close to our campground. As we drive the road that climbs to Yellowstone following the Madison we come to an area where the newly formed Earthquake Lake spills into the Madison rapids below. This lake did not exist until 1985 when an earthquake caused a mountain to slide on top of the madison and a campground there. The slide in the middle of the night buried alive many sleeping RVers and totally dammed the Madison, forming the the lake. The US Core of Engineers had to blast a spillway to drain the lake and prevent further flooding.
As we approached Yellowstone from the West, we began seeing the edge of the enormous caldera from the super-volcano that exploded here. (Double-click pictures to enlarge)


The Caldera rim is a ring of low hills and mountains. Inside the caldera the earths crust is thin, and a dome of molten lava which was part of the super-volcano is close to the earths surface.


Inside the caldera, the melting waters of heavy winter snows, at this elevation of 7000 to 8000 feet, seep underground closer to the heat of the molten lava dome. Steam and boiling water is everywhere.

You can see the crusty surface around the steamers and geysers in the pictures above. A number of people have walked on the thin crust and fallen to their death into boiling water . The funny thing is that we could see the two-toed hoof prints (and poop mounds) from elk, moose, and bison roaming in these dangerous areas.

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK - WILDLIFE

Bison seem very placid and slow moving; however, in Yellowstone National Park, more people are injured or killed by being gored by a Bison than those harmed by Black Bears or grizzlies. (Double click to enlarge pictures)

Typical in North Dakota and Montana was seeing fishermen casting in mountain streams with Bison or Elk (Bison here) in the background.

Mom Bison and calf. These babies kick up their heals and run around like most young. Usually Bison are seen grazing in large pastures.

First time we had seen Ravens. They look like crows, but much larger. This one was
interested in the contents of our truck bed--no food!


Young bull elk. While in the park, we also saw but could not photograph, Mule Deer and Bighorn Sheep.

THE MOUNTAIN HAS MANY FACES

Western Montanta - One of the unexpected things we encountered, was that darkness does not come until a little after 10 p.m. and daylight is in full force by 5 a.m. At Howlin Mad Moon RV Park, what fascinated us the most was how varied is a mountain climate. Below are pictures of the mountains surrounding the campground in their many forms.

Clouds low over the Gallatin National Forest mountains.

Threatening clouds that will bring a spring snowstorm to the area. (Double click to enlarge pictures.)

















Mountain top shrouded in fog as snow falls.

We hunkered in as storms gather over the mountains. Shortly, after this picture, snow started falling and then near whiteout conditions, but the ground was too warm for this spring snowstorm to take hold.





After the snowstorm, the upper mountains show the snowfall, while we were fortunate and did not get the 18 inches of snow that was predicted.


Here the upper mountains are still experiencing snow falling, and the lower mountains are basking in sun.

EASTERN MONTANA

A view of snow capped mountains to the west. We stopped at this rest parking area to walk Wubie. As I was returning to the RV, I noticed a sign warning of rattlesnakes in the grass. We missed that bullet!

We arrive at our overnight stop, Mountain Park Campground, outside Billings, Montana, and we were again warned of staying out of the tall grasses because of rattlesnakes. Oh, my!




This dirt road that seems to go to no where from the interstate, has been a very common sight through Iowa, South Dakota, and Montana.


Below are red capped old volcanic cones from millions of years ago.

TRAVELING THROUGH WESTERN SOUTH DAKOTA

(Double click on picture to enlarge) The Badlands




We spent the night in a lovely campground called Rush-No-More near Sturgis, South Dakota. The name, I take to be a play on Mt. Rushmore, which is close by as are the Badlands. We are in a slight valley surrounded by mountains. Behind us is a very lovely meadow of pines that leads to a ridge with a wonderful view. Across the street from our site is a small horse ranch with many horses grazing in the fields just in front of us. There are several horses with foals that look to be just a few weeks old.


We hiked this lovely field to a ridge to see the view.


At the top of the ridge, the sights are beautiful.




The owner tells us there is a severe storm warning out with winds of 25-45 mph and gusts of 50-60 mph. This is of concern to us living in an RV. The winds begin to howl as night sets in. All seems well within the RV. At about 2 a.m., we hear an unbelievable gust of wind that hits us broadside hard; however, we withstand the force of this gust and manage through the night. The next morning is windy, but sunny for our trip through Montana.
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TRAVELING THROUGH EASTERN SOUTH DAKOTA

Arriving in South Dakota was really the beginning of big changes in the landscape and living styles. There are farms consisting of thousands of acres with a house, barn, and other outbuildings in the middle of these huge tracts of land. Hardiness is essential to living here. Next-door neighbors mean people who live hundreds of acres away from you.

Some farms are like the one above--a rolling terraine--others are the flat plains, but all have the house in the middle of the tract.

Along the way, we saw many large herds of Black Angus cows. This group has been gathered together, but more common is seeing hundreds of head of cattle grazing in large pastures.

There is usually a small town nearby with a small grocery store, a few restaurants, gas stations, but entertainment seems to be gathering at someone’s farm for a picnic dinner or school or grange for family type events.

We stayed at a family owned campground near Mitchell, SD and were surrounded by these large tract farms. The owners, in the early evening, would sit outside the office and folks in the campground or from nearby farms would stop by to chat. There were permanent residents in the campground living in RVs. When they came home from work, they would spend time talking with their neighbors before and after dinner. It is a quiet, simpler life on the one hand with outdoor work that looks to be hard, demanding, and very influenced by weather.

Driving into town, one noticeable difference is that instead of seeing car dealerships, there are huge farm equipment dealerships. Also, trains are important in moving cattle and farm equipment, and it is usual to see trains that are more than two miles long. The plains often have high winds, and they are quite fierce. What I thought was windy in south Florida, I now realize are actually slight breezes.

WUBIE AND MOURNING DOVE

We have a number of sea bird and other species in Fort Myers Beach. The mourning dove in particular is very common and rather tame. Wubie would easily catch one if Teri did not restrain him while walking on his leash. Here he is intensely concentrated on one perched on the other side of the one-way glass of our rear living room window.