Day 19 and 20: Yellowstone National Park

We stayed at the Canyon Frontier Cabins--it was clean, had indoor plumbing, and otherwise reminded me of one of Bill's sheds. Except for the Old Faithful area, there was no cell phone reception in park so I had to put quarters in the pay phone at the lodge. On the way to the cabin, we were thrilled to see our first moose/elk kind of animal (it was in a pond a long way off), a grizzly bear sleeping by the road after a full meal (it was guarded by a park ranger), lots of buffalo, and stupid people disregarding the signs saying something like "Caution: buffalo can run faster than you and many people are gored each year." We also became accustomed to cars stopped in the middle of the road every time they saw a buffalo, deer or duck.

People getting out of their cars and approaching a herd of buffalo.

A coyote in the distance.

A deer staying cool in the woods.

We drove over to Old Faithful just in time to see the big geyser erupt. We had lunch in the inn at Old Faithful--it was the first time I wore my Penn State shirt and we met a couple from Pittsburgh who had just been to the Glacier NP.

Old Faithful erupts.

Inside Old Faithful Inn, it looks like stacked post and beam construction.

On the way back to the cabin, we stopped to see the Grand Prismatic Spring -- a crust of heat-loving microbes formed on top of the pool creates a rainbow of colors and smells of sulfer. Signs by the boardwalk threatened us, but it looked like a hoofed animal had walked across the crust--don' know if it fell in.

Grand Prismatic Spring.