ramblin: Photos from Yellowstone

Family shot at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The teenager taking it put the falls right behind Aaron's head :-(

Yellowstone Summary:
After so many grand views without much effort at our previous two parks I now know why by friend Sri said that Yellowstone is a bit of a disappointment. Don't get me wrong, the park is beautiful, but just not as spectacular as some of the other and it requires lots of travel (i.e., effort) to get to the grand spots. We must have driven 150 - 175 miles to go completely around the park today. If you are going one direction you may as well just keep going or you will have to retrace your steps the next day or just forgo that part of the park. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is very grand as the pictures will show. Mammoth hot springs is almost completely dried up so that was a bit of a downer since we drove a long way to get there. Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser basin are very interesting. The rest of the park shows how the big the west is and how beautiful it is, but after many miles it is hard to keep excited about it. We saw lots of buffalo, elk, and two bear along the way as many other beautiful rivers and waterfalls. The geyser basins seemed a lot further apart than I remember and the family was not as thrilled at the geysers and geo-thermal sites as I remember being at their age. All-in-all it was an eventful day that kind of got lost in the shuffle after many hours site seeing. We took 137 photos so it must have been pretty good. Hope you enjoy them. After so much travel today and having travelled almost all the park, tomorrow we will just hang out by Yellowstone lake within an easy walk from our site and have a restful low key day. I will probably venture to the West Thumb geyser basin too which is only 2 miles away.
Lesson Learned: It may be better to visit either the North or South side of the park and then move your location to the other side and then visit it for a day.

Old Faithful. Was a hit with the kids so we saw it again the next day.

Paula at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

Three elk at the lake just a two minute walk from our camp.

The Yellowstone River

Upper falls of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Only a 110 foot drop.

A shot of Mammoth Hot Springs.

Old Faithful before or after a recent blast. She is still regular at just about 60 minutes.

Old Faithful in her glory.

The big west which is most of Yellowstone

John at lower falls in a rare shot without his scalp protection.

Jonathan at Castle Geyser using his into the sun squinting smile.

Paula and Jonathan with the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone in background. If you are wondering, my older two are way too cool to take a photo with Mom or Dad and too cool to smile in any photo.