Yellowstone National Park: Montana-Wyoming-Montana

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I slept in a little in Billings and got on the road knowing I would only have a few hours to enjoy Yellowstone but went that way anyhow.  I took a detour through the park and stopped for short hikes that were recommended at the bookstore at the north entrance to the park.  It was Memorial Day weekend, and so the park was absolutely full of people, so it felt very touristy and I did not get to see as many creatures.  I think some people might have been looking through a telescope at a grizzly bear at one spot on the road.  I saw baby bison from a distance running around and playing while the adults walked calmly around them.  Some big ones were being playful as well, or having a show down, perhaps they were teenagers.  Some elk ignored people and grazed around them.  Plenty of people were fly fishing, ignoring bison grazing nearby.  

The landscape felt rather harsh, not really warm and nice like it feels to be outside in other places.  There were hot springs and signs saying if you went off trails even in the woods you could burn yourself.  The rock formations are as if the ground is being baked from the inside- and it really is the heat from a volcano that forms the geysers and the limestone deposits.  The forest is uniformly of one kind of tree, all the same age of that one tree, because periodically it burns and reforests all at once when the pine cones open from the heat.

First glimpse of mountains!

Yellowstone River

Entrance to Yellowstone: 'For the benefit and enjoyment of the people.'

Elk

Hey!  We have this in Michigan too!

Limestone

Hot springs

The earth bakes from the inside but even tiny red and purple flowers grow out of it.  Whenever I see something like this I think they're saying "We live here!" as they poke insistently up through the earth.

Unstable Ground: Boiling Water

Elk poo!

Elk were here!

Steam

Related to trout lillies?

I live here!

Steamboat Geyser:

More steam

And more steam.

I had an elk burger because Ryan is going to make me bison steak.

Bison

This bison had a friend tagging along.

This lake was formed in the 50s due to a massive earthquake that changed the landscape.  There were people camping here and I think the sign said something like 17 people were buried in landslides.  See the trees sticking out that drowned?

Young forest with some old burnt trees.

The sign said 'bison on the road'


I also would like everyone to know that I start work this week with a bruise right in the middle of my forehead.  I got a shelf thing from Ikea and while trying to fit it into my car, I bonked my head on my trunk.  The shelf thing would not fit into my car.  I think it's worth the delivery fee.  I put frozen Ikea shrimp on my head.