Day 12 – June 10 Sunday
Forget the internet, Al Gore has a lot to answer for!!!
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Bright and early o’clock, again, coz it gets light at 5.15 and we were off to Yellowstone Park, this time to see the best well known thing, Old Faithful.
All very touristy with seats and stuff, and sure enough, after a couple of false starts, up went the water geyser spout thingy for about 3 minutes. We were impressed, coz we thought it only lasted for a few seconds.
Of course, with my twisted mind, I am sitting there thinking, what would happen if Mother Nature chose this precise moment to blow the top off the thermal crust of Yellowstone?
But she didn’t, and we live to fight another day.
After, we drove the South loop of the park, which is approx. 70 miles, compared to the 50 we drove yesterday.
This loop took us along the shores of Yellowstone Lake, 136 square miles of unspoiled beauty.
Lots of thermal activity here, with some lovely blue and rust colored pools, bubbling just below boiling point. All the hot springs drain down into the lake, and there are actually a few that bubble up in the lake. Interesting.
We kept running into small herds, and lone, bison, until we had seen so many we stopped taking pix of them.
We did encounter some white pelicans, more females, baby and wonderful male elk, but no bears or wolves.
At one point, we stopped to admire the beauty of the rapids along one stretch of the Yellowstone River and there were four little harlequin ducks right in the middle of the fiercest part of the river, bobbing up and down in the water for fish.
Wildlife highlight of today was the magnificent bald eagle sitting on the top of a dead pine tree, lord of all he surveyed.
After a brief stop in the supermarket it was back to the coach.
I have made it a ritual, wherever possible, to sample the local ale, wherever we may be. It is a tough task I have set myself, but someone has to do it. I had two excellent brews tonight, first a bottle of Old Faithful Ale, a pale golden brew, and as described on the label, closely followed by a bottle of Moose Drool brown ale, as brewed by Big Sky brewery.Both so good I had to force down a couple more.
More tomorrow, if we ever get Internet service again in this lifetime.
