American West West Yellowstone

Der absolute Hammer...auch unser zweiter, dritter und vierter Tag im Yellowstone waren traumhaft, unbeschreiblich, spannend und dieses Mal hat sogar das Wetter mitgespielt. Wir haetten locker 1000 Fotos machen koennen, haben uns aber auf 200 beschraenkt :-) Wir haben Hunderte von Bisons (Amerikanische Bueffel), unzaehlige Elche, ca. 10 Koyoten, Springboecke, Gaense, Voegel, Squirrels, etc. gesehen. Die Elche hier sehen zwar eher wie grosse Hirsche aus, aber ...

Yellowstone rocks! So was cooles haben wir noch selten gesehen...Wir haben heute erst einen kleinen Teil des Parkes besucht und sind bereits riesige Fans. Unglaublich, was die Natur hier zeigt. Man koennte stundenlang einfach dastehen und zusehen...und es gibt wahnsinnig viel zu sehen!

Leider ist seit gestern in Montana der Winter eingezogen, weshalb wir heute morgen zuerst unser Auto freischaufeln mussten...Krass, von ueber 30 Grad in Hawaii zu 0 Grad in ...

... the morning was of course around 56 - 58F.
Needless to say that is the whole day. And that is without the tourist traffic jam when a bison, moose or elk is within viewing distance of the road. Oh, yes, the cars pile up for 10-20 min. because they won't just pull over & park to let others by. Granted that motorcycles don't do well in line-ups anyway, but I did get stuck in 2 yesterday and three today. Hey, I love seeing ...

... says). So I decided it was time to use the heated grips. OOOH, toasty. And finally made it over the heights amd begin the descent to warm, semi-arid plain.

The road to the park after Cody runs thru Shoshone Canyon with the Shoshone River dammed at the end to form an expansive lake. It is a very nice run thru the canyon, with 2 small tunnels to add a little extra.

You continue to ride beside ...

... for awhile.  After we got the RV all hooked up, we went out for Chinese food at Chinatown Restaurant.  That was great for us since we can't get Chinese food where we live.  Now we're listening to it rain outside and hoping that the weather won't be too bad tomorrow, but from the looks of it, we might be in for another soggy day.  Oh well, at least we're finally in Yellowstone!

... the same show as we caught last time we were here, but it does give a pretty good idea of what is inside the park and by the end of the show, there were lots of "wows" and "aaahhs" from the little guy between us. When the show was finished, Zac had lots and lots of questions. Then, he spied a pile of snow and any external interest was gone. The snow had beckoned him with some strange, hypnotic, siren-like call. This was going to be a tough part of the ...

... Bij het bezoekerscentrum stond de geschatte tijd (plusminus 10 minuten) wanneer Old Faithfull zou afgaan...12:30....YESYESYES!!! Precies optijd !!! Men had rond de geiser bankjes gemaakt. Uiteraard begonnen deze al behoorlijk vol te raken. Aangezien we niks wilden missen zochten we een mooi plekje vooraan, met zon in de rug. Susanne vond dit prima, ze kon zo toch mooi nog even van de warmte genieten. Naarmate de tijd in de richting 12:30 kwam ging iedereen hun camera ...

... pots but it was under construction and did not open till after lunch. We saw our first Bison near the Ranger Museum in the Norris Geyser Basin. At the museum itself there was one right across the river from us. At the museum we overheard some people talking about a grizzly sighting in the Lamar Valley so we headed North again to Mammoth and stopped at the Sheepeater cliffs were we (Dom, Dani and I) spent a little time rock climbing. They did ...

... them might charge us, so he slowed down. A couple of pictures came out okay but on one I have only the rear end :). Further down the road we saw a family of four, two adults and two babies. They were out by the side of the road and not under the pines. We think maybe they wanted to warm up in the sun. And closer to town two more just "chilling" (laying down) on the snow. Once in town we walked to the shops and it felt very ...

... like crazy. It took me 3 hours to get across Yellowstone, an 83-mile trip. With frequent drop offs into canyons or the river, it was the most grueling drive to date - even worse then the 7 hours to Toronto from Montreal. At least if I went of the road there, I'd go into a field, not over a cliff. It took 1 bourbon for the legs to stop shaking, another for my hands to stop and then a beer just to feel like I could breathe. I swear I must have held my breath for most of those 3 hours.