What a Difference a Day Makes

Daily Mileage=164; Trip Total=7556
This morning we awoke to 2 inches of snow on the ground. It was beautiful but we weren’t sure that it would make for a comfortable day. However, as the morning proceeded the day got sunnier and warmer. It was chilly but beautiful. Hence, what a difference a day makes. By the end of the day we had a beautiful sunset.

This is our sad nature story. Here is a photo of a mama elk whose baby was killed last night by a black bear for food for herself and her cubs (100 yards from our room). We saw her very agitated last night looking for her calf but the poor thing hung around all day long and was still here tonight wandering about. The rangers were here last night isolating the area where the bears were. When the bears left the rangers removed the elk remains. They usually would allow nature to take its course but since this happened so close to a bunch of humans, they are trying to cause the bear family to move on. We have not seen the bears but we’re cautious about our travels after dark! Apparently, the elks have their calves pretty close to where we are staying and the bears know that so they come over quite a bit. Such is nature but we all felt very bad seeing her so lost all day and night long.

When we started our tour this morning we drove by Yellowstone Lake which is spectacular. The mountains had fresh snow on them, making the scene quite magical. You could spend an entire vacation just coming to this lake area.

We then went to what is known as the Yellowstone Grand Canyon. It has a magnificent series of waterfalls with overlooks and trails along the rim. The Grand Canyon it’s not however, its colored canyon walls against the blue water rushing through is a close second. We rather enjoyed it, and thought it was quite impressive.

We decided to take a trail which led to the head of the Lower Falls (the highest of them all at 308 feet more than twice Niagara Falls). The trail dropped over 600 feet in 3/8 of a mile. (That’s steep, especially when you are coming back up at 8,000 feet above sea level. Rich says it adds new dimensions to the term, sucking wind!) It was absolutely worth it. I don’t like heights however, you stood right at the edge of this huge waterfall. We’ve tried to capture the top of it and if you look at the waterfall photo above, we are slightly to the right of the edge of it. This trail was written up as one of the most exciting things you could experience in the park and they weren’t too off on that premise.

Of course as we traveled through the park, we continued to see a lot of animals. Here is one of our favorites, he’s just sleeping away; we call him Bill. The bison are everywhere; in fact you don’t even stop to see them after awhile. Talk about becoming jaded. No, we still love seeing them.
We also saw ospreys, more eagles, swans and other birds that we continue to look up in our bird book. We saw Pronghorns (antelope-like), tons of elk and a “yellow-bellied marmot” which looks like a skinny, furry groundhog! We’re still waiting to see a bear up close and personal (from the safety of our own car). We actually did see one in the distance but, as long as we’re not hiking, we could see another one a little closer!

In the afternoon we were finally able to get to some of the roads that had been closed because of the snow and ice from last night. These roads were even more beautiful because the snow was still all around. We traveled over to the north eastern part of the park which is less crowded and again had different topography. Here are some photos we took of the different and beautiful vistas we saw today.

We are simply amazed at how big this place is and how varied the landscapes are. It’s hard to believe you’re in the same park. In fact today we drove over 160 miles and never came close to any of the exits. It has become one of our favorite places on the trip! And will probably make the “Top 10” most memorable things of the "Mare & Rich Go across the Country Tour." We would definitely come back here again and hope to do so soon.
Good night from Yellowstone with a sunset.

Love & Joy, Mare&Rich