Norris Geyser Basin: Yellowstone National Park (YNP)

Toured a different area today to visit some of the geysers and other thermal features of the park. After spending a good part of the day in West Yellowstone to update the blog, etc., we toured the area between our campground and the Norris Geyser Basin. We hiked around the basin to view some of the geysers and other thermal features. Big Daddy's harem Big Daddy Virginia Cascade on Gibbon River Emerald Pool Steamboat Geyser Cistern Pool

Lamar Valley: Yellowstone National Park (YNP)

Probably our favorite area of YNP is the more remote, less visited Lamar Valley in the northeast corner of the park. We devoted an entire day to re-visit this area and it was incredible! We visited other points of interest on the way, and we were rewarded with more fantastic scenery and wildlife. Wildlife Report: Black bears, wolves, coyotes, antelope, bison herds, elk, grouse. We were within 25-yards of a black bear, coyotes cross in front of our car, and we were able to see wolves thru spotting scope that nice folks offer to use. Fishing Report: I was able to fish for a couple of hours and was rewarded with a personal best. A 17" Yellowstone Cutthroat that is the largest and most beautiful cutthroat in my experience. Also caught another 14" cutthroat and missed a couple more in this size range. Caught in the Lamar River in the Valley of the same name - what an experience! And wouldn't you know that I didn't take my camera this time - you do believe me don't you? After I got out of the river, we were pleased to meet and visit with Rich and Julie Schaaf. Rich has property across the White River from our property and his brother used to guide there. Rich is a professional photographer with a unique approach to his prime subject, flyfishing. His work has appeared with some of the best on Midcurrent. com. Rich's website is eastforkfly.com. He has some very interesting and quality images of our sport. It was getting late on our return to camp, so we stopped for dinner at the Mammoth Springs Restaurant. The dinner was good and we had window seats overlooking the old parade grounds, where we were entertained by an excited bull elk that was bugling and running off younger bull competitors and rounding up his harem when they strayed. Undine Falls Black bear on road to Tower Falls Tower Falls "Bear Rock" on Blacktail Plateau Drive Yellowstone River on Tower Falls Road Lamar Valley Lamar River: where I caught the cutthroats Lamar River Dusk at the pass in to Mammoth

Crowds: but not as bad as "In Season"

Any time I enter the water to fish, people stop and congregate to witness my angling wizardry, as demonstrated in the pics above. Well, not quite the story. Anytime wildlife is spotted, traffic snarls, people are everywhere trying to get "the shot". What is incredible to us is the fact that despite verbal warnings from rangers, posters plastered everywhere in multiple languages, folks just prove over and over that you can't idiot-proof anything. Some have cameras with lenses that are the size of fire extinguishers, capable to detailing a pimple on a gnat's butt from 100-yards distance - yet they still have to get as close as they can, even following the prey into the woods. Warnings are to stay 100 yards from wolves and bears, and 25 yards from all others, most often bison and elk. With a very active bear population and elk in their rut, the poor rangers have their hands full dashing all over the place to protect the moron classes.

Old Faithful

Old Faithful under full moon at 7:40 pm. Forgot my tripod, but it turned out pretty well.

Entering Yellowstone National Park

My most memorable family vacation when I was young was 3-days spent in Yellowstone park when I was 12-years old. We were able to bring Ben here when he was 12 years old and he says that it was his most memorable family vacation. Charlcie and I are fortunate and so excited to spend some time here again - this visit with no schedule, so we are going to take upwards of two weeks here to take in as much as we can. If you've never been here, you need to make plans to come and spend at least a week fully enjoy this most magnificent park. Since there is very limited cell coverage and no wi-fi availability, contact with friends and family and postings to the blog will be sporadic, depending on where we are and if worthwhile to wonder outside the park. Today we are in the very cool town of West Yellowstone to take care of contacts, blog, showers, laundry, and to visit the four famous fly-shops(?). First moose sightings - two cows just inside the park Fall colors are arriving The bull is just out of the picture, napping in the shade This guy and his harem are wondering around in our campground area - they are in rut so it is wise to be alert and keep your distance Watched this fella for awhile and couldn't figure if he was eating the tree or just scratching his neck At Mammoth Springs; when you're hungry, who cares if you have to stop traffic?

Three Dollar Bridge: Madison River - Montana

The Madison River gets its start with the convergence of the Firehole and Gibbon Rivers in Yellowstone National Park (in front of the Madison Campground where we are camped for the first days in the park). This is one of the iconic fly-fishing rivers and it runs north to near Bozeman, MT. One of the more storied fly-fishing destinations is the Three Dollar Bridge, which we surprisingly learned was on our path to Wade Lake. I was giddy to be able to fish there for about 4 hours and although I only caught a few small rainbow trout, it was a fantastic experience to be able to fish this classic water.

Wade Lake; western Montana

On recommendation from Derek DeYoung, we spent a couple of nights at this small lake in western Montana. We pretty much had the campground to ourselves most of the time. Although the fishing was non-productive from the bank, we nevertheless enjoyed watching the wildlife and just relaxing on the shore of this beautiful, clear lake. On the way down from Livingston, we clipped the northwest corner of Yellowstone and then headed west, past Hegben Lake (famous for very large trout), Quake Lake (formed when a massive earthquake in 1959 resulted in a landslide that created a natural dam). Just beyond these lakes, we headed over the Three Dollar Bridge, across 7 miles of dusty, rough road thru Three Dollar Ranch to the lake. Quake Lake Landslide from the 1959 Earthquake Wade Lake River otters on their evening feeding run across the lake Aspens are starting to turn