Long page, pictures at bottom.

20070708 Sunday
At Yellowstone NP (Fishing Bridge RV Park)
Partly cloudy, cool

Sunday. A day to relax from relaxing.

We slept in (an hour), then had a nice bacon & hotcakes breakfast. I took D to her church at the Lake Lodge recreation room, then returned and did a few things, including shopping for groceries. She says they had a nice Benedictine monk for the celebrant. I picked her up from Lake Lodge, we returned to the trailer to dress for travel.

We tried to do the lower loop of the figure-eight but didn't have the time to complete it as we should. We went up to Canyon, then west to Norris, and south to the west entry to the park. Saw a few elk, as well as a zillion bison (the park has 4,000), and got some pictures.

We stopped at one point - Artists Paintpot - where bubbling mud and water with various alkali had stained the rocks shades of red. We did the hike around it for pictures.

From the west entry we went on south to the Old Faithful center and turned in. We looked for a slot in parking but couldn't find one. There were great crowds in the area, so we just left. When we got back on the main road to the south entry point, we could see OF erupting over our shoulder. That's OK, we've seen it.

We kept on past the junction with the south entry road, up the shore of Lake Yellowstone, to Lake Village. We went into the hotel built by the Northern Pacific railroad in 1891 and found the dining room, where we'd made reservations. It's a *large* room with plenty of room between tables. We had a window table and looked over the lake as we ate. Dolores had lobster ravioli followed by elk & lobster entre'. I had cucumber soup and free-range chicken with a great sauce. Our server was from Poland.

Then we wandered around the place and took pictures from the road in front, and turned for home. We'll do more tomorrow.
 

20070709 Monday
At Yellowstone NP (Fishing Bridge RV Park)
Partly cloudy, cool

The day of the great circumnavigation of the main roads in YNP. We didn't intend it that way, but that's what came out. 

We headed south, then west to the Old Faithful complex. When we finally found a parking place, we walked to the OF viewing area. We stood for a couple of minutes when it erupted. We got our pictures and went on. Timing is everything.

The west and north up to the west entry road junction. The big areas of geysers and fumaroles and bubbling things is along this segment of the road. We got pictures of two mommy elk with two little elk, including the two little ones going into the river to get water.

From the west junction we continued north to Mammoth Springs. A huge side of a hill here is steamy and bubbly and overflowing with *hot* water. An auto drive goes through it. Lots of picture opportunities. We dropped into the town of the same name and had lunch in the hotel dining room. Part of the town is the original fort that guarded the area around the turn of the century (1900, not 2000).

Then we went off to the east, across the top of the vertical figure-eight. There's another look at the Yellowstone River, then one goes up over the hills to the Tower-Roosevelt junction with the NE entry road. We chose to do this on a side road that follows an old stage route. At stage speed. In stage dust.

Then we completed the trip by coming south to Canyon, and south some more to our place in Fishing Bridge RV Park. We got back around 4pm, ate late, and took it easy after the drive.