Day 6

DAY 6, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2007

. . . We toured Yellowstone today and boy did we have a lot of fun. Very first thing this morning we were in the Visitors Center asking questions about the tour. We had it on our mind to go on a bus tour so we could have a guide but God seemed to nudge us to drive thru and do the tour ourselves and boy am I glad He did nudge us cause we stopped lots of places . . . saw a lot of things the bus people did not get to see.

. . . So our first stop was to watch a bull elk who seemed to be banging his head -- his antlers -- against this tree. We wondered why he would do such a strange thing and were told that this is the mating season -- called the "rut" -- and that he was probably showing off for the females. I thought "rut" was an unusual word but I won't make any spectulations and encourage you to ponder the etomology!

. . . Many times throughout the day we saw bison -- sometimes very close. In fact one time, after I got out of he car to take a picture -- this particular bison started walking towards all of us who were photographing. So I ran (actually walked quickly) back to the truck and shut the door. But all the other people were still outside taking pictures. So I said a quick prayer and went back outside too and shot a picture when he was about 20 feet away! WOW!

. . . After a while we drove upon the geysers a hot springs -- phew do they stink -- because of the sulfur they smelled like rotten eggs. I read a bit of the brochure we were given and as best I understand the process -- geysers require 3 elements to make them erupt -- lots of rain and snow, a very hot place in the earth, and rock formations that provide lots of constrictions (which builds up pressure). There are lots of places on earth where there is lots of rain (Seattle for instance) and lots of places where the earth is very hot. But perhaps it is that yelllowstone is the only place where the rock constrictions are so severe that the water when it reaches the surface -- not only boils but actually pushes the cooler water oout of the way and erupts. We parked the truck for a while and walked along a boardwalk and saw boiling mud. It looked like something from an "Alien Invades Earth" movie -- this ground that was covered with boiling mud -- interesting sound -- plop, plop, plop.

...Next we made our way up to Old Faithful -- the geyser for which Yellowstone is so famous. The brochure told us eruptions hapen about every 92 minutes and the height ranges from 106 to 180 feet -- averaging 130. Between 3700 to 8400 gallons of water are expelled depending on length of eruptions. We didn't plan our time too well and arrived only to see the last few seconds.

. . . We enjoyed some lunch at 8300 feet and then started our return trip. Saw elk, bison and deer on the way back. The entire area of Yellowstone -- hundreds of thousands of acres -- is a true sanctuary to Montana's wildlife. We drove around Yellowstone lake that appeared to be perhaps 4 or 5 miles wide -- just a guestimate -- probably even larger. And everywhere we drove there was natural habitat --lots of water, many kinds of grasses, mountains, trees -- truly a playland for the animals.

Tomorrow -- on to Billings Montana