CAR TOUR

We have been tried lately and haven't want to hike, so we decided to take a car tour through all the little bypasses on the roads.  These are one way roads that take to closer to either falls, rivers or canyons.

Virginia Cascade Falls

Firehole Canyon Road

Cliffs along the road

Firehole River

Firehole Falls

Upstream of the falls, people playing in the water

On the next weekend we decided it was time for a hike.  so we decided to hike 6 miles to Shonelake by way of the DeLacy Trail.  These are pictures of us at the lake.

EVENING TRIP TO TROUT LAKE

Since we hadn't seen much wildlife we decided to make a run out in the evening.  So we left about 4:00 for the long drive out to Trout Lake.  This is a half mile hike to a lake where we had heard was a family of otters.  On the way we stopped at the Roosevelt Lodge for a pit stop and water.  As we were getting out of the car I saw a black bear and her cubs run across a ridge right behind the cabins.  I had to run back to car for the camera.  This was our first sighting for the evening. 

See the bear and her cub.  She sure was close to the cabins

We got back in the jeep and drove 17 miles out to Trout Lake to begin our hike to the lake.  This is only half mile hike but it's uphill,  everything up here is always up hill.  We passed several people on the way and they commented it was worth it to see the otters.  We hike to the lake inlet where we had heard the otters were.  We waited around for awhile and finally saw only one otter.  On our way back we saw a cutthroat trout that was about 15 to 16 inches. 

View at the base of the trail

Trout Lake

Trout Lake from the inlet

Appears to be an adult otter

On the trail heading out

Trailhead after the hike

On our drive back we saw several prong horns alone the road.

As we drove further down the road we decided to stop again to see if we could get a better view of the prong horns.  We only took the binoculars with us.  I was standing next to a lady that had a camera with one of those very big lens and I heard her say they were running in and out of the trees.  I had to ask her what she was seeing and she told me bears.  This was our second sighting of a mother black bear and her cub.  We didn't get any pictures but saw them with binoculars and her pictures.  It was great seeing them move around.

Now we are only 17 miles from home and we get in the biggest bison jam in two years.  When we were heading north we saw between 300 and 400 bison in Hayden Valley and now 3 hours later they want to cross the road and the river.  Check out the pictures.

They like to walk down the road blocking traffic

BUFFALO BILL MUSEUM

Just one picture of the guns,

This was an awesome museum that has 5 different wings.  One for guns dating back to the early 1600's, another for Yellowstone, Buffalo Bill, Western Art and Indians.  We spend most of our time in the gun wing.  It was amazing looking at guns from all the wars that we have been involved in.  We also saw every gun produced with Winchester. 

4TH OF JULY AND OTHER PHOTOS

Moon shot on 7/3/2012

Since only two of our Taiwanese kids wanted to ride in the parade Judy and I went along.  It was lots of fun handing out candy to everyone along the route.  Some additional pictures I thought everyone would like.  So long for now.

Lillian, Cherry, Judy and myself before the parade

Some of the floats and the backside of Benny Jackson

Deer that had been behind the store

Elk crossing river a few weeks ago

Elk on the North Rim Road today

OBSERVATION POINT AND BEAVER PONDS TRAILS

On June 28^th we decided to head over to Old Faithful since we hadn’t been there yet this summer.  When we got there we went into the Visitor’s Center to find out the time of the next eruption.  We had 30 minutes give or take 10 minutes to the next eruption.  We wanted to witness it from Observation Point, which is a half-mile hike with an elevation change of 200 feet in that half-mile.  However, we were still about half a mile from the trail head.  Off we went so that we would reach the top before Old Faithful went off.  Check out the pictures, we did make it to the top with about 2 to 3 minutes to spare.  This was Dave’s first time to see it from this advantage point.  

Dave on the trail before we headed up

Old Faithful before it goes off.

It's erupting

Us at the top

The next day we drove to Mammoth so that we could hike Beaver Ponds trail.  We tried once last year but it started to rain before we even go to the trail head.  This time the weather was much better but it was still a little warm for Yellowstone standards.  Beaver Ponds is a trail that is a loop of 5.5 miles that takes you from Wyoming into Montana and back.  The first .7 of the trail is uphill all the way.  It would have been better is we had started from the other end so that the last .7 would have been downhill.  We past several hikers who had decided to do this trail from the easier route.  Who knew?  It was a good hike but as for wildlife we don’t seem to ever see much.  This time other than beautiful scenery we saw ducks, butterflies and dragonflies.  

This was the trail head from the other end.

Me before we start the uphill climb

The first pond that we came to, there were several.

We are know at the furthermost point of the trail.  See all the hikers across the pond

Now this is a footbridge

Dave on the trail

 

CASCADE LAKE AND ICE LAKE HIKES

Sorry it has taken so long for me to make a post.  The Internet is so slow that sometimes I just don’t want to get on.  On June 21^st we hike Cascade Lake, which is 4.5 miles thru meadows and forest.  It was a great day and the sky was very blue.  We though this would be a good hike for us to stretch our legs since this was basically our first hike.  We did hike thru some sloppy and wet meadows but enjoyed the hike.

Cascade Lake in the back ground

We always have to climb over something

We are almost back to the trailhead and we took our own picture, that is the trail behind us.

On Friday, June 22^nd we did 4.5 miles again but this time we hiked Ice Lake.  In order for us to make a loop we joined up with the Wolf Lake trail.  This was a nice hike until we had to cross the river.  At the first crossing I walked across a log bridge but had to balance myself to keep from falling.  After I made it across Dave decided he would try.  He started to go out on the logs to make his way across but got hung up on a tree.  He stepped back off the log bridge and decided he would look for another way to get across.  He said that if he had fallen on the log bridge he would have been hurt and we were about 2.5 miles into the woods with no one else around.  He checked out the water level in the river and decided he would wade across in his hiking boots.  He rolled up his pants to keep them dry but his boots and socks were soaking wet.  While we rung out his boots and socks I looked in the hiking book to see if anything was said about a second crossing and there was nothing, so we decided there must be some find of foot bridge.  They do that sometimes at water crossings. 

When we got to the second crossing check out the picture for our footbridge, hahahaha.  We had to cross it on our rears.  The rest of the hike was uneventful however the last half mile was uphill and on the main road.

This was the start of Ice Lake trail

Back country camp site on Ice Lake

Second footbridge that to crossed on our rears.

Little Gibbons Falls