Day 75 - Yellowstone South Loop - September 12, 2011

Jerry and Gail decided to stay at camp.  They said Heidi was bored, she needed a stationary day and she'd seen it all before.  Lon and Pam took off for Yellowstone to do the southern loop which is dominated by geo-thermo activity.  But first you have to get to the loop.  There was an elk jam.  People see one little elk and go nuts.  It took 40 minutes to travel 2 miles.  I wished I had my old ticket book.  If they'd have kept driving they could have seen dozens of big elk in a tenth of the time.  Oh well, we got moving and then had to stop for this big guy crossing the road in front of us.  He had the right of way.

                                                   There were some streams and waterfalls.

                                                       There were a lot of Fly fishermen.

We stopped in an area DESIGNATED for stopping to see some "Paint and Mud Pots".  We had to get a picture of this, camping old style.  Can you guess the make and year?

                                                                              Paint Pots.

                                                                            Mud pots.

                                                                            Pool.

                                                    Is this how Devils Tower started?

                                     Later there was this boiling hot water flowing to a stream.

                                                                  Lots of thermo pools

                                                                       with lots of color.

                                                       Cliff Geyser put on a show.

                                                     We checked out Emerald Pool,

                                                                     and Rainbow Pool.

                                           We moved on to the center piece of Yellowstone

                                                                        and waited

                                                                             she started

                                                                    and then she blew.

                                             After the show we headed to Yellowstone Lake.

                                                        We found this sign interesting.

                                           Heading back to camp we saw yet more buffalo

                                                                  they've got it good.

After going back through the *&%#@ elk jam AGAIN (I think the stress of retirement is getting to me) we stopped in West Yellowstone for pizza.

                                                          Drove into a beautiful sunset

                                and watched a beautiful full moon rise over our nations Crown Jewel.

                             Oh, by the way, it's a 1934 Ford with a F/I 302 all the way from Tyler, MN