Disclaimer: This blog entry wasn’t written until 17 years after the trip. It should be noted that it was a huge mistake to have not written it way back when. Sometimes, after writing so much about other days, it happens that at the time directly after the trip (or even during), I convince myself that the details are not that important. Years later, these details are that important, and pulling them out of foggy memories is difficult. The photos help and often leave clues, and then Caroline’s memories are usually far clearer than mine. With that said, here goes.

Again, at the break of day, we are on our way into another Yellowstone adventure of exploration. I can say this with confidence all these years later because every time we’ve been in this park, it’s left indelible impressions on us regarding our time here. It’s probably a cliche to put it this way, but I don’t think we are as much into Yellowstone as Yellowstone gets into us.

If it looks like boiling water, you’d be a fool to put your hand in to test the observation, so I’m just going to assume that these grasses and plants have learned to live on the edge of a hostile environment, though I can also accept that what I think is boiling is just escaping gas floating to the surface of this pool.

There are plenty of obvious sights here in the park that easily suggest a great photo might be had, but to try and see what, while common, may not have been seen frequently is a challenge.

And then there’s that moment when no matter how often you’ve seen a bison, a deer, or an elk, you just have to take one more photo out of fear that you won’t have seen any other wildlife during your visit so you use it to prove your visit included animals because what would a Yellowstone adventure be without the beasties?

Don’t forget the iconic photos either, preferably not one with your mother-in-law being gored by a giant sharp-horned hairy bison the park service constantly reminds people to stay clear of, but more like this one where mother and daughter pose for a photo together in front of the Upper Falls of the Yellowstone.

I’d really love to know how this tree came to lose whatever earth might have been below it prior to its roots having to act as legs.

Okay, so the trees have been standing in this shallow, apparently hot, highly mineralized water long enough to give the trees the appearance of wearing white ankle socks, but then why isn’t the grass white? While I can answer with a bit of quick logic that the grass grows and dies off so quickly it doesn’t have time to absorb the same chemicals the trees do, what I cannot figure out or learn from the mind of the internet is how this grass is growing in such a hostile environment in the first place.

Godzilla, is that you? Oh, it’s just my mother-in-law leaving the bathroom; just kidding, I love hanging out with Jutta, seriously.

Not Old Faithful.

Orange bacterial mat with mineral islands sporting forests for microscopic life I cannot see, this is why I come to Yellowstone.

Reflections that blur the point between sky and earth are another good reason to be here.

Humans throw coins in fountains to have their wishes come true. While I can’t be certain, I think the marmots sneak out here when nobody is looking and throw marmot coins into this pool, hoping their wishes might also come true. If you think those are mostly just stones of the same size, you’d be wrong. I verified them as currency, and that’s that.

There, did you see that? The Eye of Yellowstone winked at us in the reassurance that it was okay for us to leave as we’d be coming back again. With that, we pointed the car south and moved on.

I’d like to offer my apologies for including this photo at such a low resolution, but there were so many mountains in this shot of the Grand Teton range. I couldn’t even take this one photo and had to take countless images that were assembled as the panorama you are seeing. To have included a high-resolution version would have meant I would have had to upload one, and then anyone could have just stolen this masterpiece, claimed it as their own, and grown rich.

This looks awfully familiar, and that would be because every trip we make to the Tetons requires us to stop right here at this oxbow bend in the Snake River, which is also the same area we saw our first ever moose back in the year 2000.

More Tetons because everyone loves the Grand Teton.

Not a wolf.

We are on Highway 26 going southeast after leaving the national park via Moran Junction instead of traveling through Jackson Hole.

It might not be that great town of Jackson that everybody adores, but it sure is beautiful out here, too; plus, it’s taking us into part of Wyoming we are unfamiliar with.

Going along enjoying the rainbow of earth.

Every trip should include three or four obligatory stops at incredibly photogenic abandoned businesses and homes.

We’ve turned west on Highway 28, traveling along the Oregon Trail for a bit before cutting south again.

The Great Plains in Southern Wyoming.