Yellowstone National Park in Two Parts

First of all, an apology for not writing sooner. 

Bad Bloggin’ Dog!

We have been in Yellowstone for almost two weeks and did not have internet service the entire time.  And frankly we were having an awful lot of fun.  This park is so big and we had so many wonderful experiences that I have divided this blog entry into to two parts.

Part 1: Old Faithful Does Not Refer to Dave’s Gas…

…but, it does refer to the expulsion of gas from this very famous geyser.  I am told that everyone must visit this once in their lifetime.  My family saw it twice.  The first time when they first arrived, and the second time as they waited for our vehicle to get an oil change and a tire rotation.  After all, we have been almost 7,000 miles so far and Kirsten had been strongly hinting at our vehicle needing it.  Seems like a funny place to get a car serviced, but Dave assures me he got a great deal and it was fast courteous service.

This whole region was filled with active geological features (hey, dogs read scientific journals too you know!).  I especially enjoyed the noxious smells that accompanied these features. They smelled a lot like rotten eggs, (Dave says it’s sulfur).  I just wished they would have allowed me to roll around in it…

Ah well, here is one of those interesting active geological features.  This area was called Artist’s Pot where there were colorful hot springs.

In this exciting video (yawn) you can witness the bubbling of the mud around Artist’s Pot:

Of course, I was the most interesting animal in the park.  But, we did spot our fair share of other interesting animals.  Dave had the wish to see a bear on the trip.  And Caleb really wanted to see a wolf.  I know, I know, you are dieing from the suspense. But, you will just have to wait to see if they realized their dreams.

 As the family pulled into the Old Faithful parking lot, they would spot their first buffalo.  It stood a mere 10 feet from their vehicle.  And they would soon discover that this large creature was quite abundant around the park.

They would also spot many elk around the park.  They are quite a bit larger than deer – so I restrained myself from chasing these big boys with their huge racks.

Kirsten and the kids were just a river width away from this cow elk and her baby.

And, of course no Eastman vacation spot is truly worthy until Dave and the kids have fished there.  Dave did not do so well in the beautiful Gibbon River that snaked by our campground.  Dave seemed to enjoy getting fooled by those spooky trout though, as he fished there almost everyday.  The only thing he would catch is a 6 inch brook trout though.  Caleb had to show Dad how to do it when they went to Indian Creek and caught this pretty little brook trout.

I enjoyed this spot as well.  Caleb and I played my favorite game of “get the thrown stick out of the river”, over and over again.

I also really enjoyed playing the games of “muddy up the trout hole where Dave is fishing” and “catch the fly line in mid air”.  Dave was far less enthusiastic about these games.

Indian Creek was recommended to us by another one of those terrific people finds that we have done several times on this trip.  His name was Caleb and his new wife was Kayla.  They were on their honeymoon and my family and I would hit it off well, as they were dog lovers and fished too.  In fact, Caleb had an amazing tattoo of a huge trout rising to a fly on his stomach.  Like our Caleb, he too had a strong connection to the earth and water, and Native American culture.  He would teach our Caleb that his name, spelled phonetically using the Cherokee alphabet translated to:  Kay-Lee-Quee.  The whole family enjoyed meeting these interesting newlyweds from Colorado.  Caleb has put together some really cool fly fishing videos filmed in Colorado that were used in the Fly Fishing Film Tour.  Check them out by clicking on the links below. (The first one shows Caleb's very cool tatoo which he showed us at his campsite.)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xzIIKsBO-Q


Also check this oneout:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIAiY97bZ8Y

Dave did briefly try to fish the famous Madison River (without me), but alas…no fish. 

Would Dave find that magic trout stream filled with those elusive Western Cutthroat Trout he had drooled over in his fishing magazines?  I know…the suspense is killing you again…but, you’ll just have to keep reading.

Our campground was so nice that the family even tacked on an extra day there.  That day was mostly spent hanging around camp, but we had all been so busy we decided to take it easy.  Here I make sure the kids stay in bed in the camper with me and snuggle.

Make sure you check out the second part of this blog post for more exciting news from Yellowstone National Park.

Big wet kisses, Mookie, “The Bloggin’ Dog”