photo-grafs

Thursday, October 15, 2009

More Yellowstone...

My parents came down through Yellowstone again on their way down to my house after I had gone back home. My mom took some really beautiful pictures:

This elk is just amazing!

Protecting his "women!"

This is a "mud pot"

Geyser

On the way back from the Beartooth we drove through the upper part of Yellowstone. We were still really hoping to see a bear so we all had our binoculars out (even Brady!!!) We spied some mountain goats, a coyote, a buck mule deer, and some bison. The baby bison were my favorite...they were so cute and fuzzy looking- it just made me want to touch one!

These rocks can be seen all over Yellowstone and Idaho- the geological formation is called columnar jointing, which happens when the molten lava takes a long time to cool. The cracks are formed when it expands and contracts during the cooling process.

The Yellowstone River

If you look carefully, in the center of the picture, just above the river and to the left of the dam you can see small puffs of steam coming out of the banking. It's these small hot springs that are turning the sides of the canyon into calcium deposits.

Yellowstone is so beautiful!

Tower Falls

Just outside of Gardiner, MT there is this small village where the elk are always on the common ground. This huge bull elk was protecting his herd and would bugle when people passed by.

Mammoth Hot Springs: By the time we got there it was getting dark so my pictures aren't the greatest. These hot springs have left terraces of mineral deposits, creating incredible geological formations! Brady was so funny because he kept saying how much he liked the "hot geysers" and everytime he went to say it I thought he was saying "hot guys!"

Looks like a melted rootbeer float!

This is "THE MAMMOTH"

We had planned on going into the Boiling River for a swim but it was too late- maybe next year!

Monday, October 12, 2009

Days 6 & 7: Beartooth Highway and Yellowstone National Park

On Wednesday we headed east across Montana to see the Beartooth Highway. On the way we stopped in a tiny town called Roscoe for some lunch and ate a little cafe:

They had a replica of a covered wagon and Brady wanted his picture taken with it!

We reached Red Lodge, MT an hour or so later and enjoyed the evening walking the historic Main Street. It was fun window shopping and we stopped in at an old-fashioned candy store to buy some treats!

I admired the historic architecture on many of the buildings!

We stayed in Red Lodge for the night and had fun swimming in the pool and hot tub at our motel. The next morning while hvaing breakfast Brady had a mishap with the coffee machine- he went to throw away his juice cup but decided that he'd try and get himself some more. Instead of dispensing juice he dispenses scaulding hot coffee all over his hand and gave himself quite the second-degree burn!

Since his latest obsession has been "Star Wars" he kept saying all day (after calming down of course) that he was just like Anekin Skyewalker, because he got burnt too. But that he wasn't bad and didn't turn evil from getting burnt! It was really cute and it helped him not think about his hand hurting!

The Beartooth Highway:

These were some gorgeous lakes up on the top of the Beartooth. Unfortunately we were there at a time of year when the views aren't as spectacular because there wasn't any snow.

We stopped along the way and hiked into the Beartooth Falls which were really pretty. We saw a fisherman along our way and he said he'd seen fresh bear skat! Luckily we didn't run into any Grizzlies. However, we would have liked to have spotted a bear from the safety of our truck!

My mom was kind enough to carry Olivia in the pack for me!

My dad had just had back surgery prior to coming out west so he took it easy and held back a little when we went down to try and get a view of the lower falls. I couldn't get down far enough to get good pictures so my "mountain goat" little brother, Andrew dashed on down and hopped across the river to get some good shots!!!