Monday, August 11, 2008

Our trip in the Mountains

Today we finally headed up into the mountains to Yellowstone National Park. Anyone that knows me knows what a wimp I am about driving in high elevations so this was going to be interesting. However, I did it by keeping my eyes straight ahead the entire way up the side of the mountain. My favorite quote of the day from Heather is when she said (as we were approaching a HUGE drop off area) "Ryan, don't look. Isaac, check this out..." I was laughing about that the rest of the day.

We got into the park and up into the mountains only to see a really awesome lake - Yellowstone Lake. It was kinda weird to see this lake up so high and in the middle of this mountain. One thing we are getting used to smelling around here is the sulfur smell of the hot spots. By the lake we could see smoke come from the ground which is one these hot spots that around the park. Pretty cool.

We made a few other small stops at some nice scenery, but kind of focused our day on getting to Old Faithful. That was a pretty amazing area of the park - walking around and seeing these "pots" of boiling water in the ground. However, it smells like they are boiling rotten eggs. Then, at 6:36 we got a chance to see Old Faithful "erupt" - exactly when they predicted - unreal!!!

Also today, we got a chance to see some GREAT wildlife - surprising since there were so many cars around. I think we saw 2 bears, a herd of buffalo (and even one walking down the road at us), 2 coyotes, a few deer. After all this, it was back down the mountain (thank God it was dark and I couldn't see over the edge) and back to Cody.

Tomorrow - back to Yellowstone for the hot springs and whatever else we can run across.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

First of all I would like to commend you for being able to stick out the drive, yeah Ryan. Second, Ryan did you check you check you undies for the sulfer smell maybe it could have been that especially after driving in the mountains...
love the pictures :)

Anonymous said...

Glad you're having a good time! The pictures look awesome! It is making me even more excited to head out for our trip on Friday!
Love,
Leah

Unknown said...

Hey guys! Cameron and I are looking at your blog. It all looks like a blast! Cameron is excited to see "Hedder" and Isaac, but is disturbed he isn't seeing Ryan. He's a little worried! Have a great rest of the trip. Call when you get back!
Carla

Anonymous said...

We are glad to hear you are having a wonderful time! Michael's favorite part of the blog is the video of Isaac playing his summer baseball game (who would have guessed). Enjoy the rest of your trip and have a safe trip trip back to Minnesota!

-The Schaefers

Anonymous said...

We are glad to hear you are having a wonderful time! Michael's favorite part of the blog is the video of Isaac playing his summer baseball game (who would have guessed). Enjoy the rest of your trip and have a safe trip back to Minnesota!

-The Schaefers

Anonymous said...

We are glad to hear you are having a wonderful time! Michael's favorite part of the blog is the video of Isaac playing his summer baseball game (who would have guessed). Enjoy the rest of your trip and have a safe trip back to Minnesota!

-The Schaefers