Yellowstone National Park

We chatted with Jeanine and "Dee-o-gee" Sunday morning, before going into the national park.

Jeanine and "Dee-o-gee"

Among other topics, we talked about the big 1959 earthquake. The topic went to Quake Lake, and she told us that the odd pattern of lines that appear on the lake are due to ongoing tremors under it. We had wondered about them. In case you didn't see the picture in yesterday's post, I'll include it again here:

Isn't that interesting? I knew that Yellowstone National Park and the surrounding area experienced ongoing small quakes, but I had never seen the effect on a lake like that.

Just down the road from our condo, we spotted this bald eagle:

Here are some of the things we've seen in the park since we arrived in the area on Friday:
 

Yellowstone Canyon

The ever-present raven...raucous, smart, and comical

Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River

There is a wildfire, possibly two, currently burning in Yellowstone. The park's policy is to not interfere unless the fire threatens park structures.

While we were watching the fire from an overlook, this fellow and his human companions joined us. His human was a former firefighter, who was able to add some interesting commentary as we watched.

These two guys were firefighters whose job it was to monitor the fire and to act as public relations representatives to park visitors. They were doing a mighty fine job on the PR thing. Hopefully, they were doing as good a job on the fire monitoring thing.

This lone coyote was waiting its turn to feed on a carcass that was currently providing a meal for two other coyotes who apparently didn't play well with others.

Finally, it got its turn.

These are just a few of the many people who had gathered to watch and photograph the coyotes.

A beautiful bull elk resting peacefully on a small island in a stream.

Firehole Falls

A herd of buffalo near some of the steaming features of the park

Another herd of buffalo. You'll be happy to know that I'm not posting a picture of every buffalo I see.

And now I think you're up to date on our trip. We're enjoying our stay here so much that we've decided to spend an extra day. The plan now is to stay in Yellowstone today, then go to the Tetons on Tuesday. Then we'll probably start home after that. I'll do my best to keep you posted.