7-01 Sunday in Yellowstone

Today I caught a glimpse of a bear, lots of ravens, and lots of deer, and a definite elk.
Phew, what a long day. We saw everything. Pretty close anyway. More of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (as they like to call it on the signs), springs, fountains, geysers, and wildlife.

I have a few gripes with Yellowstone that I'd like to point out. First, it's like a friggin amusement park in a lot of the areas. There's a constant flow of people in and out and around the roads. I also don't like the roads. You can just drive everywhere and see everything. That's not the way that it is supposed to be done! You're supposed to hike a decent hike and be awarded by an amazing site at the end. It turns into people hurrying around so they can see every site possible.

Then there's the cameras. I'm pretty certain people only are running around from site to site as quickly as possible only so that they can get as many pictures and the best pictures as possible. It doesn't seem like there's much appreciation for what they're doing. “Take this picture with me by the water fall! Ok, time to go to the next thing!” Its really ridiculous. And its not enjoyable. I would honestly stop taking pictures of my own if it wasn't for the fact the Leslie graciously let me borrow her camera, and I'm pretty sure these postings would be a lot less cool without pictures. Also, the fact that these pictures are actually getting to a place where they'll be seen instead just sitting on the camera for years afterwards make me feel better.

So then, my final gripe, is that we are being just like all the rest of the people. We've seen a lot of stuff, but its so rushed that its not very fun. Matt insists that we follow his 'plan', which doesn't involve having fun. I have convinced him to do some good things today. Like for instance, we spotted some deer in the distance, and I went off of the trail and road so I could sneak closer to them. Stalking deer is a lot of fun. If you zoom in on this picture, you can see baby deer playing :)

There has been a lot of cool stuff to see none the less. My legs damn near fell of after having to climb back up Uncle Tom's trail, a trail that uses about 400 steps to get close to the base of the lower falls in the Grand Canyon, which was a really good view. We went out and found some good geyser fountains. That was truly spectacular.

Here's some pictures of the Grand Canyon. Notice the slight rainbow that forms in the water fall spray. This happens when the light hits it just right, at about 10 AM.

Again, today a buffalo decided to cross the road right in front of us. I think this is hilarious. Even with all the sites, I think I like wildlife the best. I hope we can get a chance to actually get on an out of the way trail and hopefully stumble upon something truly great. Maybe a bear :)