June 12th expedition

Day two of our exploring. The first picture is Grand Prismatic Spring - it was left off of the last blog. Sunday was cold and rained off and on all day except at the Continental Divide (8262 ft.) where it was snowing. We attempted to go to the West Thumb Geyser Basin but it was closed due to elk calving. We got a picture of an elk but didn't see any calves.

Attached a picture of a burned area near Yellowstone Lake, one of about 12 small fires in the park last year. Can't imagine what the park looked like after the 1988 fire where 1/3 of the park was consumed. We stopped at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel and Lodge. The Hotel is a beautiful, huge hotel - the oldest in the park (1891) and was built by the railroads to look like some of the grand hotels back in the east to attract the early visitors. Ate dinner in their Employee Dining Room which is free for all employees at any location in the park. This is a nice perk and the food is excellent.  No weight loss going on here! Both have a spectacular view of Yellowstone Lake. It was still completely frozen over when I first went by it on June 2nd. Still has some ice but is mostly thawed now.

Stopped at Fishing Bridge. It is the bridge over the outlet of the lake to the Yellowstone River (671 miles  - longest in the US with no dams). Used to be some of the best cutthroat trout fishing from that bridge but they cut that out in the 70's due to declining numbers of fish. We did get to see a beaver and a white pelican from the bridge. Supposedly the beaver is the hardest animal to spot in the park because there are only about 30 pair. The final picture is of the Absahroka Mountains which border the eastern side of the lake.

More to come so stay tuned
Jim & Ann