Yellowstone

I've gotten a bit behind here! But some events have transpired which have delayed my blogging... I'll tell more of those in another post. Meanwhile, enjoy some pictures of Yellowstone National Park! (does anyone know why it's called Yellowstone?)

All the dead trees from a forest fire. 

Lake Yellowstone

The water was SOOOO clear!

The family enjoyed skipping rocks on the lake.

Thermal point... this one is a fumarole. Fumaroles are the hottest type of thermal point. There is so little water left because of the heat that it all turns to steam as it escapes from the earth's crust. Other thermal points (such as geysers, hot springs, mudpots, and travertine terraces) have at least a little more water.

Duck pond is in the foreground, Lake Yellowstone in the background.

Lilypads at the continental divide.

Another thermal point, this time a geyser. Acutally.... this one happens to be Old Faithful.

Another thermal point. This one is a hot spring. You can't see it in the picture, but standing there in real life we could actually see the water boiling in giant rolling boils way beneath the surface of the water.

Mudpots are another thermal point. These are known as the paint pots I believe. It was really neat to see the mud just boiling in this large area of mud!

Another fumarole. 

...and another...

...and another. There's a lot!

Another geyser but I can't remember the name of this one.

A hot spring. Isn't the diversity of color amazing? A tour guide said that the color deepens as it cools.

The only wildlife we saw the entire time. Haha! I hear that the animals are more active in the fall.

That's all for now folks! Have a good Lord's Day!

Long drive through Wyoming

Wyoming is beautiful and bare. And long. We drove for quite a while today. Quite honestly, I'm exhausted right now. I could probably just turn over and fall asleep right now! (I'm feeling so lazy that I actually put on my PJ's and got my bed all ready as soon as we got to the motel after dinner. Shhhh! Don't tell! I'm NOT interested in doing touristy things tonight.) Don't worry though, I'll stay awake long enough to finish my sorbet and post some pictures for the day. I apologize in advance for any misspellings and grammatical errors that I make in this post. 

Apart from the mountains, much of the rest of Wyoming seemed to look very much the same today. I was amazed at how open and bare it seemed. You could see the mountains framing in the horizon in nearly every direction but it still felt so open. By mid-afternoon I had pinpointed why it felt so open, even though there were hills and mountains and rolling terrain throughout. 

There are no trees!!! 

Most of the vegetation I saw were shrubs and short, scrubby, brown grasses. The ground was covered in lots of red, red dirt. It's beautiful and everything, but I couldn't imagine living out here. I love me some trees! Trees seem to give definition and depth... and somehow, warmth? A poem for the occasion...

Trees, trees, trees

Big and beautiful and green.

With a book and lemonade

I rest in your pale cool shade.

From beneath your leafy arms

I gaze out upon the farms

And know that I am home.

A little rough... I know. But the best I could do under the circumstances, haha. ;-) 

Now enough of this jawin'! I'll show you some pictures. Enjoy!

First glimpse of the Bighorn Mountains.

After going through the mountains and coming back down the scenery changed back to the typical Wyoming landscape... at least, from what I saw this is what much of it looked like. 

We stopped in Cody, Wyoming for the night... you know, that little town that Buffalo Bill had a hand in starting? Yup. Big tourist draw. The place must all but shut down in the winter! Anyways, they had a collection of authentic trail town buildings that they had moved from their places in Cody as well as other locations in the West and formed a little authentic Trail Town so that we could get a feel for what it looked like and the size and such. The admission was more than we wanted to pay so we just gazed in from the outside. ;-)

P.S. Wyoming has some small towns! Bremen, IN is huge compared to some of these towns! The four that we passed directly through today had populations of 

114 

1,286 

10 (yes, you read that correctly. TEN!!!)

1,953

and Cody has around 9500 I think.

P.P.S. I realized today that this state is where one of my all-time favorite books is set! "Little Britches" by Ralph Moody. I highly recommend it! It's based on a true story of a boy and his family who come out West to make a better life. This little boy takes on man-like responsibilities because he HAS to in order to survive. Pick it up and read it today! It'll make you cry!