Devil's Tower National Monument | Wyoming

The Devil's Tower was established as the first U.S. National Monument in 1906. The Devil's Tower is spectacular. Each Plains Indian Tribe have their own belief of the Tower. Some legends say that a girl turned into a bear and running after her sister and slipped and made the scratches on the big rock; another says that a brave's wife had become infatuated with a bear and when they went to the bear he was so big that it scared the braves. They ran to the top of the big rock and prayed to the Great Spirit to save them and the rock began to grow saving the braves. There are more legends all a little different but all seem to revolve around a bear and the rock. Whichever legend you believe it is a very spiritual place and while we stand there watching the tower I could hear the tribes chants in the wind.

I loved that the park took the time to stamp footprints along the trails, some human and others not.

This is my friend Sam, the Prairie Dog. His lives in a prairie dog "town" at the bottom entrance to  Devil's Tower. He was so nice to pose for this picture. Sweet puppy but not too close, puppies will bite.  

Camping in the Snow at Yellowstone

After our visit to the Petrified Tree we decided to make our way to our next camping site at Canyon Village Campground. This place was nicely developed with almost all the amenities one could want, nice shopping area close by, which included a cafeteria, two gift shops, a small grocery store, even a gas station. The campground itself had laundry and shower facilities, where I had my first paid for shower and towel rental. Only thing missing was heat and a snow blower.

Here is our campsite.... did someone say that there might be snow in Yellowstone.

At least we had a cooler. 

Sylvan Lake | Yellowstone National Park

Our drive out of Yellowstone took us by Sylvan Lake. The lake still had areas of snow and ice and I had to stop (the photos really don't show how beautiful it really was).

Yellowstone Lake | Yellowstone National Park

This was a unscheduled stop at the Yellowstone Lake visitor's center which turned out to be a very beautiful one. You enter the visitor's center and then go through the back door and walk into this. Beautiful!!!

Upper Falls | Yellowstone National Park

This is the Upper Falls at Yellowstone. The walk was a little farther, but sure worth it. A very pretty place filled with a many people taking in its beauty and trying for that perfect photo of the rainbow that is created in the mist.

 The roar and vibration created by the river, as it raced around the bend, was incredible

We decided to drive around to the other side of the falls and I am glad that we did. There were not as many people visiting this side and it gave us the time to take a little hike and find a bridge were we could rest and look at the river.

Look how peaceful, hard to believe that to the left is the powerful waterfall that all this water just came racing down.

Undine Falls | Yellowstone National Park

The next few posts will be on the waterfalls and lakes that we saw on our trip through Yellowstone.

Here is Undine Falls, this one happened to be close walking distance from the car. Once the kid was gone (no I did not push him over the edge) I was able to look over and take a shot. I was not expecting it to be so far down.

This is more like it, close to the ground and only a chance of a slight bruise if I fall.

Petrified Tree | Yellowstone National Park

Next stop on our way through Yellowstone was the Petrified Tree.  I saw this on the map and thought "tree",  this must be a misprint, surely they meant "trees". Nope, it was just one, one petrified tree, standing alone, strong and beautiful.

Mountain Views from Gardiner, Montana

Gardiner, founded in 1880, is located in Southwest Montana, at the North Entrance to Yellowstone National Park. This is the only year round entrance to the park. We found ourselves there after our visit to the Mammoth Hot Springs. We enjoyed a nice lunch at the local cafe and then found a quaint coffee shop where we had coffee, some internet time, and enjoyed the view. 

and San Diego is only 1,095 miles to your right.

Mammoth Hot Springs | Yellowstone National Park

For some reason I thought this was going to be a large spring fed swimming pool, heated by nature. I was wrong. I am not sure how to describe it other than just to say it was beautiful in a barren like way. 

They say that Mammoth was created over thousands of years as hot water from the spring cooled and deposited calcium carbonate on the ground creating the terraces. You can find more information on the Yellowstone National Park Service website. When you have some free time take a look, they have some great information and wonderful photos.

Wildlife at Yellowstone National Park

The wildlife at Yellowstone is awesome and being able to see some of it was a wonderful opportunity.

This elk decided that the grass was better in the campground. She was having dinner in the common area of Madison Campground, this was our first night of camping and our first close encounter with a wild animal. We were on our way to the store to get our dinner when we saw her so I had to stop and take a few photos.

Here is our first Buffalo sighting. We were on the way to West Yellowstone City in Montana when we came around a corner to see traffic stopped and wondered why? Then we saw the Buffalo starting to come up the bank and cross the road. The cameras were flying, it was awesome.

Here is one of the Buffalo from the above group. Once it had crossed the road we were able to drive right beside him and take a photo. Say "Cheese"

The next morning we left our campground, turn left, and there were more Buffalo, everywhere.

Buffalo eating...

Buffalo resting...

Tourists in the yellow stretch bus limousine looking at the buffalo.

This guy was just taking a stroll down the road. I took a photo as we drove by.

Same with this guy, just strolling (Rawhide song plays in my mind)

Here is a gorgeous shot that Rick was able to get of a Elk.

And we saw a couple of  big horned sheep, photo is bad, but we did get to see them up high on a hill.