Dos Dias

Hello all! Here's my update from the past couple of days. Yesterday after working a grueling all day shift, a couple people from work and myself decided to hike Mt. Washburn. There are a couple of routes you can take to reach the summit. I think we took one of the shorter routes, which was probably a good idea being that we didn't start until a little after 5pm. It was 3.2 miles to the top, and we made it in about 1.5 hours. I feel like we could have made it a little quicker, but we took our time and just enjoyed the nice conversation and the great scenery. Many people claim that the best panoramic view of the park can be seen from the top of Mt. Washburn. I don't think I will argue with that. You can see the top of Avalanche Peak, as well as the beginning of the Teton mountains. It really was a great view.

As we were almost to the top we saw a few big horn sheep, but they were a little too far to get capture a good picture, so you'll just have to believe me that it was pretty cool to see them. Thanks.

I forgot to mention that as we were driving to the trailhead, there were mobs of people stopped on the side of the road to catch a glimpse of a grizzly bear. Well, needless to say, over three hours later on our return trip to Canyon Village there were still mobs of people. The view of the bears was a little better, so we decided to be a tourist and get out to take some pictures. I'll include one, but sorry it's not closer. You can see there's a mother grizzly along with two cubs. This photo was taken right before the cubs began to run ahead of the mother. It was a pretty neat sight to see. I'm glad I played the role of tourist!


Today I had to work the early shift, and went in at 6:30am. I got off a bit early and decided to head down to the Yellowstone Lake area. I didn't do quite as much exploring as I wanted to, but I did take a few pictures of the Yellowstone River, which I have uploaded.




While I didn't explore many trails or anything, I did however explore the general store of the area. I decided to take a bit of a plunge and bought some ice cream. "Buffalo Chip" ice cream, to be exact. I requested a double scoop which apparently translates to quadruple scoop. As much as I was enjoying the taste of the buffalo chips, I could only eat about half of it. I discarded the rest and climbed back into the Vibe to head north where I stopped at some rapids and was able to catch the picture of the flying pelican. Unfortunately I don't know the "proper" name of this feathered creature, so I'm going to stick with pelican. I wish I had a bit of a better zoom and the picture may have been a little bit more appealing. Oh well. I sat around for a little while photographing another bird that was just hanging out on an island in the middle of the Yellowstone River after I saw this guy fly away. Luckily I waited long enough that he came back to join another bird that was floating down the river to meet up with the lazy guy I had been stalking. That probably doesn't make much sense to you readers, sorry.

Anyway, I'm off for the next couple of days and I'm thinking of heading in to Cody to get a little "city life" under my belt. I'm not sure of my plans, but I'm sure I'll think of something to do when I wake up tomorrow. However, I also am in desperate need of clean clothes, so that may take priority. Again, I'll decide that in a few hours... Until then, hopefully you enjoy the pictures.