Rhody Goes West: Bison, and Eagles, and Bucks, Oh My!

Well, I may have saved the best for last.  

As you can tell by the title of this post, this post is about all of the wildlife that we saw while we were in Yellowstone National Park.  It started literally about ten minutes after we entered the park on the first day, and was practically non-stop until we were exiting the park.  

Since there were so many animals that we saw, I wanted to dedicate an entire post to them, especially since they ones that Rhode Islanders definitely don't see frequently, or at all for that matter.  I'm not really going to go in the order in which we saw the animals, but instead, I am going to categorize by the animals.  

So, here we go.  Within ten minutes of driving through the entrance to the park, I got a neat little alert on my phone, from an App I downloaded called YNP Wildlife, where park visitors can use the GPS on their phone to upload data on wildlife sightings.  Now, while you may be thinking that this is genius for wildlife seekers, it is. But, this is the only alert that I got - but by no fault of the app. You see, there are about three places within Yellowstone National Park that have cell service, which means that the entire rest of the trip, I drained out my phone battery waiting to get into a cell area so I could find wildlife. So, I don't recommend that this app be used - not because the app isn't great, but just because there is no service in Yellowstone, so you can't use the app.  

This first alert was for a herd of antelope that were along side the road by a creek.  There must have been about twenty of them feeding in the grasses. There were cars lined up and parked along side of the road, and some people were trying to get as close as possible to get pictures. We didn't get out of the car, but this was a warm welcome to the park, especially since the wildlife was one of the things I was looking forward to most.  

A few days later, we ended up coming across more antelope, this time though, they were very young and were much lighter in color.  The markings on them are so neat, and while the picture below isn't very clear thanks to my camera having an absolutely awful digital zoom, you can still see the markings up along it's breast and neck.  This little one was running in the field with it's mother, heading towards the other females in the group that were laying in the shade under some trees.  I really wish that we had been able to see some males, because the long straight antlers that have the same markings as the skin are so cool.

Onto some other four-legged creatures now.  Everywhere you go in Yellowstone, you are sure to come by either one of these or an entire herd.  What are they?

American Bison.  And they are everywhere.  They also don't care at all about where you are, because if they're in a spot that makes them happy, they're not going to move, for the most part.  This is both awesome and scary at the same time.  The awesome part is that you are able to get pictures like these.

The not so awesome part, and the part that is scary is that you don't know if being that close will actually scare them or make them angry, and there's no way to tell if they will charge or not.  

While these animals may look small outside of the car window, they actually are not at all, and if I were standing next to them, the top of their back would be at about chest level.  So, for size comparison, I took a lovely picture for you - of their poop.  You see, it was everywhere, because they are everywhere - duh - so you had to avoid it on the hiking trails, on the roads, and even on the grounds of the hotels and campgrounds.  So, just to show you how large they are, and how large their poops are, here you go.  Enjoy.  Oh, and by the way, that's my husband's foot, and he wears a size 11 shoe, so that's not a small foot or poop.  

The herds of bison were everywhere and ranged from just a handful to hundreds.  When driving by the open fields, you could see small black specks in the grasses and in some spots there literally were hundreds of bison.  

I must tell you, I took probably over a hundred pictures of bison.  There were so many, and I was so interested in them. Plus, they are really weird looking if you stop and think about how low their heads are and how small the rear end of their body is compared to the front. It really makes you wonder how they don't just tip over onto their heads.

Moving on - while deer are everywhere in the United States, it's not often that you see a large buck in New England.  Especially one with 6-points on each side.  To us Rhode Islanders, this is a very uncommon sighting, and this guy was just hanging out on the side of the road with a buddy.  I took this picture out the window of the car, and you can actually see the curb of the road in the lower left corner. Like the American Bison, he really didn't care that we had pulled up next to him and that he was being stalked by about fifteen people on foot.  

He was so beautiful and elegant, but can you imagine walking around with two giant antlers on your head? I can't even begin to think how many trees he's probably bashed his head into because of the size of those antlers.  

One of the neatest things that we saw was while we were driving on a 7-mile nature trail, and it ended up being the only nature we saw on the drive, other than the trees, of course.

While I was sitting in the front seat, I heard a screeching noise, and as I looked to my left, I saw a bird diving down to the ground. It hid in the tall grasses for a few minutes and all we could see was the grass moving around, because it was so tall that the bird was completely hidden.  After about ten or fifteen seconds, I was able to get this shot, which couldn't have been better timing!

This bird, which I believe I have identified as a Red-Tailed Hawk, swooped down to catch this pretty good sized Linta Ground Squirrel, carrying it off to devour. It was one of the coolest things I have seen, and while some may thing that it is sad that this ground squirrel became dinner to a family of hawks, such is nature and the circle of life.

We ended up coming across one of those Linta Ground Squirrels on a hike in a meadow, so I snapped a picture hoping that it would help me with the identification of the little critter. It was actually kind of cute, especially with it's short little tail, but for a hawk, I can see why it would be considered a good meal, considering how good sized it is in person!

Staying with the bird theme, when we were in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone there were pillars of stone in one of the sections, where Ospreys had made a nest and two younglings sat.  The mother was sitting off to the side as if she was angry at her babies while the two in the nest were walking in circles and screaming out for her.  We had a really great view using our binoculars, but yet again, the digital zoom on my regular point-and-shoot camera isn't the greatest, so this picture is kind of grainy.  

Unknown to me, Yellowstone is apparently a natural habitat for pelicans, but not the kind that you typically see pictures of in Georgia or Florida. These are White Pelicans, which are smaller in size and completely white with a bright orange beak.  This photo was taken the second time I had seen the pelican. The first time he was swimming in this little pond, I had noticed him, but not with enough time to grab my camera and snap a picture.  The next day, as we were driving past that same pond, I kept a lookout, and when I saw him, we pulled over and I was able to grab a picture of him. He's a little difficult to see below, but he's in the right bottom corner, with his throat open, snacking on some fish. 

The last bird that we saw that is worth mentioning was the one that I was looking forward to seeing the most. Having never seen one outside of captivity, the Bald Eagle was high on my list.  I was able to see this eagle twice, and like my experience with the pelican, the first time I saw him, I was unable to grab my camera to take a picture.  This next time, though, I was ready.

He was absolutely beautiful.  I can't even explain how regal he was. Sitting on the branch of a pine tree, overlooking to river, waiting for a fish so he could have his morning meal.  

The binoculars were very useful, and watching him watch us was very cool to see close up.  I attempted to take a few pictures using the binoculars against my camera lens, so while you can see him closer, the quality didn't come out perfectly.  I really should invest in a better camera at some point.  

It was so cool to be able to see an eagle, especially since he was just sitting in the tree, not concerned with any of us.  I really wish that he was closer and had moved a little bit more, but seeing him was still perfect and fulfilled my wishes.

That just about sums up our wildlife experience in pictures.  We were able to see a few coyotes and actually a brown bear ran across the road in front of us as we were leaving the park, but it literally happened so quickly that I barely saw it and D didn't see it at all, so there's no photographic evidence.  So while I guess that counts as seeing a bear, I'm not sure that I actually count it, and D definitely doesn't.  But, I guess that's a lot better than coming in contact with a bear and getting mauled, right?! 

The only other animal that I wish we had a chance to see was a big-horned sheep.  You bet that I had my eyes on the rock cliffs at every moment possible, but those guys are quite shy and really don't like to be seen.  If only I had cell service though, because as soon as we got to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the YNP Wildlife app let me know that a herd of fourteen big-horned sheep were sighted in an area we were two days prior.  Figures, right?! Only my luck.

Which animals are on your must-see list?  Can you imagine if we had some sort of weird antler-like thing attached to our heads? How weird would that be?  

Rhody Goes West: Yellowstone - Part 3

Back in vacation land, with only one more stop left on our itinerary for Yellowstone National Park, we woke up early on Friday morning, checked out of the hotel, packed up the car, and made our way to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  

Morning Sunrise on the River - Yellowstone National Park, USA

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is a large canyon in the middle of the park, where the river has run through creating a valley in the middle, and making gorgeous waterfalls over the rock structures.  It's really beautiful, and is surrounded by these amazing cliffs that have pine trees growing out of the sides.

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone - Yellowstone National Park, USA

There are a few different spots that you can get out of your vehicle and walk along the side of the canyon to get a good look at the waterfalls.  Waterfalls are not something that we really have much of in Rhode Island, never mind waterfalls of this size, so seeing these was incredible.  Even being that far away from them, you could hear the water running down the rocks.  

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone - Yellowstone National Park, USA

You can only take so many pictures of the canyon before things become repetitive and boring, so when we saw a large tour group coming, we took that as a hint, and decided our time here was done. 

Because we left the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone earlier than anticipated, we ended up with a little extra time on our hands before we had to exit the park, so I requested that we go back to one of the sights we had seen previously.  Can you guess which one?

If you guessed Grand Prismatic, you would be correct!  As you know, I was so disappointed that we were unable to see what it truly looks like since it was so cold out that morning, so with the temperatures in the air getting into the 60s at this point, I was really hoping that the steam wouldn't be as dense coming off of the water and we would be able to see the colors on the hot spring.  

As we got to that area of the park again, we were able to see the small bacteria waterfall that is created by the run off of all the hot springs that are situated on top of the sulfur plateau.  Like the bacteria at Lonestar Geyser, this bacteria was orange, and the hot water ran into a cold water river. 

Midway Geyser Basin - Yellowstone National Park, USA

We walked up the boardwalk towards the hot springs, and it was like we were at a completely different place than we were at a few days prior.  You could actually see!  And the first thing that was saw was Excelsior Crater, which had the most amazing turquoise color and water that was so clear you could see the bottom.  

Excelsior Crater - Yellowstone National Park, USA

We followed the boardwalk around the hot springs, but this time, we went the opposite direction so that we would hit Grand Prismatic Spring first instead of last. But, when we rounded the corner and got up the slight incline, what we saw was incredible.  There was so little steam coming off the water that we could see all the colors. The orange bacteria was on the outside, followed by the yellow, then the green, and finally the blue with the slightest hint of purple in the center and just below the surface of the water.  

Grand Prismatic Spring - Yellowstone National Park, USA

I could not be happier that I requested to revisit this part of the park. The weather was beautiful and cooperative, and seeing the natural colors of the water was gorgeous.  Even the other smaller hot springs had much better colors than a few days prior, and those were not only smaller, but closer to us.  

Hot Springs - Yellowstone National Park, USA

Opal Pool - Yellowstone National Park, USA

With that last stop out of the way, it was finally time to leave Yellowstone National Park to make our way into the Grand Tetons and down to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  I do, however, have one last Yellowstone post for you, though, so stay tuned, because this one may be the most fun!

What do you think my last post on Yellowstone is about? Have you noticed anything in my recaps that has been missing?  

Rhody Goes West: Yellowstone - Part 2

Our second day in Yellowstone, we drove to the North Entrance of the Park, which is technically in Montana.  Up in this area of the park is Mammoth Hot Springs, one of the places that I suggested that we go, even though the drive up there from the hotel is over an hour and a half.  It's crazy to think that this park is larger than the entire State of Rhode Island.  In fact, the road that makes a circle in the center of the park just to the Northwest of Lake Yellowstone is only 40 miles shorter than the perimeter of Rhode Island.

On our way up to Mammoth Hot Springs, we stopped at Mud Volcano, to see Dragon's Mouth, which is a cave that has boiling water coming out of it.  When the original settlers of the area came upon this cave, they had thought that there was a Dragon that lived inside, because of the steam coming out of it and the roaring noise that the boiling water was making as it was coming out.

Dragon's Mouth - Yellowstone National Park, USA

The cave was very neat to see, but once again, with the morning temperature being in the low 40s, it was difficult to see the actual cave with all of the steam coming out of it, but the actual concept of the cave was very cool. It's just amazing that boiling water can come out of the Earth, naturally.

In that same area of the park are some other hot springs, some of which are really large and others that are on the small side.  From the top of the hill in that area, you could see the steam from all of the hot springs because it was so cold outside, and it was a really neat view with the mountains in the background.

Hot Springs - Yellowstone National Park, USA

The hot springs that were smaller were much more interesting to me than the large ones were, mostly because they were surrounded by beautifully colored grasses that I was surprised could survive near the hot sulfur-infused water.

Hot Springs - Yellowstone National Park, USA

Also in this area were the Mud Volcanoes, which instead of just water boiling, these are mud ponds that boil.  Seeing mud boil was actually a really weird thing to see. You don't really think about boiling things with the consistency of mud, at least I don't, so actually seeing it boil is a strange occurrence.  The cool thing about it, though, is that the boiling seems to be slow, and not as rapid, which means that when you take pictures, you can actually see the ripples and the bubbles in the boil.

Mud Volcanoes - Yellowstone National Park, USA

Boiling Mud Volcanoes - Yellowstone National Park, USA

Next, we finally arrived at Mammoth Hot Springs, where we saw some geysers, similar to the ones in the Old Faithful area of the park, and the hot springs, which over thousands of years, have formed a large sulfur mountain.  Like the sulfur in the geysers, there is also a lot of sulfur in the water in the hot springs, and as the water boils, a buildup of sulfur is created, making the white-faced mountain that you see in the picture below.  From far away, it looks like it was snow covered mountain, which I thought could be possible considering that it was getting so cold at night, but I was proved very wrong when we got closer.

Mammoth Hot Springs - Yellowstone National Park, USA

This mountain of sulfur was created from some of the larger hot springs, and the sulfur has actually killed the nature that is around that area.  Small grasses are able to survive, but trees that once stood with green leaves and branches are now just dead sticks that are being held up by the hardened sulfur around the trunks.

Sulfur Tree Forest - Yellowstone National Park, USA

It's actually a really interesting thing to see, and makes the hot springs just seem a little more ominous.  Over time, as long as these trees stay standing, they will likely petrify because of the acids and the minerals in the water.  It will take millions of years for this to occur, however, so unless technology really advances in the next fifty years or so, we will never live to see it happen.  

Trees at Mammoth Hot Springs - Yellowstone National Park, USA

After spending the morning and early afternoon at Mammoth Hot Springs, we started our trek back to the hotel, stopping on our way to see the Petrified Tree.  This tree is over 40 million years old, and at one point there were three of them this size that were all situated next to each other on this hillside of Specimen Ridge.  The other two trees were more accessible than this one, and tourists were picking them apart, taking pieces of the petrified wood as souvenirs.  This led to the park association fencing in the last remaining tree to preserve it.  It was a beautiful landmark, but it was difficult to get a good view of it, as you can kind of tell from the picture below - it's situated on the side of a ridge, and there is a small walkway that allows you to see it, although it is a little further up the hill, making for difficult photo taking.

Petrified Tree - Yellowstone National Park, USA

We hit some road construction on the way back to the hotel, which ended up delaying us slightly for our dinner reservation, and we didn't get much of a chance to do some hiking.  Instead, we got cleaned up and had dinner, just in time to watch the gorgeous sunset over Lake Yellowstone.  

Sunset over Lake Yellowstone - Yellowstone National Park, USA

It was the perfect ending to a great day in the park, and our last night there as well, but the recaps of Yellowstone aren't over yet.  In fact, stay tuned for two more posts about Yellowstone, one of which is my absolute favorite part of the park, and then we travel to Jackson Hole, Wyoming and the Grand Tetons for a few days.  

Rhody Goes West: Yellowstone - Part 1

Our time in Yellowstone National Park was great.  We ended up spending just about three days in the park, and while that wasn't enough time to do some of the long hikes, we were able to see almost all of the touristy attractions.

Welcome to Yellowstone - Yellowstone National Park, USA

We entered the park from the West Entrance, and followed the main road until we reached Madison Junction, where we began our drive South towards Old Faithful.  The plan was to hit up all of the attractions along the West side of the park on our way to the hotel in Lake Village.

Yellowstone National Park Map via National Park Service

The first place along the road that we stopped was the Midway Geyser Basin, which is where Grand Prismatic Spring is.  D and I were so excited to see this because the pictures that are available online of this basin are incredible, as you will see below, in the picture by National Geographic.

Grand Prismatic Spring via National Geographic

Well, we weren't going to be able to see how beautiful it was. You see, when we woke up that morning to enter the park, it was a whopping 38 degrees outside. Yes, you read that correctly - 38 degrees. After having just spent a few days in temperatures over 90 degrees, that was quite the shock to our systems.  But, you may be wondering what this has to do with not being able to see the beauty of Grand Prismatic Spring.  Well, the water that's in the spring is averaging about 160 degrees Fahrenheit, which makes it very, very warm. When the temperature in the air is cold, let's say under 50 degrees Fahrenheit, the steam that rises off of the warm water blocks the view of the spring, and you can't really see much at all.  And since it was so freaking cold that morning and the sun hadn't yet broken through the early morning fog and mist, we essentially couldn't see anything.

Grand Prismatic Spring - Yellowstone National Park, USA

Honestly, I was devastated. Grand Prismatic Spring was probably the top touristy attraction that I wanted to see, and the weather was completely ruining it.  And I may have thrown a little fit. Just kidding...

But, since there wasn't too much to see, we decided to keep on going, and our next stop was the Old Faithful area of the park.  With Old Faithful being pretty predictable, we were able to spend some time walking around the boardwalks to see the other geysers before we made our way back to the main attraction.  Before going to Yellowstone, I didn't realize how many other geysers there actually are in the area, so we spent a lot of time walking around, enjoying the area, and thinking we were going to see every geyser go off - and spoiler alert - we didn't see a single one.  Don't get me wrong, there was a lot of activity, but the only one that we saw actually erupt was Old Faithful.

Castle Geyser in Old Faithful Area - Yellowstone National Park, USA

Old Faithful Eruption - Yellowstone National Park, USA

After watching Old Faithful, we made our way out of the area and over to Kepler Cascades, which is just an overlook to an amazingly beautiful waterfall.  We actually ate lunch here, and when we finished up, we walked over to a hidden gem just around the corner, Lonestar Geyser.

Kepler Cascades - Yellowstone National Park, USA

The walk out to Lonestar is about 2.5 miles, one-way, but well worth it. I actually enjoyed Lonestar more than I enjoyed Old Faithful, and it was definitely the highlight of the day for me.  We were able to get really close to the geyser, even when it was erupting, and there were no where near as many people there as there were at Old Faithful.

Lonestar Geyser - Yellowstone National Park, USA

What you're actually seeing in the second picture with the orange color is bacteria.  Since the water is so hot coming out of the geyser, bacteria grows and lives in the warm pools of water that form. The bacteria is the color that you are seeing.  If we had a clear day at Grand Prismatic Spring, you would have also seen the different colored bacteria, but you know how that went...

Lonestar Geyser - Yellowstone National Park, USA

Also, the spout that it looks like the hot water is coming out of was actually formed over years and years of the geyser erupting.  Since the hot water comes from inside the earth, it contains a lot of sulfur, and when it erupts, the sulfur leaves behind small particles from the water run off, and over time, the sulfur builds up and forms that spout around the opening in the ground.  You'll see a lot more of this in pictures as my vacation recap continues, but this actually wrapped up our tour of the West side of the park.

Stay tuned as we continue our vacation in Yellowstone and explore some of the other awesome parts of the park.

Have you ever seen Old Faithful? Is Yellowstone National park on your bucket list?

Rhody Goes West: Salt Lake City

D and I stopped in Salt Lake City, Utah for one night between our travels in Moab and our drive up to Yellowstone National Park.

We had plans to see the city, but after it started to rain, we just decided to grab some food and spend the night in the hotel room, catching up on some much needed rest.

Salt Lake Temple at Night - Salt Lake City, Utah

The next morning, we had a few hours before we needed to head out to Yellowstone, so with the blue sky and no clouds, we packed up our things, checked out of the hotel, and saw the downtown area right around where we were staying.  

We walked around until we found a cute little side street and grabbed some breakfast at a delicious little restaurant.  Being the huge genealogy buff that I am, I begged D to go with me to the Family History Library, which unknown to me, was right behind the hotel we were staying at!  I have future plans to travel back to Salt Lake City to spend more than a couple of hours completing my family research, but being able to go inside the library and find some new information was good enough for me for this short trip.  

Me at the Family History Library - Salt Lake City, Utah

Me at the Family History Library - Salt Lake City, Utah

We ended up spending about an hour longer than D wanted to at the library, but he knew that this stop was important to me, so he was more than happy to accommodate.  After the library, we walked across the street to see Temple Square. The Mormon headquarters are in Salt Lake City, and Temple Square is the place in Utah to go if you are interested in Mormon history.  While it's not necessarily a religion that I have interest in, their temple's architecture is something like no other, so we wanted to check that out.

Salt Lake Temple - Salt Lake City, Utah

The Salt Lake Temple isn't open to the public, but even if it were, there was a wedding going on (on a Tuesday!) so we wouldn't have been able to see the inside, but the exterior is absolutely gorgeous.  

There wasn't much else for us to do in Temple Square, since we didn't have much interest in learning about the religion or listening to the lectures, so we wrapped up our time in Salt Lake City with some lunch at one of Guy Fieri's stops on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Drives places called Pat's In Your Face BBQ. It was delicious, and was perfect to hold us over for our drive North through Idaho to West Yellowstone, Montana.  

Welcome to Idaho!

This gave us two more states on our trip, Idaho and Montana. With Wyoming being the only one left to hit on our vacation, we were more than ready to get to Yellowstone.

What's the most number of states that you have hit up in a single vacation?  

Unexpected Blogging Break

I’m sorry for the delay break in writing for the last week or so, and for missing last week's Flash Sale Friday, but D and I were on vacation and ended up with very, very limited internet and mobile service.  It was awful, because if you know me, I am attached to technology almost 24/7 – to the point that I sleep with my phone less than 1ft. from my face.  Yeah, it’s that bad.  But anyways, we were so removed from the world that one of our hotel rooms didn’t even have a television! It was really strange to be away from electronics for a few days, and while some may say that it was a welcomed break, I’m not sure it was for me, especially because I wasn’t aware of the lack of modern technologies ahead of time. 

For the next week or so, you will be seeing me taking a break from writing about our house and DIY plans to recap our vacation.  But, you’re probably wondering where we were, right?  Well, I guess I better tell you then!

As I mentioned a few weeks ago with my 101 in 1001 update, we were going to cross some things off of the Travel section, and we did just that! D and I flew into Salt Lake City, Utah, drove down to Moab, Utah, then came back up to SLC for a day, and drove North through Idaho to West Yellowstone, Montana, where we stayed over before driving into Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, and after a few days, Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  So, if you’re counting, that’s four new states!  We had such a great time, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

Have you been to Moab or Yellowstone?  What about Jackson Hole?