Yellowstone

We stayed two nights in the Three Bear Lodge in West Yellowstone, Montana. The Lodge dates to 1930, but was pretty much destroyed in a fire 2008. The owners decided to salvage the materials from the parts that were not destroyed and used them to build furniture and fixtures for the rebuilt lodge. It was very interesting to see how the different reclaimed materials were used to make an essentially brand new hotel look old, without feeling that one is in Disneyland.

Three Bear Lodge :Lobby made from reclaimed materials

   Thumbprint of one of the rooms - to see more you need to click on the picture and look at the picture gallery.

Of course, we didn't go there to look at furniture made from old wood. We wanted to see old wood on the stump and steaming fumeroles and wild critters. And we did: Below is a fumerole in the biscuit basin in the park:

It may look like snow on the ground, but actually it is just parched/steamed ground.

We spent all of one day and part of the second day driving through the park with small excursions on foot. (I know, I know, we should be hikers or ride on horseback or Harleys, but what can I say - we are not doing that anymore)

Below is a picture of the Yellowstone river - quite impressive. The river has gouged a very deep canyon and parts of the overlooks would have scared me silly, back in the days when Andrea and Craig were little.

And a Waterfall:

you may notice the absence of wild critters or the eruption of Old Faithful - well, we did see Elk and the odd wandering buffallo (particularly liked the one who wandered in front of the car - exactly on the yellow line. He sure knew how to stop traffic!) We did not see any bears or wolves and we did not take pictures of the ones we saw. Even if I ("on accident" I S WEAR !) walked too close to an elk and got yelled at by a ranger. Sorry, sorry...

We did see Old Faithful erupt and we DO have a picture. Unfortunately, all you see in the picture is white foam. You'll just have to take my word for it. Birgit would not let me post it.

But - for Nick - I made a point of stopping at the Chief Joseph memorial. Thinking of ya, kid.