Yellowstone National Park - Be Forewarned: Lots of Photos! :)

Despite this being past the prime tourist season, all campgrounds within the park were either closed or full, with no reservations available, so we stayed in a private campground just off the west entrance to Yellowstone National Park, in a small town appropriately called West Yellowstone.  We  spent two days driving park roads and stopping at various thermal features of the park: geysers, fumaroles, mud pots and more, yet we saw only a fraction of the special features in this park.  It's difficult to describe the varied and remarkable scenery and the appearance of the lands on which the major thermal features exist. On one hillside a park placard describes the earth in that spot reaching temperatures of 200 degrees Farenheit, literally boiling and killing the plant life on that location.  Now, a hot spring and some hot-pots dot that hill, and while the ground immediately surrounding those thermal features looks bleached and dead, the rest of the hillside is covered with grasses, plants, and a few trees, as well as hoof prints and animal scat that clearly indicates large animals visiting the sites. Visitor access is limited to boardwalks that lead visitors from one feature to the next, with signs dotted along the sides of the boardwalk reminding visitors of the potential dangers of leaving the boardwalk and coming too close to active thermal features, since the ground/crust surrounding them can be both thin and unstable.  With all the steam swirling around you as you walk, and the very ground near you bubbling, it's difficult to imagine such warnings are necessary.

The YouTube videos and photos linked below are all taken by me during our first two days at Yellowstone and provide a pretty good overview of the richness of experiences we've had here, from the magnificent to the mundane, but still beautiful.
Churning Cauldron

Firehole Falls

Heading to Work (None Too Enthusiastically)

Mama Elk &Youngster Entertaining the Tourists

Dragon's Mouth Spring

Fountain Paint Pots

Buffalo Living The Life!

Geyser & Hot Pool

The Other Animals May be Bigger, but I'm Cuter

We spent the next three days fishing the Madison and Firehole rivers in the park, one day with a guide, two days on our own.  Again, magnificent scenery, perfect weather, beautiful clear water.  Although we each did catch a few small rainbow trout, the greatest joy was being able to spend three days outside literally inhaling the surrounding beauty, and taking pleasure in a the relaxation of this time spent together. Since then, we've driven past beautiful mountain streams and rivers, all of them calling us to stop and spend some time there; unfortunately that will have to wait for another trip this way.  For now, we're headed further west in our little silver home, with such rich experiences stored in our memories from the last two weeks of travel.

Buffalo Bill Country....and it is glorious!

We spent two nights in Cody, Wyoming, so that we could have a break from driving and to visit the Buffalo Bill Museum (Buffalo Bill Center of the West, to be exact) in Cody.   Frankly, I was initially a somewhat reluctant participant in this venture, expecting some major kitsch displayed in a small-town down-at-the-heels museum.  Boy, was I WRONG!   This museum contains several beautifully executed permanent exhibits, as well as some temporary ones.  One wing is dedicated to the history of "Buffalo Bill" Cody, and presents a very balanced and interesting overview of his life and that of his compatriots.  Another wing presents the natural history of this area - primarily of Yellowstone National Park - and seamlessly blends information about geology and biology of this area in a manner that is intriguing for all ages.  Yet another wing contains Western art covering a broad range of form, styles, and time of execution - this exhibit includes an incredible number of original Remington pieces as well as many well-recognized Western artists and many who are less known, but provide a rich foil for those we do recognize. There is also a Western research library, with books and documents as well as computers.  But wait, wait...... there's more!
Yet another wing contains a rich exhibit about the plains Indians, both from a historical and modern perspective.  A side-exhibit in one of the open courtyards presented an up-close-and-personal introduction to raptors (birds of prey) - all of which have been injured and cannot be re-introduced to the wild, but at the same time are housed now in a remarkable setting here at the museum and are used to educate the public about the power and the grace of these magnificent birds, as well as the dangers they face at the hands of man.  
And ...... wait for it......wait for it......wait for it......what would a Wild West Museum be without a GUN exhibit!?!  This museum offers one that is so rich, that husband John said: "It's more than I can take in, in a single day!" Apparently it is considered one of the most extensive gun collections in the world.  I did not visit the gun exhibit, but John said that in addition to all the historic guns (US and the world) , the exhibit also included guns of many of the major Western movies and television shows: Gunsmoke (Marshal Dillion);  Lone Ranger; Bonanza - (the whole clan); Have Gun will Travel - Paladin....and more.  History, but also fun!

Frederick Remington Sculpture

A room full of Remington's paintings and sculptures

The Indian as Warrior

Sculpture representing the death of the American Indian race

Amazingly detailed Plains Indian Beadwork Blanket

The lap blanket and silver jewelry of this plains Indian was reminiscent of Latvian ethnic costumes

Remarkably detailed quill-work

Peregrine Falcon

Kestral

Golden Eagle

Fall Travel - Westward Bound

We have seen a magnificent  variety of countryside on this trip so far, and met a few interesting people.  We've had remarkably good weather so far, with nights in the 50's in days in the 70's, and breathtakingly beautiful skies.

Iowa Campground

We've stayed in a variety of beautiful campgrounds, as well as a few practical ones (occasionally these are necessary).

Badlands Campground

Custer State Park Campground

  

We've driven through mile after mile of sameness, such as the corn fields of Iowa and prairies of South Dakota. 

We've driven places of breathtaking and unusual beauty and/or wildlife, which no photograph can really do justice, such as the South Dakota Badlands, Custer State Park in SD, and more. 

Here are a few photos from the Badlands:

Sunset view of Badlands rock formation from our camper

Matterhorn Wannabe... :)

While driving the designated wildlife-viewing road in Custer State Park, we kept talking about how this old tune aptly describes this magnificent area:

"Oh, give me a home where the Buffalo roam

Where the deer and the Antelope play;

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,

And the sky is not cloudy all day."  (Song: Home on the Range)
The animals in the park are remarkably tame, in that they don't mind very close proximity of vehicles, but the good thing is that it allows us to see them "up-close and personal" in a way otherwise only available in Zoos, and it is a much happier experience to see that they are free to live in such beautiful surroundings.

Buffalo

Bighorn Sheep

Prairie Dog

Wild Burros

A Different Kind of Gardening

One of my favorite gardening bloggers headed his post a few days ago: "A Funny Thing Called Parenting" - HUH?  What does parenting have to do with gardening?  He proceeded to say: "The garden, our children, they must all find their own ways in life, and we are not as much in control as we think." 

And so YOU may wonder what gardening has to do with traveling.  My garden has gone to weed this year, and I've failed to keep up with this blog despite a great many travels since the last post - it feels like I've been lazy when I look at the list of things NOT done.

But that posting in The Garden Interior blog awakened an awareness in me of what I HAD been doing instead of what I had NOT been doing; simply put, we've been "gardening" in the "family garden".  Instead of pulling weeds and fertilizing roses, we've been reconnecting with neglected family and friends, and growing relationships through wonderful times of togetherness, some of it spent in travel to distant family (distant in the sense of geographical separation), some in visits to us by family and friends far and near.  And that, as Robert Frost so famously said, "has made all the difference".

Our spring/early summer travels have occurred in Silver airplanes and Silver cars rather than our Silver Airstream, but still I feel that they should be represented here, if in briefer form.

FAMILY WEDDING:  Nephew James Miervaldis married Caitlin Moore in April of 2014, and we were there to wish them all the happiness possible, as were their friends and family from far and near, giving us the opportunity to also reconnect with family living in scattered geographical locations. Thanks Jim and Caitlin for this opportunity!  :)

On the way there and back we also were able to take a few interesting, tho' brief, highlights of the area:

Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA

Letchworth State Park

Letchworth State Park

TRIP OF A LIFETIME: I (Liga) had the incredible fortune to be able to not only travel back to my roots, but to share that trip with both immediate family and other family members.  This was such a rich experience that it deserves a telling all its own, and perhaps this (primarily) Airstream blog is not the place for it, but here are some highlights, with a possible follow-up post in the future, giving greater detail to this adventure.

NIECE KATIE'S VISIT TO US AT END OF JUNE:

NOW: We are headed west, to Vancouver, BC, to meet up with sons Mark and John, and looking forward to a month of exploring fly-fishing opportunities in British Columbia and Washington State in Sept/Oct, and even more, to spending family time with our now far-flung sons (far-flung in terms of their choice of locations: Vancouver, BC and Queenstown, NZ).

We left home on Sept. 2, planning on crossing the U.S. in a somewhat leisurely pace allowing for stops along the way, visits to areas of historical or natural history interest, friends, and appreciation of the changing geography and nature.  Our first night was spent in a really nice Army Corps of Engineers campground in Iowa City, IA, and tonight we are in a ho-hum but not-so-bad KOA campground just north of Sioux Falls, SD.  Our goal is to be able to spend some time exploring Yellowstone (weather permitting), and visiting a long-time friend in Coer d'Alene, ID along the way, before reaching Vancouver, BC.