Saturday, June 14, 2008

"Endings are my weakness and I hate them and mistrust anybody who knows when they occur."

-A Complicated Kindness

Incase I haven't made this clear, the weather here at Yellowstone is seriously bipolar. You can wake up to clear blue skies, and two hours later it might be pouring down rain. And two hours later it might be snowing. So whenever there is a clear sky that looks like it might stick around for more than two minutes, I always try to take advantage of it. Last night I went out and walked on some of the trails around Old Faithful. When I got out there, there was a big pack of bison all headed towards Old Faithful. They literally surrounded it, and I got out my camera thinking that it was as perfect as a photo opportunity can get. Then, right as I was about to take a picture, Old Faithful went off! The bison continued to calmly snack on the grass, and I once again was overwhelmed with how happy I am to be here.




Sunday, June 08, 2008

"We like companionship, but we can't stand to be around people for very long. So we go get ourselves lost, come back for awhile, then get out again."

-John Krakauer

Max, Terry and I had the same day off last week, so we decided to do something fun. Employees can go on any of the tours for free as long as there is room available. We showed up for the Firehole Basin Tour and there were exactly 3 seats left. Yay! By the end of the tour it was very, very, very cold, but we didn't mind. Well, maybe I minded a little bit when I couldn't really feel my hands anymore, but I guess that's what I get for leaving my gloves in my room. Lesson learned!





The tour bus-car thing had a roof that you could take off, which was really cool because then we could take pictures as we were moving. We eventually had to put the top on after awhile because it started to rain, but for the first hour we got to ride around with no roof.


We stopped at a rest area so people could use the restroom. Max and I took the opportunity to run down to a nearby clearing and it was sooooo pretty. I would've been happy staying there all day, but unfortunately we only had ten minutes to wander around. Oh well.




We spent the rest of the tour looking at various geysers and waterfalls. You know, the usual stuff you see when you're living on a volcano.