Last Thursday was our first of two days off, and we decided to take a trip south to the Old Faithful area. As we were leaving our dorm, we saw a herd of elk next to the Post Office (across the main street from our dorm - which we now call "home"). We checked it out and found that several elk families (mothers and youngsters only) were having a picnic. The elk calves were doing what all kids do at picnics: they were running and jumping and prancing. It was really fun to watch. My photo has 5 elklets as well as a couple of the moms.

I thought I would show you a scene of Yellowstone in winter. However, this winter scene was taken on June 12. This is truly an amazing place!

As we approached Old Faithful, we encountered a herd of Bison right next to the road. The picture shows a female with her winter coat. Since the Old Faithful area is at a much higher altitude than Mammoth, the Bison there are slower in losing their winter coats. It is easy to see why these coats were prized by native Americans.

The next pictures are of the Old Faithful Inn, a truly wonderful place. The outside picture shows the lobby exterior with one of the old Yellowstone touring busses from 1936, which have been renovated and put back in service. We see them all over the place. Employees get free access to their tours (space available only, of course), which is a nice perk.

The interior of the Inn lobby is truly amazing. The timbers are all local Lodgepole Pines. The extra supports at all 90 degree angles are from trees that were bent by other falling trees or some other natural event. It has three levels that are accessible to all, and goes up even higher, as you can see from the vertical picture. It is a fun place, but much busier than Mammoth. I'm glad we are at Mammoth.

The Old Faithful Geyser is both beautiful and relatively reliable, which is what makes it famous. There are larger geysers, but none that attract more tourists, because you can look at the sign in the Inn and see when it will erupt, within plus or minus 10 minutes. The eruptions are approximately 90 minutes apart now. It was closer to an hour 45 years ago.

Our eruption was right on time - which was fortunate, since the wind was howling and it was colder than our clothes would allow. While we were waiting for O. F., we saw another geyser in the basin erupt. It started snowing again just as we returned to the Inn. O. F. is right outside the Inn, so you can actually sit on the first floor balcony and get a wonderful view of the eruption. We went as close as we could get, however. There was a large crowd, but it was nothing compared to the crowds they will see in July.

We saw another grizzly bear on our way "home". It was moving at the edge of a tree line, however, and I never could get a decent photograph. Apparently the harsh winter has kept the bears at a relatively low altitude, and they are also coming down to take advantage of the easy prey of elk and Pronghorn (antelope) calves. Some of our friends here have actually witnessed successful grizzly attacks on supposedly hidden calves. It is hard to watch, but this is how nature works here. The grizzlys couldn't survive without their prey.

We continued on to Gardiner, MT, to do some grocery shopping and finally saw the large family of bighorn sheep that lives on the cliffs along the Gardiner River. You have to look carefully at my picture, but there are at least 10 sheep visible on the cliffside. None of the males with the big horns - like the one I showed in an earlier blog - were visible.

On a subsequent trip we saw this same family running along the apparently vertical cliffside as if it were their front yard - which I guess it is.

I'll close with a picture of another friend here at Mammoth. Pam, the potwasher extraordinaire, bailed me out several times when I was the only dishwasher for all the restaurants here. I noticed tonight that there were 4 people doing the job that I was (unsuccessfully) trying to do for two days.

That's all for now. My next entry will show pictures from our 5-mile (mostly vertical) hike on Friday the 13th.