Yellowstone, Tetons, Jackson Hole

This week we went with Adrian, Arleen, and Brittney up through Rexburg and Ashton to West Yellowstone, where we stayed in a hotel as a base to visit Yellowstone.  But before photos from the trip, I should comment that within the last week Alicia got engaged to Mike Andrus (yay! for them).  Also, Saturday before last we did the Ride Around the Wellsvilles (RAW).  Alicia did the full 105 miles (altered route).  But by Brigham City (from the north end) I realized I was having one of my weird heart rate things.  I asked Mark Firth, with whom I was riding and who is a doctor, to check my pulse.  It was irregular.  So we went over Sardine Canyon and only did 68 miles (per my iphone - although Mark did 70, having ridden his bike to the start).  We drove to his house to get his office key and went to his office where he did an EKG on me.  Yes, I was in atrial fibrillation.  I think I go into it periodically, but not usually during a serious athletic event.  I'm going in for more tests this next week.  Oh, and just before our trip we spent several days moving Alicia's stuff from her house back into ours.  She and the girls will be moving down to the South Jordan area until the wedding, when they'll then be with Mike.  She's probably got a bank job lined up down there (just waiting confirmation).  Now back to Yellowstone --

 In West Yellowstone there is a nice Grizzly and Wolf facility, complete with live animals (besides homo sapiens).  Here Adrian hams it up next to a grizzly.

 Brit inside the facility.

 Two of the wolves we saw.  Within moments they and some others started a howling chorus which was pretty entertaining.

 Just one of I believe 9 grizzlies they rotate through the feeding area.

 Brit inside the gift shop.

 I pulled shots from our camera, our two smart phones, Brit's camera, and Adrian's smart phone.  In other words, it would be difficult to arrange all the shots in chronological order, so I'm not going to try very hard.  Many shots will be in random order.  Here's our group outside the Grizzly and Wolf facility.  Next door is an iMax in which we saw an Alaska movie one night, and a Yellowstone movie the next.

 Adrian and Arleen.

Brit looking at bear skulls.

 A blurry shot of us and a polar bear.

Our grizzly seat.

 A view of Yellowstone Lake over a series of hot springs.
 Brit and her dad.

 Gayle - who was very ill with a respiratory viral infection the whole trip - trying to rest on an overlook.

 The soon-to-be 16 yr. old.

 Brit got a poncho while in West Yellowstone and loved to wear it.

 Me in my Gran Fondo bike ride shirt.

 Gayle next to Madison River.

 There were waterfalls aplenty.

 Gayle observing one of multitudinous geysers.

 A colorful hot spring near the lake.

 Some canoeists in Yellowstone Lake near West Thumb - which by the way is a caldera within the greater Yellowstone caldera.

 Arleen got to see a moose while we were returning via Emigration Canyon above Mink Creek.  We others weren't fast enough.  We all saw bald eagles, deer, elk, and bison (and tons of ravens).

 

Here's Gayle holding up her Samsung smart phone to take a picture of Old Faithful (I figure you've all seen pictures of it before, so I put in this one showing her taking a photo).

That's lower falls in the background as we pose next to the Yellowstone Grand Canyon.

 Brit, signaling for world peace.

Looking down from the lower falls observation area right next to the falls.  The shot does not do justice to the serious height.  The next shot, from a bit downstream, puts it into better perspective.

The last shot was from just to the right of the falls, where there is an observation deck.

 We noticed way below an osprey nest on a high pinnacle above the canyon.  Brit took this shot with a telephoto lens.  What happens when the mom is fishing and the wind blows a youngster out of the nest?

 And yes, we did see a grizzly in a field near the road.  Here Brit captured it running - fortunately not at us.

 The Dragon's Mouth was impressive in that it was constantly shooting out steam and periodically sent out waves too.

 The cars always stopped for bison.  Too bad they also stopped for deer, which we see all the time in our own yard (and which have taken to eating our hostas lately too).

 Speaks for itself.

 I went down the metal stairs of Uncle Tom's trail to see the lower falls from the opposite side of where I had earlier (see the folks just to the right and above the falls).  Very impressive (and scary when you have acrophobia).

 This is what the "landing" looks like at the bottom of the stairs.  It is in the middle of a very tall canyon wall (mostly cliff).

 Looking at the bottom of the falls.

 Some of the 320 plus stairs.

 Lower falls from down river.

 We came back via Teton Park and Jackson.

Quite the scenery for the family to see!

 Yes, they are all real.  Elk drop their antlers annually and the boy scouts collect them from the local elk refuge.