Yellowstone 2021 (Kid Stuff)

My obsession with finding jars and bells recently brought us once again to the majesty of Yellowstone National Park.  Now maybe that's a lie.  Maybe those little bobbles of bronze are simply a rationalization for exploring a small corner of God's creation that never fails to amaze.  Regardless, impressions from the season of Fall will last indefinitely and what the memory betrays, photos captured in the moment will reinforce for the mind.

Unfortunately, photos fail to capture the grandeur of the valleys, the haunting bugle of a bull elk cascading to one's ear from afar, or the caress of warm steam, the byproduct of countless bubbling hot springs, touching the skin in the crisp Autumn air.  Nonetheless, the following images were captured along our path - four days in October. 

Day 1 - Beaver Ponds Trail  

    

Jamie starting out fresh

Mount Everts from Elk Plaza

The first pond - not a beaver in sight

Second Pond - still no beavers

Last Pond - just ducks that were camera shy

Pano - Jamie standing in the gap on left between the trees

Sage

Day 2 - Blacktail Creek Trail

Welcoming Committee - steam rising off their backs

View from Forces of the Northern Range Boardwalk

Glacial Erratic

Blacktail Pond

Deer Creek

Two hams heading on down the road

Swan Lake Flats

Sheepeater Cliffs

Sheepeater Cliffs and the Gardner River

Jamie overlooking Mammoth Hot Springs from the Upper Terraces

Orange Spring Mound

Looking for love in all the wrong places

Day 3 - Lone Star Geyser Trail

The Fountain Group in early morning

Grasses along the Firehole River

Grasses gently swaying in the Firehole River

Somewhere along the trail

Same spot  - Summer to 2000

The seasons have changed in more ways than one

Lone Star Geyser - all quiet on this day

The Summer of 2000 was a different story

 Idyllic

Young Hopeful Geyser

Norris - Porcelain Basin

Day 4 - Hellroaring Trail

Aspen along Blacktail Plateau Drive

View from the top of the trail - Yellowstone River upstream from the gorge

What goes down must come up

A solitary sentry met us at the tree-line

He let us pass but hinted disdain from his wallow

Made it

The high water marks on the canyon face established during Spring runoff

suggested an appropriate title for the trail

Bear track?  What say you?

Provided incentive for the climb back

As for the bronze?  Simply a no-show.  It has been said that crashing should never discourage the would-be air traveler because only the last inch counts.  And so it is with those pesky trinkets.  Even as Winter approaches and the grizzly head to their respective dens for hibernation, so too will the focus of my quest remain dormant until someone understands how to arrive at the last inch.  I believe that this sign is as close as I got.