Small and Large Wonders in Yellowstone

Today, we decided to get up early and head into Yellowstone for the day. We usually avoid the park during July and August, but decided to go before a road closure that will happen next week. As always, we were amazed with what we saw.

Do you know what this is?

How about this one?

Mountains in the distance have a hazy look.

All the following flowers are an inch long or less. Really a bug's eye view.

Kind of looks like a giant cricket. It was so fat, it could only hop short distances.

View from Mt Washburn trail head.

No mystery why they are called Mule Deer.

Early Morning Dew in Yellowstone

After a cool night, (38 degrees at 7:30 when we came into the park), there was an abundance of dew on all the vegetation as the fog lifted.

All the white seen here is dew.

The following pictures are a bug's eye view of the dew drops. The effect and reflections are amazing.

Exploring back roads

This time of year the National Park is pretty crowded, so we find ourselves exploring other areas. This afternoon we took a nice ride on some national forest roads.

The view behind us as we drive in the mountains.

We pulled into one of the campsites in this National Forest Campground to eat our picnic lunch. If you look really closely you can see the nearest camper off in the distance.

A close up of the small flowers seen in the foreground in the previous picture. There were thousands of these tiny bouquets.

Another very interesting tiny flower.

Wildflower colors are amazing.

This black bug makes a great contrast with the white flowers.

He's not too happy to have his picture taken.

Storm clouds are rolling in, chasing us back towards home.

These seeds look like dandelions, but the clumps are about the size of a baseball.

Was getting ready to take a photo of these asters, when this striped grasshopper jumped in.

White Pelicans and Wildflowers

On one of our trips to the 'big city' of Bozeman, we drove along the West Fork of the Madison River. There were many people enjoying themselves by floating down the river. The flock of white pelicans we saw seemed unaffected by all the people.

They are very large birds with a tremendous wingspan. They are very graceful in flight, considering their size.

Ready for a touch down.

A pair wading in the cool water.

This squirrel is a frequent visitor to our campsite. It found a tasty pine cone to munch on.

Wherever we go, the camera travels with us. These are some wildflowers we found near the road.

Beautiful Sights along the road

We scan the roadside as we travel around in this wonderful part of the country. Quite often we are rewarded with wonderful sights.

We first spotted this large grizzly bear as he tried to cross the road 2 vehicles ahead of us. We turned around and watched him in the brush and trees along the road as he seemed pretty anxious to get across. We got this great shot, shortly before he finally got across behind our truck. This was just 3 and a half miles west of town, which is not within the park.

Since we have had quite a bit of rain lately, we see waterfalls, such as this one, where it's usually dry.

The following are a couple photos of wildflowers we saw along the road.

Snowy June Day

Awoke to a blanket of snow this morning, June 7. Since it was a day off, we decided to take a short ride into the park.

By the time we went out at 11:00 AM the snow was starting to melt off the truck.

Snow is still falling on the mountain tops.

The female elk are finding new growth to eat.

What an awesome day.

Tiny flowers (about 1/4 inch each) suspending a water droplet.

Early wildflowers buried in snow.