June 11, 2014

The weather has been sunny and cool. Low 40s at night and 60s during the day.

Today was mostly a driving day. This year was the first time in over a decade that I didn't use my checklist when I packed the trailer. So, of course, I'm finding things I forgot. One was a towel. So I decided to drive to West Yellowstone and buy one. Along the way, I could check the phone service and just see what was going on.

After West Yellowstone, I went over to Old Faithful, intending to see it erupt. What a mess. I have never seen that area so crowded. The large parking lot was completely full – not a space to be had. I ended up parking around the back of the stores near the cabins. Of course, the geyser had just erupted and it was another 90 minutes before the next one, so I decided to move on and see it another day.

I went around to West Thumb and then up along the lake. When I got to the Hayden Valley, there was a grizzly out along the river feeding on an elk calf it had killed this morning. It was half hidden by the river bank, but occasionally you could see it move around:

After an hour or so, it got up, strolled over to the river:

Swam across:

And moved up to the trees above the river on the other side.

The only other excitement for the day was I got to take a hot shower at Canyon.