A Good Fence With a Commission…

The sign at the entrance to this ranch says…

Quiet Warrior ~ Isaiah 6:8

Isaiah 6:8 (ESV) Isaiah’s Commission from the Lord.

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

We spotted this on Highway 14 between the East Entrance/Exit from Yellowstone National Park and Cody, Wyoming.

I’m linking up to Good Fences with TexWisGirl who is a fabulous hostess for this meme!

We had a wonderful time at Century Link Field in Seattle at a soccer match last evening. It’s always great when the weather is lovely and your team wins in grand fashion. 5 different players scored a goal for the 5-0 shutout which means here in Seattle we can get a free pizza today from Papa Murhpy’s and a free haircut at Great Clips in the next 7 days with our match day ticket/pass. Fun promotions.

Today is mowing the lawn day and then I’ll pick up our free pizza. What’s happening in your world?

West Thumb Geyser Basin

On our second full day in Yellowstone we traveled to the Canyon area of the park stopping at anything interesting along the way.

We enjoyed walking along the boardwalks at West Thumb Geyser Basin situated on the shores of Yellowstone Lake.

Temperature 172°F Dimensions 30×57 feet. Depth 53 feet. Abyss Pool is a colorful and interesting pool in the West Thumb Geyser Basin. Abyss is the deepest pool known in Yellowstone and received its name for its abyss-like depth. The dark green-colored water gives the illusion of a bottomless pool.

Big Cone

West Thumb Geyser Basin is one of the smallest geyser basins in Yellowstone yet its location along the shore of Yellow-stone Lake ranks it as the most scenic. West Thumb derived its name from the thumb-like projection of Yellowstone Lake and the name was given by the 1870 Washburn Expedition. It was also known as Hot Spring Camp. West Thumb has less geyser activity than other basins.

Lake Shore Geyser

Bluebell Pool

I shared before that this was Dear and my first trip to Yellowstone National Park. We were happy that we planned this last minute trip while Dear is unemployed. His contracting job ended the Friday before we planned this trip. He has a couple leads on new jobs and we are hoping we might be able to take another last minute road trip before he gets employed again. Dear has been busy working in his shop and in our yard in the meantime. Time will tell what adventures lie ahead.

Upper Geyser Basin

Dear and I took an early morning walk about the Upper Geyser Basin which includes Old Faithful. We are early risers and enjoyed the time with few other humans around.

The Upper Geyser Basin, approximately two square miles in area, contains the largest concentration and nearly one-quarter of all of the geysers in the world. A variety of thermal features exist here: spouting geysers, colorful hot springs, and steaming fumaroles.

You can see the Old Faithful Inn in the background where we were staying.

I’m pretty sure this is Castle Geyser.

This is another photo where you can see the Old Faithful Inn.

This could be Blue Star Spring.

Yellowstone is so amazing in it’s landscape and has so much to offer. We were glad to be in the park and satisfied with what we saw and encountered. We also thought that outer space movies could be filmed here. I still have so much to share from Yellowstone.

Monday Mural and Signs

Because we got in the car and traveled to places we’ve never been to before and because I saw some cool murals while on the trip I’m linking up to the Monday Mural Meme hosted by Oakland Daily Photo. And because we saw some cool signs along with these murals I’ll be linking later this week to signs, signs hosted by Lesley.

This mural is on the side of the former Seidel’s Saddlery across the street from the famous Irma Hotel named for Buffalo Bill Cody’s daughter Irma.

When we left Cody, Wyoming and traveled some country roads headed to Butte, Montana we passed another mural just before we traveled through Joliet, Montana.

Monday in the Seattle area is starting a bit gloomy with some drizzles. So far our Spring was more summer like than our summer is showing. Time will tell what the rest of the summer holds for us. How are things in your corner of the world? Since today is 7/11 are you going to go and claim your free Slurpee?

M and W Barns

The barns I’m sharing today are taken along the roads in Montana and Wyoming that we chose to get to and from Yellowstone National Park the end of June.

The Speed limit on Interstate 90 in Montana gets as high as 80mph so I’m happy my photos are not blurrier.

Thank you to Tom The Backroads Traveller for the Barn Collective. Click over to see barns from other parts of the world.

Our youngest kids are still working on moving out of this old house. They spent their first night there last night. Since their new apartment is quite small a lot of their stuff will remain here. They have the tough job of weeding through the stuff to decide what they really need for this next stage in their life and then organizing the remaining stuff so we can isolate it in one area instead of spread out around the house. Small problems in this world of woe.

Do you still have some of your married kids stuff at your house?

Old Faithful…

…the most famous Geyser in the world. Discovered in 1870 by the Washburn Expedition, Old Faithful geyser was named for its frequent eruptions — which number more than a million since Yellowstone became the world’s first national park in 1872.

Old Faithful can vary in height from 106-184 feet (32–56 m) with an average near 130 feet (40 m). This has been the historical range of its recorded height. Eruptions normally last between 1.5 to 5 minutes.

During an eruption, the water temperature at the vent has been measured at 204°F (95.6C). The steam temperature has been measured above 350°.

Old Faithful’s eruptions vary from 60 to 110 minutes.

Old Faithful has a faithful following of people who will sit and wait to see it erupt. We saw one other very impressive geyser not too far from Old Faithful in the distance while we were waiting for Old Faithful and then again on our morning walk the next day.

I zoomed in to get these shots and it looks as if the people are being enveloped

This was such a new and interesting experience for us. On our morning walk we were very close to this second geyser when it erupted and I’ll show more photos of it in another post.

Today is Thursday. Dear has been working on a new yard project and if the rain holds off he’ll finish up today. Our kids will complete their move this weekend after our daughter’s last day in her present job on Friday. She’ll be happily unemployed until the Fall.

Montana Signs…

On our road trip to Yellowstone we got low on gas in an area where there were several exits with “no services”, oops! We finally found an exit with a small 4 pump station across the street from the one convenience store in the very small town of Alberton.

As we headed back to the freeway we passed the town’s tavern. I didn’t notice the coffins until I uploaded the photo. I’ve never seen that before.

Our stop for the night was Missoula, Montana and we saw this sign in the historic downtown area.

While walking in downtown Missoula we saw a bicycle riding Missoula ambassador who had maps and information about the downtown area. Isn’t that a nice idea? We flagged him down and asked about where we might enjoy a refreshing brew and where we could later enjoy a steak. He mentioned one restaurant called The Depot and then when we found the spot he recommended for a brew the proprietor there recommended the same restaurant for steak to us.

The local brew at The Dram Shop was refreshing and our Steak and Panko Veggies at The Depot were very good.

I’m linking up to signs, signs with Lesley.

Today is Wednesday. I have to remind myself of what day of the week it is after a Monday holiday. How about you? The forecast is saying this is the nicest day weather wise this week so you’ll find us out in the yard doing some work.

Norris Geyser Basin

Geysers are natural hot-water fountains. Yellowstone has nearly three hundred geysers, more than anywhere else on Earth.

Norris Geyser Basin is the hottest, oldest, and most dynamic of Yellowstone’s thermal areas.

Sometimes it felt like we were in outer space or on a Science Fiction set walking about this huge basin with such a strange variety of areas to see.

Rainbow Colors, hissing steam, and pungent odors combine to create an experience unique in Yellowstone. If you are overly sensitive to the smell of Sulphur or your sense of smell is intense this might not be the best environment for you. There were a few younger kids hurrying away holding their noses.

The features in the basin change daily, with frequent disturbances from seismic activity and water fluctuations.

This post is a continuation of my documentation of our trip to Yellowstone. I still have posts on Old Faithful, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, Yellowstone Lake, and the Bison…oh my. So stay tuned.

We had a great gathering yesterday (4th of July) with 14 of us. It was chilly but everyone persevered out on the deck. I haven’t uploaded the photos I took. I’m cleaning up and recuperating this morning and then I’ll be headed out tonight for a friendly game against our Seattle Sounders and West Ham United from Jolly Old England.

How were your celebrations of the 4th or Canada Day?

Old Faithful Inn…

The Old Faithful Inn is one of the few remaining log hotels in the United States. It is a masterpiece of rustic architecture in its stylized design and fine craftsmanship. Its influence on American architecture, particularly park architecture, was immeasurable. The building is a rustic log and wood-frame structure with gigantic proportions: nearly 700 feet in length and seven stories high.

The structure is the largest log hotel in the world; possibly even the largest log building in the world. The lobby was a comfortable setting to people watch and enjoy a drink.

A stone fireplace, sixteen feet square at its base, dominates the southeast corner of the lobby. The upper portion of the fireplace on the north side holds a massive wrought-iron and brass clock, designed by Reamer. The chimney, exposed on the interior, is of stone masonry.

The advantages for staying at the Old Faithful Inn were the proximity to Old Faithful, friendly staff, nice restaurant, snack bars, bar, and the historic log beauty of the older sections of the Inn.

Hallways at the east and west of the lobby lead to guest rooms in the wings of the Old House. Guest rooms in both of these wings retain considerable original character. Those on the first floor have rustic log walls. Interior finishes for guest rooms on the upper stories are rough-sawn paneling on walls and ceiling. Some of these rooms retain original plumbing fixtures: clawfoot bathtubs, wood water closets, and marble sink tops.

What didn’t sit well with Dear and me was paying over $250 dollars for one night in our little dorm like room which was not one of the old rooms in the rustic part of the hotel. Our room was part of a “newer” add on wing to the hotel.

We were happy we could open the window about 6 inches and that the window had a screen on it so we could cool down the room since there is no air conditioning in the Inn. There was a tiny bathroom with a small stall shower. The vanity was across from the bed. They do offer a plug in portable fan in their rooms. Our second lodge room at the Canyon location in the park was nicer. I suppose you pay for the benefit of not having to leave the park and re-enter since there is so much to see. I’m sharing this so you know what you are getting for your dollar here, location, location, location. If we ever stay here again I will make sure we get one of the rustic old rooms. Knowing is half the battle…

We were also happy to walk out the door early in the morning and enjoy a nice long walk around the geyser basin adjacent to the hotel.

Waterfalls in Yellowstone

The first waterfalls we stopped to look at were on the western side of Yellowstone on our drive to Old Faithful.

This is Rustic Falls close to the Golden Gate Canyon.

Next we stopped at Gibbon Falls.

We are in a home swing here getting ready for a 4th of July celebration. Our basement dwellers have found an apartment to move to close to the University of Washington. This will be a good location for them as our son-in-law finishes his degree at the University. They get the keys to their small apartment on Saturday and will start moving their stuff gradually to their new location about 10 miles from us. We are happy for the time they’ve had with us and what their future holds.

Still in the midst of making plans for a 4th of July barbecue here. We will be putting meat in the smoker for sure, just haven’t decided which cut of meat we’ll have this year. All the extras always come together nicely. What are your plans for the 4th here in the USA and Canada Day to the north?

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: Travel