Older than You Think Hodgepodge

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Crater Lake way back in the 50’s. Me, my sisters, younger brother and my mom. I’m in the middle.

HOT off the press are the Wednesday Hodgepodge questions. Thank you, Joyce!

1. Do you feel older or younger than your age? Elaborate.

I feel younger than my age except when I look in the mirror closely. I’m relatively healthy for someone my age. I’m not on any medications, can walk easily and most days have the energy to get things done. Hopefully my hips and knees will hold out for a long time.

2. What’s one thing you should toss right now, but just can’t?

Some clothes that realistically I’ll never wear again. There are other things I should donate or sell, not toss.

3. Have you visited many of the 63 National Parks in the US of A? You’ll find a list here. Do you have a favorite? What National Park that you haven’t seen do you most want to see?

I’ll work backwards on these questions. I would like to visit the Utah National Parks and Glacier. Glacier is the closest to us and more in my comfort temperature range.

I have been to the Grand Canyon, Kings Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Great Smoky Mountains, Crater Lake, Badlands, Mount Rainier, North Cascades, Olympic, and Redwood.

The Bible Camp I went to in my teens was in Kings Canyon.

4. How often do you get take out? What’s your favorite?

We enjoy take-out from Thai to Go. It’s authentic and good. The owners will sometimes take a month off to go back to Thailand to visit family. They will also take a long time off in the winter and around holidays so we always have to double check to see if they are open.

When we are desperate we get take out from our local Chinese Restaurant.

We might get take out once every couple weeks.

5. Do you have many (or any) subscriptions? Not necessarily magazines, but thinking more along the lines of boxes or products that companies offer, and you can sign up to receive on a regular basis. Could be weekly, monthly, quarterly, even daily. Tell us about them.

At this time we do not have any regular subscriptions. Greg was gifted a razor, etc., from Jeremy’s Razors and he still gets new blades every few months in the mailbox that were part of his gift.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

A couple photos from the National Parks me/we have visited over the years…

Can you guess which one this is? 🙂

Or this one…

This photo is from 1988. *Hint* The mountain behind us is a volcano and is in Washington State.

Hope you Hodgepodgers are enjoying the heat of summer but staying cool.

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is the most breathtaking sight inside Yellowstone Park. Twenty miles long, the canyon is up to 4,000-feet wide and 1,200-feet deep in places. From several vantage points, you can view Lower Falls plunging steeply into the canyon 308 feet, or the Upper Falls tumbling 109 feet.

Lower Falls, the biggest waterfall in Yellowstone, is the most famous in the Park, hands down. In fact, the 308-foot tall waterfall it is most likely the second most photographed spot in Yellowstone, with Old Faithful Geyser being the first.

We are looking down here and just wanted the perspective with Dear’s arm in the photo. It’s a very long way down.

We viewed this area from both sides of the canyon. It really was amazing and it’s one of those areas where you really cannot capture the grandeur with photos. I hope you can go there in person if you haven’t been before. We also stopped at the brink of the falls. So powerful and scary.

This was our second full day in Yellowstone. We stayed the night at the Canyon Lodge area of the park which was close by. When we were in Cody, Wyoming later in our trip we stopped at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West and I took photos of these artists renditions of the Lower Falls and Canyon of Yellowstone.

I’ll be linking up to ABC Wednesday, started by Mrs. Nesbitt and carried on by Roger and the team. C is for Canyon. I’m also linking to Tuesday’s Treasures with Tom The Backroads Traveler. Yellowstone is a National Treasure!

I’m posting this on Monday and we are a month into summer already. Today is window washing day at this old house. Dear has been working since the wee hours of the morning on the windows and soon I’ll start on my part of the process and lightly scrub the screens. The views are clear and sparkling through our windows already. Do you have any summertime projects?

Yellowstone Signs & Fences…

Here are more signs, signs and Good fences from Yellowstone National Park.

“So Long Pardner-Come Back Soon”

These photos were taken in the northern area of Yellowstone near Tower Junction.

Thank you Lesley and TexWisGirl for hosting these weekly memes that make us look closer at the world around us.

We were in Canada (British Columbia) Monday and Tuesday and I’ll be sharing a lot from our time there soon. Today we are back to organizing things around this old house. Daughter is arriving soon to help me out in the process. Dear is organizing things in his shop. Are you in organizing mode at your place?

Bison, “Buffalo”, and Beauty

Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Home, home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Where the air is so pure, and the zephyrs so free,
The breezes so balmy and light,
That I would not exchange my home on the range,
For all of the cities so bright.

Then I would not exchange my home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Home, home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

The animal that most Americans call a buffalo is actually a bison. Buffaloes are found in Africa and South Asia, while bison roam in North and South America. Bison are also referred to as American Buffalo.

All of these photos were taken in Yellowstone National Park the end of June. If you’ve never been it would be a great National Park to put on your list.

I’ll be linking up to ABC Wednesday for the letter B. Thank you Mrs. Nesbitt, Roger and team for this long running meme.

Dear and I are roaming about British Columbia today so I’ll be coming around later tonight or tomorrow to see more letter B posts.

Wyoming Critters

I’m joining Viewing Nature with Eileen for Saturday Critters today. The following critters were roaming and flying about Yellowstone and Cody, Wyoming.

Outside the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, Wyoming.

The Buffalo/Bison are allowed to make their own crossings regardless of the double yellow lines.

This gives you some perspective on how large they are.

A herd of elk far away on a hillside. I’m fully zoomed on this one.

One closer up and saying goodbye to us as we exit Yellowstone National Park.

I’ll be sharing more of my Bison photos for ABC Wednesday since we will be on the letter B this coming week.

Thank you Eileen for hosting Saturday Critters and for always taking the time to leave comments. You really are amazing!

Today is starting a bit gloomy in the Seattle area with a cloud cover and no sunshine peeking through. It’s a quiet weekend around this old house which is always good. What’s happening in your neck of the woods?

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.

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.

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.

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: Yellowstone National Park