The 2004 Temporary Freedom Road Trip, part 1

July 6-9, 2004

Lopez Island to Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park is absolutely littered with elk. They practically blot out the scenery.	Note the little bird riding on this elk's back.
This raven didn't seem at all worried about my attempts to get close enough for a good photo. We're really raven-deprived on Lopez: it's an event to see or hear one every once in a while. So I was very impressed by how many of them there are in the rest of the West.	This coyote was just merrily trotting down the street, completely unconcerned about traffic, people, etc. Yellowstone is wonderful for the fauna-induced traffic jams.
More elk, obligingly looking pretty.	A random geyser on the way to Old Faithful, which we just missed seeing erupt (by less than 10 minutes). Yellowstone is incredible for the combination of bizarre and scenic views, wildflowers in abundance, and large mammals right on the road. We saw our first huge, male bison on the way to Old Faithful (which is why we missed seeing the eruption): he was just grazing alongside the road, and seemed quite unconcerned about us.
The bison seemed to be in some kind of spring hormone-induced state of confusion, because there were several who thought they owned the whole damn road. Of course, they weigh as much as some cars, so I guess they do own the whole damn road. Anyhow, while this one was just a few feet from the car, Shrimpy decided to bark at it. I was sure we'd all die. But he just gave Shrimpy the hairy eyeball and continued walking down the road.
It was nice of Shrimpy to bark at this elk for me, because it got me this gorgeous shot.
	My attempts to capture something of what the forest looked like while we were there. A lot of underbrush is still cleared out from one of the big fires in the last few years, so there are some gorgeous areas of clearing among the taller trees. In this case, the lack of low vegetation has to do with the thermal features in the area.
And this is my attempt to capture some of the thermal geysers, hot springs, etc. in the Artists' Paint Pots area.
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last updated: August 14, 2004