West Thumb, Grant Village and points North

As we got back to the Old Faithful area, there were all sorts of people waiting for it to go off. But we have seen it several times and had other things to do. It was only noon. There's a mountain seen through dead trees off a parking area. It's really too bad about the damage to the forests. I hope the reintroducion of wild game like wolves helps.

The map above shows us our afternoon agenda. We plan to drive East over two continental divides (the yellow line) and down to West Thumb and Grant Village. At the road junction, you can just make out in purple, the West Thumb Geyser Basin. I guess we had not our fills of geysers at this point.

This is a panoramic view of Yellowstone lake with some little lake in the foreground.

It's a real shame to see so much tree damage. I suppose we'll never see an improvement in our lifetime. So, back to the continental divide ( a different one)

The two pictures above was taken from the West Thumb Geyser Basin map. Nothing as dramatic as the Old Faithful area. We went to the Grant Village tourist area, and it was not open. to the Old Faithful area.

So, here we are, the next morning, about to scrape the ice off our car and head out of Yellowstone National Park. We were expecting to take a different route north, but missed my copy of James Carroll's Constantine's Sword, and after a few phone calls, found out that we had left it in our cabin in Mammoth Springs. They were holding it for us to pick up this day.  In case you missed it, here are two more views, closer and closer.

No pictures this day. The only notable one was Elaine taking a picture of me retrieving the book. But her camera was set on "video" which means we can only view it on our computer with Canon software. We saw it, and heard the people behind the desk saying that they all enjoyed reading it. 616 pages, small print, of the history of the papacy and its effect on European anti-Semitism. I don't think so!  (If you are on Internet Explorer, try Video). We spent the afternoon that day in Missoula, Montana, with Elaine getting fitted for replacement eye glasses to replace the ones left in a motel in Cody. I also had my Mercedes air conditioner diagnosed at their dealer. No parts here. The next day, (Friday) we stopped at another dealer that had no parts, but reserved the three we needed for a stop in Oakland, California a week hence. This is the only stop we made on the way to Seattle was here where, in the distance, you can see Mt. Ranier.  Finally, we arrived in Seattle and checked into the dumpiest motel in our whole trip -- an Econolodge right next to the Seattle airport. We reserved it because the Econolodge in Cody was very nice. We ate at a very nice Radisson Hotel restaurant and discovered that the room price was not much more than the Econodump. Oh Well!

Finally, on Saturday, we left for   Our Day in Seattle.

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