Photo day again! (Funny how my "true stories of the wilderness" turned into photo days too. Hope no one objects to having fewer words to read).
So probably the two most famous US National Parks start with Y: Yellowstone (the first) and Yosemite (which came soon after). We have spent at least a little time in each park, mostly dayhiking rather than backpacking.
Yellowstone is a fine place for family outings.
Of course, some family members are more excited than others (apologies for the low-res scanned slide!)
And when humans get close to bison, they are well advised to keep something even larger between them. In this case, I'm not sure the compact car qualifies as "something larger."
Yellowstone Falls and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone:
All my geyser pictures, apparently, are slide, not digital. But we like mudpots, too!
In Yosemite, what you see can depend a lot on what time of year you go. This is Vernal Falls in June:
And this is Yosemite Falls in early October (before the winter rains begin):
The Tuolomne Meadows area in August:
And when you camp and hike with kids, their goals are not always your goals. Beneath all the grandeur that is the Yosemite Valley, they had other priorities.
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| Yosemite Valley and Half Dome, plus a sword fight. What is it about boys and sticks, anyway? |
You rattled my brain...YELLOWSTONE! How could I overlook it for my "Y"? Especially, since I made its supervolcano blow up in my "After the Cataclysm." Am I getting forgetful? Love your photographs - let's hope, my fiction will not turn into fact (at least, not for another 600,000 years).
ReplyDeleteLOL! I've thought about that when visiting Yellowstone. On the other hand, I spent my youth in the shadow of Rainier (which wouldn't destroy the world if it erupted, but would do a number on the Puget Sound region!), then moved to sit more or less atop the San Andreas Fault. So. . . .
DeleteWhat a rich treasure you've given your boys (and yourself)
ReplyDeleteEven when they slept through it!
DeleteGreat pictures. I love Yosemite, but have not been to Yellowstone (yet.)
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteYellowstone is less spectacular, aside from the geothermal activity. But then, that's like saying Yosemite isn't much, aside from the granite!
Gorgeous photos! I'd love to visit there some day.
ReplyDeleteBoth parks are worth going out of your way for.
DeleteWhat are your kids doing in the last photo? I couldn't quite make it out.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to visit both parks. They look spectacular. Have you heard about how the reintroduction of wolves is changing Yellowstone? It's pretty incredible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q
They are having a sword fight :-p With REALLY long sticks.
DeleteI've been sort of following the effects of the wolves--it gets a lot of discussion/debate/flame wars in the hiking forums :D
I went to Estes NP when I might have gone to Yellowstone - I liked that a lot. My trip to Yosemite was a long story - but I made a good like-minded friend on that tour. Didn't spend long in Yosemite though.
ReplyDeleteJemima--you mean Estes Park (the town), and Rocky Mountain National Park? Rocky didn't get into this feature, but there is some great stuff there, too!
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