Yellowstone Park-September 15, 2011

We put 240+ miles on the Cute Red Vehicle today, roaming around Yellowstone. The last time we were there, many years ago, we went in through the south entrance. Today we took the north entrance. It was spectacular to say the least. The park has been greatly improved. There are still thousands and thousands of dead trees from the big fire in 1988. Pine trees are starting to fill in the spaces, but they have left the burned ones standing. The change in elevation is fun, from about 4900 ft to 8869 ft at the top. The air is thin up there but it surely is clean! We made it a point to see Old Faithful which is not so faithful anymore. The park ranger said it should go off between 3:06 and 3:26 PM with a 10 minute window either way and a 10% chance it would not erupt at all. Good grief, what has happened to that geyser? It did erupt at 3:11 PM and it lasted for about 3 1/2 minutes. It's as wonderful to see as ever. We did have to stop for a herd of buffalo (or are they bison?) on our way to the pinnacle. They are slow and stubborn. They are also very healthy and big. We took lots of pictures. It was a tiring drive but nice. The weather was perfect after another night of terrible wind. We have been stunned at the number of houses outside the city of Livingston. They are scattered all over the foothills and they are, for the most part, pretty impressive houses. We remain in awe of the Yellowstone River. It is just gorgeous. We have not decided where we are going next even though we leave tomorrow. We will stay in Montana a little longer. It's too pretty to leave yet. Oh I cannot forget. There's no sales tax on anything in Montana. We knew that. That's why we incorporated here, but the impact of that is still surprising. When you go to the grocery store and spend $20, that's the total. No tax. That's a treat when you are from an area of 10-11% sales tax on everything.