Heading toward Grand Teton Nat'l Park

I took an early start and long drive to try and catch some of the best Yellowstone has to offer...

I love being married to a guy who is handy in the kitchen!
Osman prepares dinner 'progresso' style as I explore the turn-out.

A rare moose sighting... and she was too hungry to be bothered by the 20+ people with cameras and binoc's glued on her.

This little pink house I could happily have called home, is ear-marked for conservation using National Park dollars... and the swallows are very happy to know they dont have to move anytime soon!

The Grand Tetons... and a beautiful day to finish the trip.

Bear Claws!

Check out those claws!!!

So just how close was I to a bear?

Close enough to not need a zoom lens!!

Yellowstone 3

My trusty assistant walks lightly.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone river.

Lower Falls as seen from Artist Point

The spray from the base of Lower Falls - seen by descending the 328 steps of "uncle Toms trail" to a viewing platform...

Don't even get me started about the ascent!

Yellowstone 2

No-one else for miles

Here comes the storm...

Hell-roaring Creek suspension bridge...and the local mosquito breeding ground!

Yellow-bellied Marmot

Yellowstone

The colors are the result of the heat-loving bacteria...

Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces

In 1988 Yellowstone National Park suffered with more than 50 natural and man-made fires. Many of the lodge-pole pines, although dead, still stand - shallowly rooted and ready to topple. The intense heat of the fire is necessary for the pine cones to open and release the seeds for a new generation of trees... but almost 20 years on, damage is still highly visible.

The Great Yellowstone Expedition of '06

Yellowstone... where clouds really do have silver linings!

Rivaled only by New Zealand and Iceland, Yellowstone is where you'll find one of the worlds largest areas of bubbling mud pots and active geysers.

Colombine

Lake Isabelle

Oxbow Bend

Trusty Steed

What's not to sing about?

Pot of Gold

Robin

What do you do when you find a robin fledgling that has crash-landed in your yard (knowing that just hours beforehand, your cat ate his sibling)?! In this case I grabbed him, made a little nest in a bucket and hoisted the bucket up on the clothes line. Robins parents watched me the whole time and in the couple of days since then, they have remained at his side.

"The set-up"! By day Robin spends his time either in the bucket/nest (on the right) or in his make-shift pen, where he enjoys the sunshine and gets a chance to stretch his tiny wings and enormous legs.

Responding to loud chirping and panicked flapping of wings, Robin's mom is never far away and arrives (to the pen or the bucket) with a beak full of squirming snacks.

Robin took to his home-made nest enthusiastically. During the day I remove it from the bucket and put it in the pen with him... Here he is using for a little pre-flight practice!

Keeping an eye on the neighborhood

Marley and Smokey Joe.... together they monitor the neighborhood as well as any resident senior citizen!

Keeping an eye on the neighborhood.

Oriental Lily