Long Overdue Update

Oops, I forgot the stop in Deadwood, SD and the Devils tower, so here goes.  I only gambled away a $20 bill at Deadwood.  I had fun anyway, even though I lost it all!

Heading into Deadwood, SD

Deadwood Early Evening

Before Walk around Devils Tower

Heading up to Devils Tower

Devils Tower

Another View of Devils Tower

Prayer Bundles around Devils Tower

The prayer bundles are done by the native american's and other groups that feel that there is mystical powers that can be had by performing ceremonies at that locations and visitors are asked to not touch or destroy them.  They can be made out of anything and you do see them at various spots around the monument.  The first picture of  'Before the Walk', everyone looked pretty good, but I can assure you we all looked  a lot different at the end of the walk.  It was about 90 that day and the sun was out all the time. They said that the walk was an easy walk after you climbed up to the tower, but I guess it's easy if you are in your 30's and 40's, not your 60's and 70's.  It was 1.3 miles long and I think that was after you climbed up the incline to the walkway around the base.  Well, on the the next part of the trip.

We are sorry that it has taken us so long to do an update, but when we were in Colter Bay in the Grand Tetons, we did not have internet service and very spotty cell service.  So here are a bunch of pictures, starting with the Tetons and Yellowstone.  We spent a total of 6 full days there, and it was a bit too long.  The weather did not cooperate, so it made our stay there not as you see all the pictures in ads and on TV.  We only got to see the sun maybe 1/2 hour each day, it was overcast most of the time.  At least it wasn't raining the entire time we were there.  We had some showers off and on, but we could still go around and see the sites, it's just that it would have been nicer with the sun shining.  They are saying that it was an unusual weather pattern, so leave it to us to pick that time to be there.  Well here goes with lots of pictures.

Grand Tetons - First 4 pictures when when we first got there, the last 4 were taken as we were leaving.  The rest of the time, we could not see the tops as the cloud cover was there.

Grand Teton Range

Mount Moran

Grand Teton Itself - 13,770 ft

They are a beautiful site!

Yellowstone Pictures:  Pictures will start with Old Faithful.   It is not the largest geyser in the park, but it the most predictable one.  The others do not erupt on any special time table.  You will notice, there isn't any blue sky, even in the pictures of the blue colored springs, it is the real color that they are.

Old Faithful before

Old Faithful #1

Old Faithful 2

Old Faithful All Done!

Blue Star Spring at Old Faithful area

Bubble, Bubble, Toil & Trouble!

Opalescent Pool

Sapphire Pool

Black Opal Spring

 

Surprise Pool

West Thumb Thermals

The thermals were pretty, but they did give off the rotten egg smell.

Mama and baby

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and a pictures of Yellowstone lake with snow on the mountains in the distance.  That was not on the mountains when we first got there.

Grand Canyon walls on Yellowstone River

Upper Falls on Yellowstone River

Brink of the Upper Falls on Yellowstone River

Grand Canyon-Yellowstone River

Note snow on Mtns in the distance

We haven't really had time to do the posting and we have an extra day built into our stop in Moab Utah.  I'm trying to catch up on Sunday night.  We have one more day here before we move on to the next stop. Well I have some pictures for another post, but I will end this one due to the #'s of pictures.