Lydia's Journey to America: 2008-07-13

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Photos: Yellowstone, Bozeman Bear Hugging

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Lydia is hugging the bear statue.

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Another angle of the same event

Note: Both of these pictures were taken on June 11, 2008 at the gift store at the Wal*Mart in Bozeman, Montana.

Travel note: For any trip to a national park, we usually stop at the nearest Wal*Mart or a large grocery store to buy water, pastries, and fruit before entering the park because those items are costlier and harder to find inside the park.

Photos: Yellowstone Waterfalls

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Undine Falls

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Rustic Falls

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Gibbon Falls

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Moose Falls

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Lower Yellowstone Falls (with a rainbow at the bottom of the falls)

Note: All of these pictures were taken at Yellowstone National Park.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Photos: Yellowstone and Grand Teton, Snacking in the Car

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Lydia is showing everyone the apple that she is eating for a snack.

June 13, 2008

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Seated in her car seat in the back seat between Ma Wee and auntie MayLee, Lydia is eagerly eating her apple.

June 13, 2008

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Lydia is snacking on some grapes.

June 15, 2008

Note: SiowFong took all of these pictures using the camcorder in the Toyota Rav 4 sports utility vehicle that we rented for our trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.

Photos: Yellowstone and Grand Teton Birds

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Bald eagle

area between Obsidian Creek and Obsidian Cliff

Yellowstone National Park

June 12, 2008 (7:05 PM)

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Trumpeter swan

Oxbow Bend of the Snake River

Grand Teton National Park

June 14, 2008 (6:30 AM)

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Sandhill crane

Jackson Lake Junction

Grand Teton National Park

June 14, 2008 (7:07 AM)

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A pair of Canadian geese are eating their breakfast an hour after sunrise.

Fishing Bridge

Yellowstone National Park

June 15, 2008 (6:59 AM)

Photo notes: For birdwatchers and bird photographers, the advice "buy the longest, fastest lens you can afford" is appropriate because birds are small compared to many mammals and because birds are wary of people.

The perspective given by the human eye is 50 mm. The pictures seen above were made using lens or lens combinations that provided a reach of 400 mm, 500 mm, or 600 mm. When mounted on a digital SLR camera body that had a 1.5 x multipling effect, those lenses effectively became 600 mm, 750 mm, or 900 mm.

Photos: Yellowstone at Midway Geyser Basin 2

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(left to right): Lydia (in stroller), auntie MayLee, Ma Wee (Lydia's pour pour or maternal grandmother)

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Dad, Lydia, auntie MayLee, and Ma Wee

Note: Both of these pictures were taken on June 13, 2008 on the bridge that spans the Firehole River and that leads from the parking lot to the Midway Geyser Basin.

Photos: Yellowstone at Midway Geyser Basin 1

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Lydia is holding auntie MayLee's hand as they stroll on the wooden walkway that leads to a number of hot springs.

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Mom (who is pushing Lydia's stroller), Ma Wee, Lydia, and Auntie MayLee pause to look at a geothermal feature for which Yellowstone is renown

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Steam arises from the hot springs around the walkway as Lydia, MayLee, and Ma Wee continue down their tour of Midway Geyser Basin. Ma Wee is using a walking stick to assist her during the hike.

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Lydia, who is seated in her stroller, and auntie MayLee are gazing at the Grand Prismatic Spring, which "has the distinction of being the earliest described Yellowstone thermal feature. It is the largest hot spring in the park with a diameter of 370 feet." (Source: Yellowstone National Park. Impact Photographics: 2007. page 14)

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Lydia and Auntie MayLee are gazing at the turquoise-colored hot spring that is adjacent to the Grand Prismatic Spring. "It is estimated that Yellowstone contains about ten thousand thermal features, including boiling pots and cauldrons, mud pots, sulphur vents, geysers, and travertine springs." (Source: Erwin and Peggy Bauer. Yellowstone: A Pictorial Discovery Guide. Voyageur Press: 1999. page 34.)

Note: All of these pictures were taken on June 13, 2008 at Midway Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park.

Photos: Yellowstone Bathroom Break

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Lydia and mom are taking a brief stroll near a viewing area with bathroom facilities (which are not pictured) to stretch their legs while Ma Wee is using the bathroom.

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While holding mom's lefthand with her right hand, Lydia is walking on a thin section of elevated dirt similar to how a gymnast would walk on a balance beam.

Note: Both of these pictures were taken in the Lamar Valley section (northeast portion) of Yellowstone National Park on June 15, 2008.

Photos: Yellowstone Marmot and Pronghorn Antelope Viewings

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Yellow-bellied marmot

"When to see: morning and late afternoon. common

Where to look: rocky outcrops

Features: 20 to 26 inches; yellow belly, bushy tail, white across nose

Tidbit: lives in colonies; one stand guard to alert danger"

(Source: Judy Wantulok. Yellowstone National Park Wildlife Guide. Jwantulok Productions: 2008)

Sheepeater Cliff

June 13, 2008

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Another yellow-bellied marmot

After seeing the grizzly bear the previous morning, we returned to the same area this morning to see if it was still there. The bear was not present, but we were treated to the antics of three yellow-bellied marmots as they were eating and sunbathing at Sheepeater Cliff, an area where they are typically seen.

Sheepeater Cliff

June 13, 2008

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Pronghorn antelope

In 2006, when SiowFong and I first visited Yellowstone, we failed to see any pronghorn antelope, but on this day, our last full day at Yellowstone, we saw them in the northeast section of the park where they live.

Lamar Valley

June 15, 2008

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More pronghorn

"The pronghorn antelope is more at home in open fields and sagebrush than any wooded area. . .Easily the fastest animal in the park, the antelope has been timed at speeds of 60 miles per hour." (Yellowstone National Park. Impact Photographics: 2007. page 34.)

Lamar Valley

June 15, 2008

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While standing on the seat next to Ma Wee, Lydia is peering out the open window of our rental sports utility vehicle (SUV) to observe the pronghorn antelope. (At Sheepeater Cliff, Lydia gazed at the marmot from the SUV window also.)

Lamar Valley

June 15, 2008

Note: All of these images were taken at Yellowstone National Park, which is located in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.

Photos: Lake Yellowstone Hotel

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Auntie MayLee, Ma Wee, mom, and Lydia are strolling through the hotel's expansive colonial-style lobby

Lobby of Lake Yellowstone Hotel

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Auntie MayLee, Ma Wee, mom, and Lydia are standing outside the front of the hotel that overlooks Lake Yellowstone.

"Dating from 1891, the hotel is. . .one of the most attractive in the two parks [Yellowstone and Grand Teton]. . .This colonial-style building is still glistening following a major renovation project that was complted in 1991. A large sitting area looks out on the lake. Though not as famous as Old Faithful Inn, this hotel has a distinctive air of elegance. . .The dining room is capable of feeding busloads, which is a daily occurrence." (Source: Frommer's Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Macmillan Travel: 1998. p. 144)

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Whereas Glacier National Park features old red buses, Yellowstone National Park has yellow buses. "2007 marked the long-awaiting 'homecoming' of eight vintage White Motor Company buses to Yellowstone for in-park tours! The returning fleet includes two 1936 vehicles, four from 1937, and two from 1938. These buses were originally used as a part of a large Yellowstone fleet that numbered in the hundreds." (Source: Yellowstone National Park. Impact Photographics: 2007. page. 25)

Note: All of these pictures were taken on June 14, 2008 at Lake Yellowstone Hotel in Yellowstone National Park.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Photos: Yellowstone, Minerva Terrace

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Travertine terraces

This image, which was taken at 6:17 AM (within an hour after sunrise to take advantage of the soft early morning light), shows the limestone deposits that comprise the travertine terraces. "Mineral-laden water cascades from numerous hot springs that spill over the top of the mounds. Ancillary minerals, such as iron, color the white limestone in various shades of yellow, orange, and red. Additionally various species of algae and bacteria thrive in these warm, wet settings and lend shades of green to the palette of colors that marble the facades of these enormous terraces (enormous + hot springs = Mammoth Hot Springs)." (Gustav Verderber. Photographing Yellowstone National Park. Countrymen Press: 2007. page 31.)

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Strolling on the timbered walkway to see the travertine terraces

(foreground, left to right): Lydia, auntie MayLee

(background, left to right): Mom, Ma Wee

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Walking back to the parking lot after seeing the limestone formations

Droplets of rain began to fall as we were seeing the travertine terraces and hearing a park ranger's presentation about them; as a result, everybody began returning to the car.

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Lydia and auntie MayLee

Note: All of these pictures were taken on June 12, 2008 at the lower travertine terraces just south of Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park.

Photos: Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Sighting

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In the Gardiner River, a grizzly bear is feasting on an animal carcass, which might be an elk according to the park rangers. The park rangers noted that this grizzly had been returning to this site daily for the last few days to feed.

Not counting the elk that were roaming around Mammoth Hot Springs hotel during the prior night, this grizzly was our first significant wildlife sighting at Yellowstone.

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The grizzly is pausing during its meal time.

The most reliable sign of a major wildlife sighting at Yellowstone is a queue of vehicles either parked on the road or just off the road, and when we saw this along with two national park pickup trucks on this road, we knew that something important was happening.

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Features distinguishing grizzlies from black bears include the following: disk shaped face, hump on back, and long front claws. (Source: Judy Wantulok. Yellowstone National Park Wildlife Guide. Jwantulok Productions: 2008. http://www.jwantulok.com/) (Note: This four-page waterproof guide provides pictures, information, and locations of the 29 most common mammals seen at Yellowstone. Found at some of the general stores and visitor's centers at Yellowstone, it's a bargain at $ 5.99 and a wonderful resource for park visitors.)

"Yellowstone National Park is the premier North American wildlife photography location south of the Canadian border. [Some have described Yellowstone as America's Serengeti.] . . .It is one of the few places where grizzlies can be photographed in the Lower Forty-eight [states]." (Weldon Lee. A guide to Photographing Rocky Mountain Wildlife. Westcliffe Publishers: 1996. page 58.)

Note: All of these photos were taken on June 12, 2008 at Yellowstone National Park between Mammoth Hot Springs and Norris Junction on the road that leads to Sheepeater Cliffs.