Other critters of Yellowstone & Teton

We stopped to watch some elk one morning as the sun was rising when Elizabeth spotted this river otter. That got all the serious photographers to come out with their $5,000 cameras and hang out with us -- they'd all had enough elk. This was the beginning of our realization that when you see the big cameras, there's usually something really worth stopping for. It was interesting to talk to the camera guys (and they were mostly guys) too -- they really know the parks and the animals. This was the first time we successfully implemented our new rule, "always stop when you see the big cameras." We even struck up a couple of conversations with guys who let us look through their sights.

We saw two canines that looked about the same to us in Yellowstone, on two different days. On the first day, someone told us very definitively we were looking at a wolf. The next day, someone told us just as definitively that it was a coyote. Chances are coyote, but we're still not totally sure.

Grand Teton National Park

Most of out time in the Tetons was cold and drizzly but beautiful anyway in a dramatic-cloud kind of way. When we got to the park the peaks were mostly dry, but by the time we left the tops were covered in snow. The sun even came out a little to show them off.

Wind Farms

The next day was a loooong drive through Wyoming, featuring lots of windmills -- long lines of huge, white, power-generating windmills. Pretty cool. Perhaps that much more so after our disappearing-glacier trip the day before.

St. Mary's Glacier

First stop on our fall vacation was visiting David in Denver. We drove out of town to hike up to St. Mary's Glacier. David and Elizabeth hung out and watched it melt for a while, while Matt scaled the nearest hill for even better views.