Large Lakes- Yellowstone Part 1

The next day we continued on to Yellowstone, a few hours south of Glacier. Along the way we passed near one of the fires raging in Montana - there was an enormous volume of smoke billowing from the source, and it followed us for several hours down the road. Later, we pulled over at a pretty overlook at Earthquake Lake.

Jason hopped out to read an information sign, and ended up hearing a tearful story from an older woman with her husband there, who was 9 years old and staying with her grandparents nearby when the largest earthquake in the Rockies in recorded history struck the Madison River. Boulders had come tumbling down from the surrounding mountains in the middle of the night, burying two dozen sleeping campers, while damming the river to create the modern lake where a campground once stood. It put the scene in a sober light, the dozens of leafless trees in the water marking the lives of those lost in the night.

Earthquake Lake

We drove on into the park, entering at the west entrance and taking the road past Canyon Village (where we'd later return) down to Fishing Bridge on Yellowstone Lake. We hunkered down there for two nights.

Buffalo crossing on our way in! We are indeed in the park.

On our first full day in the park, we took a relaxed day, sleeping in, doing laundry, and just checking out things around the lake. We headed to the Lake Hotel for dinner, and found it to be a lovely Victorian-era naturalist lodge, one of the type we've talked about staying in on a future national-park-hopping trip.

Dinner at the Lake Hotel with lovely views and delicious food.

For those who haven't been to a lot of national parks, back in the late 1800s/early 1900s, a popular vacation for the well-to-do was to go out into the wilderness and stay in a conveniently-placed top-notch hotel, with all the comforts and services of home along with nature walks and rare game hunting and fishing. Such hotels were built in a lot of parks and private wilderness areas, and many still exist in all their splendor - the Mount Washington Hotel, where we got married, is one example.

Jason and Ella in the "sun room".

The magnificent fireplace!

On our way back to our campsite we decided to have some desert by the lake at sunset. While we didn't get the colorful sky the way we did other days of the trip, it was still a fantastic way to enjoy the evening!

Relaxing by the lake with wine, pie and ice cream!