Did you fart?

One of the dreaded realities of a road trip is that when you spend eight to ten hours a day in a car, you're going to break some wind somewhere down the line. And when you have a passenger, someone is bound to notice. As we pulled into Yellowstone, Isabel asked me, "Did you fart?". When you go to Yellowstone, nature provides the perfect smokescreen of deniability.

The signage around the various geothermal sites includes this warning.


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It seems appropriate to visit Yellowstone on Earth Day, since this is thought to be the site of one of the next major geologic events, possibly doing us all in. The joke's on us. Here's a collection of images from the day:

North Gateway: For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People.









Trees trapped in Mammoth Hot Springs. Mammoth is a large area where sulfurous water boils out of the earth's crust, the minerals harden into boundaries forming pools of hot water and small rivulets spill over, forming descending terraces of more pools.



An Australian photographer was taking photographs of the waterfalls, and was kind enough to take this picture of us there. The park was almost empty of people, the most we saw were about twenty others at Old Faithful. If you're a misanthrope like me, this is the perfect way to see the place. The following pictures are from the Norris Geyser Field. You really get a sense of standing on the caldera of a volcano here, it's a bizarre, steaming lunar landscape. I loved the visual textures.

We went to Old Faithful at the end of the day, as a spring storm swirled around us. As we made our way through the park to the west portal, we encountered elk, coyote and several herds of bison. The bison were taking their time walking down the road, and created a small traffic jam. They particularly seemed to dislike our BMW - "die yuppie scum!".

The last two pictures are from the approach to Driggs, Idaho, where we spent the night at the Super 8. The Tetons at sunset are something to see. We had dinner at The Royal Wolf, a local bar that happens to have excellent food. Isabel had the trout and I had the chili. I've stayed in Driggs many times before, and this is my favorite watering hole.