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Trip taken 8/23 to 9/1 2003. Brief Summary: Flew into Bozeman, MT Saturday night. Stayed in fleabag motel in Livingston, MT about 50 miles outside the park, camped 2 nights in park, backpacked 4 days, 3 nights in backcountry in Bechler Region in the remote southwest section of the park, stayed in hotel one night in Jackson, WY, camped 2 more nights in Park, drove up to Lewis & Clark Caverns somewhere past the airport in Montana, then flew home.

Pictures are in no particular order:

elk1 and elk2 seen from the road

Sad town of Ashton, ID where we stopped to get gas and look for some vodka to take on the backpacking trail. After a lot of dirty looks from the townfolk when we asked where hard liquor could be bought, we found it and were lucky to find the guy had his shop open early. Here's me and Scott posing in front of the store. It's important to understand the difficulty in finding liquor in the states of Montana and Idaho. The actual Yellowstone park sold whiskey 100 yards from our campground, but outside the park, we had to go to some strange electronics / t-shirt / liquor store which was probably the only place within 30 miles to get some vodka. My theory is that the whiter the state, the harder it is to get good liquor, and Montana, Idaho, and Utah are as white as it gets. Oh, and some words of wisdom from the booze bag, courtesy the Idaho State Liquor Dispensary.

bison1 blocking the road, bison2 walking right by our car, bison3, bison4, bison5, bison6, bison7 depicts more lazy bison using the pavement instead of the dirt like they're supposed to.

The first night, we camped in the Norris region, which was a nice location and close to a lot of stuff. We were right on a slow-moving river. Larger shot. Nice view as the sun goes down.

Water fall pics from the backpacking portion of the trip, don't know the name. falls1, falls2, falls3, falls4. WARNING, the next picture shows me in a very scummy state in front of these falls. I was possibly in the most pain and most sweaty I've ever been and as can be seen, had no energy to suck my gut in like normal. Scott looks a little cooler

Shows the aftermath of the big fire

Some geysers, from some area I forget which, but these babies killed old faithful. geyser4 is my best shot. geyser1, geyser2, geyser3, geyser5 show some more.

On our backpacking route, we had to ford some rivers and here is a shot of me doing so ungracefully. Just after crossing this, it started to pour and we took cover in some trees and then had to set up the tent because we were starting to get a little cold. Here's Scott in an earlier ford from the previous day when the weather was nicer and the water much calmer. Here's Scott again crossing the toughest ford that almost sent me down for a swim. Turns out we crossed in the wrong spot, where the horses normally cross. Needless to say, it was a bit deeper in that part than the people crossing spot and the rocks were slippery and water freezing and current fairly swift. It didn't help that it was cold out, another ford was coming up and then it started raining on us.

Some shot of this nice meadow that unfortuately seemed to last forever on our hike into the backcountry. Some water in the meadow.

Bubbling mudpots were cool. These are from various places in the park and one of them made some cool noises I think. mudpot1, mudpot2, mudpot3, mudpot4, mudpot5, mudpot6

Good shots from the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone which was a cool area with some great falls. nicecanyon2, nicecanyon3, nicecanyon4, nicecanyon5, nicecanyon6. Here's a full view shot of this amazing area.

Late in the day, nice reflection of the sky

Buffalo roam in the plains, plains2

Rainbow from some falls mist.

Scott sipping some Smirnoff after the painful first day of backpacking.

Crazy thermal action greets you soon after entering the park from the Northwest entrance as seen in thermal1, thermal2, and thermal3. thermal4, thermal5, and thermal6 from some other area. Wild colors from thermal bacteria action in thermalcolors1, 2, and 3. Thermal area on the edge of the giant Yellowstone Lake, a fire can be seen in the background. Some thermal runnoff into a river.

Important directions when in the backcountry. It may look unpleasant, but it actually quite relaxing taking a crap in the woods on one of these deluxe toilets. (don't worry, I'm not on it)

Our camp on the second night of backpacking, which was a painful day of fording and rain and elevation gain, but we were rewarded with a great spot.

The third day of backpacking was pretty relaxing and a short trip and we got to the camp around noon which was nice. Our tent was pitched 10 yards from a waterfall which, though small, was quite loud and created an interesting echo in the tent that scared us that some animal was inside at first. River shot, Another River, waterfall1, 2, 3, 4.

Cool butterfly on a tree at camp3 of backpacking portion.

Nice river in the backcountry. A little past this was a fork.

After leaving the Bechler ranger station upon the finish of the backpacking, took a short side trip to Cave Falls which was cool. Some other angles: Cavefalls2, 3.

Lake Yellowstone with the fog close to clearing finally.

Sunset breaks through the clouds on the marsh by our camp in the park.

Tower falls in the Northern, more desolate section of the park. Another view. Here's a look at the falls from the back.

Weird rock wall down the road from the falls, looked like it would come down any second.

Awesome rock formations in the Tower region due to some vocanic thingy. More shots in nicerock2, 3, 4. Wide shot of Tower region from around that area.

View of Calcite Springs steaming from high above. Addtional shot, wide shot.

On final day, took a little side trick to Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park in Montana. Just randomly saw it on the map and it turned out to be cool and the most popular state park in the state. Lewis & Clark did not discover it so I don't know why it's called that, but it's good to see if you are ever in the area. The 2-hour tour was $10 and well worth it. The ascent up to the opening of the caverns was taxing in the heat. View from the outside, the caverns opening was way up that hill somewhere. Shots from inside the caves, which were dark, but the flash shows good detail of the formations. It was very cool and humid inside. Caverns2, 3, 4, 5

Bear statue in the Bozeman airport was cool. In fact, the whole airport was like a ski lodge and was very nice, though small. This was the only bear we saw the whole trip.

Bored in the airport, here's a shot of the mega shopping reciept we had after stocking up the first morning.

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