Baby bison are very cute. They grow up to be big, obnoxious beasts though. 

 
I love all the wild flowers. They are at their peak now and will be slowly dying off soon. Peoplw come from all over to take pictures. The flowers are almost as popular as the animals. 

 
A mother bear and her cub having breakfast. She's probably feeding on clover and roots. They sometimes dig up small animals, too. The cub was born in Jan/Feb sometime and will spend at least two years with mom before venturing out on their own. 

 
This is a fire near the center of the park. It's about 805 acres and was started by dry lightning. That's lightning without rain. It's not endagering any housing, roads or trails. We don't put fires out in the park, we just watch and try and keep them from residential areas. The forest needs these fires for new growth and to get rid of old growth. If you read about the fires of 88 in Yellowstone, you find all sorts of great info on forest fires. 

 
A close up view. This stuff is hot! If you were to fall in, you would only feel it for a moment and then it would be all over. 

 
A giant mud pot called the big gumper. it's on a secluded trail hidden from the public. This is the biggest mud pot I've seen so far. 

 
An awesome view of Hayden Valley looking south. Those are bison in the field below. 

 
The pictures you get at the bottom of the staicase are really worth the effort. The falls are beautifull and you can see all the yellow stone very clearly. 

 
A picture of the staircase that takes you into the canyon. It goes about 2/3 the way in and gives great veiws of the lower falls. Back in the early 1900's it was made out of rope and wood. It's creepy enough being solid steel. 500ft on a swinging rope ladder would not be my idea of fun. 

 
A nice shot of Yellowstone canyon. This is where Yellowstone park got it's name. The indians that lived here named this place yellow rock in their language (sorry, don't remember the word) and it stuck with the pioneers. 

 
Follow me children! Can you imagine having 11 children? Mom has her work cut out for her. I'm not sure what kind of duck this is. 

 
Rock formation pop up every once in awhile along the bank. This one had a marmot sunning himself on it. Most of the channel is surrounded by trees and meadow. 

 
Here's part of the channel I paddles in on. It's not this shallow the whole way. Most of it is pretty deep. I saw a few people paddling out in canoes as I was heading in. A lot of people paddle to Shoshone amd spend a few days fishing. 

 
Taking a lunch break on the shore of Shoshone Lake. I paddled from Lewis Lake to Shoshone via a water channel. Shoshone is the largest high elevation back country lake. The only way to get there is to paddle or hike in. The paddle in was really pretty. A little tough though. The way in is against current and near the end I had to get out and pull the boat upstream about a quarter mile. The paddle back was nice and relaxing. 

 
Lilly pads are cool. The stems are really creepy to look at from the surface. Reminds me of a horror flick or something. There are no frogs or turtles here though. The elevation is too high and it doesn't stay warm long enough. The only reptiles in the park are a couple of salamander type critters and a few snakes. None of which I have ever seen. 

 
This is what we found when we got off the trail. They closed it while we were up there. Kinda funny actually. They knew we were there (I told someone where we were going and there is a sign in log before you hike up), but thought it was smarter to let us finish instead of chasing us down not knowing where on trail we were. We never did see the bear. 

 
We hiked down the back side of avalanche and into Shoshone forest (it's outside the park). This is a picture of a glacier bowl. It's what gets left behind when the glaciers retreat. This whole area was carved out by a glacier. The trail loops back into the park and meets up with the trail we hiked in on. 

 
Nick and me at the top. Now that I have autoshoot, I can take more photos when no one else is around. Nick had to point out I had this cool feature. 

 
This chipmunk lives at the peak and was doing his darndest to get breakfast from one of us. He's cute, but not cute enough to feed. 

 
The 360* veiw from on top of Avalnche Peak is worth every step on the way up. The hike is pretty steep and the elevation is a bit high, so the hike is not recommended for anyone with serious health issues. 

 
Here we are at the top. It's amazing that things still grow this high above the tree line. That is Yellowstone Lake below. 

 
Nick pointing at mule deer hanging out on the mountain. The peak to the right of the picture is where we are headed. It's a lot farther away than it looks. The peak is 11,200 ft and the trail is a little over 4 miles round trip. 

 
A marmot hanging out, looking for snacks. We were hiking Avalanche Peak this day. The small animals look for handouts because people insist on feeding them. The other day, someone threw their lunch to a bear (in a panick when the bear approached) and then ran. This is a bad thing. The bear is now stalking people for food. The day we climbed the peak, resource managment closed the trail down because of this problem. Unknown when the trail will open again. 

 
Since my camera has all sorts of cool features, I'm trying my hand at other things besides landscapes. It's not too bad, but does need some adjustments. Lenses and filters are on the way. 

 
A view from above. Can you believe a stream carved this out? The stream is still there and forms a small waterfall down the front of the bridge.