A Day at West Yellowstone

Hello all - today we decided we were going to play tourist - so we went into West Yellowstone and went to the IMAX theater and to the West Yellowstone museum and depot - the pictures above were taken in the museum - the first one is Dan with Dan the Depot Bear (which had been a small black bear cub) and the second is with "Ole Snaggletooth". Snaggletooth had been shot by poachers in a garbage dump - one of the things we found out today was that back in the early 1900's the tourists in Yellowstone would feed the bears - the hotels and lodges would leave their garbage out and the bears would come in to feed there - the visitors would walk right up to them and feed them - not a good idea. Anyway, it wasn't until the 1950's that the national park service decided that this might not be a good thing for the people or the bears and stopped the garbage feeding. It was very interesting going into the museum and seeing how the early visitors came to the park - usually by train and then by either stage coach or, later, by touring car. The museum even had the uniforms that the "Beanner Queens" worn and the song they would sing to the train passengers as they got off the train - the "Beanner Queens" were the waitresses in the Dining Hall at the Depot station in West. Anyway, it was interesting.

This is the statute that is in the middle of the road in West. We also went to the IMAX theater and saw - would you believe - ALASKA. it was pretty cool also, but not exactly what I thought it would be. It did show a lot of really neat wild life and some beautiful scenery, but I wouldn't expect anything less in Alaska. Anyway, we did a little shopping - finally found a lamp for the table between out two chairs and a few other things and then we came home. Oh, we also ate lunch in West. It was a nice relaxing day.

This is a picture of a snow cat that they use in West to get into the park in the winter. We found out today that the park shuts down in the middle of October and does not open again for motorized traffic until the middle of December. It is only open to foot traffic - snow skis, walking, cross country skiing, etc. I think that is pretty neat - you would certainly be able to see some neat things if you didn't have to worry about traffic.

We came home and let the pups out - and of course, they started chasing chipmunks immediately - this is Samantha after she climbed the wood pile searching for the little creatures. They are really aggressive about their hunt.

I've had a couple of questions that I will try and answer - first - no, this blog will not just be done over the summer - I plan on keeping this up for the duration - I'm not sure if I will be able to continue doing every day like I am trying to do now - but I will do at least every other day, if I don't do every day. Second - okay - I know that some of you (Crystal) are getting tired of the "moose" pictures but that, to us, is one of the most exciting things about our trip here - we have been to Alaska twice and have not seen moose - we have been out west before and have never seen moose - so every time I see one I get excited. Sorry, but I am sure that once we leave this area and we don't see moose any more I will find something else to take pictures of - just be patient.

I know that many of you are very busy with school now - Dana and the girls are back in school - and Melissa is back teaching but we miss the comments. We understand how busy you guys get but I hope you will be able to get back to letting us know what you think about our "great adventures".

Well, I'll sign off for tonight - I hope you have a great day and we'll talk to you tomorrow.