Being Awed By Beautiful Sights

For the last couple of weeks

my husband, Doodlebug, middle brother, his wife and I

took our mom on a trip to a part of the country none of us

had ever visited.

Seeing this part of the country had been on her bucket list

for years and she was thrilled to finally see it.

What a trip it was!

We started in Salt Lake City, Utah

and visited the Great Salt Lake.

It was somewhere my mom had wanted to see,

so we headed to Antelope Island State Park.

It did not disappoint!

The water level recedes in the summer months

and as the snow melts and rains fall,

it fills back up. You can see how much the lake has receded here.

 

The colors were so different from what we see on the East Coast.

So were the animals!

 

This antelope ran along side the car for a bit.

 

We saw a lot of bison on the island.

This was a large herd on the dry lake bed.

The next day we drove from Salt Lake City, UT

to Jackson, Wy.

We took a 13 hour tour of Yellowstone

and could not get over the beauty in this park.

 

 Mt. Moran in the Teton Mountains just after sunrise.

The reflections in the water were just gorgeous.

It's hazy from all of the wildfires in the north west,

but the colors were still beautiful.

 

This canyon is what gave Yellowstone it's name.

The fur trappers came up the canyon and saw the 

yellow stone. These waterfalls, the Lower Yellowstone Falls,

are the tallest in the park.

 

The number of different geothermal and hydrothermal events in the park

were fascinating.  Here is a large pot of boiling mud.

It gurgled and bubbled and popped and stunk!

 

This is Clepsydra Geyser.

There were several areas spouting and spewing water...

very, very hot water... like 170 degrees!

 

This geothermal event is called Grand Prismatic Spring.

The different colors are from the different bacteria living in the spring.

Again, the water is very hot.

We were able to see Old Faithful, 

but arrived just after it started spewing.

It was impressive none the less.

The one disappointment was we didn't' see a lot of wildlife. 

This elk did not like us stopping and taking his picture at all.

Back to the Teton Mountains.

Those are glaciers at the top.

 

We were at Jenny Lake at the base of the Tetons at sunset and

it was gorgeous.

So quiet and peaceful.

 One day in Jackson,

We took a gondola up to the top of one of the ski mountains.

We were 10,450 feet up the mountain.

The ski runs were unbelievable. 

I'm not a skier,

but why anyone would want to go down a mountain like that

on skis is beyond me.  :)

It was very hazy, but this is the Snake River valley.

 

The tallest peak is the Grand Teton Peak.

We moved on from Jackson and headed east in Wyoming.

The tour will continue later.

I was able to visit a cute little quilt shop in Salt Lake City

and brought a couple of little treasures home with me.

To be continued....

Happy Day!