Tuesday June 19, 2012-Ponderosa Campground

We took off this morning to go to the Buffalo Bill dam and the lake formed by it, then back to the historic village on the edge of town and then to the Buffalo Bill museum. Do you see the Buffalo Bill theme for many things up here?

 Here we are, almost to the dam and the lake. Oh how I wish I was in my truck because my air horns would sound soooo good in the two tunnels coming up!

 This is the lake with the dam behind it. Buffalo Bill and a partner were instrumental in the building of the dam for irrigation. This dam was a model for the Hoover dam!

 This is a picture of the face of the dam and the water rushing out below it. I don't know the flow rate, but it's pretty strong!

Here is the river below the dam. It has cut a pretty deep gorge, hasn't it?

Can you imagine the arguments that the father-son team on the TV show Ax Men could get into over this much wood? They could make an entire season of picking up this driftwood.

Here we are on the road into Yellowstone. Those senior passes we bought a couple of years ago paid for themselves by getting us into the park for free. We saw more snow today than we've seen in our lives. Of course, the snow near the road is very dirty because of all the dirty hands in it from the tourists. It's still pretty.

A view out over the treetops to the distant mountains. There were many, many views like this one and a camera cannot do them justice.

The deep gorge (some call this the "little Grand Canyon") of the Shoshone River. The walls of the canyon are yellow-hence the name Yellowstone.

This is taken in the cauldron areas where the steamy water exits in geysers and sometimes merely as steam. If you expand the photo and look closely you will see three elk. We saw lots of elk, antelope, bison, a bear and a Bobcat. Well, the Bobcat was a machine but it said bobcat across the back of it!

Beautiful rivers and snow-capped mountains in the background, how much better can it get?

So long.