Yellowstone
Just got back from a week in Yellowstone. I uploaded the photos to my new Flickr account for all to enjoy. We did not end up spending as much time in the backcountry as I would have liked but we did get in some good day hikes. The roads were fairly crowded but just get a mile or so down the road and the crowds disappeared.
As the photos show we spent a good deal of time hiking in the burn. Its been nearly twenty years since the burn and most of the new trees are almost eight feet tall now.
I got to go to a few ranger programs while car camping. A few things I learned: Yellowstone is the worlds first national park and the bison in the park were nearly killed off around the turn of the century and had to be repopulated from a ranch. They now total over a thousand and are the last of the wild bison. The elk population skyrocketed when they killed the wolves and actually had to export elk to other parks. Reintroducing wolves had brought back a more natural balance. A pack of wolves can kill a bull bison but the grizzly bear still rules the day.