Hi all,

  No Internet for a couple of days, so I will try to catch you up briefly.  We were in Belgrade Montana on Tuesday night.  This was a good jumping off point to take us into Yellowstone the next day.  The weather has been very kind to us, unlike what I hear home is like.  Yellowstone was everything I remember it to be.  It's what I would consider a geological amusement park.  Believe it or not, we stayed  in Jackson Hole for two nights and both days they experienced earthquakes, 4.8 & 4.0 magnitudes.  Tom really liked the area having never been this way before.  Look out Patty, all he talks about is bringing you back here!

MUD POTS

  Yellowstone is the worlds first national park, encompasses 2.2 million acres, and is renowned for it's scenic beauty.  It's loaded with wildlife, rivers, canyons, lakes,spouting mud caldron's, waterfalls and geysers.  Who out there hasn't heard of "old faithful", every 90 minutes or so, THERE SHE BLOWS.
OLD FAITHFUL

OLD FAITHFUL LODGE
YELLOWSTONE TOUR BUS


  The Grand Teton National Park mountain range is directly south of Yellowstone, actually the two abut each
 other.  This we thought might be somewhat of a letdown after seeing so many incredible mountains over the course of this trip.  WRONG, they are as beautiful now as they were 30 years ago when the likes of Rich (Wags), John (Willy), Joe, Jimmy (Vogel) and myself would come out here backpacking!!!!  The mountains really jump out at you because they shoot straight up from a flat valley and they have two beautiful lakes at there base. Those would be Jackson Lake which is huge and the much smaller Jenny Lake, just as impressive.

GRAND TETONS

  Our lodging would be just a short ride down the road to Jackson Hole.  A very popular tourist destination, known for it's skiing in the winter and what Tom says is a hangout for the rich and famous.  Years ago it was a fun cowboy town to hang out in and have some fun.  Now it's totally commercialized as far as were concerned.  Lots of upscale galleries, restaurants and souvineer shops, and it has expanded greatly.  Oh well, we had to rough it!!!  One restaurant, the Gun Barrel, I would highly recommend after trying the Bison prime rib, Elk chops and the Venison bratwurst.  YUM YUM YUM  Oh, by the way, Tom had pizza!!!
Of interesting note, the town got it's name from a relative of Andrew Jackson (Stonewall himself).  He started things rolling here by establishing the first trading company.  The Hole in Jackson Hole is what trappers used to call  mountain valleys.

BIGHORN MOUNTAINS

  Today we headed back for a little more Yellowstone and then out the east gate, went thru the Sheshone
Forrest and then up and over the Bighorn mountains.  Totally amazing country and all unique in there own way.  I hope the attached photos give you a feel.
Mark

Things of note;
1-Staying in Buffalo Wyoming tonite
2-Rode thru several open ranges today
cattle everywhere, no fences
3-Were in Buffalo Bill country, Big Time
4-Passed 8,000 miles for the trip yesterday
5-very tired of motels
6-miss home cooking
7-should be home in less than a week
8-my apoligies for the bug on the camera lens