Well, I got home at about 10:30 last night after another 920 mile drive. This one form Des Moines, Iowa back to Rochester, NY. I decided to try a different route back form Bismarck, ND where i had some family business to wrap up. Added two hours or driving so not worth it. The drive across Indiana on the Indiana Turnpike was worse going back than going out. The eastern half of it is basically a simulation of a washboarded dirt road. The new rest stops are a joke. They are basically a gas station with an A+ Minimart attached. Just like on any street corner. And gas is 28 cents a gallon more expensive just to enhance the experience even more. Once you get to the Ohio Turnpike it is like being upgraded from steerage to first class.
By the time I got the eastern end of the turnpike (almost 3 hours to drive 130 miles) I was contemplating just driving through the tollgate without stopping. I was just so ticked off. There were actually two several mile ling "work zones" wit ha 45 mph speed limit. The zones had absolutely nothing going on in them. No work in evidence anywhere. Plus they space them so that just after you leave a work zone and the traffic gets itself all sorted out and back up to speed another one pops up. Avoid the Indiana Turnpike if you can. it seems set up to deliberately induce road rage in drivers. Very frustrating experience.
Meeting Aslyfox was great. We haven't heard each other's stories so conversation flowed freely. Even with not alcohol involved. It seemed my fate this year to never be near the wildlife. A lot of you should have been here yesterday or an hour ago comments. That is the way of the park. The only bears I saw were a mile or so away. Same with wolves and mountain goats. I think that the photo Aslyfox got of the bison throwing all the dirt around is the shot of the trip. I was setting up to get a shot of a tourist being tossed by a bison while trying to take a selfie with it when Allen warned them off. I have to admit that he took the higher road here,. It is hard to get interesting shots of bison as they usually just eat or lie down.
This photo is interesting form several viewpoints. The waterfall is spring runoff. In the center are three mountain goats. Sadly the K1-II noise reduction seems to have removed all detail in their fur.
This mountain is made up of alternating layers of pyroclastic flows, ash fall and lahars. In fact in the light grey area where the goats are you can see trees that were caught up in that have been exposed by subsequent weathering. The second shot is a heavy crop of the first showing the mountain goats.