I’m so excited! Sometimes Nolemana gives me a hard time for wanting to take so many photos, but because I do, I’m now an official honorary Japanese. I was one before because of my hānai sistah Kikue, but never had the official title. Now I do, thanks to her and AFK! Chee hoo!

You might have already guessed this, probably did, all you akamai readers, that we wanted to see Old Faithful Geyser as long as we were so close. My good friend Linda had suggested that we take the time to zip over there from Bozeman, and that’s exactly what we decided to do. She’d told me that it wasn’t to be missed, because who knew when we’d be able to be in the area again? As I said before, I was so grateful for her suggestion, because we wouldn’t have missed this trip for anything!

This is the sign for the Norris Canyon area:

This is the route that Cousins suggested we take: go in the North entrance through the beautiful Gallatin Valley. Check. Then, from Mammoth, head a little bit west, then south, and then we could see Old Faithful, then go north and west, and get to our motel after a comfortable day’s drive.

 

But guess wat? Get one manini kine problem! Try look! The road was closed for construction!

On the surface it wouldn’t be such a big deal. However, it meant that rather than going the shortest way (see Cousins’ map) we now would have to go this way (see below), which was going to add hours to our trip. Which we hadn’t planned on. You know, like we’d kinda planned an Old Faithful drive-by visit. And remember, we’d already driven all the way from Bozeman this morning!

So hmm.. what to do? Do we just backtrack and take the West Yellowstone exit so we can get to our motel early enough? And miss Old Faithful? Are you kidding me? Heck no! Absolutely no way! We wanted the advencha! And boy, were we glad we did. We had no idea what a fantastic day it’d turn out to be. Zoom out to see the long way around.

We’re at about 8000′ feet here, and it was pretty darn cold. Okay fine. 7917′ to be exact. How do I know? Cuz get one sign, dat’s how! Heh heh. There was a lot of snow along the road, but the pavement itself was very clear. We’re heading east on Norris Canyon Road.

Here we are at the turn-off for Canyon Village. It’s named for the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, which is something else we didn’t get to see on this trip, mostly because we had absolutely no idea how long it’d take us to get to our motel from here. We’re going back. Someday.

We’re now driving next to the Yellowstone River again. We’re now heading south on Grand Loop Road.

Musubi loved it!

The water was incredibly beautiful.

Lovely shot of the river and Mokihana’s arm.

The sign ahead says that the river is closed to fishing. Bears exempt. Well, the sign doesn’t say that; I figured it out all by myself.

We’re now coming into some of the most beautiful scenery on this day’s trip. If I figured it out right, that is Mary Mountain in the background. The Yellowstone River curved beautifully, stretching as far as we could see.

Can a river look sinuous? If so, this one sure does. The beauty was breathtaking.

I would love to see this vista in the spring when everything’s green. I can only imagine how beautiful it is then.

I mean, just look at it! Absolutely incredible.

U stay ready for excitement? Try look!!! This is near Elk Antler Creek.

Eh! Wea u stay going? Come back!!

Oh! I see where you’re going. Won’t it be cold?

Good thing you’ve got a heavy coat on!

In he goes! Try look his reflection in da watah!

Eh! Wea stay yoa water wings?

And out the other side of the Yellowstone River; he’s not even shivering!

He walks up onto the other bank.

And off to what? Does he have a hot date?

Aloha ‘oe, Mister Buffalo…

Wow! That was so exciting! I’ve seen buffalo in captivity before, but never, ever, in the wild.

Further on down, we saw some Canada Geese. Looks like one of them is taking a little nappie.

I really love Canada Geese! I love to hear them honking as they fly overhead across the sky. I love how they talk to each other while they’re grazing.

Near Trout Creek, guess what we saw? Yep, another one!

We knew there were buffalo in the park, not to mention, moose, elk, deer, etc., yet somehow coming across them in person was so much fun!

Still near Trout Creek; the Yellowstone River is behind him.

Oh my gosh! A whole bunch of them!!

And more geese on the Yellowstone River.

On the other side of the Yellowstone River. Get moa!

The whole sight was so incredible. We were so glad we had to come this way after all. We could’ve driven to West Yellowstone and not even known this was here!

We’re now in the middle of Hayden Valley, with its stunning vistas and yes, more buffalo. If you’re gonna get bored with photos of them, you can stop here. Cuz I kept clicking away with the camera. (Yes, I stopped the car to do so!)

Hayden Valley is so vast, so beautiful, and was even more so with the scattering of buffalo across it. Then when you add in the blue sky, the river, and the magnificent mountains, it’s just breathtaking. (I know. Redundant.)

If you look close, you can see baby buffalo.

See? They’re called “red dogs” by locals.

The valley is huge, and the buffalo were scattered in groups throughout its expanse.

It was really cold here; you can see the snow along the river’s edge.

There’s just something about seeing these buffalo close up that made my heart beat faster. And look at all the snow on the river!

Here’s the south side of Hayden Valley. I could’ve just sat there watching everything for a lot longer, but sadly, we felt really pressed for time. We had no idea of how exciting it would be just a few hundred yards down the road!

Here’s a GoogleEarth map of the drive from Nymph Lake to Hayden Valley.

This is the route from Nymph Lake to Hayden Valley.

And here’s the big map of our advenchas so far.

Stay tuned as the honorary Japanese wahine finds even more photos to take!