Still here...

Finally a monster update after well over a week - sorry about that.

So, we made it to Yellowstone and were greeted with some more lovely sunshine, loads of annoying tourists and a lone black wolf having his lunch.  The wolf was fairly close and eating a carcass of some sort (sadly don't think it was an annoying American!) - even though his culinary choice was a bit grim, watching the wolf so close was excellent.

Mmm, yum!

Yellowstone is a pretty cool place and has a good variety of nice things to see (if you like that sort of thing - fortunately we do), such as...

Old Faithful to see the geothermal activity - lots of geysers and springs

Heart Spring and a geyser going off in the background

Lamar Valley to look for wildlife.  We came across some bison jams (as in traffic, not stewed in a jar ;-) ) and some pronghorn (Lisa's favourite)

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  We did the Uncle Tom's trail which involves walking down a few steep hills and 350 steps.  Walking down was fine, walking back - knackering.  View was worth it though.

Climbed a mountain to get an elevated view of the impressive Grand Prismatic Spring - you can see it from the ground and that's where most of the tourists go, but the view is a bit cack.  The climb was quite difficult hoisting yourself over some dead trees but was a good experience.  We were filthy by the time we finished but is was a "wow" moment when we got to the top.

Silly boy!

After all of this exercise we decided we deserved a good feed, so we popped to a small burger joint in a town called Gardiner and Rob gorged on a "Hateful Hamburger" - this was a monster!  One pound of beef, 3 cheeses, bacon, mushrooms, onion rings, salad and he polished off the lot with fries and washed down with an ice cream milkshake.  Ok, not exactly "Man vs. Food", but one word springs to mind - piggy!

After Yellowstone we headed down to Grand Teton. This national park is not as big and doesn't have as much variety as Yellowstone - it's mainly about mountains and wildlife. Moose were around and we did see a few bull moose along the riverbank. It's rutting season over here for the bison, moose and elk so we have seen a few of the fellas trying to charm the ladies!

Rob dragged me out of the tent early a couple of mornings for sunrises over the Teton mountains, one was pretty clear the other way too cloudy.

We also exchanged our rental car whilst in the Tetons as we've done over 6000 miles and the Ford Fusion needed a service.  After an argument with Alamo for the second time this trip and spending 2 hours in their office, we finally got a replacement car.  This time a Chrysler Town & Country "minivan" - a people carrier to you and me.  It's great - much more room to throw our stuff around in.  You can actually sleep in this one too, which we did the other night - quite comfy actually and not quite as chilly as the tent.

So... after having camped for 6 nights and having a fab time in the national parks it's time to head east to a whole load of places we've never been before...