September 20, 2005
Fishing Bridge Camp
Yellowstone
Wyoming

The day started out cloudless so we decided to stay and have another go at Old Faithful. But as sunset neared the clouds rolled in so we went in search of other bits and pieces and found a herd of Buffalo by the side of the road. Did a few interesting things. Down the road a bit further we ran into the most brilliant sunset. Good end to the day and out time in Yellowstone. Tomorrow back to Cody to run film and regroup. Plan to stay at Elijah Cobb’s home and studio. One of the photographers who lives in Cody and has offered me a place to run film. Looking forward to meeting him. Have really liked the work of his I have seen in the past. Then a film drop and this weekend I’ll do my first town portrait. You don’t know about that yet, but I’ll fill ya in later. Then back through Yellowstone to Jackson to hook up with Mike and Lorene Kravit, remember them, from the Bisbee Arizona days.
All in all Yellowstone has been a magical trip. Such great country and animals, although we never did see a bear or get to photograph the human photo animal pack. Around each bend is something new and almost foreign to what we are use to. Rivers with steam and geyser all other the place. Buffalo wondering down the road and a climate that runs from warm and sunny to snow all in the same day. This is the perfect time to be here, it must be super crowed in the summer. The atmosphere is a bit restrictive though, with far too many No and DO Not and Stay Out signs but I guess it’s necessary in this day and age.. Perhaps the perfect illustration of this was the little fat guy with his family over at Mammoth Terraces.
He’s got two big rocks in his fat little hands and his wife and two kids in tow. So he walks over to the railing and says to his family “How hard you think that stuff is? And wham throws a rock- I mean a big rock right at this ecosystem that’s been evolving for thousand if not millions of years and clobbers it. Who knows how many thousands of years work of work this fool undid. So as his kids giggle and his wife smiles, as they walk off with him juggling his other rock he says, with a laugh,” well I guess it ain’t that hard”. So yep I guess those signs are necessary. Almost got in his face but what’s the point. I ain’t gonna teach him or his kids anything and besides we where all to shocked to react. In retrospect I wish I’d gotten his license plate and reported him to the rangers.
Makes one wonder what we are evolving into. For many years people lived here in harmony with this land. Now we want to “make life better” and in the process destroy all we’ve been given. Someday soon we are all going to have to reassess our priorities or suffer some heavy consequences.
Tomorrow we leave Yellowstone