Stand down folks! Beth is alive.

Thank you for those of you who have called, emailed and texted out of your deep concern for my safety and whereabouts.  I am alive.  I was not left at the side of the road.  I'm not even riding as cargo. We do love hearing from you by facebook and email and even text - makes us feel that you all are right here with us so keep those responses coming, please!  Plus, remember, I count on you to keep Barry in check!

We have arrived at the last leg of our trip and are now ensconced at West Yellowstone, MT.  We have been broken down at the side of the road in Spokane, Washington, seen some amazing scenery in Glacier National Park, toured the Wyoming Territorial Prison and are now busily fishing our way through Yellowstone's wonderful trout waters. We always love Yellowstone, particularly when in the company of Wick and Gwen who so dearly love this area as well.

Norris Geyser Area

I'll post photo albums of Alaska and Glacier and post a link for those of you masochistic enough to want to view that kind of travel report but today I have to report on our made to order viewing experience. We spend hours here watching the animals - it really is almost as good a the Discovery Channel or National Geographic Wild. 

Elk

We've seen mating buffalo - they are really, really loud, by the way - grazing herds of elk, and enough antelope to make you want to burst into song, "Oh give me a hooome, where the buffalo roaam.."  Well, you get it, I'm sure.

Today was the absolute pinacle of animal viewing (for the squeamish among you, I suggest skipping this segment) We were headed to the Hayden Valley in Yellowstone and noted that there was a large flock of Raven on the ground out in a meadow.  We stopped for a closer look - yes we've seen Raven - but we also know what they eat -- We hit the jackpot with a bull bison kill down in the scrub at river level.  With a frantic flurry of activity we bailed from the car with our binoculars and spotting scope in tow and raced across the road!  We were rewarded with view of the 8-member Hayden Valley wolf pack on it's kill.  We stood there long enough to gather an incredible crowd and then stood there some more after learning from a passing ranger that they expected a grizzly and her cubs down at the kill around dinner time.  (Now, I didn't ask how they knew - I don't think they have some RSVP system for the wildlife buffet, but who knows...)  Sure enough, right out of thin air (or so it seemed) a mother Grizzly and her two cubs came galloping out of the forest sending the wolves running in all directions.  I gotta tell you it was a sight to behold!

 It was made even better by the United Nations crowd of on-lookers all cooperatively sharing information and excitement in view of this amazing once-in-a-lifetime experiences.  Hard to express that this became as much about the wonderful and enthusiastic response of the folks gathered in awe of the wonder of nature as it was about the animals themselves.  Incredible.

Barry sat in this exact position for hours!

As we headed toward the Tourbus we couldn't help but marvel at the amazing drama we witnessed today and then were treated to one of nature's most magnificant shows:

Stunning.