Yellowstone

We arrived in Yellowstone in the pm and had a great camp site that Alex had managed to book online that am. Ixchel is getting good at setting up camp; she’s an actual help, especially with the tent. She runs around saying, “Con que puedo ayudar?” I was thrilled to be staying in the same place for two whole nights. We took a nice hike through the boiling mudpots and steaming fumaroles that afternoon. Ixchel stopped frequently to play in the dirt to make “pasteles” (cakes) for everyone. On the way back to camp, we visited a lake where Ixchel’s fear of bugs turned into panic at the sight of flies the size of my thumb. We were sprinkled upon briefly that evening, just enough to cool us off. Alex is most impressed to see the devastation caused by the 1988 wildfires that spread through Yellowstone, after which the Forest Service revised its policies on total suppression of forest fires in the park. We saw very little old growth forest in Yellowstone, as the 1988 fires burnt most of it. Of course there is regeneration, but it’s a slow process.