Yellowstone Osprey

We're at the 1/3 point of our trip to Oregon to scatter Ryanne's ashes and I have a little time this evening so I figured I would pick one photo to share with everyone to let you know that we're doing okay.

This photo was taken on our second day in Yellowstone on a hike up the Tower road. The sign at the junction near the Roosevelt Lodge said that the walk up the road was 2.5 miles to see Tower Falls so we decided that it was a nice day and we should make the trek. Perhaps we're just a couple of wimps but the freakin' sign lied - it was much farther than just 2.5 miles and it was almost all uphill. We walked for what seemed like 5 miles when we hit the crest of the hill and noticed that the road was heading downward. It wouldn't have been a problem but we'd already done at least 5 miles of inclined hiking earlier in the day and my feet were loudly discussing the prospects of leaving the rest of my body to fend for itself. Since there was plenty of bear scat along the road, I decided that I would do what my feet told me to do 'cuz my running ability is greatly hampered when my feet are not with me. As a result, we turned back and headed downhill.

About half the way down Mary Kay noticed this bird riding thermals over the canyon next to the road and I snapped this pic. It's by far my best osprey photo to date and it's just one of dozens of wildlife pictures that I will be publishing in the coming weeks.

Thanks for all of the recent support on our journey. I will be back to normal commenting mode in a couple of weeks. Tomorrow we leave Kalispell, MT and head for Portland, OR where we will be spending the next week. I'll update with something new in a few days.