Reggie at Yellowstone

Madison River in western Yellowstone National Park.

Dad likes National Parks. So, we visit them a lot. In the summer, we live near Yellowstone National Park, which is mostly in the State humans call Wyoming. Dad says it’s the first National Park our country made. National Parks are places that wildlife and not so wild life (like wildflowers and trees) can live in relative peace without being chased away or destroyed by humans. OK, National Parks attract people like bees to honey, but humans must behave, leave their guns, bows and arrows, and loud ATVs at home before they visit. That makes the animals feel safer. And they have a lot of places to hide from humans when they want. Lots of mountains, trees, and holes in the ground to protect themselves and their families from the prying eyes and the noise of humans.

Wow, I'd not want to be a puppy when this guy is hungry. An Eagle in Yellowstone.

Because humans want to protect the wild animals, they don’t allow us dogs to be free in National Parks. Like we’d be a problem! For that reason, I’m not real fond of National Parks. But, they have other advantages. Us dogs can see and smell a lot of animals and we stay busy looking for them and protecting our owners when we do see them, even if it is from the car or the side of the road. (We can walk along all the roads with our owners, but not the trails!)

Dad lifts the rear window so I can see the Madison River while he photographs.


The buffalo are big and smelly!

In Yellowstone there are a lot of animals I can see from the car window. Dad lets me stick my head out the window a lot (unless the Buffalo are right next to it). I love the smells and sights of Yellowstone. Of course, the Buffalo make up the overwhelming smell. They are everywhere we go. If they aren’t nearby at the moment, they have left a large pile of smelly stuff to remind us they are not far away.

The next major smell comes from the water in Yellowstone. Dad says the water comes from deep in the ground and mixes there with lots of smelly chemicals. Some of the water bubbles up really hot and some even burst from the ground into large fountains of water. Dad calls them geysers. Lots of people come to Yellowstone just to see the smelly water. I don’t get to see many of them, but boy do I smell them. Dad loves to visit this one warm water pool called Grand Prismatic Spring, because he says the colors are so amazing. Yea, like I’d know anything about beautiful colors. But if it makes Dad excited, I’m OK with it.

This is the Grand Prismatic Spring. Dad says the colors come from little bacteria that like the warm water.

There are many places in the large park to smell the water. West Thumb Geyser Basin, Mammoth Hot Springs, Norris Geyser Basin, Midway Geyser Basin, Lower Geyser Basin, and Upper Geyser Basin (where there is a famous geyser named Old Faithful. I get to walk to that one. It’s really neat to see the water spray so far over my head. It scares me a little bit though.)

Of course, you know that all of us dogs love to play in the water and in Yellowstone there are beautiful rivers all around. The Madison River is one that we visit often because we follow it into the park. I get to see it because the road follows it so close and Dad lets me out (on a leash) to walk near it. I can’t go in it, but I can imagine what it would be like. It’s really clear and I see fish jumping out of the water a lot. We even see Otters and Muskrats playing! Large Blue Heron birds sit on trees and beautiful White (my favorite color) Trumpeter Swans float in the Madison River.

The Great Blue Heron hangs out on the Madison River. They don't excite me, but they do Dad.

The Firehole river is really nice and there are some neat water falls there (Dad lets me out to see them). The Firehole river is pretty smelly because all the geysers dump their water into it. The Gibbon River makes some really cool falls too. In the northwest, the Lamar River flows through this really wide and quiet valley where Elk, Bison and Pronghorn are grazing. Dad really enjoys the Lamar Valley. But the largest and longest river is the Yellowstone River. It flows out of a giant lake called Yellowstone lake and then quickly makes two gigantic falls, the Upper and Lower Yellowstone Falls. This is a major human attractant. I can’t go to the viewpoints but Dad says they are awesome.

The Lower Yellowstone Falls is a real attractant to humans. So what, a bunch of water falling down. Geez!

Did you know that this river carves a really big hole in the earth that Dad says makes a really yellow color and that’s why they call it Yellowstone. Get it! Yellow Stone, clever! This deep yellow hole, or as Dad calls it, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River is so deep that you can barely see the bottom. Lots of Eagles and Hawks and especially Osprey fly in the canyon looking far below at the river for fish to eat. These birds have really good eyesight that allows them to spot fish from such lofty distances. You should see them soar in the air currents above the river. I think I’d rather be an Eagle than a dog. Flying seems to be so much fun. Of course, I’d have to give up Mom and Dad, because humans don’t seem to keep Eagles as pets. I guess I’ll remain a dog for now.

The Osprey are fun to watch, but they fly too high for me to play with them. They are looking for food (or small dogs!)

Of course, every human comes to Yellowstone hoping to see a Grizzly Bear. These animals are big. Really big. They look like great giant dogs to me, but I’d not want to spend much time with them. They have really big teeth and very long and sharp claws. They make footprints that make prints more than a foot in length and almost that wide! Sometimes I’ll see one from the car. Dad rushes around like a mad man trying to get all his camera gear together to take a picture. (Like he doesn’t have a picture already. How many do you need?) I have to stay in the car because he’s afraid I’ll run after the bear. (How stupid does he think I am!)

The Grizzly Bear is a pretty big guy. This is a small and young guy, just trying to eat some flowers.

For me the most exciting animals are the coyotes and the wolves. I’ve never seen a wolf but I’ve smelled them. They are my ancestors and well, wouldn’t you want to see the Neanderthal Man, if he existed? I get real excited when I see a coyote. They are big in Yellowstone with nice thick coats. I think the weather here agrees with them. (Speaking of the weather, Dad says we can’t visit Yellowstone in winter because the roads are closed and it gets really cold, but humans can use noisy machines called snowmobiles and visit the park with tour guides. Of course, I’m sure they wouldn’t allow us dogs to hop on a snowmobile. That would be too much to ask of them!)

Here's one of my distant relatives, the Coyote. They are happy in Yellowstone Park.

Elk are nice animals to see. They are cool, calm and collected. They just stand around and eat grass all day. In the Spring they have cute little babies and in the Fall the big daddy Elk with huge racks prance around and chase the ladies. They make the loudest noise. Just like a trumpet (so says Dad). I’ve heard them too. They also have a very distinctive smell and I usually sense that an Elk is nearby before Dad does. I let him know but he is not very appreciative of it.

The Elk like to graze on the grass near the Madison River. You should hear this guy bellow in the Fall when he's dating.


I watched this Bull Elk from the car window. I don't think I'd like to end up on those racks!


The Shy Moose is a big animal that I don't want to play with. He might step on me.

The most shy and hard to see animals in Yellowstone (besides the Wolves) are the Moose. They don’t like people I guess. But sometimes you can see them along the Madison River. They are big animals too. I can smell them and I know they are around, but they hide in the willows and in the trees. I suspect they like to feed close to sunset, when the people are eating their food and can’t disturb them. Dad and I have seen them recently along the Gallatin River in Montana, within the far West Yellowstone area. It’s got lots of willow bushes that the Moose like to eat.

The Buffalo like to cross the river. This mother is showing her new son how to do it.

Well, it’s hard to tell you about something so large and interesting as Yellowstone National Park in such a short blog, but maybe you get the idea enough to want to plan a trip to come see for yourself. Dad says that we get to see all these cool National Parks so often because we are full-timer RVers. Well, what ever the reason, it’s fun to visit. I know your kids and grandkids will enjoy it and even if your dog can’t get out and run free, he’ll enjoy all the strange and wonderful smells and sights, so please bring him or her too! (The Park Rangers give us dogs treats if you stick your head out the window at the entrance station and look happy and hungry.) If you find yourself near West Yellowstone, come visit me at RedRock RV Park in Idaho. It’s only 20 miles away. We can take a walk together and share human stories.

That's me in the car. I wait for Dad a lot when he's in Yellowstone Park.

Dad has a lot (I mean a lot) of photos of Yellowstone, so visit a couple of his web sites to see them (http://photos.rvinteractive.com) and (http://www.rvinteractive.com/rvguys/index.html?slides/index.html).

Arf, Reggie