July 14th we hiked up to Monument Geyser Basin with our hiking buddies. The morning was foggy and the valley floor was covered with fog but the trail climbs 600 feet up to the top of a hill and it got us above the fog.

This geyser basin is the only place where this particular shape of geyser cone is found in the park.

By the time we were ready to hike back down the trail, the fog had burned off in the valley.

July 21st we hiked Artist Paint Pots in the morning.

It was only a 1 mile hike so we drove a little farther and hiked Norris Geyser Basin. Because the traffic was starting to get heavy and it can be hard to find a parking spot in the parking area, we drove to a little used turn out north of the geyser basin and hiked a 1 mile trail back into the basin.

In the evening we took advantage of one of the company sponsored tours and took the bus ride to Lake Butte for a view of the sunset.

During the drive to the butte we saw a young grizzly bear.

July 28th we drove to the Tetons with our hiking buddies. Along the way we took a side trip at Flagg Ranch, north of Teton National Park. It's a dirt road that you can take to Ashton, Idaho, 43 miles away. There are many forest service camp spots along the way that are nicely secluded. Some are single camp spots, some have two to four camp spots. Many have their own pit toilets that are well maintained. The only wildlife we saw along the road, besides squirrels and chipmunks was a lone mule deer.

Penny and I forgot we were scheduled to go on another company sponsored tour Wednesday the 29th, so we missed a trip to Hebgen Lake, which formed in 1959 when an earthquake caused a mountain side to slide down a hill and dam a river. The lake is sometimes called Quake Lake because it was formed by an earthquake. We'll go there on our own next Tuesday with our hiking buddies.