yellowstone to earthquake lake and back again

We hadn't intended on going to the park yesterday, since we heard the weather was supposed to suck. Looking outside that morning we saw nothing but blue skies and a bright sun, so we decided to give it a shot once Randal's staff meeting was done.

We stopped for lunch at a quaint lil restraunt called Clarks Fork and Spoon... a rather cleverly named restaurant that is off the clark's fork river. We have eaten there once before, it's ran (as near as I can tell) by two couples... and is currently for sale for a mere 1.4 mill... I think you'd do alright if you bought it.. we'd consider it.. but we haven't that kind of money lol. Anyway.. it's a nice lil place that has great food. Elk burgers, bison burgers, regular beef burgers in several varieties as well as other odds and ends. They have really good burgers.. we have tried teh elk, the deluxe and the chili burger between the two visits now. They have really good sweet potato fries too! It's apparently a popular place according to the pin placement on their where are you from map. TONS of people from Europe, it was pretty cool.

From there we headed into yellowstone... only to get poured on....so we drove... we saw a couple mountain goats off in the far distance with the spotting scope and binoculars. We ended up near West Yellowstone and saw an elk with her calf.. very cool.. first one of the year.. we got a couple pics of them! Then we went to Earthquake lake. Apparently it's not as cool as it once was, because you can't quite get a feel for what the earthquake did. I still thought it was pretty cool, but I agree that seeing the old road in segments 6 feet from one another probably would have made it even more impressive. The really cool part was when Randal stopped so I could read an interpretive sign I caught movement in the grass behind the sign and realized it was a badger!! I have never saw a badger in the wild and wasn't about to let the photo opportunity pass without at least attempting a good pic. Randal armed me with his work camera and my 300 mm lens and I was out in the rain stalking the badger lol. I was about to give up as it kept running away from me, when it went to run for its den.. which happened to be in front of me! yay!! HE posed ever so nicely on the wood rail fence and I snapped of several pics. A car drove past and scared him the other direction again.. grrrrr... I at least got 4 really good pics and 2 okay pics though.
As we were heading back through the park to get home I saw a rabbit that looked so strange to me.. and had he not took off into the sage brush I would have snapped off a couple pics of him too. We came to the conclusion it was a snowshoe hare that hadn't finished changing for the summer. His 4 paws were all white, then there was a really dark brown strip just above the white and the rest looked like a cottentail. VERY cool to see!
We drove through a couple geyser basins, and cascade/falls areas that I hadn't ever saw before which was pretty neat. It amazes me that I have been to the park 13 times this year already and I still am seeing new stuff!
On the way home, Sierra started to get bored, so I was using her stuffed grizzley to play with her, and was making it growl at her and "gobble her up" and then I'd hand it to her to play with and she must have liked that play theme cuz she was squealing and babbling to the effect of either a soprano grizzly or an elk bugling lol. It was by far the funniest thing I have saw or heard in a long time! She also liked looking at and "talking" to the wolf chart we have. She LOVES animals!