Scenery 2

Spent about three hours this afternoon, driving the backroads south east and south west of the city, to try out a small GPS unit that I bought yesterday - bought in desperation, hoping to give myself a little more confidence despite my driving phobia that I have battled for more than 30 years. I also have next to no sense of direction. This is a zoomed-in view towards the mountains south west of Calgary. The GPS was pretty good - I only got lost briefly once. The thing that complicates things is that some of the backroads have two numbers (street number as well as Range Road number, I think). At least the unit tells me just where I am at any given time, which is a huge concern of mine, LOL! Had to laugh - I had set the voice on British English, but soon changed it to American English, after the woman with the first accent completely mispronounced one of the city's main roads! And wildlife? WHAT wildlife??? And it was SO windy, I could barely hold my camera.

A couple of evenings ago, I drove out westwards in the hope of finding a Mountain Bluebird that had been reported within the city limits, but no luck. This particular gravel backroad in my image is actually still within the city boundary. I ended up driving along here and the early evening sun was shining beautifully through these cattails. I always love the incredible views one gets from some of our backroads. Not always the best of road conditions (the muddy ruts can become quite treacherous sometimes), but, hey, you gotta do what you gotta do, LOL.

I visited Mammoth Hot Springs and the rest of Yellowstone National Park 30+ years ago, when my kids were very young. Loved Mammoth Hot Springs, so was thrilled to get the chance to see this fascinating area again. The photo above shows part of the Main Terrace, taken on 12 September 2012. "Mammoth Hot Springs is a large complex of hot springs on a hill of travertine in Yellowstone National Park ... It was created over thousands of years as hot water from the spring cooled and deposited calcium carbonate (over two tons flow into Mammoth each day in a solution). Although these springs lie outside the caldera boundary, their energy has been attributed to the same magmatic system that fuels other Yellowstone geothermal areas... A caldera is a cauldron-like volcanic feature usually formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption. They are sometimes confused with volcanic craters." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammoth_Hot_Springs For a diagram of the Hot Springs layout: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MammothHotSprings.JPG Map of Yellowstone National Park: hfc.nps.gov/carto/PDF/YELLmap2.pdf