A quick trip to Yellowstone National Park in northwestern Wyoming last week turned out well. I travelled with my daughter Joyce Rowland and our Kiwi cousins Michele and Andrew Willis. These three had flown to Las Vegas, helicoptered over the Grand Canyon and bused to the Hoover dam the week before. We drove to the park, which was the first national park established in 1872, consisting of 2.1 million acres. The turbulent Yellowstone River roars and foams throughout the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone Park. The two major waterfalls are the Upper and Lower Falls, at 109 and 308 feet. The chromatic pools get their colour from bacteria. They are such blue and deep holes. Since there has been more rain than last year, there seemed to be a lot more action in the geyser areas. Old Faithful is still carrying on and spewing about every 90 minutes. Hundreds of people are on hand to witness this every day. The one geyser that was doing nothing last year was spewing away this time. The mud pots were bigger and so much more active now. The little boiling pots had more bubbles and steam and overall it was great! The collection of mineral-laden water (travertine) around the geysers keeps growing every year, and in one area has formed huge mounds and there's still stuff coming out and building up. We were lucky in seeing animals, including several bison in herds. This year the park wardens were controlling traffic, because people stop anywhere at all. There were lots of elk in various places, one black bear, one doe with two fawns, a mule deer, a few mountain goats and various birds.
The Eastern Star Tea held at the home of Linda Ard last Saturday was a success with $1,330 raised for this year's project, Ronald MacDonald House. Thirty-five folks attended, coming from as far away as Kindersley, Assiniboia, Melfort, Meadow Lake and places in between.
At contract bridge Monday last at the Do Drop In, top scores went to Marnie and Ray Davies and second to Ross Morton and Vern Iverson.
The next noon luncheon at the community hall will be on Aug. 15.
The Golf Club Rib Nights are cancelled until further notice.
A rainy evening on Friday found a gathering of canasta players at the Do Drop In, enjoying another time together. I heard that in Edam they got over two inches of rain in half an hour.
Now that I'm back in southern Alberta, at the home of Beth and Norm Wynne, visiting the Gouw Quality Onion operations is always on the top of my list. Last week they harvested their peas and sent them in semi- loads to Lethbridge for processing at the plant there. Huge combines come through and in a couple days have many acres off. A new packing plant under construction for the onion crops will be ready for next year. The onions that were hailed out last year, and the field worked down. They were replaced with winter wheat and this crop is looking very nice and turning colour. Many crops in Montana were turning and soon ready for the combines. Cattle everywhere were enjoying great pastures with the rains they've had. A lot of hay has been rolled up into big round bales, mostly plastic covered. The pumpkins are in bloom and the bees were moved into that field last week.
