Bison and Elk and bears, oh my!!!

G

June 26, 27th, 2014 Yellowstone National Park

Day 1 

The drive thru Montana after leaving Glacier was a mixture of mountains, meadows and ranch land. Diverse as it was beautiful. The weather, too, went from rainy, to sunny, to stormy and back!

Fields of yellow clover...

 And storms!

With a few stops along the way to Western Yellowstone such as lunch in Ennis, Montana the fly fishing capital of the west...

(That is a bronze statue of a fly fisherman...they seem big on 3d art here!) and then a quick 14 mile trip to Virginia City, a pretty close rendition of how the town looked when it was a gold rush mecca...some one kept buying up the old buildings even after the railroad passed up this town ...

...so that now we have a window to our past!  

But finally we reached Western Yellowstone, where we sat in a McDonalds parking lot using their wifi to try and find a room! The whole town was empty, but all hotels booked! Went to The Three Bear Lodge, but no room at the inn so headed to their suggestion, Yellowstone Lodge and booked two nights at exorbitant cost because this is a busy pre holiday weekend we learned!

But for these two road weary travelers, it was heaven! And we were so excited to get into Yellowstone, they we left our hotel at 3:30 pm to do some sightseeing and look for animals. You know they call this place "nature's Disneyland!" And, as you will see, for good reason!

Got in ising our $10 Senior All National Parks Pass. So excited. Best buy on our whole trip!!!

Decided to look around and make our way to Old Faithful. We were told that if we see cars pulled off to the side, there was probably some animal to see. 

But our our first hour was disappointing, although we saw many beautiful sights, not one animal besides the human kind.

Poor Joe stopped to look at every turnout for awhile! My eyes were so tired I had to put on my glasses!

But then we started seeing geysers everywhere we looked on the lore loop road and we forgot about the animals.

Two old geezers by a cone geyser.

And at the end of the road, Old Faithful! We got there right about 6:53pm, found a seat (benches all around)...

...and waited, camera ready.

At 7:03...

A video is posted on FB! Spectacular!!!

Joe is so smart. Right after, we scurried thru the crowds to be first in line for dinner at The Old Faithful Lodge. Horrible lasagna, but great views.

Decided to head on back but took a few detours along the way. We were just discussing how not to disappoint tourists by putting some animatronic animals around so you don't leave Yellowstone disappointed, when what do we see?

Well hello Mr. Bison...8 ft. away.

And then... He came a little closer! Not sure if we were on display or he was! He crossed the road and lumbered on his way!

So excited that we had our first encounter of the animal kind! And further down the road, here is what we saw.

By this time it was about 8:15 and still twilight so just one more stop to see this waterfall before heading back.

You will notice that I never get tired of waterfalls! 

We had made reservations on The Buffalo Bus ($64.99 each) for the all day Upper Loop for the next day, so got back, set alarms and felt lucky to have a place to rest in Yellowstone. 

Day Two Upper Loop Yellowstone June 27th, 2014

The yellow Buffalo Bus picked us up at 8:20 for our day long tour of the Upper Loop of Yellowstone. Seriously, you need at least 3 days in this park! If you think of Yellowstone as a giant circular calderra (volcano that has erupted and it's come has fallen inward) and the routes inside as a figure 8, the top half the Upper loop and the other the Lower loop, it will help orient you. By the way, Joh, I know this is way too much text for you, but you've got to do this with Cyrus! He'd love it and so would you! I'm bringing my granddaughters one day!

If you check Trip Advisor, this tour and this guide, Matt Henry, are the best! Cannot believe the love and passion he has for this park...and his stories lend a personal touch! Just ask him about Bonnie and Clyde, the diamond stealing ravens! He leads a snowmobile tour in the Fall and Winter and I'd love that! Met a nice couple, Diane and Matt, who have been here many times. Had lunch together and they gave us some great info!

Here is one of our first sights on this rainy morning.

This buffalo was lumbering down the road when our bus drove up along side. Buffalo were virtually extinct in the late 1800's when the last 100 or so were brought to Yellowstone. At 5000+ the bison are thriving here! Later we see herds of them, but this was our first animal to start the day! 

Joe and I didn't know we were to stay 10 ft. away. We were about 6 ft. away I our car yesterday. This bison could have crushed our car! 

More sights along the upper loop. ( Old Faithful is in the Lower Loop. 

More waterfalls than we can count!

Rainy and cloudy so pics may appear dark.

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

You can't see it? But Joe watched an Osprey feeding fish to her young!

I never get tired of waterfalls!

Then we headed into Mammoth. This town was once home to the US Army who watched over Yellowstone the soldiers were needed elsewhere in 1917. Can you guess why they were called away? If you guessed WW1, you are correct. 

Now the town houses summer workers, a general store, several restaurants and a Visitor Center under construction, besides Bering home to this cascading "birthday cake" formation. 

More geothermic features.

More waterfalls...

And a few more animals...

Though I still haven't seen a bear!!!

Fields of flowers and the Gibbons "chocolate" waterfall!

After a long, rainy day, Matt dropped us off at our lodge. 

We went into town and had soup and salad at the Slippery Otter. They had over 25 beers on tap. I guess that's a good thing, but I don't drink it! 

Finished the day at the IMAX to see Yellowstone (the movie) telling about the history. Beautiful, but wished it focused more on present day sights and highlights. I stayed to see the next feature after taking Joe back across the way to the lodge. End of Days played on the big screen. Lots of action!

***Ok, being a teacher, I can't help but add a few additional things I learned along the way.

1. Yellowstone sits on a highly active Volcano, thus all the thermal features. 

2. It has already erupted 3 x and is due for a 4th any day now + or - 40,000 years. 

3. If the whole thing blows, not just parts, which, by the way, there are many little earthquakes here every year, it would darken the whole of North America for 3 days and decimate our billions to about 100,000 human beings! 

4. At one time they took all the wolves from Yellowstone because they were thought to be damaging to the ecosystem of animals. Joe can explain better why this is so and why they reintroduced them at Yellowstone. Ask him. Then I'll know if you are truly reading this blog!!