Awesome Day

Everything that has ever been said about Yellowstone National Park is an understatement. We left at 9:30 AM yesterday and returned at 8 PM and we had one of the most fun and interesting days we've had in a long time. Josie and I took 150 pictures and it was tough deciding which ones to post in today's entry. But here goes....

Every place we visit we try to get a picture of the sign where we enter and this was no different, except we had to wait for probably 15 minutes while families cleared out that were taking shots of their family in front of the sign. We finally had an opening:

Between the entrance and the first turnoff, we passed some beautiful countryside, some of which still had damage that was visible from a forest fire several years ago:

Just as we approached the Yellowstone Lake area, we saw the first of many, many Thermals in the Park:

These are areas that have bubbling, hot water and steam coming out of the ground. The Park is known for its geysers and there are more of them in Yellowstone Park than the rest of the world combined. Just before we reached the Fishing Bridge turnoff to the lower loop on the Grand Loop Road, we came upon this bison that could care less about the traffic jam he created:

The drive was spectacular all along the lake, and the shot below is just one view:

We reached the turnoff to the Falls at Artists Point and soon after turning onto this road we were stopped by a line of cars that had people scrambling up a hill to view something. Following is a picture of the largest elk I've ever seen in the wild and he still was in velvet, which means his antlers are still growing:

The road continued to the Lower Falls parking area and we were awestruck by the view of these falls:

This is known as the grand canyon of Yellowstone and below is another shot of this beautiful canyon:

The colors were unbelievable. Then, a short distance down the road we turned into the parking area for the Upper Falls, which were also beautiful:

We saw bison just about everywhere we went. Below though, is a rare picture of a bison and and elk grazing together:

Again, the elk is in velvet and is smaller than the previous one we spotted.

Below is another shot of bison and how they disrupt traffic, since they have the right of way:

The thermals were also everywhere in this area of the park, and below are a couple more shots of some unusual thermals:

We were nearing the end of the lower loop road when we came upon the most famous landmark within Yellowstone, Old Faithful. The crowd was building as we arrived at around 4:30 PM:

The next "eruption" was scheduled to occur at 4:55 PM and it was right on time:

A perfect ending to a perfect day. We were fortunate to have perfect weather all day, and a thunderstorm was moving in from the north. We headed out and enjoyed the views while exiting the Park in a light rain. There was one bear that we saw that ran across the road on a curve and we couldn't get a picture fast enough. We didn't see any wolves, but we know we will the next time. We are looking forward to our next trip to the Park, when we get to enter from the Northeast and drive the upper loop of the Grand Loop Road.

It was a tough entry to post today because of the volume of pictures, but it's worth every minute. Later...