Yellowstone

We decided to go up to Yellowstone earlier before all the tourist and hopefully before the animals head for higher ground. We left on Wednesday May 30 and took Connor and Payton with us. The others could not come until the next day but we wanted to be there earlier. We stayed in Al's Westward Ho in West Yellowstone. A friend had recommended it. We checked in our room. It was the afternoon and we went into the park. I bought my old timers National Park pass that lets me into all the National Parks for the rest of my life. No sooner had we got into the park and we spotted a coyote on the other side of the Madison and geese on our side.

We then saw an elk. This was going to be a good trip. We stopped and Gibbons Falls and then continued on to Norris to have a dinner in a picnic area.

Right before the picnic spot we came across a moose.

We then decided to go north towards Mammoth. There was road construction which was a long delay and while we were waiting a buffalo entertained us at the side of the road.

We followed the pilot car through the construction finally and when we got to the end we made a u-turn because we did not want to wait a half hour again so we went right back the way we came. The timing was great because when we got back to the Norris campground meadow there was a grizzly and her two cubs in the meadow. The cubs were playing with each other and it was fun to watch them.

We went back to the picnic area to see if the bears would walk that way but they didn't. Instead everyone decided to throw a snowball at me to end the day.

The next morning we got up and went into the park and went up toward Norris again. Along the Madison we watched a herd of bison cross the river. There were no bison in sight the evening before.

While we watched the bison we also saw a elk and her young one a little further down the river.

We then went to artist paint pots and did a hike around the area.

There were various colors created in the waters by the different temperatures.

From there we went to Norris and walked along a few of the features in the basin. The algea in the run off water also created different patterns.

After that it was noon time and we had to go back to the hotel to meet Shannon. We met her and then drove back into the park. We had a picnic lunch and then went to Canyon. There was some road construction and so you had to take turns on the one lane but we saw a wolf but unfortunately we could not stop because of the one lane condition. We viewed the falls from the Canyon side.

 A big storm then rolled in and we headed back to the car and drove to Dragon's Calderon and out of the storm. While we were on the board walk there was a bison near the trail just eating grass. 

The storm was done and we headed back and went to Artist Point to look at the falls from the other side. The snow melt was creating small falls of the side of the canyon which I had not seen before.

We then went to Tower Junction and into the Lamar Valley. There we saw some young Big Horn Sheep.

As we entered the valley it was filled with Bison. This must have been how it looked along the prairie in the 1800's.

We made dinner at the north end of the valley next to the river.

We now were as far away from the hotel as possible so we headed back. On the way a herd had moved next to the road and we saw some baby bison.

We headed toward Mammoth to get back home. Before we got to the Mammoth area we saw a youn black bear in a ravine below the road. It was at dusk so teh pictures are not that good but we saw it and watched it for a while. 

We made it back to West Yellowstone around 10 pm and Josh and Maddie arrived to spend Friday and Saturday with us. The next morning we headed toward Old Faithful with the group and were now in two cars. We stopped and looked at the falls of the Firehole. The water was high and fast in this area.

We then went to the fountain paint pot area and walked along the board walk.

Then it was off to Old Faithful. We watched it as we arrived within about 15 minutes before it was scheduled to erupt.

After that we had lunch and then decided to go on our bikes to Lone Star Geyser. There were sections of the trail that were still snow covered so we had to walk our bikes over the snow. We got there and waited about 40 minutes before the geyser went off. It erupts every three hours. Maddie looked at her foot that she wacked against a tree while riding her bike. The kids crossed a log bridge 

It finally erupted. It last about 20 minutes so we got pictures from all angles.

After it was over it was back on our bikes through the snow to the parking lot. The parking lot is next to a falls so we went and looked at the falls. 

We then headed back to Old Faithful to see some of the other geysers go off. We road our bikes again to make it easier to get to the areas. The first geyser we watched was Grand.

After that we looked at some pools and then off to watch Riverside. 

While we waited at Riverside the Grotto Geyser went off. 

Another half hour of wait and Riverside went off. It was a great time to see it because the late afternoon sun made rainbows out of the steam. 

It was a great afternoon show. We made dinner at the picnic area by Old Faithful and then it was getting dusk so we headed back to West Yellowstone. Another great day.

Next morning we were going to go one more time into the park because Josh and Maddie had not seen a bear yet. We went into the park and made breakfast and then headed up to Mammoth and took a picture of the falls there. Along the way to Tower we ended up see three black bear so everyone had seen bear. Cindy, Connor, Payton and myself saw a total of 7 bear on this trip. The most we had ever seen in Yellowstone. We made lunch near Norris and then headed home and got home around 7 at night.