Day 9 - Yellowstone Here We Come!

I decided to go ahead with the blog sans pictures and video instead of email. 

The day started out good. We were able to rise early and get going early. Maya is finally feeling good minus a nagging cough. I believe the cold has moved to her lungs and we are at about 8000+ feet above sea level so the air is thinner here. We arrived at the West Entrance to Yellowstone at about 9am to find very little crowds and beautiful sunny skies.

This turned out to be more of an emotional moment, entering Yellowstone, than I imagined. The girls just couldn't understand it. I explained how I have wanted to come here most of my life and wasn't sure that would happen because of the fire so many years ago. As you enter the park, the fire is still very evident as you drive by thousands of acres with with empty skeletons of trees that used to cover this vast land. Some have born new life with pine trees about 10-15 feet tall, but the memories of the others are scattered throughout these little trees. These dead reminders tower over the new life letting us know we have long to go to return back to where Yellowstone once was.

When you enter you are given a map with the more popular animals to see. Our first one was a pup coyote digging in the grassland, our guess is for a mouse or prairie dog. Next we saw a buffalo snoozing just a few hundred feet from the side of the road.

As we moved on, our plan was to hit Old Faithful, but we decided to do the north part of the park first. Tony has done excellent research on the best things to see and do.

Our first big stop was Norris Geyser. Once you get over the rotten egg smell from the sulfur it is a beautiful and colorful place.

Second was Canyon Valley. The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. There are two water falls Upper and Lower Falls, both majestic and colorful.

From there we were heading to Lamar Valley where Tony has read has the most wildlife. At this point, our animal spotting was some Mule Deer, Pronghorn Deer, Coyote, and 1 single buffalo, as well as an Osprey, Golden Eagle, Bald Eagle, and a Violet Swift. We were hoping Lamar Valley would not disappoint and we were right.

As we came into the valley we saw 3 buffalo grazing. There were several people off to the side of the road on both side watching them, taking pictures, oohing and ahhing. 2 decided they wanted on the other side of the road. Boy can they run. As I ran to my car to avoid being run over (and I'm not joking), 2 came right up to the driver side window, went around the back of the truck and moved on. I was within 20 feet of them as I got back into the car. There was 1 more that decided to follow. A woman was up on a rock taking pictures with her back turned. Someone yelled at her that a buffalo was heading her way. They passed each other! The buffalo stopped and turned to look at her! She was a short stocky woman and I don't think her feet ever touched the ground! I so wish we had gotten video of it. We laughed for a while about the close call. I joked that hopefully she had a clean pair of shorts in her van because I know, being withing 2 feet of a gigantic buffalo RUNNING towards you would have made me beyond scared! Being 20 feet away was scary enough!

From there we wound around and through the mountains. Picture of course, just don't do it justice. As we worked our way back to our campground, we came upon a black bear yearling, and a grizzly. I got out of the car for the black bear, it was far enough away, but the grizzly was too close for comfort so I just took pictures from the truck! We were so excited to see both of those!

Our last stop was Mammoth Hot Spring, but by this time Maya was really not feeling well so we made it quick, got a bite to eat and headed out. Our entire trek on just the north side of the park took 11 hours!

Tomorrow, we will do the south side with Old Faithful and the Mud Volcano. It's going to be a short day. We've decided 2 days is enough. We will then head to the Grand Tetons National Park on Saturday! So far we have yet to kill each other, but we still have about 14 days to go! Only time will tell!

Hope all is well!