The trip to Yellowstone was going to be a quickie as I have been to the park many times and it is beautiful. The day I arrived is the postcards, passport stamp etc. day usually but in Yellowstone I also saw Old Faithful erupt with a bison on hand to watch as well. Bad part was the visitor center was closed, it was after 5:30pm when I arrived so I had to go back to the following day. The good part was I did get to see plenty of bison on the way in and out to my campground in West Yellowstone. Day 2 was back to old faithful and then I wanted to try and see a wolf in the wild. Well that meant a trip to Lamar Valley and it is a hike from Old Faithful but I was determined! Along the way I stopped at Swan lake and watch some swans on a nest, ducks swimming and even a pair of bald eagles flying high. Onward to Lamar Valley I went but there was NO wolves to be seen for me. On the way back to West Yellowstone, I encountered a bear jam so I parked and walked to see the bear. It was a grizzly with her two cubs but they were resting in the shade and you could to really see them. I waited showing many people the bears location about 1 hour and then called it quits and headed back to the van. When I drop past the site what did I see but the mamma and two cubs, so darn! I found a safe place to park not for up the road and humped it back to the bears. I was able to get some good photos and I told myself that if the bear jumps the stream I am going to take higher ground. Well she jumped and so did her two cubs so up to the top of the hill I went. I did continue to take photos but when she got to be about 15 yards away I got the heck out of there and headed back to my van. I did notice a boardwalk that was a safe distance away so I went down it to continue getting shots of the bears. Onward I went after about another 20 minutes of taking photos of the bears. Back on the road to West Yellowstone I went and was greeted by a herd of bison in the field and when I went to stop notice that the bison were in the turnout as well. Man was it cool to see all of these bison and babies just a few feet from me. It was starting to snow at this point so the photos were not great but the experience will be remembered for ever. The last day I as going to be in Yellowstone was going to be for a journey to the Grand Tetons but as I said day 2 the snow started and it was snowing harder on day 3! Yellowstone’s South Gate was closed for snow but I only found that out after I was in the park so I had to turn around and figure out how to get to the Grand Tetons. The trip was well worth it as I was able to see some additional bison and a coyote, both with snow falling. I did find a way to the Grand Tetons but that is for another park.
