Yellowstone Nat'l Park - Jun 2006

Wow -- even though this was our second trip here within a year we still found new things to enjoy and new sights to marvel at in the park. I took so many pictures that it's hard to trim them down to only a handful. Of course, there was Old Faithful and it's ever so reliable eruptions. This is Mom (Gracie) enjoying the view from the shady tree area. We had Yoshi (Mom's dog) with us and since dogs weren't allowed in the geyser area, we had to stay back from the viewing platform. We still had a great view of the burst. We also got to see The Beehive geyser erupt -- something that doesn't happen all that often nor all that regularly.

Then there was the awesome Canyon area -- with Artist's Point and numerous lookouts over the Upper and Lower Falls. The canyon is so colorful and the falls so powerful. One could linger all day just in this section of the park (and we did!) The weather was darn near perfect while we were there. A couple of afternoons threatened rain, but other than a few sprinkles, we kept dry.

We stayed at the Fishing Bridge RV park -- the only campground in Yellowstone with hookups. While the sites were very, very close together, they did manage to have a few shrubs in-between the sites for a little bit of privacy. Each spur (with about 30 sites in it) was also separated from the others by rows of tall pines, so it didn't feel like a huge parking lot. We were able to pull our RVs in side-by-side and we shared a common patio area and that helped too.

Then, of course, there were the animals. Lots and lots of animals and we got caught up in many bison traffic jams -- some lasting for up to 30 minutes -- while we waited for the bison to mosey off the road. This big bull was nearly as tall as the SUV that he was standing in front of.

We didn't see as many elk as we did last year, but there was still a good sized herd grazing in the grass at the Mammoth Hot Springs Visitor's Center. We stopped and had a picnic lunch in the park and watched as the elk grazed in the grass. Yoshi (Mom's dog) discovered that dried elk poop is a pretty good doggie treat -- yuck!

No visit to Yellowstone would be complete without sighting a grizzly bear. We were "lucky" enough to spot a grizzly on two separate occasions and we even got to see one mama black bear with her two cubs. Each sighting created a huge traffic jam as most folks are fascinated with bears and want to experience the thrill of a relatively safe way to view them. We were amazed that there was at least one park ranger at each "bear jam" -- they must keep very close tabs on their whereabouts and also continually warn people not to get too close. (Believe me, we saw several idiots who didn't take their warning seriously!)

Probably the cutest animals in the park -- the bison calves. They are born red and at about six months they turn dark brown. The theory is that red is the only color that the bulls can see and Mother Nature wanted to give the bulls a way to distinguish the young ones so they wouldn't consider them a threat.