Friday, June 14, 2013 (Gardiner, MT)

We got up early so we could get an early start on our Yellowstone tour today.  It was cloudy and cool out but no rain so that was good. Our plan at the beginning of the day was to do one of the loops today and do the second loop of the park on Saturday.  So off we went.

We got to our first stopping point and got out to do our first walk around some of the thermal features and oh my was it cold.  What were we thinking, we didn't bring any heavy jackets with us and we were sometimes around 8,000 +/- elevation depending on where we were.  Yesterday at Mammoth it was very warm walking around, today was the complete opposite.  At one point we even saw some snow coming down in the distance, brrrrrr.

Anyway, here are a bunch of pics from our day, unfortunately some of them don't do the sites justice because of all the gray clouds and steam.  Our wildlife sightings for the day were bison, bear - yes we saw bears three different times, and a couple antelope.  I was disappointed we didn't see any baby bison this time around.  Unfortunately, I've lost track of the names of all these thermal features, but we did stop at all the major sites, Norris Geyser Basin, Paint Pots, Old Faithful, Lake Yellowstone, Mud Volcano, Canyon Lower & Upper Falls as well as a couple more I can't recall the names for.  

Pics from Norris Geyser Basin Area

Pics from the Paint Pot Area

 This is the Grand Prismatic Spring which is one of the most photographed thermal features in the park but because of the clouds and the huge amount of steam coming off the spring because it was so cold outside, you couldn't see the beautiful colors. 

Picture of Old Faithful, and because of the cloud cover, you can't hardly see the difference between the clouds and the water.  I had forgotten how impressive Old Faithful was, I was pleasantly surprised and it was worth the stop and the crowds of people.  Even on this cold and windy day, there were tons of people waiting to see it go off.

This is a picture of Yellowstone Lake which is very large.  The mountains and the lake were beautiful.  Back in my younger years, I had worked a summer at Yellowstone and worked at Lake Lodge which is the next picture below.  Things had definitely changed in the area since I had been there, there were a lot more buildings and people. 

When we were visiting the Mud Volcano area and walking on the boardwalk looking at all the thermal features, there was this bison grazing alongside the boardwalk.  They are massive.  They weren't very pretty this time of year because they are shedding their winter coats.  We saw several different ones throughout our day, but I figured one picture was enough.  =)

This was our first bear sighting and boy did he have the traffic backed up.  He was across the river and there were so many cars stopped and people getting out to take pictures that they have rangers directing traffic.  It was pretty exciting to get to see him, we think he was a grizzly since he was so much larger than the other two we saw.  The whole summer I worked in Yellowstone, I didn't see a bear at all, which was OK with me because before we got there that summer, a rangers wife had been out jogging and had been mauled by a bear and killed, so everyone was extra cautious that year.

Either the Upper or Lower Falls in Yellowstone, sorry I can't remember, but it's the one you usually see on calendars or postcards and I can see why because it really was very beautiful and impressive.

 This was our second bear sighting and it's not the greatest picture, but just before this was snapped, he had lifted the log in the air, I think he was moving it to look for his dinner.  This sighting there were only a couple of cars stopped because I think he had just come out into view.  This was the closest we got to a bear, there was no river between us, it was just up on the hillside beside the road.

This was our third bear sighting and it was a momma with her two cubs, though we only caught one of the cubs in the picture.  The cub is the light brown one.  This sighting had tons of cars stopped and a grumpy ranger directing traffic, so we just took the picture out the window as we were creeping along through the throngs of people who had stopped.   

When we got to the Old Faithful area around noon and took a look at the map and the time of day, we decided to do the whole park today and then have Saturday to explore the town of Gardiner.  It was a long day with lots of driving but we saw some amazing scenery.