Yellowstone National Park with special guests Gelene and Trent

We woke up bright and early to begin our journey to Yellowstone National Park. We started the drive from Idaho Falls, expecting a nice and easy drive (3 hours) to the West Entrance of the park where we would be making our home for the next 3 nights at Grizzly RV Park. Not so, as we made our way up the mountain pass the temperature began to drop dramatically and the snow began to fall. With the snow sticking and traffic creeping up the mountain we were getting a bit nervous as we saw the semi-trucks pulling off the road to put on their snow chains – not a good sign considering we didn't have snow chains. With 10 inches of snow and the "high" temp of 29 degrees (in June) we arrived safe and sound at our campground, all the while Gelene (Troy’s mom) was sleeping on the couch missing all the action of the fun-filled drive.

Even though the weather was not what we were hoping for we were not about to miss any time we had in the park. Many of the roads within the park were closed due to the snow (bummer however they all ended up open before the end of our time within the park) however Old Faithful was up to its usually tricks so we made our way to the show. We stopped at a few of the Geysers Basins along the way and were in awe of the hot springs and mud pots that speckled the terrain. The heat you felt when walking past a spring was similar to entering a steam room, a steam room that smelled like rotten eggs that is. Old Faithful erupts almost every 75 minutes, predicted within 10 minutes, good thing too, it was freezing outside and we were all bundled up waiting for the big moment. Amazing, the water shot up 150 feet in the air and did so for almost 5 minutes, mixed with the snow it was a sight to see. (Note: the photo of the Geyser below is from the second time we viewed the show, with all the snow the pics weren't the best the first day we visited the geyser) After the “show” we headed over to the Old Faithful Lodge to warm up with a hot toddy and marvel at the craftsmanship of the Lodge, beautiful.

Lions, Tigers and Bears … Oh My! Well maybe not lions and tigers but talk about wildlife sightings; Bears, Bison (Buffalo), Coyotes, Elk, Bison, Pronghorn Antelopes, Big Horn Sheep, Bison, Bald Eagles and did we mention the Bison throughout the park?

“Bear or Bison Jams” were a common occurrence while driving through the park, nature’s version of a traffic jam. Bison have a habit of clogging roadways as do tourists who are stopped on the side of the road gawking at the wildlife. Troy happened to be the first to spot the black bear in the photo below and soon enough we had created our own little “Bear Jam”.

On another occasion we thought a Bison was going to charge our Jeep after the car in front of us drove too close to him and literally “pissed it off”. The Bison stared us down from the middle of the road while we created another “jam” waiting for him to cross the road.

With the snow still falling the following day in some areas and starting to melt (hurray) in others we took the road to Artist Point and the Lower Yellowstone Falls. The scenery was breathtaking. We will let the photos do the talking for this one.

After numerous detours throughout the park due to snow we arrived at the Mud Volcanos. We were met with still mud pots as the snow had made everything so wet that they were not performing to their best ability, too bad, we heard when they are active they are very cool to witness.

We did wander upon a few really “bright” tourists, look closely at the picture below. Think they might be a bit too close to the Elk with the big horns?

We had our first Moose sighting today, course the photos didn’t turn out the greatest by the time we parked the Jeep and Trent got out to run down the road to see if he could see her we could only see the top of her head but as the rangers tell you, people at home don’t know what is in the picture, a black dot to them is a bear if that is what the person on the vacation says it is! Luckily we did a bit better than a “black dot”.

After a long day of driving and exploring the many diverse landscapes of Yellowstone you still never know what to expect after the next curve, lucky for us when we got to Lamar Valley, a remote area of the park close to the Northeast Entrance, We spotted 2 Grizzly Bears hunting a Pronghorn Antelope. It was quite the experience to watch the hunt, luckily for us the antelope was quick to run once the chase was on.

On our way back to camp we spotted what we thought was a single wolf. Once we took a closer look at the pictures and spotted others on our travels we discovered it was a Coyote, still cool to see but a wolf would have been a very rare sighting. There was also a Bald Eagle nesting just off the main roadway which we passed everyday into the park, such graceful birds.


We woke up early the next day for our Paddle Saddle Adventure in Montana just outside the North Entrance of the park. White water rafting down the Yellowstone River (Paddle) and horseback riding (Saddle) in the Gallatin National Forest.

After our water/land adventures and with our sore butts situated back in the Jeep we got into another “Bear Jam” caused by the 2 Black Bear seen here. Yes we know one is cinnamon colored but he is a Black Bear!

Calcite Springs overlook and Tower Falls was the site of numerous mama Big Horn Sheep and their young. We marveled at them as they traveled across the sides of the mountain with such finesse and ease. The mountain/river view in the picture below is where the sheep were grazing.

Thought you might want to see a picture of people instead of all the animals we saw along the way so here is a picture of Gelene and Lisa at Tower Falls.

As we made our way thru Yellowstone in the RV to Grand Teton National Park we had a great “higher” view where we “snapped” a few more shots, enjoy the pictures!