Yellowstone NP.....

(Warning....lots of photos and lots of repeat superlatives!!!)
Apparently if you want to stay at Yellowstone NP over the summer holidays you need to book a year in advance.  We did all our bookings while at Ric and Jen's on Vancouver Island, so we booked about 1 week in advance.  Having said that we had tried over and over to get a cancellation and were lucky enough to get 2 nights accommodation, in the Park, but in 2 different places.  Unfortunately, due to the popularity of the place they can then charge ridiculous prices for accommodation...which they did.  Our rooms consisted of two beds, no airconditioning, no fridge, no microwave, no internet and a tiny, tiny bathroom...for (US)$165 a night.  This was exorbitant, when we had paid that much and less for a house!! Anyway........this was part of our view as we were driving to Yellowstone....love it!

We got to Yellowstone NP mid afternoon....and the place was heaving with people!

 John (wolf man) had told us different places to go to to see bison, possibly wolves and bears, so the first place we went was to visit the bison.  Fortunately this was less crowded than other places and we got to spot plenty....

The scenery was lovely....

and we spent ages driving and stopping, driving and stopping.  As it was starting to get dark we thought we should head to our first night's accommodation.  You can see Yellowstone in a kind of figure 8 pattern, and we would be backtracking due to the 2nd night's accommodation being at the start of the Park.
We watched the sun go down over some mountains...

when next thing, Stuart saw a bear, way up a mountain...a long, long way from us....that black dot near the tree!

Then another bear ran out in front of the car... fortunately I had my camera out as it was really quick, light was fading and I took the photo through the car windscreen...so a bit blurry. I have to tell you, it really is something else to see such a wild animal in its natural habitat.

The next morning we get up really early to hopefully see some more wildlife.  We did see a fox with something in its mouth, but that was pretty much it.  We made our way to the geysers that Yellowstone is famous for.  It was about 6am, noone else around and it was pretty spectacular (if not a bit smelly!!)

Jakeb had told us Yellowstone is pretty much a volcano waiting to erupt and it could happen any time and if it does it will wipe out North America, so that was comforting.  Well it was bubbling away, that's for sure.
Old Faithful is another famous geyser in Yellowstone, which goes off (apparently) every couple of hours.  We were unaware of this and got to Old Faithful around 8am.  There were all these seats surrounding this geyser, with not many people sitting on them, so we just took at seat looking at this geyser.  Apparently this was Old Faithful, and every now and then it would hiss and a bit of steam would come out.  After about 10 mins more people started arriving and before we knew it hundreds of people were siting around waiting...waiting...waiting.......finally it did go off.  It was pretty exciting, lots of "oohs and aahs" from the crowd.

  So we probably waited for about 1/2 hr and we heard people had waited hours, gone for lunch or whatever, come back and had missed it.  So we were lucky.
Here's a link to a youtube video Stuart made of it...it's very exciting!
Old Faithful, Yellowstone NP
There was a boardwalk around all the geysers near Old Faithful and they were hissing, bubbling, creating beautiful patterns and colours.....fantastic!

We left Old Faithful feeling pretty pleased with ourselves for the perfect timing and continued on our figure 8.  We stopped at these rock formations and amazingly we had seen a similar thing in California, 5 years ago and they were also similar to the hexagonal rocks we saw at the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland...the world truly is amazing! This is where I couldn't contain myself and growled at some kids feeding a chipmunk some chips!! There are signs everywhere telling you not to.....so I felt it was my duty!!  Ranger Jen!

Next stop was Mammoth Falls, but not before we passed these views. 

 While you are driving you see steam billowing out all around you....it's amazing.

It was really hot by this stage, and the scenery at Mammoth Falls was so beautiful.... really harsh and desolate and the heat generated by the geysers was intense.

 Joshuah took this photo.....

 This picture looks like a nuclear bomb has been dropped....and that's all that's left.

 These are the falls.....amazing.

By the time we left there it was around 2pm, so we drove to our 2nd night's accommodation.  I stayed at the little room we had, while Joshuah and Stuart went off and did a walk in search of wolves and other wildlife.  They went to an area where John Weaver (Wolf Man) had suggested to find any trace of wolves.  He said you probably wouldn't see a wolf, but you may see evidence of them.  Another thing he told them to do was to howl, and if the pups were on their own, they would howl back, thinking it was their mother and you could head towards the noise.  If mum was already with them, they wouldn't howl at all. 

So Josh (who does amazing impersonations) was at the top of a meadow and let out a huge howl (apparently it was very good!), and there were some people down below who heard it, but didn't see Josh.  Anyway 20 mins later they appeared next to Stuart and Josh and asked if they had heard the wolf!!!  So Stu and Josh had to admit it was them and the reason for them doing it.  So for the next 1/2 hr of their walk, all they could hear was this couple howling!!!!  BUT, they did see evidence of a wolf...

 and they didn't go anywhere without their Bear Spray...which is heavy duty pepper spray...just in case....a bit like taking flyspray with you, except these bugs are a bit bigger!

and they saw a coyote.

While they were climbing mountains in the heat, I sat on the verandah of my room and saw these elk, only 4 feet away from me....so cool!

 

Once the boys returned from their walk, we went and visited the Education Centre and then on to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  It was stunning...there was a Rim Walk like at the Grand Canyon and a steep walk down to some waterfalls.  Joshuah had gone ahead of us and we had no idea which walk he had done.  After over 1 hr of not knowing where he was, we started to get a bit panicky.  Stu went looking for him and found him...he had been waiting for us on the the steep walk...thinking we would be coming down there.  We had visions of him falling off the canyon....(as you do!!!)

 The colours in the Canyon were gorgeous.  To me it looked fiery and angry, but beautiful.

We eventually had to leave Yellowstone to get our to our next destination.....Grand Tetons NP, and we passed this on our way out.

Here's another quick video Stuart did of Yellowstone...
Yellowstone NP
We did drive partway through the Grand Tetons,

 which butts up to Yellowstone and at one stage as I was driving we were stopped by a cowboy (we were in Wyoming!) and watched as hundreds of horses crossed the road in front of us.  So cool, but the best part was this tourist running as fast as his little legs could take him, past all the cars that were stopped, to get a photo.  Sadly no photo of him, but we did get the horses.

Yellowstone was so diverse with the scenery.  We didn't get to see much wildlife, despite our best efforts, but we're so glad we got to go there.