Yellowstone Adventures

Tuesday was our travel day from Big Timber to West Yellowstone.  We’d discussed several different routes and studied maps and Google Earth.  Finally, we combined the advice we’d received, and headed west on I-90 as far as Bozeman, where we took off on 191 south.  But instead of staying on that road all the way to West Yellowstone, we cut over on Montana 84 and then to US 287 south to Montana 87, and finally to US 20 where we passed by the north side of Henry’s Lake before arriving at Lionshead RV Resort, 7 miles west of West Yellowstone.  We checked in a little after 11 a.m., and by just after 1:00, we were at the gate of the park.

Not far into the park, I spotted a bald eagle in the trees not far off the road:

 

Then I saw the nest with the baby eagle’s head poking up:

 

That was a good start to our first exploration of the park.  The woman who checked us in at the rv park said the best place to spot wildlife would be the upper section of the north loop of the park, so that’s where we headed.  We figured that, since the weather was cool and cloudy, and we’d arrive late in the day, that we might have a chance to see some animals.

Of course, we had to stop to view some hot springs on the way!  Dortha and Jim walking along the boardwalk at one of them:

The blue water looks beautiful, but oh so hot at Beryl Spring!

Our next stop was at what’s called paint pots, because of the varied colors found in the soil, mud and water in the hot springs.  This is a view from the top of the walkway we climbed:

  We continued on the north loop and eventually got to Mammoth Hot Springs, where we took a little drive around the top tier loop and found some beautiful rock formations:

At Mammoth, we were at the top of the north loop.  It was getting late in the afternoon, and with the weather was cool and cloudy, it was just the right conditions for spotting elusive wildlife, like this bull elk:

Just a little ways further, we spotted another group of cars stopped by the side of the road.  Note to people who’ve yet to visit Yellowstone:  Anytime you see a group of cars parked either in the middle or along the sides of the road, that’s your clue that some wildlife is nearby!  So we pulled over and got to see this bull moose:

We’ve since discovered that spotting a large bull moose like this is very rare!  We feel really fortunate to have experienced this guy!

Further along the road we climbed a mountain pass, and along that way, sure enough, there was another group of cars pulled over.  This time, we got to see this grizzly bear up on the side of the slope:

Those are the highlights of our first afternoon in Yellowstone.  It was truly amazing to see all these animals.

If there’s a downside to the outings in the park, its that we are taking so many pictures, we hardly have time to download them before we’re off on another adventure!

Even though I realize I’m behind on posting our activities, I’m going to save our next adventures for another day.