Thank you, Yellowstone!

Hi all! Well, we have conquered Yellowstone and most of its glories (at least those that we want to see). We will leave here tomorrow morning and head up to Montana to visit Glacier National Park. Then we will wind our way back home. We will get home eventually :-)

The other morning we were rewarded with 2 sightings of grizzlies. One was in the morning (around 6AM, a mother and her two older cubs) and then on the way back from gallavanting in the mountains, we saw the same "family" a little further in the valley (around 11). It was really cool but too far away for a pic. No wolf action, but since we've already seen them, well, what can you say?

As for other animals, we saw a bald eagle and used a higher power lens (a fellow at the wolf hangout let us borrow it). So the pic of the bald eagle was taken with that. We also visited the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. It was made from glaciers and volcanic activity. Really neat. They also have pelicans and osprey here. How cool is that?!

So if you plan to visit Yellowstone, here are some fun facts.
1) Dress appropriately. You want to make sure you have a heavy jacket for the mornings and lightweight ones for the evening. Be prepared for thunderstorms in the afternoon. They can be pretty brutal with the lightning and so forth.

2) Be patient for your wildlife. Remember this is not DisneyWorld where they show up on cue (although the prices you pay for things are like DisneyWorld). If you have children, just bundle them up in the car and tell them you'll wake them when something interesting shows up :-)

3) Go early. Most everyone is up and out by 10AM (this includes ramming the roads). So if you want to see things and not have parking issues, go between 7A and 10A to see/take pics of the best stuff.

4) Give the altitude some latitude. It varies from 6600-8500 feet, unless you want to be a real sport and tackle Mt. Washburn (10,000ft---yeah, right!). Anyway, give yourself at least 1-2 days to get acclimated when you go to different parts of the park. It is well worth the wait (after all, it's not going anywhere, now is it?)

5) Heed the park ranger. Ranger Rick and his rules are meant to keep you safe. Buffalo are cute but more people are hurt by bison than by bears. Also, if you are staying at a campsite, they want you to lock up your food. If not, they will confiscate it. We saw that yesterday. Some tent campers left out a lot of food and canned sodas. They don't want the bears to come around for the food, so put it away. People food harms the bears and they will have to either be put down or relocated (both of which are expensive endeavors). So heed Ranger Rick to be safe but still have a good time.

Overall, we have had a tremendous, once in a lifetime trip. We are truly blessed to be able to have this much time to see and explore things. I can't wait to see what the other half of this adventure brings. Later~