Where The Buffalo and Elk and Antelope and Wolves and Bear Roam

Believe it or not, originally we weren't going into Yellowstone National Park.

Then, my soon-to-be-daughter-in-law Kim asked, "So, you're going to Yellowstone, right? It's the most beautiful place I've ever been to."

John talked to one of his customers in Billings, MT and she said, "I hope you're driving through Yellowstone."

So we put Yellowstone--the first national park in the world--on our itinerary.

This time of year only one entrance to the park is open. We entered through Gardiner, Montana and went through the Roosevelt Arch. Teddy placed the cornerstone in 1903 when the main vehicles traveling through were still stagecoaches. We started by seeing the Mammoth Hot Springs area and took an easy, but long and uphill walk around the springs and terraces. The terraces have interesting, but inexplicable names: Minerva, Cleopatra, Aphrodite, Pulpit, Baby, White Elephant Back…

With the snow on the ground there was an interesting mix of hot water from the springs, ice, and steam.  Water flows over the travertine limestone that's formed from the deposits over millions of years.

Because we were limited to just one area of the park we didn't get to see Old Faithful or Mt. Washburn or the canyons, but that's okay because we did see a ton of wildlife that isn't normally as visible. This time of year the buffalo are having their babies, so they're out en masse. We saw hundreds moseying around, grazing, walking down the roads, up hills, through the snow. The babies are red and are called "red dogs." At times we were only 2 or 3 feet away from these massive animals. We saw elk and a wolf, ducks, whooping cranes, and antelope. There was a grizzly hanging out in a tree, but he wouldn't come out. We only know that because there were groups of photographers huddled together on hilltops with their tripods and gigantic lenses trained on that tree. They told us one guy had been there for five days hoping to get a picture of the grizzly, the rest of them had been there two to three days. We don't know who won that waiting game, but bear and photographers were all very patient.

We parked Gypsy right at a camping spot inside the park (just $10) and had a quiet night. We were warned not to wander around after dark because the wildlife roams around and hanging out with them can be dangerous (no kidding).

The next day we drove the complete loop of roads that were open. We could have taken a thousand pictures. Every panorama looked like a postcard.

So, thanks Kim and lady who John writes software programs for. Yellowstone was definitely a highlight of our trip.

Roosevelt arch (well, part of it)

Chapel at Yellowstone