Better Than I Deserve: Stop 17 (Pt. 2): Snowflakes and Bison and Bears, OH MY!

Snow in June? Not where we live but we woke up to pretty white snowflakes on June 22! It was much colder than we had expected and those "snow-capped mountains" looked so far away that we didn't even imagine that we would experience them. But, as Alex said it best, "We're totally unprepared for snow!" He was right; Alex had lost one of his tennis shoes and my whole pair of tennis shoes decided to make a new home in a new city along our route, so he and I only had our strappy sandals. Our entire family only had jeans and sweatshirts so this 30-degree weather was a a bit of a surprise. But goodness, it sure was pretty.

We stopped in the lodge area to try to get a signal on our phones for directions but it was a no-go. There is NO SIGNAL in Yellowstone; that's not necessarily a bag thing. We then headed out and started at Beryl Springs. We had seen it the previous night in the absolute dark but in the daylight, it was really pretty. (NOTE: Everything at Yellowstone is "really pretty". I won't have enough adjectives to describe the things we saw there. The backdrop of mountains and stone. The foreground of rivers, lakes, forests, and hills. The wildlife that just doesn't exist in Ohio. The naturally-occurring springs, mud pots, and geysers. The beauty of it all. I cannot describe it and the photos will never do any of it the justice is deserves. Now back to regularly-scheduled blogging...)

We saw a herd of bison near another hot spring and Charlotte was eager to get closer so Alex went with her. Andy was having trouble getting around so he stayed up at the top of the hill and I stayed closer to him in case he needed help getting back to the van. His mobility is suffering more and more as time goes on. He'll see a doctor the day after we get home and hopefully begin to find some relief.

Can you spot Alex and Charlotte on the right?

Andy walks kinda half-crouched these days.

As we left those first couple of spots, traffic started backing up and we didn't know what was happening. We soon realized that a traffic backup in Yellowstone means wildlife are near. This time is was a herd of bison were crossing the road. Charlotte and Alex hopped out and ran up to see them veeeerrrryyyy up close. They got some really great video of these dolice beasts and their babies munching on grass and sauntering across the road that splits their large, natural, grazing dinner plate in half.

We stopped at the Grand Prismatic Spring on the way to Old Faithful and this the most crowded place of the entire park. It took quite a while to find a parking spot but it was worth the wait. It was about a 1/2-mile boardwalk hike around several springs--Excelsior Geyser Crater, Grand Prismatic Spring, Opal Pool, AND--we saw our first bear! So this was a good spot.

Can you spot a bear in this photo? Yeah, we hardly saw it in real life but I promise there's a bear here.

See! I told ya so! First bear of the day!

Old Faithful was our next stop and we made it there just in time. It "erupts" every 90 minutes or so and we only had to wait about 20 minutes so we were thankful. There were hundreds of people waiting for the big moment. While waiting, Sarah and I talked to a couple from New Hampshire who were a couple of weeks into a 7-week journey similar to ours. It was a fun time. And worth it--it was really cool to see. We had lunch in the nearby lodge and headed to Mammoth Hot Springs.

This "little fella" was hanging out on the side of the road as we drove past.
He probably weighed close to 2,000 lbs so he was flattered we called him "little".

Sarah needs sunglasses.

Old Faithful still really draws a crowd

After seeing more bison along the roadside, we stopped at Gibbon Falls on the way because Andy can't resist a good waterfall. He was really hurting at this point and he enjoyed sitting there while he rested.

Mammoth Hot Springs was good because they had a little better Wi-Fi than anywhere else in the park. HA! We could connect and check in. Mammoth Hot Spring looks like an inside-out cave, forming new travertine every day. With the sun peeking through the clouds, it was really majestic. So gorgeous. The wind picked up and the breeze grew cold so we grabbed a late lunch and headed toward Lamar Valley.

Before we could make it Lamar Valley, we stopped in the Tower-Roosevelt area to see the Petrified Tree. To our amazement, there was a black bear just enjoying a leisurely stroll through the area, totally unaware of the humans just yards from him. Andy was THRILLED! He'd been "calling" for bears the whole trip and this was our first real bear encounter. The other two bears were seen from a distance of at least 100 yards. This one was probably 20 yards away. We could hear him breathing!

After spending so much time looking at the bear that we forgot about the petrified tree, we moved on and ran smack into more stopped cars--this time they were watching a mama bear and her two bear cubs. They won the cute award for the trip. So, so sweet! We watched them, van stopped in the middle of the road, for quite some time, too. Then we moved on to see two more bears, an adolescent black bear and a larger brown bear within moments. It was a good night. We decided to forgo Lamar Valley and head toward our cabin because the drive was so long.

We saw a few more lovely things: a gorgeous waterfall, a lone bison so close to our van I could touch it (his eyes were so precious and a little scary), and the mountains that just will never quit being amazing.

Sarah was still interested in seeing stars--it's soooooo dark there that stars, thousands of them, are clearly seen at night. So I took her this time and we used my star app to determine which stars were which. We sat there for probably a half hour and then turned in for the night. We had another long drive ahead to South Dakota the next day.

Yellowstone was my favorite place. Charlotte and Alex concurred. On the way out, we were escorted by a few bison and took photos by the sign that was completely blacked out by our late-night arrival a couple of days prior. It was nice of the elk to make an appearance at the sign. Andy wondered if they were paid to stand there. Charlotte surmised that elk wouldn't have much interest in human money. Nevertheless, they really did make the scene.