animal sightings

driving around Yellowstone is full of spontaneous animal sightings. I think these were some of Christina's favorite sights! throughout this second day in the park, we saw white pelicans, more mule deer, big buck elk with huge antlers, a ton of buffalo, and we even saw a grizzly bear off in the distance across a river. we have a lot of pics of these on the "good camera" that we will need to post at a later date!

Christina is developing quite a keen eye for spotting animals, as well as photographing them! auntie robin is just happy that she volunteers to carry the big camera all the time. ;)

the landscape of the park changes so much as you drive through. we saw a lot of wildlife out on these green plaines.

sulphur cauldron, dragons mouth and mud volcano

we meandered our way back towards camp, making a few more stops to see some of the geothermal features. the sulphur cauldrons were bubbling awesomeness, with a buffalo chillin nearby. the dragons mouth cave was cool... it steamed and hissed, and made growling noises. and the mud volcano was a gurgling mud pool spitting.

more views of the falls and canyon

from the amazing lower falls, we drive around the edge of the canyon to several view points, and upper falls. each spot was more amazing than the last.

brink of lower falls

we started our second day in yellowstone by heading up to yellowstone lake and the grand canyon of yellowstone. after a quick lunch picnic we headed out for a hike down to the brink of lower falls. the trail descended 650 over 3/8 of a mile. when we got down there it was an amazing standing over the falls and looking over the canyon. then we had to hike back up. christina was so pooped by the time we reached the top.

totally wiped out!

by the time we got back to camp, it was almost 7pm and we were totally wiped out!

we made a super yummy dinner of broccoli cheddar soup with Italian sausages, and gobbled it down. after we did our clean-up, we had some time to sit and relax by the lake, and play a few games of cards before bed.

more geothermal features

we were pretty beat from our explorations around old faithful, but there was more to see. we continued north, and drove by some more awesome features, and made a few stops to do quick walks. the sights just got more and more amazing!

we saw [excelsior??], great prismatic, firepot road, and ended at the paint pot mud pits.

buffalo wings

no visit to the park would be complete without a visit to the gift shop... where Christina fell in love with the fuzzy stuffed buffalo, who has now joined our roadtrip. ;) he proudly answers to the name "buffalo wings"

walked a long way!

we had walked quite a ways, and saturated with sights and sounds, we had a quick snack break and headed back. along the way, we saw another huge geyser exploding in the distance, but the real treat if the days was our first buffalo sighting in the fields. it was such an exciting treat, and we got many pics on the good camera, but forgot to snap an iPhone pic. luckily, there was another one napping right by the visitors center!

our feet were super tired by the time we made it back, but it was an exciting walk!

some favorites

2 of our favorite features were grotto, and morning glory

more bubbles, steam & spurts

geysers, hot springs, and tons of other amazing features!

as we walked the path, each feature was more amazing than the last, and we both had so many Ooohhhhhh's and Awwwhhhh's! things were bubbling, steaming, spurting and blooming with color in every direction! like nothing either of us had ever imagined in our lives...

old faithful

just as we were pulling into the parking lots for old faithful, the rain clouds started to roll in. we planned to spend a few hours exploring the area, so we packed up the day bag with lunch fixins, snacks, water, cameras, etc... and just as we started to walk it started to lightly rain. on went the raincoats, and we carried on. we got to the old faithful benches as they were starting to fill, but found front row seats since the rain scared some people back to the trees. we only had to wait 10 min for the geyser to erupt. it was really cool to see, and Christina was super excited because she had never heard of old faithful and geysers.

after a quick pb&j sandwich, we set off on the walking path to explore the rest of the steamy features!

muel deer

didn't take long before we encountered our first Yellowstone nature stop... cars randomly parked on both sides of the road, and tourists with cameras lining the streets. can't beat em, join em!

jumped out of the car, and spent some time watching 4-5 muel deer grazing. christina was really excited about the animals!!

settling in in Yellowstone

I was a little stressed about finding "first come" camping in Yellowstone. our timing put us here on a Saturday morning in July, at the height of tourist season. checked the board and talked to the ranger when we came in, and all the big campgrounds were already booked. the ones that weren't were in opposite sides if the park. had to make a decision about where to go. thought I would head to the central area on the western side, but made a quick decision passing the first campground, pulled in and found a nice spot. no need to spend half our day searching for camping! set up for two nights, and now we were off to explore stress free! :)

at last! wyoming

at last we arrived in wyoming. exciting!!!

twinzies

christina had a flip flop error...so we went to walmart and got all our grocery shopping done. then we went to buy christina flip flops, and she talked me into getting a matching pair. cause i'm gullible.

grand tetons

we arrived in the grand tetons...my battery us about to die. I'll post more tomorrow. ;)

potato museum

today we went to the idaho potato museum. we got free taters for out of staters...you only have to add water!
we walked around for a bit, and we saw the worlds biggest potato chip. christina got an idaho potato museum shirt, and we got a bunch of postcards some with potato pins!

remember, if you want a postcard send us your address. ;)

potato fields

we traded out the deserts of nevada for potato fields and windmills in idaho.

early start

we got up really early today 'cause i wanted to get a head start on our activities. my alarm went off at least 5 times before we got up.

christina is yawning all over the place.
it is making me yawn.

we got in the car today and we figured out we drove 521 miles yesterday. :o

let's just hope we get better sleep tomorrow. ;)