Yellowstone - Day 1 (Canyon Country)

Yellowstone.... oh my goodness, I really don't have the words to describe this visit.  It was incredible.  I would encourage everyone to go at least once in their life.   10 months of planning has gone into this trip - lots of side trips on the way out and on the way home - but this was the true highlight of the trip!  

 

And it's not just the park - we entered from the East entrance - which is an hour from Cody WY.  That means an hour of driving through amazing views like this one from the Buffalo Bill Dam.

 



Once you get into Yellowstone - Lake Yellowstone is beautiful - and amazing.  All along the shore there are steam vents that are active.

And you never know when you'll come across some bison...

And yes - in this photo below we were probably a little bit too close.  The ONLY reason I let the girls walk out is that all the bison in that herd were lying down - and it takes them a bit to get up.  And I knew we could outrun the people that were even closer to them than we were.

And we were further away than you think in this picture - there is a bit of a rise on that hill - there were actually people on a level below the girls.  I realized quickly people will do crazy things to get a picture of an animal.

Off to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone we go....

One of our favorite times of day were our picnics in the park - we always found great places (like this river) to sit and chill.

One of our first stops was at the mud volcano....

Megan tolerated it - Nicole gagged her way through it.  She was less than impressed with the power because of the smell.

But the non-smelly Grand Canyon of Yellowstone was a hit with everyone!

And everywhere you looked - you found wildlife.  We came upon this family of white tailed deer as we rounded a bend.

And this guy was in front of our parking spot....  sort of put you in a difficult spot - do you get out or stay in your car????

He eventually rambled on so we got out to check out another view of the canyon.

After we checked into our room at the lodge, we decided to go on a dusky drive to Lamar Valley to see if we could spot any wildlife...

If you look closely towards the top of the tree you will see a baby bear cub.  His momma was not far away in the ravine at the base of the tree.... so we were in our car but tried to get a picture of the cub.

The dusky sky made the mountains so beautiful.

We also came upon these Big Horn Sheep.  Awesome sight for sure - they are big guys!

 And the guy in the photo below is a bit toooooo close.....

We saw tons of Pronghorn Deer --- which I now know are also known as antelope!  I didn't realize they were the same thing - now I do.  They were so fun to watch!

Once the sun set - it got really really really dark.  The sky was amazing - driving through Dunraven Pass when you couldn't see well - not so cool.  We did pass by a few of our friends on the way back to the lodge....

I can't tell you how many times someone in our call exclaimed over how amazing, beautiful, breathtaking, awesome, and cool something was.    So far we'd seen mudpots, steam vents, sunsets, canyons, waterfalls, mountains covered in snow, deer, pronghorn, rams, and a baby bear...... seriously - how much awesomeness can you fit into 3 days?????