The (long overdue) Yellowstone Post

The last week of August (I know, I know...I suck at blogging), my husband and I, along with my Mother-in-Law and her boyfriend, took the long trip up to Wyoming to camp at Yellowstone National Park.  I had been to Yellowstone many times as a kid, but it was a first for everyone else.

It's about a 10 hour drive from Colorado Springs to Yellowstone.  Most of the scenery is...uneventful, to say the least.

After the long, uneventful drive, we made it safely and were able to get settled in and pitch our tents. I will say this, tent camping in Northern Wyoming at the end of August is not fun...it got COLD at night!!

We spent the next several days exploring the park and going on some adventures.

We saw about a gazillion buffalo during our stay.  I got a couple neat shots with my new camera. 

The big guy above was right next to the road as we drove by. I felt brave rolling down my window to take a photo, but one car ahead of us stopped and everyone got out of the car and walked right up to him.  Apparently they missed the signs posted everywhere that say DO NOT APPROACH BUFFALO. If they are fluffy and eat grass, then surely they can't be dangerous...right? I wouldn't mess with that guy, even if he seems harmless.

There was also an elk in rut wandering around the campground bugling all night. We did get to see him one morning, but I was too slow with my camera to get a picture.  He was very majestic.

One day while we were there, we drove down to Jackson, WY and rented RZR's for the day.  This was really fun, but very dirty!

If anyone needs an idea for a Christmas gift for Brian, this is a good one!!

Of course we saw Old Faithful....

We wanted to go on a hike, so we went to the gift shop and bought a hiking map.  We selected a trail that claimed to be a 6 mile loop...turns out it was actually a 12 mile loop in the back country.  

 

We were exhausted by then end, but it paid off with an excellent view of Yellowstone Canyon and the Upper and Lower Falls.

I got to try out the panorama feature of my new camera taking shots of the Grand Teton Mountains. These are some of my favorite photos of the whole trip.

 

 

All in all, it was a pretty fun trip. Hopefully we will be able to go again some day!