Yellowstone National Park (Part 2)

Our first couple of days in Yellowstone National Park were exciting. Bears and bison and more bears and bison! And babies!

But there is a lot more wildlife to see.

Like elk.

We definitely saw more elk in Grand Teton, so when we spotted them in Yellowstone, we stopped.

There were beautiful white pelicans. Isn’t this couple adorable?

And pronghorn deer. (We saw a lot of these while in Bryce Canyon.)

And regular deer. I love the fur on this guy’s ears!

But, quite frankly, the “other parts” of Yellowstone National Park are amazing.

It really is an amusement park.

Gurgling mud in the paint pots.

A water show with the geysers.

Steam works.

Boiling mud that looks like a melted milk chocolate treat.

And oh the colors!

I cannot wrap my head around the hot steam coming out of, or next to, the river. Especially with spring snow runoff. How is Mother Nature doing that? And flowers growing next to geyser openings? How?!

After a couple of mornings of wildlife viewing, Wednesday morning we were back at landscapes for a sunrise shoot on Madison River just inside the West Yellowstone gate.

I was less on bear watch and more on bison watch given their proclivity to suddenly appear at the worst times!

Afterwards we had a lovely breakfast along Yellowstone River before heading to Yellowstone Lake for a drive. We had visited Yellowstone Lake on the evening we arrived and much of the lake’s edges were still frozen over.

But after two days of warmish weather, the ice melted and left us with a gorgeous blue.

Just a few moments after taking the photo above, as we were continuing along Yellowstone Lake, we spotted this guy, a huge grizzly bear walking along the beach. Bears (and bison) are literally everywhere…even the beach!

On Thursday morning, I finally cried uncle and needed a little more sleep, so Mr. Misadventures went off to Lamar Valley on his own. Of course, that’s the morning he spotted a grizzly up-close!

I was kind of bummed because I wanted to see one closer than the one we saw on the beach. That’s what I get for a couple hours of additional sleep!

Sadly, on Friday, one week after leaving Grand Teton, we had to say good-bye to this amazing Yellowstone National Park and head back to Phoenix. I had not expected to enjoy this park so much and now I want to explore every corner. We will definitely return, for sure in May again as well as having our eye on February.

A few things to note about visiting Yellowstone:

> Pack a picnic lunch. The park is so huge it takes a long time to get to different points of interest and there are limited facilities so the best thing to do is to enjoy each day to the fullest without leaving the park. That means packing your meals in. There are picnic spots and lots of turnouts with great views to enjoy your food.

> Drive with caution. Not only are there animals everywhere, but also people drive very erratically when they see them!

> Bring or buy bear spray. It really is a must. If you are flying in, you’ll have to purchase some once you arrive. You can buy it in the park (and actually the pricing is the same as what we saw on Amazon) and you can donate it for the rangers to use when you leave.

How about you? Have you visited Yellowstone National Park? Did you enjoy the natural wonders?

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