We had a trip planned to go to Downey, Idaho for a while now. A few days before we decided to change our route a little bit and hit Yellowstone on the way down!! We hit the North entrance, and this is a really cool gateway we just had to stop and get pictures with :-)
This is what we saw when we entered Mammoth. We really want to come back to Mammoth in September during the rut when all the elk come in and chill :-)
Posing for a break during our hike up to see the Mammoth hot pools.
Parker had to stop about every 10 feet and look out just like this.
Posing in front of the first waterfall we've seen so far.
We saw a grizzly bear!!! We were about 100 yards away.
The first of the many bulls that we saw :-) He was a 6-point if I remember right.
Finally grabbing dinner at 10 o'clock at night! We were starving! This is at the restaurant in the Old Faithful Inn where we stayed.
We had a rough night with the boys. I finally got Parker to fall asleep at 12:30 and then Dez woke up bright eyed at 6:00. So Dez and I got to enjoy Old Faithful when not too many others get to. I really enjoyed it actually. This is Old Faithful at about 7a.m.
Old Faithful erupting at about 7:15ish.
We could see Old Faithful from our room! This was our view :-)
After a while of boredom, Dez and I finally went and woke up the boys. We hit up Old Faithful, toured the Visitors Center, checked out the other Inn, got some burgers for lunch, saw Old Faithful erupt again, then hit the road to look for more wildlife. :-)
My wonderful navigating accidentally led us here :-) I'm so glad, because these were the beautiful, colorful pools that we were wanting to see!
Ty took some cool artsy pictures of a frog pond :-)
This was crazy! Cars were pulled over everywhere, and finally we were able to see what the commotion was about...I think there were 4 bulls here (only one standing). We thought it was kinda weird that they chose this location. You'd think they would want to be in the grass and shade. Anyways, Ty was in heaven! :-)
The first buffalo we saw. After this one, we saw oodles!
Checkin' out the mud pools.
This buffalo came down into the parking lot from the hill where the pools were. Who knows how close we were to him without knowing! He almost charged a couple people. He took us all by surprise.
We followed him through the parking lot and this is how close we were!
My favorite buffalo that we saw! I love the fro hair!!! :o)
Can you believe how close these kids are?! Their mom kept telling them to get closer. They got about ten feet closer to him before they were done. I just cant believe how stupid some people are. Wow.
Parker looking at the Bull through his play binoculars :-)
After leaving the bull above, we drove about 100 yards, and there was another crowd gathered. Ty ran over to see what it was and he found this...
He was about 20 feet away! Ty took some pictures and ran. Those stupid tourists stood there while he was walking towards them! I couldn't believe it. We were waiting to hear sirens.
This is the "Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone." It was BE-A-UTIFUL! Now I really want to see the real Grand Canyon!
It was a wonderful trip! Now we get to spend some quality time with wonderful family :o)
