YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK - Bison Walking...

This was the most incredible site on our last day in the park.  On our final drive through the park on our way to the West Side exit, we encountered these bison walking down the middle of the road.  I panicked for a minute not knowing if I should turn around, stay still or drive through.  Turns out, the bison are least afraid of the vehicles if they are moving...so we slowly drove through a herd of about 200 bison!!! This was such a thrill even though sometimes a little frightening.

YELLOWSTONE
Yellowstone is divided up into 5 main areas -- Canyon Village (where we stayed), Yellowstone Lake, Old Faithful, Mammoth Hot Springs and Roosevelt Lodge.  Each of these five areas can be a park in itself. Canyon Village is bordered by the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone; Yellowstone Lake is surrounded by beautiful mountains; Old Faithful is the world famous geyser; Mammoth Hot Springs is full of colorful hot pools and limestone terraces; and Roosevelt Lodge is full of volcanic hills and glacial valleys.

This bison settled himself in front of a cabin -- hope those folks didn't really want to get back in too soon...

This bison was using this tree to scratch his back.

Norris Geyser Basin area

Mammoth Hot Springs

Midway Geyser Basin

YELLOWSTONE - JULY 2012
Yellowstone at night and early morning is beautiful...

GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK

This national forest covers 3.4 million acres and contains the highest peak in Wyoming -- Gannett Peak which is 13,804 feet high.  There are over 2,500 miles of trails including 200 miles of the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail.  The snake river canyon is a beautiful corridor used for fishing, boating and whitewater rafting.  You pass through this park when entering Yellowstone from the South Entrance.  We were lucky to see a Moose very close up on our way through.

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK - July 2012
My mom, sister and I just returned from a trip to Yellowstone.  We traveled to Salt Lake City, UT and spent a couple of days and then drove north through the Grand Tetons National Park and then on to Yellowstone where we spent 4 days.  We saw an amazing variety of wildlife on our travels.  I took over a thousand pictures; below are a few...

This Black Bear and cub were trying to cross the road but couldn't because of all the traffic.  It was actually quite sad to see the mother bear come up to the roadside to cross with her cub following along and then turn around; over and over again. Finally, a park ranger came and blocked the roadway so the bear and cub could cross, which they did.  They wandered up the hill out of sight - we were so lucky to witness this.

This bear cub was wandering the fields, eating flowers as if it didn't have a care in the world. As I took pictures, I wondered where the mother bear was.  She never appeared to my delight because we were quite exposed in the middle of the field!

This bunny was enjoying the warm waters at Emerald Springs in the Norris Geyser basin.

We were lucky to catch this coyote on our drive through the park one afternoon.

This elk was high up on a hill top in the Roosevelt Tower area of the park. From down below, all you could see was the tip of the horns.  I was able to get high enough to take this picture, one of my favorites.

This Grizzly Bear was actually just above one of the pull off areas.  We were lucky to be driving by at the exact time it was walking through. It stayed only a few minutes and then was gone. 

These animals were everywhere! It is a young yellowbelly marmot.

This appears to be two female pronghorn antelope.  The females have very short horns with no prongs.

This is another yellowbelly marmot. Typically, they live in colonies and one will stand guard to alert danger.  This one was perched atop a guard post along the roadside.

We saw this mule deer on our first morning.  She very quickly ran into the woods and then we didn't see another mule deer the entire trip.

On our drive out of Yellowstone, hundreds of bison were walking down the road. This baby bison didn't seem to be scared of the vehicles and was just jogging down the road.