More Yellowstone Adventures

I went into Yellowstone again over the weekend with some of the new interns from Buffalo Bill. We had an AWESOME day of animal viewing after a fantastic pancake breakfast (again), and spent the entire day driving around the upper loop in Yellowstone. Before we even got to the park we saw a bighorn sheep, so I knew the day was gonna be a good one. Once inside the entrance, we quickly saw a fox and a grizzily bear! Apparently there was also a moose in the area, but we missed seeing that one. The grizzily bear sow had been munching on tasty treats in this meadow for about 3 days so they had lots of park rangers set up to make sure people didn't get attacked by the bear OR hit by cars driving by. After that we continued on and saw several buffalo (although not as many as I was expecting) and took a quick stop by the Upper and Lower Falls for some good pictures.

By the time we made it to Mammoth Hot Springs we were ready to see some more animals. There was a small herd of elk hanging around some of the buildings (this is pretty standard for the times I've been to Mammoth) and of course there were rangers around to make sure we weren't too close or about to be run over. We had a small picnic lunch (since our big pancake breakfast was lasting several hours) before moving on to my FAVORITE part of the park.

One of my favorite pictures is of Mike fly fishing in one of the rivers in Yellowstone.














 I always try to stop in this area when I'm going through the park. There are a ton of huge boulders in the middle of the river and lots of flowers and berry bushes that make all my pictures turn out really well. So I stopped once again for pictures...this is what it looked like on Saturday.






When we got to the Lamar Valley, we saw a huge crowd of people with their very expensive cameras and telescopes, so we knew there was something good going on. We decided that there was another grizzily bear. After looking through the binoculars I decided there was a bird sitting on a pile of manure. Then, as I stared through the binoculars a little more, I saw a face. Not a bird face...a BEAR face. Whoa. I had to do a lot more studying, but eventually decided that it was a bear eating a buffalo carcass. WAY COOL! I had said literally hours before, that I'd never seen a dead buffalo, and that it would be really neat to see one. Now was my chance!

 In between the 2 trees is a small blob...that is mostly the carcass and the grizzily is sort of behind it. I'm going to try to edit some of my pictures a little bit so that you can see it a little more clearly. But believe me, it is there. 

After seeing the grizzily we went through the rest of the park sort of in a hurry. I knew it was getting close to dark and I wanted to get through the Sunlight Basin while it was still light because it is a really beautiful area. Unfortunately, the weather didn't have the same idea that I did. A storm was moving in, which brought a LOT of fog clouds..which I will admit, made everything look totally different than i'd seen it before, which was neat. I just didn't want to be driving in the middle of a foggy storm.  

Heading up the switchbacks to the top of Dead Indian pass, I ran into the worst fog I think I've ever seen. I think it was worse than Blowing Rock. There were only about 4 or 5 feet of visibility, and everything was so eerie and quiet. Naturally, we'd be going through open range with cows crossing the road everywhere when fog is so thick you could cut it with a knife. I've never understood that phrase until now. A big truck with a horse trailer passed us going the opposite direction, and he literally parted the fog. We could see probably 15 feet behind the trailer after it passed us. So bizarre. I am extremely glad that I knew the roads that I was driving on....it could have been a lot worse if I didn't. One of the interns took a picture at the top of the pass in the fog....I'll put it up along with what it is SUPPOSED to look like up there once she sends it to me. 

***update***

here's what it is supposed to look like:

here's what it actually looked like:

I'd been fighting off a cold all day Saturday, and once I got back to the house and crashed it decided not to go away. I was very congested Saturday night and decided I better not go to church on Sunday and share germs. I rested most of the day and made Grannie's chicken and rice which is a sure fix-all....mostly because it is my favorite food and it always makes me feel better! I'm doing much better today, but still not quite back to normal. 

I have a very long to-do list this week because MY FAMILY IS COMING TO VISIT!!! They are getting in sometime this weekend....still not exactly sure which days since they are making several stops along the way for Lesley to see parts of the country she's never seen before. I can't wait for them to get here! It's going to be so fantastic! I have quite the list of things to do once they are all here, but I don't know how we're going to fit it all in with Dad wanting to hunt and Mike wanting to fish. We might have to have some girl excursions without them. Pray for safe travels for them....they're bringing me lots of Sundrop!! :) 

I'm still working on pictures of my new house....if I can get some of my stuff put away and cleaned up for the family to be here, i'll get some pictures taken!!