Yellowstone! (A bit late...)

I'm such a procrastinator sometimes. We went to Yellowstone National Park back in JUNE, and I'm just getting around to posting pictures now in August (though I'll back date it so it shows up in the right month). We met some family out there for a fun week of camping and exploring...and it was a great trip!  Yellowstone is such an incredible place - just so much natural oddity and wildlife in one place.

Steve and I arrived two days before the rest of the camping party, so we were able to set up camp and did an evening drive too.  This is the Midway Basin area at sunset:

And we also stopped to see the Old Faithful Lodge at night, along with sitting through an Old Faithful eruption.

Once Mark and Susan and the girls joined us, we hit a good rhythm - explore early, siesta and relax during the middle part of the day, and explore again in the evening. That way we were able to avoid some of the crowds and also some of the hotter part of the day.

Here are some of the places we explored:
Norris Basin

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone:
Long exposure in the late evening...

Mammoth Hot Springs:
The Mammoth area has really changed a lot since our last visit. Many of the springs are no longer active, but there were still a lot of elk handing around!

 And the Midway Geyser Basin:

 This is Sapphire Pool. Incredible.

 

This is Morning Glory Pool. It's awesome from the air, and still pretty cool from ground level.

And finally, a road bison. These guys (and gals) just don't care about cars. They walked wherever (and whenever) they wanted. We also saw coyotes, maybe a wolf, several black bears, deer, elk, hundreds upon hundreds of bison, and a bunch of smaller critters. What a great place!