Day 9—One little, two little, three little bison…

In case anyone was wondering, there are a LOT of bison in Yellowstone (and don’t call them buffalo either!!) We have already seen so many that now when we spot one we pretty much just drive on past! The absolute highlight of all the bison viewing today was getting caught in the middle of a ‘bison jam’ of mama & baby bison. Oh my goodness—the cuteness!! There were probably 12-15 babies and nearly that many mamas. So amazing.

Today actually turned out to be the day of the animal babies all around (even though ‘animal viewing’ was not the priority of the day!). We got to see a mama grizzly and her two cubs come bounding across the road. We observed a bald eagle guarding a nest (of presumed eggs/babies). We were able to see a one day old elk hanging out at the Mammoth visitor’s center. And on our way out of the park, we saw several families of mountain goats and babies jumping around the high cliffs. The girls were thrilled to spot all the baby animals…okay, okay, the truth is we were all thrilled by it! The privilege it is to view wildlife in the wild is just hard to put into words.

(click on this to see the cubs)

(mountain goats)

(one day old elk)

In between all the animals, we looked at a lot of blue water and steam (according to Michael!!) In more technical terms, we toured the Norris Geyser Basin and the Mammoth Hot Springs terraces. Here are some of my favorite pictures from these areas:

(emerald pool)

The girls were also able to participate in a Junior Ranger Program that taught them (and me!) the difference between horns and antlers—what they are made of, who has them/who doesn’t, how fast they grow, etc! For example, did you know that horns have growth rings like trees and you can tell the age of a horned animal by counting the rings?!! Or that elk’s antlers grow nearly 5 inches per week?! If you ever need help identifying animals by their horns/antlers, we are your girls! (and, yes, I am SO counting this as hours for school!!)

We left the park today through the north entrance via the famous Roosevelt Arch. I love the quote on the arch.

We are spending the night at a campground in Gardiner, Montana (this makes my second visit to Montana in a week—ha ha!!). In other random news, I was extremely disappointed in the McDonald’s in West Yellowstone. I mean, they set you up with a cute outside like this:

and you think it’s going to be super nice/cute on the inside. Yeah, not so much. It was the teeny, tiniest McD’s I have ever seen —there were probably 12 tables TOTAL and a sign that said ‘no lingering’!! The food was basically the same but EX-PEN-SIVE… not to mention there was no grape jelly or chicken biscuits (to the disappointment of several family members!)

In anticipation of the predicted snow and rain in Yellowstone today, I purchased some heavier duty rain ponchos on our way into the park this morning. Michael predicted that that was a sure way to know that it would NOT rain/snow on us today and he was RIGHT!! Apparently the weather forecasters in Wyoming and Montana were trained at the same school as those in Georgia. They are calling for more of the same tomorrow and Sunday but I’m not holding my breath… It WAS chilly today and the wind has picked up, so maybe we are in for some kind of nasty weather. In any case, we had a super day today.

Tomorrow, we are going to look for some animals in Yellowstone. Seriously!