Wednesday, July 3, 2013, Yellowstone Park, Bozeman, MT

OK, fair warning, Wednesday was a BIG day, so there are a lot of pictures. We woke up with no particular plan in mind - saw these birds out the window. I had seen them several times and tried to describe them to Joani unsuccessfully. I think they may be called Magpies, but let me know if that is not correct.

Somewhere around 10:00, a rough plan was formed to visit Yellowstone Park. We went south from Bozeman, MT, to West Yellowstone (about 80-90 miles). We had a quick lunch and entered the park around 12:30. It is really hard to grasp just how expansive the park is. According to the map, we only traveled 54 miles inside the park. At the end of the day, Joani had run out of memory (4 GB) in her camera (almost 800 pictures) and I had nearly 500 pictures. We spent several hours the next day reducing that number to 600 pictures total. Below is a small sampling of what we saw on our first day in the park.

Coming in the west entrance, we followed the Madison River. We stopped for a few shots but quickly moved on.

We were told buffalo gouge the trees with their horns

We took just about every turn-out and were always pleasantly surprised. We stopped at Terrace Springs, which was not even identified on the official map.

Next was Gibbon Falls. This is the kind of falls that never even gets mentioned when people talk about Yellowstone. I believe I have been to some state parks that did not have a waterfall that could match this one.

Artist's Paintpots was clearly a popular spot.  We were lucky to find a parking space. The colors were otherworldly. Sometimes the water was so clear you could barely see it was there and other times it was milky white or red or blue. I have no idea what caused so many colors in such close proximity.

Boiling "Mudpots" look just like porcelain slurry.

The next big attraction was the Norris Geyser Basin. Again, so much variety and such strange colors you might think they are not natural. I don't think these pictures really do justice to the wonder of the park. If you have been here, you know what I mean and if you haven't been here, you really need to add this to your bucket list.

"Constant Geyser" is not as constant as it used to be.

Now it should be called "Every Now and Then Geyser"

David caught the tail end of this eruption.

You could hear the water boiling everywhere!

We rounded a corner to find a major traffic jam. When I asked a Ranger what was going on he said there are some mountain goats up there. I could not see them. A lot of people had trouble seeing them, but when cars stop, it creates a reaction that is difficult to stop. Joani got a picture of them - see if you can find them below.

Mammoth Hot Springs was another "must see" sight for the park. Joani thought it was a little like seeing the formations in a cave only on the outside of the mountain. Again, the colors were so strange. It looked like we were in a winter wonderland sometimes and other times it was like we were walking around a big outdoor hot tub.

No, it isn't snow!

Calcium Carbonate, and lots of it, combined with very hot water (170 degrees and up).

Finally, ended the day in Fort Yellowstone. I thought we had not really seen much in the way of wildlife and then there was a sign saying "Do not approach the Elk." I thought "That's a strange sign" and then WHOA! we were in the midst of a herd of elk.

We left the park through the original entrance. It took a little photo manipulation to brighten this shot - it was getting dark by this time.

I think we were both worn out by the end of the day. We had about an 80-mile drive back to Sam and the coach. As we reflected on the fantastic sights we had seen, we were treated to a magnificent sunset that just kept getting more and more beautiful as we drove home.