Yellowstone

When we arrived in West Yellowstone, the concierge at the hotel greeted us with a big smile. He was such a "dear". Due to cold weather predictions and sold out campsites we stayed at the Days Inn. The hotel restaurant was appropriately named Trappers Lodge and the walls were covered with beaver, fox, and mink pelts which hung next to stuffed birds and fish.

We did our usual off hours tour. We spent six hours in the early evening and it was amazing. Here is a thermal pool that was so deep you couldn't see the bottom. It was reminiscent of Green Lakes in NY but much hotter! Don't swim in this pool.

As we drove through the park, whenever we saw cars pulled to the side of the road we knew we'd see something wild. We saw this bison, a herd of moose, a wild eagle, and trumpeter swans all wandering free in the park. The only danger was making sure Ann didn't get hit by a car as she leapt from the Suburu to snap pictures.

This was one of our favorite geysers, the Beehive. It erupted continuously for over five minutes making a loud whooshing sound. We also got close enough to the Great Basin geyser that it soaked us when it erupted. Of course, we saw Old Faithful too which was a group event with hundreds of people gathered to cheer as it spewed the water over fifty feet into the sky.

As night fell, we saw the sunset over the park and watched steam rising from craters as we walked around the different thermal areas. Amazing!