Yellowstone National Park: Day One

Today, I was at the entrance to Yellowstone at 8:30 am in hopes of finally seeing some wildlife. According to friends and family, this would be the place to see some. They were right. I was not disappointed!

I drove the upper loop and the Lamar Valley today. Upon entering and exiting the park later, I saw some elk grazing.





This one appears to have some kind of tracking band on her.



This is yet another gorgeous park, despite a great amount of deforestation due to wild fires. There are a lot of dead trees down that look like pick-up sticks. It is a very diverse park with alpine forests, canyons, mountains, valleys, lakes, falls, geysers, hot springs and more.







When I got to the northeastern corner of the upper loop, I took a ride out through Lamar Valley. There were herds and herds of bison!



There were big ones...



and baby ones :)



This guy strayed away from the herd and held up traffic for quite some time. He just kinda meandered down one side of the road, and then down the other until we just ended up passing him.



Coming back across the northern section of the upper loop, traffic was stopped. And low and behold, there was a black bear coming up out of a stream.



On the northwestern corner of the loop was Mammoth Springs Terraces. Very unique formations with hot springs on top.





At the southwestern corner of the loop is the Norris geyser basin. I took a hike down to see the geysers along with other hot springs.

Norris geyser basin



Emerald Springs. This one has the distinct odor of sulfer, which helps to give it it's pretty green green color :)



Steamboat Springs. It's very difficult trying to photograph steaming springs. A lot of them turned out as white blurs. lol



Tomorrow, we’ll explore the lower loop of the park!