Yellowstone, Day 1

Our day started out in Jackson. Here I am at one of four gates made from discarded elk antlers at the town square:


A few hours later, we were finally in Yellowstone National Park. The first thing we saw was an elk close to the road:


Then several bison passed us on the road:


We saw dozens of bison and geysers today. Here is combined photo of the two!


One of the geysers contributing to that steam was this one:


This geyser area also had a bubbling pool of mud:


Most of the steam in the bison picture came from this geyser:


After many stops, we eventually made our way to see Old Faithful.


This is a picture of (L to R) me, Old Faithful, and Julie:


We then walked around the Old Faithful area checking out other geysers.


We spent enough time wandering that we saw Old Faithful erupt a second time!


We stopped by the Midway Basin after Old Faithful.


Then we drove around looking for wildlife. We saw this bald eagle, which was perched nicely on the top of an old burned tree until just before Julie was about to snap his picture, at which point it flew away, leaving Julie to frantically take its picture as best she could:


Then we came upon a bison traffic jam:


We eventually had to turn around and head for our hotel in West Yellowstone. Just when we thought our day was over, we came upon this wolf eating a carcas:



It was the first time I'd ever seen a wolf in the wild. A professional photographer was in another car that had pulled over to watch. Through her scope, we saw the wolf up close. It was like watching a National Geographic special! There were three other wolves sitting and waiting off to the side. Eventually, this wolf finished gnawing at the bones, left the remains to the crows, and headed off with the other three wolves. It was the highlight of the day!