Yellowstone & Grand Tetons

I had a few firsts on this trip! I believe that when we hit about 10 miles worth of Montana, that was my first time there.

It was also my first time to visit Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. It was amazing from start to finish.

Besides the restrooms, this was our first stop inside Yellowstone. There was steam coming up all over this area of the park. We didn't get a close look at any of these, but it was cool to see from far away even.

This was a cool area that had a lot of hot springs that ran down. The water and minerals mixed with the soil made this cool travertine stuff.

Dad was already ready for a break. He was the primary driver on this trip and didn't get as much sleep as the rest of us.

The scenery was breathtaking!

The first animals we really saw were some huge elk. I didn't take a picture, because I thought we'd see a lot more, but alas, we didn't! We saw tons of buffalo. We pulled over to take a picture of some of them and I heard a lady say that there was a black bear and her cub just up the hill.

I had to use some serious zoom power, but here is the little cub on that fallen tree.

Here's his mom. It was so cool to see them. The baby bear was a little rambunctious. They drew quite a crowd.

This was the first big waterfall that we saw. It was so beautiful!

We saw these little ground squirrels near the waterfall. I saw one guy touch one of them. I guess they're pretty used to tourists!

Buffalo Crossing!

More buffalo! We didn't see any moose, which I was a little sad about. I still enjoyed the other animals, though . . . and the scenery!

We got to the "Grand Canyon" of Yellowstone. There was an eagle next just below one of the look-outs. I couldn't quite zoom close enough to tell for sure, but it looks like it might be a bald eagle in there. The bird was definitely in the nest, we just couldn't see it super clearly!

The waterfall in that canyon was MASSIVE and so impressive. I couldn't stop staring at it.

I tried to get a nice picture in front of it, but it was pretty windy!

Here's another shot of it through the trees.

This is the same canyon, just from another look-out. I love this picture with the little tree in front!

This hot spring was the bluest I'd seen. You could feel the heat and humidity coming off of it and from all the springs in this little area. It also smelled very much like sulfur. I guess when there's sulfur in the water, it reflects every color except blue and that's why it appears to be that color.

This is a video of a hot spring called the "Paint Pot" I believe. It really does look like a big vat of bubbling paint.

This was right next to the paint pot. Steam was escaping out of this hole and it was SO loud! You can also see some boiling water coming out of this spring.
Still in the same area, we came across this spring that had some serious boiling going on. I couldn't believe how hot that water was!

Okay, last video from this little area. This was almost like a geyser, it was boiling so high. We had gotten out at tons of places and almost skipped this last one. I was glad we stopped after all.Our last real stop in Yellowstone was at the most famous attraction: Old Faithful. There was quite a crowd to witness the eruption.

I got some of it on video. It erupted for quite a while.Here's a still shot. It was pretty impressive. We left Yellowstone right after this and headed toward Grand Teton.

I was in awe at those mountains. I had never seen anything like it. I took TONS of pictures, but I am only subjecting you to 4! I love the flowers in front of this shot.

I wish the lighting was better. This doesn't even capture how huge and impressive those mountains were.

I loved how jagged they were.

We only made one stop - Jenny Lake. This is right off of the lake. We took a shuttle across the lake and back. Beautiful! I want to go back sometime and do some hiking! Any takers?