Our Yellowstone Trip - Geysers and Grizzlies

On Sunday of last week, we got a fairly early start after breakfast in the cabin and headed into Yellowstone Park for the first time.  Mark, who has been to the park a number of times, and I, who has heard about the crush of people who go to the park every summer, were both expecting long lines of traffic, but we were pleasantly surprised in this regard.  The line-up to get into the park was only a few cars long, and we encountered no serious traffic in the park that day.

Our main destination that day was Old Faithful.  Of course, I've heard about this geyser for as long as I can remember, and it surely must be one of the most photographed sites in the world.  We arrived in time to get a good seat right in front of the geyser and had about a 15-minute wait before she blew.  The kids were much more interested in an old buffalo who had wondered into the scene, however.

After catching this show, we went back to the car, past another bison wondering through the parking area, and discovered a pack of crows happily devouring a pizza that someone had apparently unthinkingly left in the bed of their pick-up.  

From there, we retraced our steps through the park, back to West Yellowstone where we stopped at Arby's for some lunch (since the Quads now refuse to go to McDonalds, unless it's for breakfast - a story for another time).  After lunch, we went to a wolf and grizzly bear wildlife center there in West Yellowstone.  It wasn't quite what I expected - more like a large zoo than an actual habitat - but it was still interesting.  Mark was taken with the grizzlies, and the kids were taken with the machine that turns pennies into oval pressed medallions.

We did see some wolves, but they were all snoozing at the base of trees.  Speaking of wolves, however, as we were walking around, Levi noticed some large buttons for sale that had pictures of the various wolves and bears in the habitat and he especially noticed that one of the wolves was named Joseph.  He excited pointed this out to me, and of course I had to buy it (for $2).  But then I thought it would be fun for Mark to have one as well, so we picked out one of the bears who was named "Kobuk."*  These two buttons now grace the door of our refrigerator, a constant reminder of our trip to Yellowstone (and Mark has a new nickname as well).

*(Kobuk and her sister Nakina were actually from a litter of triplets. Their mother and brother were shot and killed by a resident near the community of Delta Junction, Alaska, and they came to live at the West Yellowstone Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in 1998. They were named by a West Yellowstone and Delta Junction elementary student who picked these names after the rivers near the bear's birthplace.)

Levi outside the Wolf and Grizzly Center