Where the “buffalo” roam

We drove almost 2000 miles this last weekend (four days total) to visit our daughter who has been living in Montana this summer.  It was a crazy fun blitz and over in a flash.  We took some audio books and podcasts in the car which always make the time go faster. 

We had so much fun being with Lindsey.  She did a 4K run on Saturday morning – ‘Scramble for Ethiopia’ which was a fundraiser for Charity:Water.  Then we had lunch at Burger B*b’s on Main in Bozeman.

I have to say that there sure are a lot of friendly people in Bozeman. Everybody seemed exceptionally helpful and just plain nice.

On Sunday we headed to Yellowstone, going in at the West entrance and leaving at about 7:30 that evening via the North entrance.  We didn’t actually see any buffalo – or even a single bear, which we were all hoping to see – but we were up really close to several elk and a couple of bison. 

This animal is H-U-G-E.  We took this photo from the car window.  We decided not to disturb him.

These weren’t taken with a zoom – we were that close! 

I don’t know if you can tell but that baby is having a little snack from his mama right in the middle of the road.  Do you think these elk are used to people? 

The forest ranger eventually came along and told all of us (loudly) to back away from the wildlife… you never know what a mama will do if she feels her baby is threatened.  This one seemed pretty nonchalant about the whole thing, don’t you think? 

Do you see all of those elk lying in the field with their heads poking out of the grass?   

Old Faithful was a bit anticlimactic compared to the animals and the other natural wonders in the park.  I remember thinking the same thing last time we were there:

This was summer of 1992 and you can tell even Amy and Lisa were hoping for something a little more exciting than hot water spewing out of a hole in the ground.  Lindsey had just turned one so she stayed back at the condo with her grandma. 

If you’ve been there, you know that Yellowstone is a bit like walking around on another planet.

Hot.

Weird colors.

Weird shapes.

Steamy.

But there’s also lots of green and cool beauty.

All in all, it was a really great trip – and over too quickly!