Yellowstone National Park (June 9 2007)

On Saturday morning, I woke up with the Sun and headed to the restaurant at Grant Village. I had a good hearty breakfast and headed towards West Thumb Geyser Basin. There was only one other car there when I arrived - a family with two young boys. As I walked the path aroun the thermal areas, I heard a weird (and kind of scary noise). I thought the boys were goofing around. Then I saw the family come running towards me.

I asked them what the noise was. They said they didn't know and they didn't want to find out! They ran to their car and drove off. I was all alone. I contemplated running to my car too, but decided to stick around.

I heard the noise again, and realized that it was this female elk.

And she was calling her baby.

I stood quiety for a while watching them, until they got a little too close for my comfort. Then I continued my walk around the thermal areas.

After leaving West Thumb, I made a quick stop at Keplar Cascades.
And then I made my way to the park highlight, Old Faithful.
It was about an hour before Old Faithful was scheduled to blow, so I walked the upper trail to see other geysers and thermal features.





Finally it was time to see Old Faithful.
It was fairly windy, making it difficult to clearly see the water spout.
After leaving Old Faithful, I pretty much had my share of geysers and thermal areas. I skipped Upper Geyser Basin, and just took a few pictures of Midway Geyser Basin.

I decided to take the Firehole Creek one-way road.

There were a couple more geysers here.
After passing the Great Fountain Geyser, the road elevation changed, and became a narrow path above a deep canyon.

Looking into the canyon, I spotted this mother and baby elk on a little grass isthmus in the middle of the river.

Near the end of the drive was Firehole Falls.
Once I was back on the main road, I spotted some bison next to Nez Perce Creek.
I wanted to take the trail to get closer to them, but there was a big warning sign saying the trail was closed because of recent bear activity. Hopefully I will get to see bison closer up at some point.