American Old West Tour Day 3-5

DAY 3:

After a nice dinner in West Yellowstone, (Mike had the elk tenderloin and I had the bison. So yummy.) we rested up and headed into the park the following morning. We took this photo with the "little camera" so I'll have to crop it together later. For now enjoy. 

We were off to a great start on day one in Yellowstone. Within 10 minutes we spotted a bald eagle perched on a tree overlooking the river. 'Merica! 

We decided to drive the lower loop on day one in order to make it to our dinner reservations at the Old Faithful Inn. 

Bison! Delicious. 

A lone female elk. 

Mike likes rivers. 

We took a short detour off the main drive and came across these beautiful falls: Firehole Falls

Back on the main drive we took a short hike around the geysers surrounding the Old Faithful Inn

We decided to stop and wait for Old Faithful to erupt... She was a little late and Mikey's ears got cold...

Look! They named one after Mike!

Finally, there she goes!! Not quite as impressive looking so far away on the camera but it was 100+ feet into the air. 

Morning Glory pool

A bull elk just off the road from Old Faithful

A crowd had formed while we were taking this shot when we overheard a grown man ask the nearby ranger, "Is he here everyday?" 

These people vote.  (<--Mike's comment)

Some mule deer around the lake. 

The Upper Falls of the Yellowstone Grand Canyon

We got a couple photos like this. Imagine you go to see the Statue of Liberty and ask an (American!) bystander to take your photo, and they manage to maneuver the camera in such a way to totally obscure the Statue of Liberty. As if you said to them, "Hey, you know that thing you came all this way to see? Make sure you don't get that in the shot."

The Lower Falls

This was attempt #2 with random photographer #2. First one had us exactly covering the falls, again. 

Back to the historic Old Faithful Inn to celebrate our 2 year anniversary a few days early. 

This was the table in which Bonnie and Clyde were finally captured. 

DAY 4:

For day two in the park we drove around the upper loop around Mammoth Hot Springs and Tower Roosevelt. 

Just outside of Mammoth we spotted this wolf just off the road eating red fox. This happened to be when the "big camera" died on us. I say died but what I really mean is the auto focus quit working and mike and I are too camera stupid to figure it out. So the remainder of photos are from the point and shoot. 

No worries, we did get it "fixed" in a camera shop in Jackson Hole. It is in need of a good cleaning after our dusty travels. 

No really, mike really likes rivers

We ended our last day in Yellowstone on horseback. This was actually a great excursion that Mike planned for us. (Actually, he planned the entire trip!) We were part of as all group and our guides took us out for a 2 hour back country tour of Yellowstone. Our tour then met up with a couple other tours and wagons for a chuck wagon style dinner at sunset. The food was great, music was flowing, and the campfire coffee was actually really nice. 

After our tour, not far from the dinner site we saw a black bear! Apparently there was a momma bear and two cubs in the area but they stayed pretty hidden. 

Gorgeous. By the way...this was taken at about 9:30-10pm. So weird how bright it was!

DAY 5:

We decided to drive through Yellowstone down to Jackson Hole through Grand Teton park on our way to our final destination of Denver, CO. It was a long day on the road. Wyoming is pretty darn boring outside of the areas I just mentioned. Flat and windy. 

Never disappointing, Yellowstone gave us a nice send off, we saw another bear! We believe it was a juvenile grizzly but I guess it could be a cinnamon colored black bear. Well just say it was a grizzly. 

This is all I can manage with the point and shoot. I'll crop it later for the photo books and you won't be half the wiser

Grand Teton

   We made it to Denver by 8pm and made a quick turn around and had dinner with some friends. We called it an early night, Mike has a long day of driving ahead. This is where my trip ends, I have clinicals in the morning. He dropped me off a little early for my flight to make it to the McMurray's at a decent hour. Tomorrow he will drive to his brothers house in Kentucky and then back to New Jersey the following day. Except this time he returns to the squadron as a F-16 pilot! I am so proud of him!

So that wraps up our trip. 

   It's never easy leaving. Lately I haven't been taking it so well, fine I'll say it, I cry like a baby. We consider ourselves very lucky to be able to travel the way we do. We have been able to see and do a lot this year but traveling does take its toll. I'm sick of suitcases. I think I'll burn my carry-on roller bag when this is all over... If it makes it that long!

Xoxo Jen


Update: No idea why these photos are smaller than yesterday. I uploaded them the same way to my ipad. I didn't change the file size on my camera AND these photos are from two different cameras... Strange.