Days 14 - 16
Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks
We spent three full days exploring the Yellowstone area. It rained off and on everyday, so we did a lot of driving around. Grand Teton Nat'l Park is located just below Yellowstone, so we included that in our touring, crossing the Continental Divide as we did. We were able to see Elk and Bison as we drove around, as well as geysers, Yellowstone Lake, and beautiful scenery.
You may have seen on the news a couple of weeks ago that one of the popular Yellowstone geysers (not Old Faithful) had unexpectedly erupted destroying the nearby boardwalk and scaring the crap out of the visitors. As you would expect, the geyser and its adjoining parking lot were cordoned off.
Old Faithful!
Located in the town of West Yellowstone is a Grizzley and Wolf Discovery Center. It's kinda like a zoo that has live exhibits of many animals native to the area but are often too rare or impossible to see. We saw Grizzleys, Wolves, Otters, Bald and Golden Eagles and Cutthroat Trout. The wolves were sleeping (although they look dead, they would twitch their ears every so often.)
We learned how to tell the difference between a Grizzley (aka Brown Bear) and a Black Bear. Here I'm being attacked by a Grizzley...
Tomorrow we say goodbye to Western Montana and head east to Eastern Montana
... and here I'm being attacked by a Black Bear.