Our First National Park

 Welcome to Yellowstone!

Park rangers are the friendliest people! Whether they are working the entry booth handing out maps and information or answering the same question for the hundredth time that day, they are always, and I mean always, smiling, polite, and helpful. 

Of course, we aren't doing the kind of stuff the Tourons (tourist + morons) do. Why just a few days ago a man from New York decided he wanted some mozzarella cheese, so he attempted to milk a bison. He set up a bucket and attempted to pull on the udder. Except it wasn't an udder. The bull gave him a swift kick that sent him flying. I'm sure the rangers weren't all sweetness and light in this instance. Don't believe me? The NPS confirmed it. And created a new park slogan: "It's a bull. Don't pull."

https://www.facebook.com/casperplanet/posts/new-york-tourist-arrested-for-attempting-to-milk-a-male-buffalo-at-yellowstoneye/1196415019186763/  

Yellowstone, our first national park (no, not Dave's and my first NP, but the WORLD'S first National Park) is a concentrated area of geothermal activity: geysers, boiling mud pots, hot springs, and fumaroles. These are in addition to the beautiful wildlife, flora, rivers, and grasslands. After sorting through all our photos, I decided to share our favorite places and add a photo.

Old Faithful

Artists Paint Pots was a collection of boiling mud pots in a variety of colors.

Blue Mud Steam Vent was bubbling.
It sounded like spaghetti sauce cooking on the stove.

Castle Geyer 
The wind was blowing the spray and we got to walk through it.
It was COLD! 

Cistern Springs

Firehole River

Firehole River Falls

Roaring Mountain Fumerole
Hot steam coming out of a hill of rock.
It sounded like a steam locomotive engine.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
Lower Falls
3 times taller than Niagara Falls

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
Ospreys

Grand Prismatic Hot Spring
In the background the steam is from Excelsior Geyser
whose last eruption did it in.

Roosevelt Arch, the original northern entrance to the park.

Embedded on the arch, words from
Theodore Roosevelt when he dedicated the park.

Yes, we saw a bear!
No, we weren't the official 10 bus lengths away.
(Not our fault.) 

Elk enjoying one of the many meadows

When an animal blocks the road the rangers call it an animal jam.

There was no way around him except to move quickly and quietly.

Remember, it's a bull. Don't pull.