Where? Where? Yellowstone, Part 2

On Sunday, we drove back to Yellowstone. The kids were especially excited to see animals...to which, Gabrielle would respond, "Where? Where?" No, actually she got quite excited about the buffalo, the chipmunks, the deer and the elk that we saw. The elk was a little ways away, so Alfredo stayed with the kids in the car with the windows rolled down and watched it. They all hung out the window with excited looks on their faces. That is the one shot I regret not taking (with over 200 other shots, even after I deleted the bad/so-so ones, I don't think I missed too many other shots!) Michelle likes to say that the elk charged but it didn't. It did stand up and take a few steps, but that's it. She misunderstands what the word charges means and won't believe my definition. :) We saw hundreds of buffalo, including one that was in the middle of the road. We saw quite a few deer, and a chipmunk came running at Michelle and startled her a bit. No bears or wolves and since it was such a short trip, we didn't go to Bear World or anything. But it was still quite fun. Oh and lots of different birds, which the kids didn't seem too impressed with. I have realized in the past couple of years that there are a couple of college classes that I wish I had tried harder in and learned more from (and that I'm grateful for even though I didn't like them at the time). One was a geology class where we studied, classified, and identified rocks. I hated it at the time but now I find geology and rock formations so beautiful and interesting and wish I had paid more attention. The other class was a zoology class where we studied birds. We had to spend quite a few hours outside watching for and identifying birds. I can't remember how many species we had to identify, but it was at least 50 or more. We had a guide and I spent time out near Utah lake as well as by the Provo River. I thought it was okay, but didn't really put as much effort as I could have into it. But nearly every bird's name that I know now is a result of that class, and when I see birds I don't know, I wish I did! Not that it it too late to learn... just there is less time/opportunity to study these things now.

Anyway, the animals:


We saw Old Faithful as well as many hot springs and other geysers:






We had lunch at the cafe by Old Faithful and then drove to the lake and walked around the lake and then the river. We took a walk along the river for a bit, but it was quite windy and cold. Then we headed toward the gorgeous waterfalls, both the Upper Falls and the Lower Falls. It was very beautiful and we all had so much fun! Some day we'll have to go back and spend several days or a week there.