Our last day in Yellowstone

Traveling to Rawlins, WY today - this is a short stop to catch our breath and get some supplies.
We will be in Loveland, CO on Tuesday.

A couple things about our experience in Yellowstone:
1.  Our RV park was in Island Park, ID so on the days we went to the Park, we traveled through 3 states - Idaho, Montana and Wyoming - before we got to the entrance.
2.  Yellowstone was very crowded - the height of the summer season.   That prevented us from seeing everything we had planned, but we got a good feel for the park.
3. When people spot wildlife from their cars, they immediately stop in the road to take a photo.  So traffic then just stops.  And you don't know why.  There was a 15 minute backup on our first trip in because people spotted an elk.  And they jump out of their cars for photos. It's crazy!

We got an early start (to avoid crowds at the entrance) on our last day and went to Hayden Valley to spot wildlife.  We were hoping to see moose or wolves.  To no avail - just a herd of bison grazing.  But it was a gorgeous and peaceful morning!

We took the opportunity to walk around Lake Yellowstone Hotel while we were in the area.  The Colonial Revival style was retained in the renovation that was completed in 2014.

The inside somewhat reminds me of our house in Downers Grove with the white woodwork and the yellow walls.  And these big windows!

Ok, this beautiful fireplace is not like the one in our old house.

I love the wildlife theme at the Hotel.

Yellowstone Lake is the largest freshwater lake above 7000 feet in North America.  This is the view of Yellowstone Lake and the Absaroka Mountains from the Hotel.  

We moved on to Gull Point Drive in our quest to see a moose!  We checked out the moose habitat, but no moose.  Lovely scenery, though.

There were still a lot of hydrothermal features to see in the Lake and West Thumb areas.  On the way to Lake we saw Dragon's Mouth Spring (it was loud and smelled bad), Mud Volcano (used to have huge eruptions), and Grizzly Fumarole (in its dry season now).

In the West Thumb area we got to see pools and geysers against the backdrop of the western part of Lake Yellowstone called West Thumb.  Some features were even in the lake themselves!

Black Pool

Bluebell Pool

Big Cone Geyser

this is just run off from a geyser

Mimulus Pool

I didn't get the name of this one, but pretty!

 We couldn't leave Yellowstone without another hike!  We decided to do the Storm Point hike in the Fishing Bridge region of the Park.  It was a pretty straightforward hike, but had a cool view.

This is another view of Lake Yellowstone.

On our way back, we ran into a bit of an issue.  The footbridge was uncrossable.  

We found this other way to get to the other side of the water.

We started on the road out of the Park, surprise! Several cars were pulled over and we got a glimpse of this beautiful, majestic elk.

If that wasn't enough, we got in another one of those long traffic jams.  When we got to the front we heard that people were watching two grizzly bears.  Johnny pulled over immediately and I unrolled my window.  There she was - 25 feet from me!  I could hear the mama rooting around looking for food, and the baby was right behind her.  We watched for a couple of minutes before she moved on.  Here is the photo I took - she was in the woods and I was so nervous I didn't hit the focus.  But believe me, she's in there.  It was a great way to end our time in Yellowstone!