Yellowstone/JH- Day 2

We started Day 2 with one of the more ambitious hikes in the park. Yellowstone has a Grand Canyon that very few know about. The walls have a yellow tint to them, which led to the naming of the park by some of its first American explorers. There are several different places to look out over the canyon, river and its beautiful waterfalls. Even mother-to-be, Allison, and 3 year old Cooper kept up!

Coop wasn't as happy as we were. He knew we were going to have to go back up all 328 of the steps we'd just come down.

After our trek back up to the car, we encountered this big guy on the road. He had two large friends with him, and they weren't the least bit concerned about us. 

We got to another lookout location and caught this beautiful rainbow.

We made our way around to the north entrance to the park in a little town called Gardner, Montana. I love this entrance gate. There are pictures of Teddy Roosevelt in front of this spectacular site and not far from here is a lodge named after the former president.

As we headed around to the west entrance, we got stuck in a terrible traffic jam. In Yellowstone that normally means there's something great to see! Chris, Anthony and I decided get out of the car and walk until we saw what was holding everyone up. We got just about a third of a mile when we saw this large herd of bison making their way down both sides of the highway. We decided to wait on the side of the hill until they passed- we didn't much like the idea of turning our backs on these large animals. Thankfully, they all moved to the other side of the road and we were able to drive along next to them. The poor people behind them were stuck for 3 and a half hours!

In the town of West Yellowstone, we found a quaint cafe with homemade pie. It was exactly what we all needed after a long day!

 

Our last stop of the day was at a reserve that housed grizzlies and wolves that had been rescued from the park. This bear was saved after his mother had to be euthanized by Park Rangers after she killed two hikers.