Yellowstone is BIG.

We arrived at Yellowstone Valley Inn and Campground early Sunday. Got truck unhitched, everything hooked up, ate lunch - all before 3:00PM.

SO - let's head to the park. It's only 30 miles to the East Gate, the speed limit out here is 70 mph on secondary roads. No brainer. Spend an afternoon in the park, be home early.

Nope.  5 miles west we enter Shoshone National Forest. Speed limit 50 mph. For good reason. The most spectacular scenery we've seen yet.

 About half way to the East Gate we see a car pulled along side the road. Always a good sign. What is he watching? Wildlife watchers usually are standing on the road with binoculars or a camera with a 10 pound telephoto lens. Why is he sitting in his car? I stop right behind him.

HOLY CRAP. That's a GRIZZLY BEAR. "Carol. get the camera out. He's walking towards us. What do you mean, you gotta get it out of the case? What the HELL do you mean, the battery is dead. Put the spare in. STOP SHAKING AND PUT THE SPARE IN. He's walking away. Oh. It's OK.  He's found a berry bush to munch on." I teased y'all with the pics at the end of my last post. But Carol took such National Geographic worthy photos, I gotta post them again. This was from our truck window with no zoom.

We left him munching because there were people behind us waiting to see what we had stopped for.

After THAT, I was thinking, "Why go to Yellowstone? We ain't gonna top that." For pure wildlife excitement I was right. But the park had lots more in store for us. We arrive at the East Gate, show the Ranger my NPS Geezer Pass and go in for free. WOOHOO we're in the park. But it's 27 miles to Fishing Bridge and the start of the "Scenic Loop." My gosh this place is BIG.

My fondest memory of Yellowstone, and the number one thing I wanted Carol to see was the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and Yellowstone Falls. It was another 15 miles.  Plenty of time, we thought. But the drive from the East Gate to the loop is beautiful, Yellowstone Lake is beautiful and really something to see with 60 mph winds. Waves crashing on the shore as big as we see at North Myrtle Beach.

Well, I won't have to take Carol to Paint Bank when we get back to VA.

We finally got through the Bison Traffic Jam and made it to Yellowstone Canyon.



The Upper Falls are beautiful and impressive.

 But people have been painting and photographing THIS scene from Artist's Point for over 185 years. I have an 8 mm film shot of it from 1962.

 But nobody else has this one.

 The long drive back to the Airstream took us back past Yellowstone Lake where Carol caught this sunset.

A long day ended beautifully with a perfect example of God's splendor.