Trip West - Yellowstone Day 1

 We went to Yellowstone National Park on my birthday. Linda gave me a very sweet card and a Thrive notebook for my birthday.  I am a very blessed man.

 The first animal we saw in the park was buffalo.  He is very big and looked like he was loosing his winter coat.  He was out by himself eating and not paying was any attention.

 This is one of the hot springs in the park (don't remember if it had a name or not).  A lot of hot springs, geysers, mudpots in park.

Gibbon Falls was one of the first waterfalls we came across.  All of the streams, rivers, creeks are full and running.  Beautiful to look at.  It is neat to see a lot of people fly fishing in the rivers.

 Came across this herd of buffalo later on in the park.

Our first elk with antlers.  What a beautiful creature.

So many postcard picture scenes.  "Kodak moments abound."

This was the first geyser we came across in this part of the park.  The park ranger said that this geyser is very unpredictable, but it is always doing something.  While we were there it did shoot some water into the air and was smoking and rumbling all the time.

 Another elk we came across.

 This little fellow was at Sheepeater Cliff where we ate our lunch at the picnic tables there.

 More buffalo.

 This part of Mammoth Hot Springs.  We did not climb all the way to the top.

At the visitors center at Mammoth Hot Springs we came across this elk.  She was ok with us being there until she thought my camera was something for her to eat.  We made a graceful exit to the visitors center.

A prairie dog in the grass.

On our way back to our cars we came across this mother elk and her calf.

Another elk.

 This is the tower falls.  Look closely at the rock formation behind the falls, looks like towers.

On our drive around the park we came across snow.

 This was one of the hot springs that we passed up on our way into the park, so we stopped our our way out for the day.

 We had a great time on our first day in Yellowstone National Park.  The park has not fully recovered from the fires of 1988, but it is beautiful.  It was a great way to spend your 65th birthday.  Again thanks to all for the birthday wishes.