Just under 200 miles traveled within Yellowstone today – driving the whole figure 8 and a few of the side roads as well. Wildlife galore, but no male (bull) moose like I was hoping for.

We set off to the park bright and early thinking we would get through the park quickly and get out of there early .. while we did get back to the cabin around 5 we expected it to be earlier since we got there at 6:45am.

It was quite foggy when we got to Yellowstone and we were a little worried our visibility wouldn’t be great, but it wasn’t an issue after about 30 mins.

Only a few miles in and we ran into some wildlife.

These bison were walking 4 wide down the road and eventually decided to walk on the side of the road. Although it’s posted everywhere not to, people were still trying to pass them/drive through the group.

Finally we were able to pass, with my window down and GoPro recording we drove past one Bison who turned his head at me and grunted, as we sped up, so did he, and he ran after the car. We have it on film and it’s pretty funny to look back at.

It really was a gorgeous morning and we got a lot of great video and pictures.

We saw lots of bison, deer, and some elk as well. We had seen a mama moose with her kiddos, but no males unfortunately. I’ve never seen a male moose before so it was a bummer but we did hunt all day for one! We heard there weren’t that many in Yellowstone and that we would have better luck in Glacier (so there’s still hope!).

Chris taught me a lot about tracking animals, game trails, and other hunting things – so overall the moose hunt was no failure.

When you see large groups of people parked on the side of the road (again it’s posted 100 times not to do so) that usually means there is an animal of some sort. Driving along we came across one of these situations. Chris dropped me off so he could park in a proper pullout and met up with me.

It turns out there were three bears – one Grizzly, one black Bear mama and her cub. We saw the Grizzly and the baby bear but people were saying they weren’t sure where the mom was.. but THEY ARE STILL WALKING TOWARDS THE CUB (and the Grizzly for that matter) like hi people this is the wilderness and you are walking towards a cub and aren’t sure where the mom is .. SOLID PLAN. It blew our minds that people were not thinking or just think they are invincible (I kept my GoPro rolling just in case).

We headed off to lunch in the park since it takes forever to drive out of and come back. We ate at one of the numerous visitors centers.

We explored a lot – spent a good amount of time in the car, but also checking things out.

There are a few awesome things to see at Yellowstone from waterfalls, to geysers, rivers, geothermal areas, etc.

Old Faithful wasn’t as exciting after seeing these hot springs and such.. my personal favorite is the one you generally see when you hear Yellowstone, the Grand Prismatic Spring.

Towards the end of our 9 hour day we met a couple who used to live in Massachusetts and the man worked for Fidelity (just like Chris). It really is a small world when you start talking to people.

As we were heading out we talked about Yellowstone – we have mixed feelings about it – it’s The First National Park and there is a lot of history and beauty within the park – the main attraction is the wildlife and a few hot spots; it isn’t our favorite park. Don’t get us wrong it’s an awesome experience it’s just a different experience than the rest, it’s about being in the wild.

At 6pm we got back to our campground. Lucky for us it has a mini laundromat and we are almost at week two (and if you remember the Gem told me I could only pack for 2 weeks). So we are ready to roll for the second half of our amazing adventure.

The temperatures all day were mid 60s and below – so we warmed up with a good ol camp meal of burgers, baked beans, and corn on the cob at the campground.

This life of not knowing what day it is, is absolutely amazing. We love it.

Lights out,

JBJ