Yellowstone 2012

In October, we spent a weekend in West Yellowstone 

with my family.  

It was a fun, busy weekend jam packed with memories!

3/4 of our family at Firehole Falls.

Waiting for Old Faithful to blow!

There were a TON of elk at Mammoth Hot Springs,

 We left Mammoth (in our brand new van) as the sun set, making for a very dark drive home.  As we made our way through the park, Kurt noticed that there was a strange shadow between us and the car coming the opposite direction.  Forgetting we were in wild animal country, he didn't think anything of it until a big old bison suddenly appeared in our headlights!!!  We narrowly missed hitting him, and good thing too, 'cause big boy was a beast!  Crazy thing was how it didn't even faze him--he just kept putting one foot in front of the other like he owned the road.  

And he did, believe me.

(Not the bison we almost hit.)

 The next day we stayed in W. Yellowstone

 and ate a nice breakfast, shopped, 

and spent some time at the Grizzly and Wolf discovery center.  

Who knew polar bears were so big!?!