7/20/2013–Day Trip to Mammoth in Yellowstone National Park

We got an early start as we wanted to drive out to the north entrance of Yellowstone National Park today.  We lucked out and some better wildlife sightings today.

A few elk in this photo including the one where only it face and ears show.

We turned into a service road and had this big guy headed right at us…that caught us by surprise!

It look like he was giving us the “evil eye” as he continued across the road.

At one of our stops to watch the elk, Ken was talking to this couple when their son decided to use Ken’s camera’s mono stick to stand up.

We watched this cow elk for quite a while and we assumed she was keeping an eye out for her calf.

We never did see the calf, but this young bull elk walked across the hillside.

We pulled into a parking space near the post office in town, and looking at the next building to the north, there was a cow elk grazing on the lawn.  Her calf was hidden behind a bush up against the building.

Later, it was time to rest in the shade of a large tree.

We drove out the north gate and looked around the town of Gardiner.  This is the arch at the north entrance.

The sign on the arch.

Back in Mammoth, we took time out for an ice cream cone at the store before heading back to the RV.

We saw this unusual RV parked in town.

There’s plenty of unusual landscape within the park.

Sheepeater Cliff

Even more elk than we saw earlier at this stop.

Love to watch all the geothermal activity.

After a long day in the park, it was nice to get back to the RV and just relax the rest of the evening.

07/15/2013–Cody, WY to Teton National Park

We had a short distance to go today, but it would be slow winding roads all the way, so we were on the road early.

Ken spotted this unusual building on the hill as we headed west.

After an hour or so, we approached the east gate to Yellowstone National Park.

After going over Sylvan Pass, we went by Sylvan Lake.

As we got close to one of many construction areas, we had a view of Yellowstone Lake through the trees.

Our next obstacle was a couple of bison in the road daring cars to pass them.  There was another one off to the side of the road.

There were several pelicans resting in this pond we drove past.

Traffic slowed down quite a bit to take a look at these antique cars in a pullout.

The Tetons range.

After we got parked and had lunch at Colter Bay Campground in Teton National Park, we went out for a drive.

At our first stop, we were just sure this was a moose near the water.  We could swear we even saw it move…however, when we stopped again on our way back to the RV, we saw that we were wrong.

Our next side trip was up a road to Signal Mountain.  I’m thinking it’s called that because there was a cell phone tower at the top.

Here’s a view from the top of that road.

Another view of the Tetons.

Next we took a one way road marked Jenny Lake.  This doe and her fawn crossed the road in front of us.

At the Jenny Lake Overlook, we could see across to a tour boat stop.

This next view is of the waterflow coming out of Jackson Dam.

Then it was back to the RV for dinner and an evening of rest…no cell phone signal, no internet (this will be posted later)…only quiet time for us.  Tomorrow the plan is to head back north into Yellowstone and see what it looks like for getting into the park later in the week.

7/12/2013–Thermopolis, WY–The Wyoming Dinosaur Center

When we left the RV this morning we first headed over to the Visitor’s Center to pick up any literature we may have missed at other locations.  Once done there, we drove to The Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis, Wyoming.

The following photos are just a small sampling of what is there.  They have some very large displays, but we found the lighting in the exhibit very difficult to work around to get any decent photos.

There were several pieces similar to this one with many of the same types of fossils in one clump.

This one looked like a predecessor to an alligator.

This looked like a sea turtle.

This is the only known Albertaceratops on display in the world.

After visiting the museum, we decided to drive back out to look at the bison range and look for another possible range area in town.  We couldn’t find the other area, but the same bulls were hanging out close to where we found them yesterday.

We drove north of town and stopped at an overlook looking down at the World’s Largest Mineral Hot Spring.

We continued a little further north to a historical marker for the Bridger Trail – Bighorn River Crossing.

We turned back toward town and stopped to get a photo of this deer with some pretty impressive antlers.

We stopped in town for an ice cream treat before heading back to the RV.  Tomorrow we will be driving about 100 miles to Cody, Wyoming for a couple of nights.