We entered Grand Teton from the south end and drove north along the eastern side of the park for another perspective...
Our first stop was at the Glacier View Turnout to get a good view of the mountains' glaciers...
We stopped at the Snake River Overlook to get a closer look at the river that twists and turns for over 1,000 miles along this side of the park...
We continued along the park until we came to Cattlemans Bridge, a dirt road that took us right up the banks of the river!
From there, we joined the road that we took in yesterday and continued out of Grand Teton and back into Yellowstone's
South Entrance via the Rockefeller Parkway...
We headed back over to
Yellowstone Lake, the largest lake in the park, where the first stop was a hydrothermal area right up next to the lake!
We got a little closer at a spot where we were able to walk right up to the edge...
Hubby & B taught the girls how to skip stones...
From there, we made a stop at the historic
Lake Hotel...
for a nice lunch in the original dining room...
After lunch, we continued on and starting seeing a lot of wildlife, mostly bison...
This guy was walking right down the middle of the road holding up a line of cars in the oncoming lane. We were happy to scoot by him quickly!
Next up, we stopped at the Mud Volcano...
but part of the trail was closed and two rangers were on watch because another bison had taken up shop right next to the pedestrian boardwalk!
Look closely against the fence below, and you'll see him!
Watching a little bit of the Mud Volcano and a lot more of the aforementioned, "parked" bison...
At this stop, we also viewed Dragons Mouth Spring...
From there we continued on to different views of both the Upper and Lower Falls near the canyon area...
We saw yet another bison in a busy people area, right next to the parking lot!
We continued on to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone...
and viewed it from several different points, careful not to lose anyone over the edge!
As we continued on to another viewpoint, we saw another bison, just hanging out on the side of the road!
Lookout Point offered a nice view looking down on the river below...
On our way to Inspiration Point (not the Inspiration Point looking over Jenny Lake in Grand Teton, but another one looking over the canyon in Yellowstone), we learned about this giant boulder. We leared that this is an example of glacial erratic. It was once a part of the
Beartooth Mountains (to the northeast of Yellowstone), fell off, landed on a glacier, hitched a ride, and landed here! Whoa...
At Inspiration Point, we saw our last views of the canyon...
before continuing on to Tower Fall...
From there, we made our way toward the
Northeast Entrance...
We just thought we'd seen some bison before. As we exited the park through the Lamar Valley area, we saw multiple herds of bison and lost count close to a thousand...
They were everywhere...
We even saw our first, and only, bear!
We left Yellowstone and took one of the most scenic drives via the
Beartooth Highway...
It...
was...
just...
spectacular!
It dropped several degrees as we reached the top, and was super cold and windy at the summit!
And, how about this for a state line sign???
We reached civilization again in Red Lodge, Montana where we grabbed dinner before continuing on to Sheridan, Wyoming for the night...
More on tap for tomorrow!
More {Road Trip} 2019 Fun
