Back from Montana

Hi all,
We are back from Montana. Got back last week and haven't had a chance to do any blogging this week. Here are some of the pictures that I promised of our trip. More will follow as we get them from my cousin who went with us. She has a much better camera that ours and her pics should be fantastic, but ours aren't so bad. Anyway, hope you all enjoy looking at them as much as we did taking them.

Here I am in from of the West entrance of Yellowstone in West Yellowstone.

Here is my hubby. This is the 1st day at the park.

This is the first picturesque view of the mountains as you get into the park from the west entrance. This is only the first of thousands of beautiful views like this.

This is the first of MANY buffalo we saw. The park officials said that they were unusually skinny due to the long winter this year. They had over 200 inches of snowfall. Normally they have around 150 inches.

Here is one that is scratching his head on this small tree.

One of several Elk we saw. He was right next to the roadway.

This is the Beehive Geyser near the Old Faithful geyser. What is so rare about this picture is that they say it only goes off every 8-12 hours and it is so hard to predict. My husband just happened to be looking that way when it erupted and captured this photo. He had to use the zoom because it was so far off. Still it is both a pretty good picture and we are very lucky to have captured it on camera.

Here is the one that everyone goes to Yellowstone to watch. Old Faithful in all it's glory. Take a look at the video we took. It was shot with our camera, so the quality isn't spectacular, but it is still pretty cool.

From what we understand, we were lucky to have captured this shot. The park rangers told us that this was the last of the elk who still had his antlers. All the others had already dropped theirs but this was the only one that was being a little stubborn about losing his. They think it is because of the long and harsh winter.

This guy is a young one. He crossed the road right in front of us, swam across the river and then turned around and gave us this National Geographic shot. We were not able to get a pic of him swimming across, but my cousin did with her really nice camera. I will put those pictures up as soon as I get them for your enjoyment. He must not have been more than 50 yards away from us here.

This is a shot of the largest waterfall in the park. It is at the grand canyon of Yellowstone. Notice the snow? Boy, we sure did. It was sooooo cold!

This is the second of 4 grizzly bears we saw on our trip. He came within about 100 yards of us and them went over to check out a buffalo that down the meadow a bit from us. they circled each other for a while and then the buffalo came up to where we were and gave us a closer look at himself.

Here's the infamous standoff between the two that lasted for about 2 minutes.

This little creature is called a Yellow Bellied Mammoth. They live in the rocky areas scattered along the park. Not dangerous by any means, but still cute to look at. We don't have anything like that here in Georgia.

My husband and myself along with the Bar-N ranch foreman Ron. Yes he is a for real, bonafide, routin-tootin cowboy and helped make the trip one of a lifetime. The stories he told were amazing and he kept us amazed for hours while we were there. Thank you Ron for a wonderful experience.

Here we are at the top of the drive to Big Sky resort. They wouldn't let us go any further, thus the stop sign behind us. What you can't see is the guard shack and guard to the left of us.

This is the north entrance to Yellowstone. This is where they dedicated the park in 1872.

My husband at...well, you can read where we were for this photo.

Me at the same place but with the mountains in the background.

here is one of many shots of a baby buffalo. They are called "Red Dogs" when they are babies. This one is only about two to three weeks old. After they turn about two months old, they loose the red coloring and turn more tan. They turn darker as they grow older. Although it was really cold, it was a great time to be in Yellowstone because of the new borns.

Another red dog. They were all over the park.

I forgot the name of this small geyser, but it was one of the prettiest ones we saw.

Here is a bald eagle. We couldn't get a great shot of him because he was so far away and our camera wouldn't zoom in that close.

Two mallard ducks. Just more of the great wildlife there.

Here is a crane in the river. I didn't know there was any there in Montana.

I think the hubby liked the FJ Cruiser. Just take a look at the grin on his face.

This is a little close huh? The buffalo will walk right past your car door at times, blocking traffic for long periods at a time.

One of the many hot springs in the park.

Gotta go for now, but I will place more photos on as I get time.

Blessings to all,
Regina