Jellystone Park

Well we took a day off and went for a little 300 mile scootercycle ride through Teton National Park and Yellowstone Park. It was my first time, and it was spectacular. And yes, we did see Yogi and BooBoo, but they didn't ask for our pic-i-nic basket (thank goodness).

We saw grizzly bear, moose, elk, antalope, bald eagle, cranes, marmot, and most massively…. bison.

We had seen quite a few bison in the days before, as we were camping in a reserve where they are free to roam, and it was not rare to have traffic stopped while they cross the road. (Where does the bison cross the road? Anywhere he wants!) Anyway, it was the same in Yellowstone, bison roaming the range as they please. We were on the back stretch heading out of the Park at the end of the day and a small herd (herdlette?) of bison

were heading towards the road in our direction. The two cars in front of us stopped to watch, as people do there, as well as some cars behind, and the oncoming traffic. We felt kinda trapped and exposed sitting there on the bike, but got a good close up view of the bison as they crossed the road a couple cars ahead. They started running and snorting and playing in the field to the right of us, it was amazing to watch those 2,000 lb animals kick up their heels. We were mesmerized. And then, we heard a loud snort coming from behind us, we both jumped and turned to see that 4-5 of their friends had not made it across the road and were not happy about all those cars blocking their path. We were the weak spot, we knew it, they knew it. We knew they knew it. How do 4-5 one ton beasts sneak up behind you, you may be asking yourself? We still can't figure it out. They stomped and snorted, planning their escape, one was looking Steve right in the eye from one lane away. Just as Steve was ready to hit the gas and get the heck outta there, one of the bison made a break for it behind the car behind us. Thankfully Steve's pal and all the rest followed the leader. The bison were reunited, and we were unharmed (well, nothing a change of shorts wouldn't fix). Don't you just love a happy ending? (BTW – no there aren't any pix from the event, I was too busy freaking out to save the moment.)

Here are the grizzlies (click on the picture to enlarge). This was a much safer commune with nature. There were two Park rangers pulled over watching the bears with us (and about 30 other people). It is a mom and two babies. They stayed for a good 10 minutes before they wandered off. They never seemed like they noticed their adoring fans.

Old Faithful was neat. Put on a good show for us.

Here's our campsite at Slide Lake. It's about 30 mins outside of Jackson Hole, WY. We took the boats out a couple times to try and catch some wind. We also had the boat demo here with the local kayak shop. Beautiful.