Wild, Wild West... Part II - Day 5

Day 5 - Final day in Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks

Grand Teton and Jackson Lake

We said goodbye to our majestic Tetons and spent our last day in Yellowstone. I'm not gonna lie; I was a little sad.

Not sure if these folks were saying hello or goodbye to the Tetons but I couldn't resist taking a pic of their vehicle! :-)

These GIANT dandelions are everywhere... not sure why they are so big and if they are even from what we know as dandelions???

We started the day's Yellowstone visit with a stop at Old Faithful. I mean it seems like a rite of Yellowstone passage, right?  We had a little time to kill before the dependable geyser was scheduled to do its thing so we explored the Old Faithful Inn built in 1904. So historic and sooooo many logs! Just beautiful! We meandered around until geyser spouting time and then found a spot to view. As expected, Old Faithful erupted right on time, give or take 10 minutes. I watched and snapped until I and my camera started to get sprayed with yucky geyser water! The eruption didn't last long and traffic getting out of the area was incredibly horrendous... I would opt for Steamboat over Old Faithful any day!

We headed to the northern part of the park next. We crossed over the middle and worked our way north from the east side. Such pretty and diverse scenery!

During one of our stops, we spied a Peregrine Falcon family! They were living on a ledge of a cliff - some kind of place to pick for a home - they really need a better real estate agent. We actually had no idea they were Peregrine Falcons. We just relied on the gentleman with the three foot camera lens that looked like looked like a telescope to tell us. Pretty cool!

If you look at the center of this pic at the very bottom, you can see the ledge where the falcons had their nest.

Our last official Yellowstone site was Mammoth Falls. These are springs that pop up through the ground with water that has super high levels of calcium. So over the years and years of flowing, the calcium creates these really interesting cliff-like structures. One of the springs, Jupiter Spring, popped up in the early 1900's and as the water flowed, the trees sucked up the calcium rich water. Unfortunately for the trees, the calcium basically clogged their veins and essentially turned the trees to "stone." They still stand today with their trunks buried in layers of calcium deposits.

Also in this area was what was originally Yellowstone Fort, created to protect the area from those that wanted to exploit the land instead of preserve it. Now the buildings are used for workers and such.

You can see the buildings in the middle of the pic - this is the old fort area.

We exited the park at the north entrance at the Roosevelt Arch - the original park entrance. Thanks, Teddy! The Pattersons are so glad you had the foresight to know how special these lands are and that they needed to be protected! We thank you!

After leaving Yellowstone, we drove through Montana to Bozeman for the night.  Super cute town - would definitely like to stay a little longer. We had dinner at the yummy Bozeman Ale Works. Audrey tried Bison for the first time! We ended the evening with a Bozeman sunset. As Audrey called it... A Rainbow Sky!

On Day 6, we make our way to Idaho!