Last Day at Yellowstone

Since we have been in Cody we have been just blah...I don't know if it is the change in altitude or what. We have done nothing up til yesterday. Yesterday we decided that we had come this far West to see Yellowstone. The snow had hampered our trip through the park due to drifts, closed roads and general bad weather. So we wanted to see the park in good weather. We started out with the temp over 60 degrees and headed down the Bill Cody Scenic Highway to YNP.
This was one of the "scenics" by the highway.

And this was another:

It was over a 50 mi trip to the entrance to the park. This entrance had been closed or the roads we could take to it had been closed since we got to the park. This might explain why:
That is a snowbank almost higher than my 4 wheel drive truck...amazing

We were convinced that the other side of the park was prettier and had more wild life than this one til we turned the curve onto this scene.

The hot steamy water pouring into Yellowstone Lake at this point causes the water to be a different color...can you see it?

We have learned, being the seasoned travelers that we are, that in this park when there are lots of people congregated in one spot, there is a bear. Sure enough a big grizzly bear. I had no idea that they had blond fur on their back.

We stayed for quite a while watching this one forage through the grass for who knows what. It would look up at the crowd every once in a while, but not be interested enough to quit eating. ( We think Disney did a remarkable job on this one making it look so real. Ha)
We drove on over to Mammoth Springs, quite a drive filled with beautiful snow sites, but I am sure you have seen enough of that.As we approached here was our welcoming view:

Elk, lots and lots of elk complete with a warning sticker!It reminded us of our first visit to Banff, before the elk became such a nuisance that they were banished from the town.
Nothing in YNP is easy to get to. You must walk from the parking lot to the sights. Some of the walks are awe inspiring, some are "AW, no!" inspiring. This one was the latter:
We climbed most of this thing. But to do all of it is about a 2 hour hike.
Due to geological changes, earthquakes, calcium deposits and etc springs have left the most interesting deposits down the side of this hill( and I think the hill is from that too):

Yellowstone is full of warning labels. They warn you about the animals. They warn you about cars in the pullouts. They warn you to stay on the trails. They warn you not to walk on some of the ground because some of the ooze is so acidic that it will eat through the soles of your shoes. The scariest warning is that any minute a new steam eruption may occur. Some of this stuff is just vile:
But no one told the buffalo/bison.

We saw more wild life on this side of the park. I think it was because of the weather. Even the animals don't like the snow. Deer, elk, bison, bears a couple of times (remember look for the crowd of people), rabbits. We even think we spotted an eagle's nest, but some spoil sport said it was an osprey's.We have seen a "wolf-ote", so why not a "osgle"?

This guy was a hoot. So slow "one foot then wait then another foot then oh yeah I have two more feet to move

, but there is good grass right here":

Just remember if you are in that big a hurry you should have left yesterday!