Our third day in Yellowstone landed us exploring the southern loop. We started off with sunrise pictures over Lake Yellowstone (the lake our cabin was on). We drove out to the east entrance past Fishing Bridge in hopes of finding more grizzlies. We enjoyed Lake Butte and Lake Sylvan along the way. The calm, serene lakes reminded us of the Klondike Highway in Alaska.
On our way back to the main loop, we spotted a traffic jam. They had spotted a huge male grizzly "strolling" along side a lake. We followed him for a few miles (he was hauling!) and were impressed by his ability to run sideways across a mountain.
After bear time, it was time to head to the most famous Yellowstone attraction-- Old Faithful. Ironically, Old Faithful isn't as reliable as it used to be. She goes about every 90 minutes now, so we were able to see it from the grandstands once and from the end of a hike we did 90 minutes later.
Perhaps one of the best experiences we had here was doing the geyser stroll. With the boardwalks to ourselves, we timed our walk by the Plume Geyser perfectly. She erupted with us about 30 feet away. Nearly scared us off the planks, but pretty spectacular! After our time at the geysers, we explored the black sand basin, rainbow and emerald pools. This was what we had remembered the most from the north island of NZ.
We left Yellowstone in time to catch the sunset at Oxbow Bend in Grand Teton National Park. Because of a wildfire on the western slope of the tetons (Idaho-side), the tetons weren't as visible as they could have been. We still managed a few really pretty shots-- one made even more magical by the female moose strolling through the water!
As it turned dark, we made the scary, windy, gravel road drive to Teton Village where we checked into a really nice ski-in-ski-out mountain lodge resort. We ate a fancy restaurant where we had halibut and a food resembling crab cakes that I can't recall it's name. It was a fun day, but we were exhausted and anxious to start our day in the Tetons.
After bear time, it was time to head to the most famous Yellowstone attraction-- Old Faithful. Ironically, Old Faithful isn't as reliable as it used to be. She goes about every 90 minutes now, so we were able to see it from the grandstands once and from the end of a hike we did 90 minutes later.
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