Camping in Yellowstone!!

I have been to Yellowstone before and I remember it being awesome, and I was only there for half a day. This time we planned to camp there for 4 nights, and I thought that would be enough time to see the park. That was stupid. You could spend months there and feel like you were just getting aquainted. Anyway, we had a great time, saw some really cool stuff, and after 5 days, I got a nice introduction to the park. I will be back though!

As anyone who has ever heard of Yellowstone probably already knows, it is filled with all sorts of weird thermal features and geysers and whatnots because the park is actually centered around the caldera of a super-mega-giganto volcano. All sorts of thin spots in the earth's crust there make all the famous geysers and boiling pools and seething mud pits, etc etc. Obviously, I am no geologist, but that shit is cool, and sometimes you think you are on another planet, not in a national park!

I can only imagine what early explorers or indians must have thought coming around the bend and seeing the Firehole River running cold through smoking hills spewing burning hot water and steam. After the first guy in my group fell through the earth and had his skin boiled off, I would have taken off running the other way.

Looking for wildlife is one of the biggest draws in Yellowstone, and we saw our fair share, including Coyotes, Bison, Elk, Mule Deer, a Black Bear, Bighorn Sheep, ALMOST wolves, Bald Eagles, Pronghorn and a caterpillar crossing the road.

Here are photos of some of them:

The Bison are everywhere! Some may get tired of them, but I think they are awesome with the big enormous heads!
Here is a big boy, shedding his winter 'do and with a couple little buddies hanging out on his back.

The Elk are everywhere too, but usually not as visible as the Bison. Its always fun to see one with a big rack--it seems like he shouldn't even be able to hold his head up.

These are some mule deer enjoying some nice cold water on a hot day.

This is a Pronghorn Antelope. A wounded mother and baby are just over the hill. Wolf bait!

We car-camped, the first night at bridge bay (lame) and the rest of the time at Norris Junction, which was a pretty decent campground. We ate very well thanks to the careful planning and expert campstove cooking of Alissa's Mom. (thanks!)

We mainly saw Yellowstone from the car, with stops along the road here and there. They say 90% of the visitors never get 1/2 mile away from the road, which was almost true in our case. We took a few small hikes, but next time we will do more!