Bison, Bears, and Elk (oh my!)

I've been a very lazy blogger lately... seems like summer has been pretty busy so far.  We went to Yellowstone last week and had a good time.  I hadn't been there since I was very young, and hubby had never gone, so we figured it was time. 

Old Faithful is still very faithful, and it was fun to see the many, many geysers and hot springs in the area.

I must admit I was a little nervous about how the kids would do at Yellowstone, especially the little ones.  There is a lot of walking and car riding involved (read, potentially high "whine" factors), but everyone did pretty well for the most part. 

There were only a few moments of sheer exhaustion from one of our teens on the trail (the boardwalk is tough hiking, ha ha)

We also saw quite a few animals.  The bison were fun to watch.

This guy was right by the side of the road, so we got an up close and personal view. 

And this guy (Mr. Personality) stopped in the middle of the road for about ten minutes for photo ops.

We were very lucky to also see a bear in the wild.  Not exactly close up pictures, but he was on the other side of the Yellowstone River and I don't have a great telephoto lens.  It was still amazing.

We also went to a wildlife rescue center in West Yellowstone and saw wolves and bears up close. 

Overall, it was a really fun trip and we would like to go back and explore more of the park another time.

I'm linking up to Sunday Snapshot-- these were just taken with my Canon point and shoot, but I have a "fancy" Canon, and hope I will get some more motivation/tips to use it more regularly (and not always shoot on auto!)