Well, we made it home. The trip to Yellowstone was amazing. We saw Old Faithful, the Noris Geysers, the Porcelin Basin, Mamouth Hot Springs, Midway Geyser and the Artists Paint Pots. The natural beauty of the park is amazing. There's no other word, really.

The drive was long, though. All though Wyoming, through the mountains and then through the park itself to the KOA was an adventure in itself. The views were stunning.

The wildlife was even better! I saw a wolf (even though no one else did and they've been teasing me saying I imagined it -- I didn't have time to get the camera ready!), an osprey, an eagle, lots of bison (which we see closer to home at Custer State Park, so I wasn't as excited about that), a pair of wolf cubs, lots of elk, a moose and a bear. I still have two days of pictures to download, so maybe the wolf cub pictures and the bear will make future posts.

On a sad note, we seem to be missing one of the cats. She's the "scardy cat" of the bunch and the oldest kiddo -- who generously offered to housesit for us -- didn't see that one the entire time we'd been gone. This kitty is also the most lifely to "punish" us for leaving, but she hasn't shown up around here yet, either. She's an indoor cat, so I'm more than a little concerned. The kitty shouldn't have left the house and should be out from hidding by now. (This is hubby's favorite of the cats, so that's weighing on my mind, too....)

On to happier things. Here's some of the pictures I took on the trip. Yep, only some since I took close to 150 of them!


We got to Old faithful within 10 minutes of it's next eruption. We didn't wait too long and still got to see this amazing natural beatuty.


The Artisits Paint Pots are fantastic. Each of the different pools are colored with either a type of algae, a minineral or something. The effect from the top is much the same as if you took a used paint pallet and washed it. The colors that run through the area look like that. This picture doesn't even BEGIN to do it justice!


The kid and her best friend enjoyed the Midway Geyser Basin. OK, so the kid enjoyed counting the number of hats which had blown into the steaming hot water. (She counted seven.) Her best friend really enjoys science, so she had a great time looking at the geysers themselves. This area was so warm that it fogged out my glasses when we went passed it.


These falls are just one of the many at Yellowstone. This one is near the Noris area and is made from the Gibbon River. Oh, there's a geocache real close to this spot, too!