Exploratory Trip to Yellowstone

We are about 56 miles from the East Entrance to Yellowstone National Park.  Monday, we are planning on driving through Yellowstone to get to our next destination on the other side of West Yellowstone.  We had originally planned on driving around the park, but after reading what other people did, we thought we could probably go through it.  We decided to drive part of the route today in the car to be sure it would be o.k. to take the 5er.

We took the highway through the Shoshone Valley.

We passed the Buffalo Bill Dam Reservoir.

We continued down the highway.

We made it to the east gate of Yellowstone and were glad there was not a long line of cars to get in.

Once inside, we passed this little waterfall down the side of the mountain.

 The other thing that greeted us were miles of dead trees, I think these were killed by the pine beetles.  It's really sad to see miles of dead trees.

Next, we got a view of Yellowstone Lake.

 We reached a traffic slow down and saw the reason why, Buffalo!

We stopped and watched the herd for awhile and then headed on stopping for lunch.  When we got out of the car, we saw this big fella sitting just across the street from us.  He was perfectly content to just sit there, thank goodness!

After lunch, we continued on the highway seeing elk

another bison on the road, this one was so close you could hear him breathing and his hooves clomping on the road.

I snapped this picture of one of the geothermal features in the park.

Before we left, we made a quick trip to see Gibbon Falls.

We found the highway through Yellowstone to be rv friendly and will take it on Monday, but will have to get an early start to avoid the traffic jams.  We are looking forward to returning to Yellowstone.