Spring in Yellowstone

On Thursday, May 7th we took David's parents and his sister Carolyn and her husband Gregg up to Yellowstone. David has been wanting to try Yellowstone in the spring .....we go every fall, but in the last five years we have only seen one or two bears total, and he wondered if in the Spring we could see more bear! It was a really quick trip, but just in the first day we saw 4 bears, 2 grizzlies and 2 black bear! But, we also had alot of fun driving around and seeing everything else as well! This is Gregg and Carolyn stuffed in the back of Michelle and Ricky's Yukon...it was fun to all ride together in one car, but it was alittle tight on space!

On the way up we stopped at Island Park.....the cabin above is where David's family spent two weeks every summer. This is where David learned to ski and their family has many fond memories of these summer vacations!

Of course, we have no idea who owns the cabin now, but that didn't stop us from peering in the windows to see what it looked like!

Both David and Carolyn remember spending many fun days on this floating dock, just steps away from the cabin!

David, his father, Carl and Carolyn and mom Lois!

We asked some kind stranger to take a picture of all of us on the steps of the visitor center in Mammoth, at the park headquarters.

Grandpa Webster was telling some joke about John Wayne coming to Yellowstone....he had Grandma and Carolyn laughing by Gibbons Falls.

Here is Carolyn by the falls just outside of Mammoth! I can't remember the name???

Gregg having a little alone time with the buffalo.....buffalo kiss???

The great thing about having condo's is starting each day off with a hot homemade breakfast.....Gregg is the king of omelets!

Grandma watching Old Faithful!

The gang at one of the monuments...

The girls at Old Faithful....there was still quite a bit of snow at Old Faithful, and pretty cold, but the sun was shining.... below are the boys waiting for Old Faithful!

And the reason for the trip, besides (of course) the company, was the animals....we saw everything except a moose (which we have never seen inside of Yellowstone) and we didn't see any wolves, which are really hard to spot anyway! (but we have seen these in the fall)
So below are just a few of the pictures I had of animals.....(David loves animal pictures, but I prefer pictures with people in them) so first we have a Bald Eagle...

A coyote

One of the two Black Bear that we saw! The grizzly bear that we actually saw twice on the same day....once in the morning around 10am and later in the afternoon around 3pm....we are certain he was the same bear because he had a hurt front paw and limped on his wrist!

Antelope or Pronghorn

We saw a ton of Elk, but this big boy below, we will have to watch for in the Fall. If his antlers are this big already, he is going to be huge come fall!

Below is some kind of mountain sheep!

Below is just one herd of Buffalo, of the thousands that we saw.....I just thought this was a cool picture because it shows them crossing the Firehole River.....This same herd we watched get caught in the hot pots and burned their feet trying to get across them, and then headed for the river to get cooled off!