Flying home from Bozeman via Las Vegas (September 9, 2025)

 Our VRBO hosts provided bear spray for us. We left it behind in Montana and Wyoming.

Las Vegas airport is the last chance to hit the jackpot, right? We opted to buy coffee instead.

You can only gamble if you aren't getting high at the same time. Ah, our last look at the American buffalo.

Bozeman's Museum of the Rockies (September 8, 2025)

Montana is rich with dinosaur fossils, with more than 75 species discovered there, more than any other U.S. state. Significant finds include the world's first T. rex and the first baby dinosaur bones discovered in North America. 

The museum houses the largest collection of dinosaur fossils in the world, including this reconstructed T. Rex skeleton. In another part of the museum, you can watch paleontologists cleaning and preserving dinosaur fossils.

More grizzlies (September 8, 2025)

We visited the Montana Grizzly Encounter and Rescue near Bozeman and were alarmed to see a pen of goats outside. Were they bear food? I had to ask and ended up paying the fine. 

In the wild, bears are typically solitary creatures, except during mother-cub relationships or when food is plentiful. Three bears of varying ages and sizes, each with their own unique personality, are at the center. When not outside, they enjoy comfortable indoor dens equipped with climate control, running water, toys, and other enrichment activities.

Before being rescued, two bears lived in this 4' x 4' x 6' cage for years. Their captor fed them only bread and dog food. The captor was never prosecuted for his cruelty.

As close as I want to get to a grizzly, no matter how cute they are.

Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser Basin (September 7, 2025)

Bison and fumaroles on the road to Old Faithful. Fumaroles are steam vents that release volcanic gases and vapors from the Earth's interior. The escaping gases hiss and roar.

Waiting for Old Faithful, the geyser that erupts every 60-110 minutes, reaching heights of 106-184 feet, expelling thousands of gallons of boiling water.

We weren't the only ones!

Old Faithful. Weird to finally see for real after years of photos and Yogi Bear cartoons.

We saw it again from the Old Faithful Inn.

We took a walk through the Upper Geyser Basin to see smaller geysers. The Old Faithful Inn is behind me.

I was standing at the bench when the Lion geyser roared and exploded. A guy told me to wipe the mist from my glasses because dissolved minerals like silica in the spray could leave permanent marks on them.

Yellowstone elk (September 6, 2025)

 Elk are the park's most abundant large mammal, with an estimated 10,000-20,000 in the summer. All but about 2,000 migrate north out of the park in the winter. We were there during rutting season but didn't hear any bugling (their mating calls) or see any bulls fight to gather females into their harems. Only the bulls have antlers so this must be a female who's sharing the road with us.

Yellowstone Lake (September 6, 2025)

In June and July, Yellowstone cutthroat trout spawn up the Yellowstone River. From the Fishing Bridge, you can watch the spawning frenzy in the water and the feeding frenzy in the air, as the trout are an easy catch for eagles, osprey, and pelicans. The bridge has been permanently closed to fishermen since 1973 due to overfishing and habitat impact.

Yellowstone Lake is the largest high elevation lake in North America. It's 20 miles long and 14 miles wide, with a maximum depth of 430 feet. The Fishing Cone is a hot spring along the lake where fishermen traditionally cooked their freshly caught fish. The practice was banned in 1912.

The orange color is caused by heat-loving microorganisms that thrive in the cooler, outflowing water from the hotter Black Pool in the background.

Black Pool, next to the lake, was inky black until 1991, when an energy transfer increased the pool's temperature killing the microbes that made it black. The pool became a bright teal blue.

Mud volcanos (September 6, 2025)

 

Yellowstone mud is dangerous too!

Churning cauldrons of scalding mud and water! Mud geysers! Erupting mud pots (muddy springs of sulfuric acid) blew trees out by the roots in 1948! Fumaroles (nearly dry underground steam vents in the surface)!

Bears, bison, and a dragon's mouth too! Rumbling sounds are caused by steam and other gases exploding through the water, causing it to crash against the walls of the hidden cavern.

Until the 1990s, the dragon spewed steamy water onto the boardwalk. No more, sadly.

Yellowstone is a dangerous place! (September 2025)

 Stay on the boardwalks lest you fall through the crust to be boiled alive!

Fluffy needs to watch out too!

This isn't Yogi Bear and Booboo after your picnic basket at Jellystone! YOU will be the picnic!

Sure, the deer and the antelope play. But bison don't play around!

Their home on the range, your grave!

Day 3: Back in Gardiner (September 5, 2025)

We visited the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in Gardiner for an up close but safe encounter. One of the grizzlies had been found asleep on the hood of a car near our VRBO after guzzling all the beer in a camper's cooler! In the wild, grizzlies may travel 20-40 miles per day. They stand 8-10 feet tall and can weigh 800-1000 pounds. I have great respect for their 2-4 inch claws! I wish these bears could roam free but I'm guessing they're enclosed because they lost their fear of humans along the way.
 

As dusk approached, this barred owl surveyed the meadow outside our VRBO. I'm guessing rabbits and rodents might be on the menu?

Day 3 at Yellowstone (September 5, 2025)

 The upper falls at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Steep canyon walls surround the falls

Day 2 at the North Gate (September 4, 2025)

Are we still in Texas? The Cowboy's Lodge and Grill was two blocks from our VRBO in Gardiner, Montana, at Yellowstone's North Gate. The wait for barbecue was too long so we walked a half block to the Iron Horse Bar & Grill. P.S. How does the bull balance on its two front legs?

 

I have red cowgirl boots too! But only a size 8.

Local draft beer and free fries at the Iron Horse Bar & Grill. 

Marilyn Monroe is watching over my shoulder.

This was as close as we got to a moose for our entire trip. 

The moose antlers ceiling fan is at the Iron Horse Bar & Grill.

More of Day 2 in Yellowstone (September 4, 2025)

From Yellowstone's northeast entrance, we took the Beartooth Highway, a 68-mile scenic route in Montana and Wyoming. The highway (US 212) reaches 11,000 feet and typically closes by October due to snow. We stopped at the Rock Creek Vista Point at 9,199 feet. See the highway below?  
 

We decided this must be the bear tooth itself. The highway, completed in 1936, was carved through extreme terrain using methods like hand-carved rock embankments and precision blasting through granite.

This sign promises deep snow.

So does this ski lift at Beartooth pass. Parking is at the top of the mountain. So in a backwards gravity definition, what goes down must come up?

Returning to Yellowstone, back through the Beartooth Pass.

The 11,699-foot Pilot Peak, visible from the Beartooth Highway, is the pointiest mountain peak we've ever seen.

A little red fox ran along the road beside us.

Back in Lamar Valley, we saw pronghorns. The photos blurry because we had to set the phone on the 10X setting.

Day 2 at Yellowstone (September 4, 2025)

Several of Yellowstone's 5400 free-ranging bison moseying across the road in Lamar Valley. 
 

Why did they cross the road? To get to the other side! 

You should stay at least 25 yards from bison. They can be aggressive and run up to 30 mph! I can't.

Male bison can weigh up to 2,000 pounds. The primarily eat grasses and sedges. Yep, they're powerful vegans!