More from Yellowstone (West Yellowstone, Mt)

Wednesday, August 29th we returned to the park. We covered some of the same miles and saw more thermal features (I think that's the correct term for all that hot water, steam and air escaping from the earth.....and did you know that something like 70% of all the world's thermal features are in Yellowstone?)  Are you enjoying science class?  We visited the  Midway, Biscuit and Black Sand Geyser Basins.  Every area and each feature was unique in its own way.  Some of the colors were out of this world. Here's just a small sample of the features in those areas.

We made a repeat visit to the Old Faithful area and walked more of the boardwalks we'd missed on our previous visit.

We watched Old Faithful come to life again, this time from a different perspective.

Eventually we drove the entire southern loop. That's about 160 miles from our campground, around the loop and then home. Along the way we also enjoyed great views of West Thumb Geyser Basin at Yellowstone Lake,

 

 saw more pretty water, 

and stopped at man made features like the Yellowstone Lake Hotel,

Grant Village, Bridge Bay and Fishing Bridge campgrounds. We have a large camper and truck and find the campgrounds inside the park a bit squishy. The sites tend to be small, the roads narrow and maneuverability limited. So we're pleased with our decision to stay outside of the park, at least for now. We hear Mammoth Campground has larger sites, so we'll see.

We spent the first half of Thursday at the home front. Mid-day we went to town (West Yellowstone) for haircuts. We're both satisfied with the end product. We then went to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center also in West Yellowstone. It's a non-profit organization that promotes education and awareness related to grizzly bears and wolves in the wild. At the center they have 9 grizzly bears and 8 wolves. They are all rescue animals who would be unable to survive in the wild. We spent a couple hours there reading exhibits, watching some movies and enjoying the feeding of both the bears and the wolves. We watched the wolves roam their compound,

then it was time feeding time. The wolves are fed inside out of view so that the Vet/keepers can get a good look at each animal. While inside, another keeper hides hefty "treats" throughout the compound for the wolves to hunt for upon their return.  This fellow found a big treat hidden in a tree.

The Grizzly bears also hunt for hidden treats.  As part of a children's program, they secure the bears, and then bring in the kids to hide the bears' food. They then turn the bears loose (after they remove the children!) in pairs and the spectators get to watch the bears sniff and dig for their food.

It was entertaining. Afterwards we went for the sure thing dining experience - pizza!  Wild West Pizza I think it was called- very good!!

We're not done here yet. Even more from Yellowstone soon!!

Duane