Day 3 - The day of the Buffalo

Us at Yellowstone Lake

Yellowstone is magnificent. We left Cody and headed towards the park...after drinking a smoothie and taking a saloon girl photo which we will definitely be posting in the future. Our first stop was the Buffalo Bill Dam...which was pretty cool, especially considering we got to ride in a golf cart to get there!

Once in Yellowstone, we again saw snow...lots of snow...and quickly discovered that many of the smaller lakes were still frozen over. It's the end of June people. We also quickly encountered the amazing wildlife in their natural habitats. Here is a quick (probably non-inclusive) list for our entire journey, most sightings taking place in Yellowstone:

Buffalo (we'll talk more about them in a minute)

Elk
Deer
Antelope
A Bear and cub (Seriously! A bear! See the two specs below!)

Moose
Turtle
Wild Turkeys
Birds (a variety)
More Buffalo
Did we mention Buffalo?
Mosquitos and currently (blogging live from Lander) Miller Moths!

At our first buffalo sighting we saw a group of them near a hot spring on the side of the road. We pulled over to take some photos (we stayed in the car) but there was a few people out of the car...including two idiots from Iowa (note from Brea: I generally love the people of Iowa thanks to their support of Obama), one of whom was not wearing a shirt (classy) who proceeded to waltz through the field of buffalo like they were strolling through a herd of gentle flamingos. A park ranger quickly came over, pointed out the fresh deer carcass that the buffalo devoured, and encouraged the boys to get back in their car. We stayed just in case they got mauled so we could film it and report live on CNN.

We had a great visit doing a loop of the park, including the awe inspiring Upper and Lower Falls. We were trying to find the place we "all remember" from our childhood...and ended up hiking to the base of the lower falls...turns out, it's 328 steps back up to the top. It was exhausting...we blame the altitude. The bottom of the falls however created an amazing rainbow...Yellowstone is beautiful and everyone should go visit.


Now comes the truly fun part. As we headed 'round the bend to Old Faithful, traffic stopped. A "Wyoming Traffic Jam" if you will which we all joked about...this traffic jam resulted in us going 10 miles in 2.5 hours. Yes, you read that right. A herd of Buffalo decided to meander back and forth across the 2-lane road causing a 10+ mile traffic back up. Once we FINALLY made it to the buffalo, it was indeed a cool site...and a mommy and baby crossed right in front of our car. We befriended the motorcycle dudes behind us and the Prius was used as a blocking mechanism in case the buffalo decided to charge the motorcycle dudes. This journey also included the world's most repulsive bathroom (should have peed in the woods), a cameo on a random family's home video and sereneding the buffalo with "Sweet Caroline (dun dun dun)."


After the three of us, borderline cranky and crazy, managed to get some food (hadn't eaten since breakfast) we saw Old Faithful and it was Old and Faithful. We then headed south into Grand Teton National Park to camp out at Colter Bay. That experience deserves a post of its own...