Having survived a night in a tent in bear country, we drove into Yellowstone National Park.  I’d never been to Yellowstone before, and I was looking forward to seeing some interesting wildlife and hydrothermal activity.

Yellowstone Lake was even steaming and bubbling.

The views in the park were beyond beautiful.

The steam vents above are called fumaroles, which are, according to the Yellowstone National Park website, “hot springs with a lot of heat, but so little water that it all boils away before reaching the surface.”  I learned a lot.

It’s pretty crazy when you think about the fact that it’s really a giant supervolcano.  Steam was escaping from everywhere and mud was bubbling and spewing and it smelled like sulfur.

This next place, called the “Artist’s Paint Pot,” was pretty colorful due to the bacteria present in the super hot water.  The site included hot springs, fumaroles, and lots of mud pots.

When we first arrived at the park they gave us a packet of information with maps and warnings and this memorable little reminder tag that hangs from the rearview mirror.

It seemed a little dramatic, but as you can see, bison look deceptively gentle.

Just look at them.

Totally minding their own business.

We also got to see some great views of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone…

And we hiked around on a nearby trail hoping to see some more wildlife.

Did you read that?  No guarantees.  According the the Yellowstone bear safety information that we perused the previous night before pitching our tent at a campsite in, oh you know, bear country, “Bears can run over 30 miles per hour, or 44 feet per second, faster than Olympic sprinters.”  I’m still trying to imagine what 44 feet per second would look like.  I didn’t even see a bear and I feel lucky to be alive, haha.

And there we are.  Alive and well :)

Of course we had to see Old Faithful before heading on our way…

By then it was already late afternoon and we had a lot of hours on the road ahead of us if we wanted to make it past Idaho Falls that night.  So we headed south through the Grand Tetons.

This may have been the most beautiful part of the entire drive.

And way after dark, we made it to somewhere between Idaho Falls and Twin Falls with just enough road left between us and Portland to get us home in time for dinner the next day.