Farewell Yellowstone . . .

After our Yellowstone traffic jam, we slept in and got a later start to our morning than I really had hoped.  But, it was all okay.  We set off for the day without any specific plan, other than to head east, stop off at Yellowstone Falls, and see where the day took us.

Let me tell you the hype for Yellowstone Falls did not disappoint.  The volume of water this year made the falls simply spectacular.

And standing over the lower falls, it was truly awesome, and a little bit intimidating.  I made sure to grip my camera extra tight, even though I had the strap around my neck.

Rebeka and I headed back up the trail, and low and behold, she cooperated with my request for a picture.

We headed to the overlook and just was amazed at the power of the lower falls.

And, the canyon was completely beautiful.

And look at this utterly adorable young lady, and her Yellowstone Junior Ranger Patch!

When we entered the park, the ranger gave Rebeka a sheet of paper, where you checked off animals that you saw in the park.  Each animal sighting was worth 10 pts. and apparently, a score over 70 was considered “very good.”  One of the animals on the list was an osprey.  As we were looking out at the canyon, Rebeka told me she saw an osprey flying.  I was skeptical, until we found (with help) an osprey nest perched atop an outcropping.  It was beautiful, and another gentleman had his spotting scope with him, and let Rebeka and I take a peek, and in the nest was an osprey sitting on the eggs.  Pretty darn cool. Oh, and by the way, she scored 120 points by the time we exited the park.

After the canyon, we headed off eastward.  The views, again, utterly spectacular looking out east after coming over Dunraven pass.

And, again, a totally a sucker for the pretty flowers.

As we entered the Lamar Valley, it was just amazing as well.  All those little dots – those are bison.

Just incredible and amazing creatures.

Again, the scenery is so varied, and so amazing in Yellowstone.

And, because we were too excited heading into Yellowstone, I made sure to snap this on our way out . . .  and there is my little sassy pants.

Finally, even though we spent a couple days in and out of Wyoming, I finally got my opportunity for Rebeka to get her picture with the Wyoming state sign.

We headed up the Beartooth Highway, and the views were awesome and we made it to almost 11,000 feet elevation.

So, over the pass we went.

And we kept on driving and driving.  We made it all the way through Montana and ended up stopping in North Dakota to our next destination.  Here’s a hint . . . it’s another national park.

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