So, this post will be more of a photo album than a blog. We have taken in so many amazing sights over the past week that we couldn't resist sharing our favorites... all 55 of them!
A gorgeous sunset over the plains of Minnesota as we headed to the home of Kris's good friend Brad Stapperfenne in Rapid City, South Dakota...
Brad showed us around Custer State Park...
We ran into some friendly burros...
And a really pregnant burro...
Our first good pic of a molting bison...
And a pronghorn...
We then drove along Needles Highway, named for the rock structures and spires there behind us and in the following black and white photo...
We also hiked up to an old fireman tower that gave us a breathtaking 360-degree view of the park, plains, and mountains that surrounded us...
And we took a pick of the three of us at the end of our hike...
And just when we thought we were done with wildlife, we saw this mountain goat licking the side of the mountain on our way out of the park...
And instead of paying the $14 parking fee, Kris snagged a pic of Mt. Rushmore from the road as we passed by...
We ended our night with bison burgers at Tally's Silverspoon in downtown Rapid City and resolved to get a good night's sleep before another long day of driving...
And we entered Wyoming...
Got super-excited at our first view of snow-capped mountains...
Saw a very rapidly flowing waterfall in Bighorn National Forest...
And enjoyed more of the view... mountains, plateaus, plains... along the way...
And finally we reached Yellowstone...
Took our first pics of Yellowstone Lake...
Set up camp for the first time and enjoyed a first night's dinner of tomato basil soup and grilled cheese sandwiches at 9:30 PM, just as it was finally getting dark...
The next morning and another pic of Yellowstone Lake...
Our first major attraction stop in Yellowstone... Old Faithful...
The first blow was absolutely amazing...
One of many hot springs in the Old Faithful area...
And some other interestingly-structured geysers that we rode around on our bikes to see...
The famous Morning Glory pool...
An osprey that Kris had to catch in honor of our backpack brand...
The Riverside Geyser that blew up 75 ft. in the air across the river...
A playful picture of a bison on the roadside...
A short hike to see Fairy Falls...
And a really interesting view of the bacterial mats along the edges of the geysers at a geyser basin...
The next morning, we headed to see the Grand Tetons...
And the best word we could come up with to describe them was "majestic"...
We got dressed up for a really nice dinner at Jackson Lake Lodge, with the Tetons as our background for the meal...
The best part of the meal... dessert!
And the sunset after our scrumptious dinner...
The following morning we took a ride across Jenny Lake, saw perhaps our new favorite falls: Hidden Falls, stopped at Inspiration Point, and hiked 4.5 miles to the fork of the Cascade Canyon Trail.
The falls...
Inspiration Point...
A baby moose we saw along our hike... sadly, no mother was to be found...
At the fork and our lunch stop...
That afternoon, we returned to Yellowstone, set up camp again, and saw the Yellowstone Canyon... much grander than we had imagined!
Kris also caught some shots of this large black bear...
And we saw yet another impressive waterfall... Tower Fall...
Then we drove by the Lamar Valley and saw a HUGE herd of bison... hundreds if not a thousand (all of the little black dots in the pic below)...
And we got "insider info" from all of the professional photographers around about this gray wolf (seen in the taller grass of the foreground) moving across the Valley...
And we saw MORE bison gathering at an apparently popular waterhole...
Saw another black bear, but a baby this time...
Got this pic of the amazing rack on this beautiful elk on our way out of the Park...
And we headed on our way West...
Passing through Montana (no sign present), Idaho, and into Washington on our way to a night's rest in Spokane... before heading into Seattle, our next big city stop...
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