Yellowstone (Day 4) : Bears and Bison, Eagles and Elk, Pronghorns and Pelicans, and a...Moose? Oh, My!

So the LTE here connects, but is slow! Takes an hour to upload  these and fails half the time, so we'll still be behind until we get to Idaho (and real wi-fi)...anyway...

Day 4 (June 20) was all about animal sightings, and man, did we see some!

We started with the second night in a real bed since we left, June 2nd. Got a real breakfast, the kids got some cartoons, it was great.

Met up with Grandma and Grandpa again to finish off Mammoth Area. We saw the map room on the Mammoth Hotel

(Made from various inlay wood in the 1930s, with rail and road lines of the time marked)

The kids got their ranger session

And we did some (more) shopping. 

After saying our goodbyes, we headed east. Stopped at another impressive waterfall

And the petrified tree (still vertical after being buried in volcanic ash)

Before being caught in another animal jam as people hopped out to see a bear!

(This is zoomed in, he was actually quite far away)

Moving on, we grabbed some lunch and headed into lamar valley. Just when I thought Yellowstone couldn't impress with it's scenery more, this is magnificent.

And bison everywhere.

(These through binoculars)

We also stopped again on the side of the road on see a bald eagle nest (with eagles)

(Again, zoomed in)

And a pronghorn antelope

Before reaching the center of the valley, with bison in every direction, more pronghorn, and ground squirrels everywhere.

On the way back, we passed some more geologic wonders, including more columnar basalt

Sulphor cauldrons (sulfuric acid stinks!)

And the mud volcanos/sulphor lakes 

Finally, at fishing bridge, we saw pelicans

a bold elk in the road

And a horde of people around a....mooose? we think? (If it was an elk, He was enormous!

There may have been a brief coyote sighting today also, but no picture.

A fantastic day of animals, and as  a plus, the first sunny day of our visit.

Oh, and one more thing...

Gotcha! All 51 plates (plus "US government"), 5 from Canada, and at least one from Mexico. Done.