August 9, 2012 - "The Park"...

We drove down to "The Park" today.  For us, truly there is only one park - Yellowstone National Park.

YNP is only about eighty miles from Bozeman.  We stopped and ate breakfast in Livingston, Montana at Clark's Crossing.  The food is superb there.  I wanted to take the chef home but the waitress said he was going home with her - oops!  They also have the largest collection of what used to be penny candy there.  I always buy a good supply of Chocolate Neccos (remember those?) so they will last until next year.  From Livingston to "The Park" is about 30 minutes and the drive is really beautiful.

This must be the prettiest rest stop in the country.  It's right on the Yellowstone River and each of the picnic areas is screened from the rest so it's almost as if you're alone there.

This is on the way to Mammoth Hot Springs.

This is the Church in Mammoth my husband and I were married in.

One of the many buffalo that caused a huge traffic jam.  I got even with him, though.  I had the most wonderful buffalo burger at Roosevelt for lunch.  Roosevelt has THE BEST food in the park but the wait can be long.  The restaurant is small and everybody knows it has the best food.

I caught this picture of a female elk on the way to Gardiner when we were leaving the park for Bozeman again.

This creek follows the road out of the park.  We were lucky enough to see buffalo, elk, sand hill cranes, antelope, immature bald eagles and several osprey.  No bears. 

We're back at the LaQuinta and still so full from lunch that we're just going to snack for dinner.  Tomorrow we plan to spend most of the day with Lowell and Marcia, have dinner and turn in early.  Saturday starts our run for Yakima, Washington.