Take a left at the Bison and straight on thru to the black bear.

Last week Ryan and I jetted down to my parents to drop our little munchkin off for a few days while we celebrated our anniversary hiking through Yellowstone. We had a BLAST! We feel like National Park addicts, and have pretty much decided that before we die, we will have visited all of them.

Since I was little, my family visited Yellowstone pretty much every year, but somehow I have never really seen the eastern side. So that's where we focused for the two days we were there; we camped in Canyon (by utter chance we happened to snag the last campsite in this gorgeous, secluded area) and spent our time hiking around Artist's Point and through the Lamar River Valley. This was seriously some of the most beautiful country I have ever seen. And like so many others this summer, we saw so many animals! I had pretty much decided that bears in Yellowstone were just a myth, until we saw both a black and grizzly bear. We saw antelope, moose, and buffalo by the dozens- one even parked itself in the middle of our hike, forcing us to take a wide detour off the trail. Here are some pictures to tell the story.

Artist's Point

Here's the little Black bear- unfortunately hiding his face behind some grass

It reminded me of how I used to beg my parents for a Black Bear as a pet-

"But I'll teach him to be nice. . . "

Somehow the animals seemed to enjoy their moment with the paparazzi- this deer posed for about 15 minutes while passing hikers snapped shots from only about 10 feet away.

After a long day of hiking and picture-taking, we settled into our campsite and Ryan finally showed me his mad fire-making skills. He gives demonstrations at the Lewis and Clark center on a daily basis, and he’s gotten really good at it. It was so much fun to watch him. Smart, handsome and rugged- I totally scored!

Ryan's Fire


Hot pots.


Looks superimposed, doesn't it? Well its not!

In the Lamar River Valley