Wed. 8/13 - Day 8

We decided to leave the park on Wednesday and head for Montana to get in some much needed fishing time. Packing up the campsite early that morning, we headed north toward Canyon Village, only to be stopped by HUNDREDS OF BISON! This was the height of the trip for me. There were hundreds of them - big ones, small ones, cows and bulls, really old bulls charging cars in the road, young bulls locking horns, and they love to roll on the dirt, so my allergy medicine got a work-out. We saw a huge bill swimming across a lake - which is unlike anything you'd ever expect of these giant beasts! The Canyon area is remniscient of the Grand Canyon, only Yellowstone River runs through this canyon, and has a series of upper and lower falls that makes this quite a different picture. We walked along Artist Point to get some great shots of the falls and the dramatic cliff structures. On the road again - this time we were stopped by a BEAR! A medium sized black bear was in a field near a lake (pictures to follow). Then a few miles down the road there was a coyote! He wasn't nearly as exciting...but still, a great wildlife show in the park this day! We stopped in Mammoth Springs for a nice walk and some souvenier shopping, then hit the most northern entrance/exit of the park (pictures to follow).

Out of the park we went and hit a fly shop in Gardiner to get our fishing licenses in Montana! It's sort of a rip-off...you can only get a 2-day or a 10-day pass, so we opted for the 2-day and found a nice RV park to camp in for the afternoon. We saw more bison, took a weird road that led us to a crazy religious temple (and I use the word religious loosley), and used the rest of the evening to relax and read about Montana's fishing regulations.