Yellowstone and the Elk Attack!

Though it is a bit cold, this seems to be the perfect time of year to be in Yellowstone! The masses of people have just about cleared out for the year, the skies are clear and blue, and the animals are out and about! The four of us arrived and set up camp in a little "town" called Mammoth inside the park. I call it a town because there is a little square area with a hotel and general store and a few other buildings that give the feel of some sort of civilization while out in the middle of the enormous park. We all decided to treat ourselves to some showers at the hotel ($3 gets you a private shower with towels and everything!), something that was waaayyyy too long overdue for Taylor and I, that's for sure! Anyway, this is where the Elk attack comes in! We parked our cars in the little town square area and were pleased to find a herd of Elk hanging out in the grass. There were two very large males who were acting a bit strange, however; trotting around each other and making whatever noises it is that Elk make. They seemed a bit agitated, so we patiently stood and watched until it seemed that they had gotten over whatever spat they were having and had gone their separate ways. We then started walking over toward the hotel when one of the males spotted us and decided that he was NOT happy with us walking through his turf! He immediately started coming at us, looking less than friendly, and causing us to have to run for cover in front if a near by building that, thankfully, had some large pillars outside of it for us to take shelter behind! We were stuck for a solid few minutes (and yes, we were freaking out) as he circled around us, and then got bored and left us alone long enough to run back to our cars. Needless to say, we will all be a bit more hesitant around elk the next time we see one!

Other highlights from Yellowstone include soaking in a natural hot spring (a really neat but kind of odd experience, as the water is not exactly consistently warm like a hot tub, but more a constantly changing flow between very cold river water and very hot spring water. It took some getting used to!) and camping in the "back country" of the park, which required a special class and permit in order to get clearance for! Yikes! We were not so nervous until the morning, when we found very large bear claw marks scraped into the tree where we hung our food all night! We are pretty sure that they were not fresh but I guess we'll never know :) We also hit lots and lots of boiling geysers and hot springs which, ok, I'll just come out and say it, are pretty much just puddles of bubbling water with steam that smells like farts. Not necessarily the most exciting part of the trip thus far. Oh well. What made the geyser tour very much worth it (for Jessica and I at least!) was the splurge that the guys agreed on at the end to get dinner in a visitors center! Yummm!! Beats cooking chili over a camping stove every time!

 

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