Glacier National Park

 From  West Yellowstone we went north and west to spend a day at Glacier National Park. We came in the east entrance to Going-To-The-Sun road so we didn't need a timed ticket, those were only if you came in from the west. We also skipped the Many Glacier part of the park since the roads in that area were under construction  and only the shuttles were allowed in.

The scenery is amazing before you even get into the park.

Looking into the park from the east, St Mary Lake.

Looking for wildlife. We took a few short hikes looking for moose but didn't find any.

You notice these are all scenery photos and nothing of the road/cars, there was a lot of traffic and all lots were full.

No place to park at Logan Pass visitor center so we just drove by. We were leaving enough time to make the hike up to Avalanche Lake but when we got to the trail head the parking lot was full and cars were park on both sides of the road for quite a ways before and after the parking lot. I found out later that specific hike is now the most crowed hike in America. The day turned into a beautiful, slow cruise through the park looking at the amazing scenery.
This was probably the 10th time we drove over the continental divide on this trip, starting in Colorado then north through multiple states and parks.

 

more Yellowstone.

 

As close to a family portrait as I could get.

It's hard to tell from this photo but that black lump in the middle is a grizzly bear. My camera lens wasn't enough to get a good photo but the guy next to me let me look through his spotting scope so we were sure what we were looking at even if I couldn't tell through my camera.
 

Pronghorn just standing as always.

Time for the after lunch nap.

When you have all day to wait for wildlife you can get the perfect pose, when you're just driving through the park with your spouse who is ready for lunch you get "snapshots" of whatever they are doing, in this case 4 pronghorns showing me their best sides.

 

A herd of elk near the town in the northwest corner of the park. This pose is actually the most common face I remember from photographing my son while he was growing up and didn't want me photographing him.

I really wanted this owl to turn around so I could get the face, they have the most amazing eyes. However it refused to move and I was stopped in the middle of the road holding up traffic so this was the best I could get.

Yellowstone National Park

 This was our third trip to Yellowstone so we skipped most of the geysers/hot springs/waterfalls and spent most of our time looking for wildlife.

In the past we've come in the east, the west, and the northeast entrances so this time we came up from Grand Teton through the south entrance.

 

So maybe still a few waterfalls.

Elk laying in the grass along the river near the West Yellowstone entrance.

 

Along the road through the Lamar Valley we found this mother black bear with 2 or 3 cubs.

She was scratching one side, then the other, then her head while her cubs played in the tree.

It's hard to tell from a photo but at this point was sitting on the rock and wiggling around scratching her bottom.

While she relaxed her cubs were having fun climbing up and down this tree.

 

Grand Teton National Park

 From Rocky Mountains we headed northwest to Teton/Yellowstone.

The drive from Colorado thru Wyoming is full of amazing scenery.

 

Stopped for a picnic lunch along side the road, you couldn't find a more beautiful place to stop.

The east entrance near Moran.

Another overcast and dreary day. We had about a week straight of mostly rain and clouds.

Jackson Lake.

 

We didn't see a lot of wildlife in Teton although we did come really close to seeing a moose. We came across a traffic jam with lots of people off the road taking photos. The park rangers were not letting any more cars stop we missed whatever they were photographing, we found out later it was a moose. That was as close as we came to actually seeing a moose.

 

The view across Jenny Lake.

Driving up the east side of the park we came across a huge herd of Bison.

 

more Rocky Mountain

 

We spotted this large bull sitting in the woods just off the road. Actually we spotted a bunch of cars stopped so we stopped to see what they were looking at. Most of the time in the parks that's how you found any wildlife, just look for the traffic jam.

In addition to the wildlife, the scenery in the park is beautiful. The day we were there was overcast and rainy.

 

On our way back down Bear Lake Road we came across a small head of females plus this bull and watched them for a while. The females were all busy eating grass while this bull followed behind and herded them.

There are some iconic photos I've seen and always want to shoot myself and this is almost one of them. I was able to get the bull elk bugling however it was still summer and too warm so you can't see his breath which makes the iconic shot so amazing. It's definitely on my list to come back later in the year when it's cold and try again.

From Bear Lake Road we headed west on Trail Ridge Road. We didn't have all day so we only drove a small part of it. This is from the Many Parks curve overlook.

One of several wild turkeys we saw on our way out of the park. Since we were heading north once leaving the park we took 34 east through Big Thompson Canyon which was a really pretty drive.

We saw hundreds of wildlife/deer/whatever next x miles signs. It became something of a running joke because we never saw any wildlife after one of the signs, except this time. We came around a corner and had to stop for deer crossing the road. I snapped a photo thru the windshield (it's blurry because it was raining) and it was only later when I uploaded the photos and looked on my laptop I noticed the wildlife sign exactly where they were crossing. I thought Colorado deer must be really smart to follow the crossing signs until I looked closer and noticed the sign wasn't for deer but big horn sheep.