Another Birthday in Yellowstone

I love Yellowstone. It's seriously one of my favorite places! So many cool features all in the same place! I couldn't wait to go for my birthday. 

The older I get, the more depressing my birthdays are. I'm glad Ian was there to make my day special.

We went on some boardwalks I'd never been to in the Black Sand Basin. Ok... geysers are one of the coolest things ever! 

The color, the shooting, the bubbling... So many different kinds, they are all so awesome! This particular walk had some awesome colored ones.

Some people were looking out in the trees. I asked Ian what was out there. He said an elk. I asked him if it was behind the big rock... Apparently it was the big rock. Haha! 

A couple weeks later I got glasses/contacts. Wonder what I could have seen if I had them in the park... I hate when I get excited over a rock or stump in the distance thinking it's an animal. Oh well. It's all part of the Yellowstone experience for me :) Look close to see my "rock".

Shortly after we saw our first real animal of the park, we got caught in a down pour.... Thank you rain for ruining my birthday hair. Not that it was anything great... but I hate having it pulled back for pictures. Oh well. What are you going to do... At least it wasn't hot.

Back when Jordan was doing tours in Yellowstone, I saw that he posted a picture of the most awesome looking geyser. I wanted to go find it for myself. Very, very glad we stopped for ice cream at Old Faithful first....

Little did I know it was going to be what seemed like 10 miles away! But we saw lots of awesome geysers along the way.

I love all the color! Some of the geysers in this grouped picture are from the Black Sand Basin.

It was a cute little bubbler!

Stopping for a birthday rest. We actually saw this geyser go off when we were on the other side of the trees in the far background. Note to self... the direct bike path is much faster than the boardwalks. But... the boardwalks are there for a reason. To let you see all the awesome stuff in the middle of a forest!!

This was one of my favorites. Almost as cool as our main attraction, Morning Glory Pool.

There was lots of action as we walked by both times, but it wasn't actually going off.

Ian was pretty fascinated by this one. He loves to read all the little signs. It was pretty cool!

We made it!! Morning Glory Pool. The pictures do not do it justice! It was awesome. Totally worth the trek.

Some random guy with a gigantic camera let us look through his polarized glasses. It was pretty cool! (A little weird putting on someone else's glasses, but w/e.) You could see down so far. He was a little upset he didn't bring his polarized lens. Yeah... lets not ask him to take our picture with our little point and shoot camera. How bout we ask the dad with 3 kids... What a wonderful picture it turned out to be. I look like death. Rain hair and trek face. Whatever.

Oh I just love him. He's the best thing ever. Always there to put a smile on my face!

We made it back to our car after the trek. We were trying to find a place for a picnic on the way back to West Yellowstone and got caught in an even bigger down pour. I haven't seen it rain that hard in a really long time! My birthday picnic was eaten in the car. Memories...

This day was definitely more of a geyser trip. We saw very few animals the first day. As we were almost out of the park, we saw 3 Elk. They were right next to the car before they ran across the road and I took this. I love the misty-ness of this picture!

I was an awesome view as we were leaving the park!

Our first animal of the second day. I'm sure it's the same one from the night before. It's practically in the same spot!

Gibbon Falls. This place always reminds me of being a kid, when we stopped below for a picnic. Back when there were no green trees because of the fire...

 UPDATE: I just found the memory I think of, every time we pass Gibbon Falls...

Who doesn't love a waterfall? I saw the coolest one as we drove on a little side road I've never been on before. I don't think Ian saw much of it because he was driving. It was on the way to Canyon from Norris. I definitely want to go back for a better look sometime.

Hayden Valley is awesome. Meadows, forests, and deserts all in a few miles. It's crazy. That's were we found the buffalo. We didn't see any the day before over by Old Faithful. Yellowstone definitely isn't what it used to be when I was a kid... Buffalo and elk everywhere!

In one part of the herd people were going out rather close to the buffalo. Is it bad we wanted to see someone get gored?? Tourists are dummies.

There was lots of bum sniffing and grunting. We were laughing pretty hard.

Then we found the rest of the herd after a few stragglers in the middle. I love this picture!

After Hayden Valley, we went back to Canyon. One of my favorite places in Yellowstone! It is so awesome. 

Mid afternoon lighting was not the best for my little point and shoot camera at Canyon. Oh well, it's still an awesome sight!

Love this birthday picture of us in one of my favorite places. Too bad the camera setting didn't get changed. I was just glad the girl I asked to take our picture spoke english. Lots of Europeans in the park that day....

We didn't have much time to spend in West Yellowstone the first day, so we didn't go into the park till after lunch the second day. We went and got an old time photo from my cousins shop. It was fun! I haven't done that in years. We got some Christmas ornaments for our tree this year and some fudge. It was my birthday... we splurged! It was delicious. We got Gusher pizza for lunch. It killed me to pay $30 for a pizza... but it was huge and so so good! It lasted us a few days!

We made it out of the park just in time for the Imax movie. I've seen it a bunch of times, but Ian never has. I knew he would love it as much as I do. Plus, it's been a few years for me. Who knew that most of the geysers filmed in the movie were from our trek to Morning Glory Pool?? It was awesome to see the geysers we just walked by, going off. It was a good birthday spent with the guy I love the most!