May 10th we received almost a half an inch of snow in the campground.

 

We went out to West Yellowstone May 11th. On the way back to camp we saw a small herd of bison crossing the Madison River.

 

 

May 17th we took a drive down to the Tetons. I took a panorama picture of the peaks from Mormon Row, an historic town, east of the park but the image is too large to upload. 

On the 18th we drove out to Quake Lake. On the way back in, we came across another herd of bison, this one had a number of baby bison with them.

 

On May 22 we had another dusting of snow in the campground.

Driving along the Firehole River on the 23rd, we came across a lone trumpeter swan near Fountain Flats Drive.

 

May 23rd we drove around the upper loop in Yellowstone. We stopped at Floating Island Lake between Tower Junction and Mammoth. There were quite a few bird species in and around the Lake.

One I haven't  been able to classify yet.

 One that I think is a Lesser Scaup

 

An American Coot 

 

And an American Avocet

 

On the way south towards the campground, we found a bald eagle in a tree along the Gibbon River, just north of the Gibbon Falls.

 

On May 31st, on our way to Stagecoach Road, for a hike with our hiking buddies, we stopped at Apollonaris Spring. Penny and I had seen it when we were heading towards Bozeman once, but none of us had ever stopped there and our hiking buddies were totally unaware of it, even though they have been working in Yellowstone for five years. It turns out that it is a fresh water spring that visitors early in the 20th century used as drinking water, since there were no other facilities that supplied fresh water at the time. The water is not particularly healthy to drink due to pollution from wildlife. It is a very small feature in the park and probably doesn't get many visitors, since there is only room for a couple of cars to park near it.

 

 While on the hike over Stagecoach Road, we saw a herd of Elk and Pronghorn plus a few flowers were starting to bloom.

 

The morning of June 7th we went to Old Faithful with our hiking buddies, to watch an eruption of the geyser from above, with the Old Faithful Inn as a backdrop. We were a little slow getting up the hill, so we watched it from about three-quarters the way up the hill. On the way down, we came across a rock mound with a family of Yellow Belly Marmots in it and were able to get a few pictures of them.

 We also saw a Redtail Hawk on the top of a dead tree across from the entrance to Firehole Lake Drive.

 Penny and I took another ride around the north loop that afternoon and went out to the Lamar Valley. We saw the cutest baby pronghorn near Slough Creek.

 

The pine trees are full of pollen this time of year. It was windy enough in the Lamar Valley that the pollen looked very much like a dust storm.

 

June 8th we took another trip out towards West Yellowstone. While parked in a turnout seven miles from the campground, on the Madison River, we saw a family of Northern Pintail ducks in the river.

 

Back out at the same turnout on June 13th we saw another Bald Eagle watching the river for fish and a River Otter collecting grass for its home in the river bank.

 

On the 14th of June we hiked the Point Sublime Trail along the south rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, where we got some spectacular views of the canyon and river downstream from the lower falls.

 

After the hike we drove out to the Lamar Valley for a picnic lunch and a chance to sit and watch the wildlife. Bison were everywhere - hundreds of bison in each group.

We also saw a weasel on two if our recent trips but nobody in the truck was fast enough with their camera to get a picture of either one.