Yellowstone, Day 6

Sunday was our last day in the park, so we packed our bags and said goodbye to our extended family and our little cabin early in the morning. We drove south through the park hoping for one more magnificent memory from Yellowstone, and we were not disappointed.

Sunday was the Day of the Bison.

We met these fine fellows high in the mountains on the road from Mammoth to Canyon Village.

I didn't need a zoom to get close photos of these guys!

We saw several more bison along the roadside but didn't stop to gawk. We saved our oohs and ahs for our last official stop in the park - the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone! 

Even Sarah was impressed! 

A nice lady offered to take a family picture for us.  Kate, I promise that you were there with us!

We thought that visiting this beautiful waterfall was a fitting end to our trip to Yellowstone, but the park had one last surprise for us on our way out.  

Remember how I said it was the Day of the Bison?  This entire herd held up traffic for about 30 minutes as they meandered down the road along the Yellowstone River toward Fishing Bridge!

Some were babies.

Some needed to lose the rest of their winter coat.

And some of them were just amazing.

They were ALL close to the car, though!  I even unbuckled Sarah (it's not like we were moving anyway!) and let her come sit with me to look out the window as the bison walked past us.

If you ask Sarah what her favorite part about her trip to Yellowstone was, she'll say, "The bison in the road!"  It's easy to see why she was so impressed by these animals...

Eventually, a park ranger arrived in a car and used his siren to move the bison along.  Some of them moved off toward the river.

Others moved off to the flats to graze and roll in the dirt.

As we got closer, we began to understand why traffic was at a standstill - this wasn't just a bison or two walking down the side of the road. It was an entire herd!

It was a spectacular end to our time at Yellowstone, and I couldn't help but think about how lucky we are to have such an amazing place set aside for all to enjoy.  The sheer beauty and wonder that we experienced at the park could not be replicated anywhere else!  We saw black bears, bison, elk, mule deer, pronghorns, white-tail deer, coyotes, otters, sand hill cranes, ravens, owls, swans, magpies, ground squirrels, pica and marmots.  We saw mountains, canyons, rivers, lakes, plains and plateaus. We saw hot springs, fumaroles, mud pots and geysers.

And, of course, we saw two people we love get married.