Day Eight - Yellowstone

13 hours of Yellowstone from trailer door back to trailer door at dusk.  We saw beautiful waterfalls, rivers, wildlife, lodges, and all the special spots that did not require a hike.  We rented this thing called Gaperguide which plugged into the cigarette lighter and the radio and was super informative.   It told us about each upcoming turn out and what to see if we decided to stop, interesting facts along the way, and was well worth having it.   It was like having Sheldon Cooper in the front seat with us.

If you have been to Yellowstone, you know all the great spots, if you haven't, you should go.  It's really nice.  I am just going to post a few pics from some of the stops that we made along the way.

One item of interest.   We were stopped at one of the lodges and resting on a bench when I noticed a group of boy scouts attaching little bells to their shoes.   I asked Martha about it and since she didn't know what was up she went over and asked the scout leader.   He explained that they were going on a hike into bear country and the little bells alerted the bears of their approach.  It is never a good idea to walk up on a bear by surprise.  We then watched as he handed out pepper spray to each scout and explained that if a bear did attack, stand firm and spray directly into its eyes and mouth.   I found that kind of funny imagining a bear attacking directly at a 12 year old and he holds his ground with a little can of spray as defense.   The scout leader went on to explain to them that the pepper spray was their only option as it was not possible to outrun the bear.  He then told them that their best defense was to be bear aware.  Keeping a good watch out for them off to the sides of the trails.  He told them that there are two kinds of bears in Yellowstone, brown bears and grizzly bears.  One way to tell if there is a bear in the area is if they spot fresh bear scat.   He informed this group of about seven 12 year old scouts, that they could tell which kind of bear is in the area by their scat.  Brown bear scat is circular and piled up like cow piles.  On the other hand, grizzly bear scat is spread out more and it contains little bells and smells like pepper spray.