After we drove through the Beartooth Highway, we drove from the Northeast Entrance of Yellowstone National Park to the North Entrance. As we were planning our trip to Yellowstone, we really hoped to see a lot of wildlife. Near the Northeast Entrance is the Lamar Valley, and as we entered the park, we were greeted by antelope, buffalo, and elk! What a great welcome to Yellowstone! You can always tell there are animals nearby when you see all of the cars pulled over! It’s usually worth it to stop and see what caught everyone’s attention! We saw a whole herd of buffalo come running down a hill into a valley by the river!
Just outside the North Entrance of Yellowstone is Gardiner, MT. We had a reservation at the Yellowstone RV Park. We rolled into Gardiner just as it was getting dark, so we had an exciting time putting our tent up in the almost dark, racing the sunset! The RV Park is right along the Yellowstone River. The sound of the rushing water is a sure bet to soothe you right to sleep!
We woke up early the next morning to try to maximize our time at the park and to get a few sunrise pictures. The sunrise was a little bit different than what we’re used to in Minnesota… rather than seeing the sun rise, it was more of a reflection of the sunrise against the hills that were facing east. It was a beautiful morning that did not disappoint!
As we looked at our tent in the morning, we realized that it was covered with these bugs! They didn’t seem to be hurting anything but they were BIG! We later found out that they were Salmon Flies.
After we got the sunrise pictures and some shots of the beautiful Yellowstone River, we packed up our tent and all of our gear and were just about to head out, when…. Kieren spotted a special surprise visitor!
Walking down from the hill, was an elk! She walked right by our van (that we were all standing next to), and right over to the very spot we had just had our tent set up. She slowly walked along, grazing grass. She didn’t seem to mind us being there at all! What an amazing moment with nature.
One of the guys that has his camper set up at the campground all year said that the visitors are pretty common and don’t seem to mind the people at all!
This campground has just a few tent spots and we were happy we were able to get one of them! Being next to the river and having such a special encounter with the wildlife was a great part of our trip and we’ll remember that moment!
Check out our video to see more shots of the sunrise, the Yellowstone River, the Yellowstone RV Park, and our new elk friend!
Thanks for stopping by our blog to share our adventures with us! We hope it inspires you to go out and explore the world around you!
