When we arrived at the park the day before, we were warned not to approach the wildlife for risk of getting gored by a buffalo or mauled by a bear. We joked all day about the dumb tourists who would approach a huge buffalo only 50 feet away. Why would you want to be THAT guy if you were to be charged by one of those humungous beasts. Well, we stopped at the mud volcano area where I tried to set up for a picture of the stinky springs. Little did I know that there was a buffalo walking along the sidewalk just about 10 feet away from me. All I heard was someone say, “Lady, move out of the way.” At first, I thought, “How rude. Am I in the way of your precious photo?” Well, I looked to my left and saw a big brown beast walking towards me. I quickly snapped a photo and walked the other way. Jes was up the boardwalk, desperately waving me over. I picked up the pace thinking that he was just being paranoid. Well, I turned around and there was Vyl behind me and then Mr. Buffalo RIGHT BEHIND HER charging in our direction! We ran in all directions and then eventually back to the minivan. I can’t believe Vyl almost got gored in the arse after we were just making fun of the FOBs down the street. Later that day, we spoke with a Park Ranger who said that the buffalo was playin’ with us and just wanted us to get out of his way. Uh…ok. So, here are some lessons we learned today: if a buffalo charges, run. If a bear is in your area, make a lot of noise and don’t run.

This was basically our “see all you can day”. We started by visiting the Upper and Lower Falls along with the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Next stops were the mud pots and then the mud volcano area (that we ended up not seeing). After lunch, we visited the West Thumb Basin and Old Faithful. It was a very throrough day and it seemed like all the geysers and steaming holes in the ground were starting to look the same. We were pooped by the time we got back to the campsite and oh yeah, it also poured that night. It’s a good thing we put up the refugee tarp!