Today we hit all of the popular tourist attractions in the southern half of the park. The crowds weren't as bad as we had heard. We saw geysers, mud pots, hot springs, and fumaroles (dried mud pot). Although we’ve seen many TV specials on Yellowstone, nothing compares to actually seeing, hearing, smelling, and feeling the heat of this incredible park!

Again, we saw many elk, buffalo, and chipmunks . Jon constantly tries to get the chipmunks to come up to his fingers. Most of them have enough sense not to come near him. He makes different weird sounds depending upon which species he’s trying to call in. You can always tell when an animal has been sighted, because there is a traffic jam, as there are many cars parked on both sides of the road. Park Rangers are often at these scenes making sure that the humans are safe by keeping them from getting to close to the animals. On one occasion, there was an elk along the side of the road. Jon decided he could get a better picture by getting closer. There were about a dozen other people with Jon. The elk suddenly swung its head around and looked like he was going to get up. Jon got a little nervous and later told he probably would have felt guilty trampling over those kids to have escaped the elk should he have charged.