We got up early to take a drive through the Hayden Valley, one of the best places in the park to see wildlife. However, some interesting thermal features caught our attention. We took an hour to walk the trails. We were afraid that after this delay, we would miss our chance at seeing any wildlife. We were wrong! As usual, there was a huge group of cars parked alongside the road. Across the river, there were three female wolves and five pups. By the time we got there, all that we could see was the head of one of the females bedded down under a tree. We took our pictures and were about to leave, when all of a sudden, a buffalo appeared from the other side of the road. It started walking towards the crowd of people. People scattered leaving behind their cameras and food. He walked through the crowd as if we were invisible. He walked to the riverbank and it appeared that he was going for a drink. Next thing you know, he was going across the river. He made loud snorting sounds as he swam across. On the other side he made several loud calls (Jon wishes he could add that call to his animal sound repertoire). The buffalo scared the wolves and they scattered. We were able to get some pictures of the wolves.

Five miles down the road Jon spotted a coyote coming out of the woods . He darted across the road. Jon didn't have time to respond. By the time we stopped the coyote was already wiggling under Jon’s front tire. (Just kidding) The coyote trotted along the side of the road and we got quite a few good shots.

It took some convincing to get Kim to take another 5.5 mile hike today. We had already seen Grand Prismatic, the most beautiful spring in the park, but this trail took you to a spot where you could look down upon the entire spring. We continued to Fairy Falls, a 171 foot waterfall in the middle of the woods. Until this point, all of the geysers were surrounded by boardwalks. Imperial Geyser at the end of the trail was different. You could walk right up to it and even step on some of the rocks bordering the geyser. We were the only people up there at the time and it was very cool! It turned out to be worth the three hour hike after all.