Mark, Betsy and Marissa drove up from Rexburg, ID to Yellowstone West Entrance to see the amazing natural wonders of the National Park.
At the very beginning of our journey we on set of directions told us to get off at an early exit and continue for 50 miles. We got off but then we noticed there were no more signs for Yellowstone. After about 7 minutes, we pulled over and checked directions from another source on Betsy's phone. Sure enough, we were on the wrong road. We quickly returned to the main road and continued up another one and a half through Idaho and over to Montana before entering Yellowstone Park in Wyoming.
Mark had been to Yellowstone once before as a child, but Betsy and Marissa had never been there. It was so exciting to see so many amazing and different natural landforms, and animals that we had never seen before in the wild.
We saw buffalo and elk. We were actually able to get within 10 feet of seeing a huge buffalo. We also got to walk in a pasture with two dozen buffalo grazing or laying around. It was incredible. We saw geysers and hot pools where the water is over 212 degrees Fahrenheit (over boiling hot). 
We went to see Ole' Faithful blow. We were there about 15 minutes before the geyser blew, but sure enough, it blew just as expected and it blew about 80 fee straight up in the air. This geyser doesn't blow for very long, but it is very predictable and that is why it is so famous. We walked around the trails that take people to see other geysers. Some were erupting and some were calm. Even the calm ones were amazing to me. It is just amazing to witness natural powers coming up from the core of our planet.
At around 4:00 we stopped to take another path out to see a waterfall. On the map it looked like it was only a half mile walk - it turned out to be a 5 mile walk round trip. Once we realized we were on a longer than expected path we had to decide if we would continue or not. We committed to the path and continued on. Half way on the path we saw another path to an observation point. We walked up the mountain to the plateau from where we could oversee the amazing painted mineral stains of another geyser. This is one of the things Marissa wanted to see while we were in the park. It was so beautiful. We realized we would have never seen this amazing sight if we had turned back.
Continuing on, it seemed to take forever to get to the waterfall. We walked through woods with no one else around. Betsy even started to worry about bears (there were warning signs). Luckily with the three of us we were loud enough to scare off any bear (not that there were any). Finally we made it to a beautiful waterfall; we were able to get right up next to it. We could have gone it but it was much colder in Wyoming and it was near sunset. We knew we had to walk briskly to get back to the car before it started to get dark.
As we were leaving there was a huge back up of cars. We couldn't figure out what was causing the delay. We had hoped it wasn't an accident since it's a small road. Betsy climbed out her window to get a better look. The delay was a three buffalo crossing the road. No getting around that. After they finished crossing the road, it was still a very slow drive because everyone wanted to see the buffalo. One of the buffalo was rolling around on the ground as if he were playing. It was spectacular to watch.
We had a wonderful time. We wish we had more time to spend in Yellowstone. It really requires a whole day or even a few days to see it all. So many natural wonders to see and admire.
When we returned to Rexburg we had a wonderful dinner at Applebees with Marissa before taking her back to her apartment and us to the hotel.
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