Schulz National Lampoon's Vacation 2011: July 20

We left our campsite yesterday morning and entered Yellowstone National Park through the East Entrance. We made a drive across the park to the West Entrance and our new campground, Grizzly RV (which came highly recommended and I would agree!), where we will be for the next 3 nights. The campground is beautiful, and we are just 4 blocks to the Park entrance.

We decided that since we were going to be staying for 3 days, we would rent a car so that we weren't having to unhook, drive through the Park, and set up camp daily.

The kids have been dying to fish. So, we spent the afternoon driving the Park's North Loop finding fishing spots along the rivers. The waters are high and fast because of all of the runoff they have had from last winter's deep snows. So, actually catching a fish isn't too likely -- and we didn't -- but that never seems to affect the kids' enthusiasm anyway.

At our first spot, we plunked down next to the Gibbon River. I was a great spot and the waters seemed to be flowing a bit slower -- making it more likely to catch something. However, we soon realized that there were Grizzly rubs and hair all over the trees. We made the executive decision to move on.

The kids playing on a remaining snow patch.

Grazing herd of bison.

We worked our way through the North Loop through the evening, an excellent time to spot wildlife. We saw a Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrel (which committed Hari Kari under our wheel after spotting him, despite best efforts to thwart his attempt), Pronghorn, Mule Deer, Whitetail Deer, a HUGE Bull Elk, Buffalo, an ENORMOUS Grizzly Bear (we estimated him at 900 lbs.), and two good-sized Black Bear.