On June 27th, my family came to Yellowstone.  After paying the fare, we drove on.  When we came to a lake, my brother saw something white walking toward the lake.  I got the binoculars, and as I looked through the binoculars, I saw it was a white wolf!  Surprised, I handed the binoculars to my family members and each got to see the wolf.  Our family had decided to go around the “Figure 8,” the name my mom made up.  We went down toward the Lower Geyser Basin.  We drove for a long time until we reached Old Faithful.  On the way, we saw lots of  steam coming up from the ground.  The steam was really cool, but I highly disapproved of the smell, since it smelled like rotten-eggs.  I asked my mom why, and she said it was because sulfur was filling the air.  For the first time, we saw lots of bison dotting the fields.  Since, as I had earlier, this was our first time, and we were very excited.  Also, we saw some mule deer. 
     When we finally got there, Old Faithful was just erupting.  Our family decided we wanted to see the whole Old Faithful eruption, so we went into a nearby gift shop to see what we could find.  Luckily, there was a food counter, because the driving had taken up a good amount of time, and on the way, we only had had a few menial snacks.  We ate lunch, and then mom looked at the gifts.  I picked out a Yellowstone piggy-bank, or rather a bear-bank for our neighbors.  My brother got a Yellowstone cup with many facts on it, and I got a Yellowstone sweatshirt.  After we got our products, we went to see “Old Faithful.”  We waited a little longer (there was some waiting to be done, since “Old Faithful” erupted every 90 minutes).
     After the tedious wait, “Old Faithful” was about to erupt.  We actually got front row seats, since we came a little earlier.  But already, the benches were crowded with people.  The real time “Old Faithful” was supposed to erupt was 2:01.  But after a while, after 2:01, “Old Faithful” still DID NOT erupt!  Quite a bit of people said “Old Faithful” lost her ”faithfulness.”  But right when everyone was complaining, “Old Faithful” spouted water all over.  Higher and higher the water went, until water was coming all over us.  At first, it kind of felt like it was raining (hee, hee).  I wondered why the water was cold, because it should of been burning hot from the heat underground.  But instead, the “rain” felt cold.  I figured out it was most likely because the hot air met the cold air, so the air most likely felt cold.  While all the “rain” was falling upon us, TONS of steam was rising up from the geyser.  Steam also came toward us.  Surprisingly, the rotten-egg smell was not as strong as I expected.  After the “Grand Finale” of steam and “rain,” “Old Faithful” continued to shoot up steam and water.  The water lessened, and the steam blew sideways, almost forming clouds.  My dad said that underneath some Park Ranger was controlling Old Faithful’s eruptions, but that was only a myth.  After all, Old Faithful did not lose her faithfulness and did not betray the sightseers, including us.
      We left the gift shop, and kept on driving.  We did not see many things while driving, so we did not stop anywhere.  Finally, when my mom announced we had reached West Thumb, we knew we were getting close.  We did not stop at West Thumb though, but instead kept on going.
     After a long time which seemed liked hours, we arrived at Yellowstone Lake.  That was when I gaped in awe.  A lake such a clear misty blue with waves riding along with the water looked so beautiful.  Not just that, in the background, snow-peaked mountains stood out among the clear, misty blue.  OF COURSE, mom and dad took a lot of pictures, of my brother and I in the mountain view, and the majestic view alone.  After all the picture-taking was done, we got back in the car and continued traveling.
     We kept on driving for some time, and my parents asked us if we wanted to go and see the Mud Volcano and Sulphur Caldron.  My brother wanted to see the volcano and caldron, but my stubby legs were too tired to walk another mile, and besides, the rotten-egg smell was getting very unbearable.  Anyways, I still got out of the car to take a look.  The smell really was TOO unbearable, and as I said earlier, I did not have enough energy to walk, so we just took a look and got back into the car and drove on.
     Then, of course, we drove on some more and reached the famous Lower Falls.  We climbed the Lower Falls, and it was, I need to admit, scary to look down, since there were not any railings, just a zigzag path leading down.  We needed to edge toward the side to almost keep from falling down.   That really got your heart pumping.  The despite the pumping of your heart, it was still pretty fun, and I dared myself to look down a few times.  When we reached the end of the path, the view was beautiful.  There was a waterfall, flowing downwards in beautiful streams, the waterfall was to your right.  Plus, the waterfall was crashing down so loudly that we almost needed to yell to each other, and, when I was doing some research, it said that the waterfall over here was two times as high as Niagara Falls.  Wow, because the tallest waterfall I saw was Niagara Falls, not to say I already saw the waterfall over here.  And then there was the canyon, to my left.  The canyon was really high on both sides, with a few trees and shrubs growing there.  Between the two split parts of land, the water rushed through in the winding path.  NOW, I really understand why Yellowstone was the first National Park in the world, but technically, that was what I thought ever since our family laid foot to the Yellowstone grounds.  After we saw enough of Lower Falls, though I need to say I can never see enough of Yellowstone, we walked back, it was not as scary going up as going down, and got back into the car.  We drove on, and wait to see what our next stop will be.
     We drove on, and soon, it was getting late.  We were getting pretty hungry, too, but we had no place to stop and eat.  We saw a little bit of Tower Falls, bt not much, since we were trying to find lodging and food.  At first, I was really glad when we found this restaurant place, which included shelter, saying Roosevelt Lodge, named after Theodore Roosevelt.  At first, I was very anxious and glad that at last we had some food and shelter, but my hopes kind of died away once we got there.  All the tables were crowded, and the waitress said, to my horror, that we needed to wait forty-five minutes, seriously just about another HOUR, just to get another seat.  And I am telling you, THAT DOES NOT INCLUDE GETTING THE FOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I am just about 99.9% sure the food will take another billion trillion hours.  So, our family needed to leave Roosevelt Lodge without any success and go away with starving stomachs.
     We needed to keep on driving until we found food and lodging.  While we were driving, we passed Lamar Valley.  Lamar Valley is VERY famous, and is where you are most likely to see MANY animals.  Apparently, we did see many animals, maybe not that many, but quite a few.
     Like, once, we were driving past, and suddenly, we saw a crowd of people taking pictures.  I looked out my window (toward the right), and there, within petting distance, WAS…A….BLACK BEAR!!!!!  I was truly VERY surprised, as I stared in shock and disbelief.  Despite the fact I was starving, I was pretty glad I saw such an animal up close.  But also, not to say about the black bear, I also saw a wolf!  Since it was getting dark, I could not exactly make out what color it was, but I can say I could make out the wolf’s eyes pretty clearly.  Though I did not know this the wolf I saw, his eyes were glinting BRIGHT YELLOW in the dark sky.  I was certainly pretty awed.  If you had seen the wolf’s eyes, you would have also been awed to shock.  We also saw a bison, even closer than the black bear, and though I should have reminded my dad not to do this, he teased the bison, like,” Heyyy….Bison bison.  Hellooo….Bison bison, you sure have a funny looking face,” and things like that.  Kind of weird, but my dad still did it.  Also, we saw a pair of pronghorns, which looked as if they were partly antelope and partly deer.  They were a pair, as I said earlier, and accordingly, the male was more attractive than the female.  Also, the male had horns and the female had regular ears, not to say that the male’s horns had a faint blue tint to them. 
     After the animal part passed, we drove on, of course.  It was getting VERY dark, and I doubted if we could find some good shelter, and the thought sometimes floated past if we should just sleep in the car.  But that was not exactly possible either, because we needed to go out of the Yellowstone part.  Luckily, before nightfall surrounded all of Yellowstone and its neighboring places, we managed to get out of Yellowstone and arrive at a city called Cooke City.  At Cooke City, we all felt a little safer.  We stayed at a small, cozy inn called Grizzly Inn to spend the night.  My dad reserved a little shelter, and before we went to see oor little shelter, we went to eat dinner.  Though those menial snacks made me pretty full, our family went to a nearby restaurant and ate crab legs and a piece of steak.
     After we finished eating, we went  to our little cabin.  Though from the outside, the cabin looked kind of drab, the inside was small and cozy–two twin beds, with a small bathroom.  I climbed into bed after taking a shower,and I thought that tomorrow would be another day.
     I woke up, and we had breakfast at the same place as we had dinner.
     After breakfast, Dad kept on driving.  Since it was still pretty early in the morning, and we needed to pass Lamar Valley again, I saw many animals again, since animals are active usually during the early morning and the evening.  This time………..guess what?  We saw a grizzly bear!  A crowd of people were there viewing the grizzly, and I saw it pretty clearly with my binoculars.  Also, in the same area, there was a coyote!  Wow! Tons of fascinating animals in one time!  I saw the grizzly bear clearly, but I did not get to take a glimpse at the coyote, though people claimed to see it.  Of course, wherever we went, bison, big and small, dotted the fields. 
     Our main destination today was the Mammoth Hot Springs.  It took some driving to get there, and when we reached there, it was already 12 o’clock .  My brother was the only one who had lunch (mostly because he refused to have the snacks provided), so the rest of us toured the General Store (which was pretty close to the food counter) and looked around.  Everything was pretty much the same as the general store we bought our goods in.  The General Store was right across from the Hot Springs, and after everything was done, we finally set out to the Hot Springs.  I found out that we needed to do quite a lot of walking when we visited the Hot Springs, since the Hot Springs were like a mini mountain.  As I climbed the Mammoth Hot Springs (I was definitely on a boardwalk, or else I would have got burned), surrounding me, was very hot sulphur, and once, there was a sulphur terrace.The sulphur terrace looked pretty cool, but kind of scary at the same time.  After we climbed the Hot Springs, we went to Norris Geyser, and at the same time, we went to see Steamboat Geyser.  Steamboat Geyser is special because   

Yesterday, at around 10:00 A.M., my mom drove my brother and me to “Bear World.”  Bear world is located a little outside of Yellowstone National Park.  It is 16-17 miles away from Yellowstone National Park , from the West Entrance near Idaho Falls, where our family’s apartment is located.
At Bear World, we went to the ticket booth, paid, and went on to see the animals in Bear World.  We first saw the mule deer, there was a lot of mule deer, like they were in a family, and the males had big antlers.  Close around where the mule deer lay, there were two humongous, super-ultra big, enormous, fatty fat bison with big horns.  Another name for a bison is the American Buffalo.  Though the bison has a funny look (described by my dad as “dumb”), and has lots of fatty fat, and they look pretty tame, you can never tell what will happen to those bison.  Bison, if they get offended, can charge at 30 miles/hour!  That can outrun a human by 3 times.  Wow!  Bison may also weigh 2000 pounds! That is some big weight!
Pretty soon, we drove on, and saw a family of elk. Elk’s main beam horns may grow to be 5 feet long.  Elk’s antlers may grow two inches each day.  Two inches each day is a lot of growth, especially for only one day.  No wonder elk’s horns may grow to be 5 feet long!  Also, male elk is the only elk that may have antlers.  The female elk have regular elk ears.  We saw one elk that looked like an albino, but the managers said it was a typical elk and it was NOTalbino but leucistic.  That means the elk has a condition characterized by reduced pigmentation in animals.  It is caused by a reduction in all types of pigment and having a lack of cells capable of making pigment.  The elk’s mother was leucistic but her father was regular.  No wonder the leucistic goat was easy to spot.
We drove on, and finally, we saw the bears.  The bears were all adult, well, I think that one momma bear had two cubs.  We saw both grizzly and black bears.  We tried to remain unnoticed, and mostly we did, except for one grizzly bear which stared at us, but after a while,  he/she just stalked off.  As we were driving by, a black bear decided to cross the street in front of us.  We got the best view.
When we were close to getting to the end of the path, we saw a sleeping timber wolf in the grass.  Luckily, he did not come too close to us, and besides, he was sleeping.  At the whole “Bear World,” we only saw one timber wolf.
Pretty soon, the “Bear Loop” soon came to an end.  I thought that there would not be any more fun, but I was TOTALLY wrong.  When we first stepped in to a gift shop (the gift shop was right at the end of the “Bear Loop”),  there were just about a million stuffed animals surrounding us.  Though I need to admit I really love stuffed animals, I chose to not get one, so we stepped out into another back door.
When we first entered the back door, we saw a few shrubs and green grass.  As we walked farther on the path, we saw three baby bears playing and romping around in the cage (the cage did not harm them in any way, it was just so the baby bears would not get out).  There were three black bears.  Two bears looked as if they were grizzly cubs, but a Bear World Staff explained to me that black bears came in many different shades of color.  The two “grizzly bears” were just a different hue from the totally black bear.  We got lucky and got to see when the bears were in full force.  Actually, it was the two lighter colored cubs in full force.  For example, first, they were chasing each other.  When the bears finally got a little calmer, each went different directions.  But then, as one lighter colored bear tried to climb a surrounding wooden pole, the other light colored bear prowled and pounced on the bear on the wooden pole.  Then, they started doing a tug of war.  When the bears got really out of control, they started biting each other uncontrollably.  While all this was going on, the pure black bear just stalked off, leaving the two light colored bears arguing over the pole.
Finally, the bear’s feeding time came.  They stalked back and forth, waiting for their milk to come.  When they could not bear their hunger any longer, they started to fight.  This time, even the pure black bear joined along.  Pretty soon, a Bear World Staff came to gave to give the bear cubs their milk.  The cubs still needed to drink milk and were not old enough to eat solid food.  Some people got to feed the bear cubs.  The bears may drink A LOT!  The bear were fed using baby bottles.  Each bear had approximately 4-5 bottles of milk.  One male bear, named Dozer, was still hungry after those bottles of milk were fed to him.  After they drank the milk, thet no longer fought.  The baby bears just walked arond for a few moments, then settled down to rest in there fake cave.  Though the bears looked adorable while sleeping, I still enjoyed them while they were active.
     After the bears slept, there was not much to see, so we went to the duck pond.  I bought some duck feed, and we fed the ducks and one swan.  Apparently, ther were also River Trout who wanted to eat the bread, and since the swan was so slow , the trout mostly got all the bread.
     When the bread had all been used up, we went to the Petting Zoo.  We kind of got lost on our way there, but we still managed to find the entrance.  When we went in, it STUNK!  But when I saw the cute baby chicks and proud chickens, my personality totally changed.  When I ventured on even more, I saw that there was not only chickens and chicks but also deer, and goats.  There was even a fat, snoring, gray-colored pig.  The goats were ssssoooo adorable, and I went to touch one.  The first baby goat bounded away, but as I approached the second goat, I quietly knelt down and felt his soft, wooly coat.  It felt REALLY soft.  I petted him for a while, and he/she grew very serene.  My mom snapped some pictures of my brother and I petting the goat.  When the goat saw his/her mother, he bounded away from my grasp and went to follow his/her mother.  Even though the goat was still a baby, he could still bound pretty fast!  I saw the goat follow his mother to eat some tender green leaves.  The baby goat poked his/her head into the bushes and munch on the leaves. When the goats were both chewing the leaves, I reached out to pet them.  The baby goat felt a lot different from his/her mother, because the baby goat’s fur was much softer.  
    After a while, the goats were still munching on the leaves.  I decided that I could feed them by hand.  Holding the leaf’s end toward the goat’s mouth, I put it in front of him.  The goat seemed to understand and ate the leaf.  After a few more feedings, The goat bounded away with the mother goat.  They stopped in front of the mini farm house designed for them.  Over there, they got joined by the other baby goat, and went to sleep.  Apparently, the baby goat I petted was not very sleepy, so he thought he could climb my mom.  He did, a little bit until he dropped back to sleep.  This time, he really did sleep (goats look as if they are smiling when they sleep).
     Leaving the goat to peace when he/she slept, I went to see the boar-like pig.  I touched him, too, and he was nothing like the baby goats.  His fur was hard and rough, not soft and wooly.  I questioned my mom why, and she said it was most likely since he was rolling around in the mud.  I decided to play a game with him.  Actually, I did not exactly know I was playing a game with him, but this was how it worked.  I grunted, and he also grunted in his sleep.  I trailed off my grunt, and he also trailed of his grunt.  It was really funny. 
     After we played the game, I went to see the deer.  The fawns were really shy, and both of them bounded off when I tried to touch them.  I was about to approach a female deer lying in the shade, but a Petting Zoo attendant told me I should not because she was pregnant and getting ready to have babies.  So I left the deer alone and walked off.  Since it was getting late, I said my last bye-bye to the goats and walked out of the Petting Zoo.  On the way out, I saw an adoption list for the animals in the whole park.  I looked toward the section saying “Moutain Goat,” and found that one of the goat’s name was Snowflake.  That was why I named my blog www.snowflakethegoat.org, for my love of goats. 
     The bears were still sleeping, so my family decided that we could leave from there.  We went around the ”Bear Loop” a second time, and this time the bears were all asleep.  We left from the exit, and departed from “Bear World.”  I sure had an AWESOME trip at Bear World.