A Day of West Yellowstone

My title gave it away! We spent the 3rd day of our trip in West Yellowstone, where we were staying. We got up and headed across the street to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. We got to see, uh, grizzlies and wolves. :)

We got there at a time when all the wolves were quite active and running around in their pack. This one kept on coming and looking right at us from the other side of the window. It was very interesting to see them right up close. Here it is again. It just watched our every move from the top of this rock.

We also saw the grizzlies. WOW! What amazing animals! All the grizzlies in the discovery center are rescued animals. They got used to people food, were being a nuisance, and were going to be put to sleep. Instead of being killed, they were relocated here.

Athena and Samantha were old enough, so they got to participate in the "Keeper Kids" program. They went with one of the workers and learned about bears. Then they got to go into the bear habitat and hide food for the bears. Don't worry, the bears weren't out there the same time as the kids! Here are all the keeper kids walking through the habitat.

Athena and Samantha did their best to hide the food so the bears would have to dig to find it.

Here is Samantha burying the rest of her food under the rocks.

Once all the kids were safely back with their parents, we got to watch as the bears were let out and went to work finding the food. Wow those things are big and strong!

They went digging in the wood, flipping rocks over with their big claws, and sniffing everywhere to find the food the kids hid.

Looks like this one was successful!

Nathan didn't get to feed the bears, so he found this little wolves den to hide out in.

After watching the bears and the wolves, we went inside and watched a movie about bears. The kids loved it! It was nice for me to have them all fully entertained and learning for an hour. Then we stayed in the theater for bird presentation. Gotta see that! Nathan and Alexandra really enjoyed seeing the live birds. This one is an owl.

We also learned about this hawk. Sorry, can't remember what kind it is or any of that.

There it goes! Or at least it tried.

We finished up with the Discovery Center, ate lunch at the condo, then went out on the town! Our afternoon was spent going through the shops in West Yellowstone, getting our picture taken, and buying fudge. MMMM

OK, so we didn't just walk through town and people were taking our picture. We weren't very well known there. We did, however, go to the old time photo shop and get our picture taken. We decided to dress up "saloon style". You can click on the picture for a bigger view. Athena and Samantha LOVED this activity. They were wondering how much he sells the dresses for, and if they could have the fans, and if they could find these dresses anywhere in any of the shops to buy.
I think this day was a really nice break from riding in the car all day. We got to spend most of the day walking because we went from store to store to store to store to store. We didn't end up actually buying anything (except the picture and some fudge). We just window-shopped to get an idea of what souvenirs the kids would like to take home. When we were done, we went home and had dinner. I love vacations!