A Day in West Yellowstone, Montana

Very impressive grizzlies

After two very long, full days in the park, we decided to stick around town today and take it a little easy. West Yellowstone is right at the gate to the park, so of course, there is a lot of tourist attractions here, shopping, restaurants, a few attractions, etc. They have a lot of bike trails and it's a very bike-friendly town. We rode our bikes from the RV park to town and headed to the Yellowstone Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. This non-profit refuge takes bears and wolves that can't survive in the wild. They do some neat programs with the animals, especially the bears, including a lot of research into bear activity. One neat thing we say today was they were testing a backpack for certification as bear-resistant. In order to be certified bear-resistant, an item has to survive 1 hour of "paws on" attempt to open it. They filled this kevlar backpack with a fish, peanut butter, jam, fruit, and other good-smelling stuff, and let the bears have at it. It was fascinating to watch this guy work on the pack: jumping on it, throwing it, holding it under water. He didn't get it open, so it passed. They also had a display of various items that didn't pass, trash cans, recycling cans, and "bear-proof" trash cans.

He reminded me of my Bubba. :-(

So we learned a lot about bears and wolves today and the kids enjoyed it. After the center, we did some shopping in town, then Jim and I took a bike ride on some of the trails outside of town. Fun day again!

Evening snack of popcorn on the cob,
from The Corn Palace.

Wolf pup den. 

Majestic. It was like he posed for
this picture on purpose. 

Maggie "at school" in a cute shop in the building
that used to the be the grade school in W. Yellwostone.

Tomorrow we are checking out of Grizzly RV Park and moving to another RV park outside of town on Lake Hegben.