I have a visitor from home!!! Wes came to spend a week in Yellowstone and it was great to see an old friend! I had to work the first 3 days of his trip so he went sight-seeing along the upper loop during the day while I worked.
Tuesday, we hiked Elephant Back and had a great view of Yellowstone Lake.
Afterwards, we had lunch at Fishing Bridge General Store and drove back to Mammoth stopping along the way to take pics of flowers, wildlife and scenery.
Once we were back at Mammoth, we decided to head down to Boiling River to relax. Boiling River is where scalding hot water from natural hot springs flows into the cool Gardner River. It takes some time to find a spot that isn't too cool, and most importantly, not too hot.
Later that evening, Rebekah joined us for dinner at Rosie's in Gardiner.
Wednesday morningwe headed down to the Old Faithful area. We walked the Upper Geyser Basin and visited the Old Faithful Inn. We visited some other geyser basins and did a short hike to get an aerial view of Grand Prismatic Hot Spring. This night, we camped at Madison Campground and Wes went fishing for a while.
Thursday morning, bright and early, we headed for Grand Teton National Park. Along the way, we spotted this coyote:
Seeing the Tetons never gets old...
At Moose Junction in GTNP, we spotted 2 bull moose!! Here's one of them:
On the drive back to Lake Lodge, we stopped at Lewis Lake so Wes could do some more fishing. It was a beautiful sunset...
Friday morning, after breakfast at Fishing Bridge General Store, we went on a hike back to Riddle Lake.
It was a nice 2 mile stroll back to the lake through the forest. Fishing was not good this day because it was much too windy. But the view was nice:
We did some exploring of other areas of the park that Wes had not yet visited. The evening was spent enjoying the lake and geese:
Crowds and employees are thinning out. Now, the elk are the source of entertainment each night. 
This is elk rutting season and the males are gathering their harem of ladies. The crowds gather to watch and listen to the elk bugle and chase each other around. I gather to watch the Rangers try to keep the crowds away from harm's way... 
Bull elk will fight each other and it causes quite the scene...
Even the guys at Juniper dorm get caught up in the excitement... 
Afterwards, we had lunch at Fishing Bridge General Store and drove back to Mammoth stopping along the way to take pics of flowers, wildlife and scenery.
Later that evening, Rebekah joined us for dinner at Rosie's in Gardiner.
Seeing the Tetons never gets old...
At Moose Junction in GTNP, we spotted 2 bull moose!! Here's one of them:
On the drive back to Lake Lodge, we stopped at Lewis Lake so Wes could do some more fishing. It was a beautiful sunset...
Friday morning, after breakfast at Fishing Bridge General Store, we went on a hike back to Riddle Lake. 
It was a nice 2 mile stroll back to the lake through the forest. Fishing was not good this day because it was much too windy. But the view was nice:
We did some exploring of other areas of the park that Wes had not yet visited. The evening was spent enjoying the lake and geese:
Our first stop was the City Bakery to buy a cream puff to share:
Yum!
We spent the day browsing the shoppes. 
For dinner, we headed out Hwy 308 to the Saloon & Steakhouse in Bear Creek, MT.
We didn't get to stay for the races, but we did get to check out the competitors.
The proceeds go to fund local scholarships.
The highlight of the day for me was seeing mountain goats on the way back.
We saw this black bear just inside the park entrance:
