Today we left Rexburg and drove to Yellowstone National Park. We didn't have to wait long before we started to see wildlife.Within ten minutes of entering the park, we saw two bald eagles and their nest. About ten minutes after the eagles, we saw two small herds of elk drinking in the Madison River. After checking into our campground, we had a pic-a-nic lunch (No one attempted to steal our pic-a-nic basket).After lunch we hiked up to Monument Geyser.The hike was fairly short but it ascended 700 feet in less than a mile.Later when we found out we were at closer to 8,000 feet above sea level than 4,000 - 5,000, I think we both felt a little bit better about our fitness.At the top of the hike, we saw our first thermal features - some steam vents and some bubbling water. as we approached the car on the way down, we saw three elk, one of which was "relieving himself" (speaking of bubbling water), and one of which was apparently following a coyote along the river.After the hike, we drove to Norris Geyser Basin.It wasn't anywhere near as popular as the Old Faithful area, and we aren't sure why.There were tons of geysers, hot springs, steam vents, just incredible stuff.It really felt like we were on another planet.Apparently Yellowstone contains more than half of the geysers on the planet, which is pretty wild. Later, we drove to North Entrance and saw the inscription on the Gate, then saw some elk hanging out on a public lawn in the Mammoth area just which is the former location of the fort that housed the U.S. army soldiers that protected the park in the 1910's.Apparently vandalism and robbery-at-gunpoint were so prevalent in the years before that, the army took over so the park wouldn't get completely out of control.To this day, it seems like we see references every few hours to a feature of the park that has been destroyed by people throwing coins in geysers or chipping away at rocks to take a souvenir.We also saw some bighorn sheep just south of the north entrance.They didn't have their horns (it was a mother and a female) and they looked more like deer or antelope than sheep.On the way back to the campground, we stopped by the Mammoth Terraces, which are a collection of active and dormant hot springs.As the springs become dormant or active, the park service has to constantly alter and rebuild the walkways, and the guidebook we bought showed nonexistent trails for several of the places we visited.Isn't it supposed to be a little bit cooler here than in Southern Utah? It felt like we were at ninety degrees again today.