The best day so far and all the others have been impressive but you really can't top your first bear sighting and what an amazing sighting it was.

So the day started with a pre breakfast drive to Fishing bridge where we stopped to look for otter. Darren spotted something in the distance, a beaver, then a few minutes later a muskrat and then to top it all a few minutes later an otter. But not a distant otter one that seemed to be swimming towards us. So we stood and watched and there it was. As it swam under the bridge we followed it, it swam up the side of the bank, along the edge and then instead of going further away from us it swam across the water towards an island where it came out of the water and sprayed, rolled and generally put on a really good display. Along with all this we also had a close fly by from a bald eagle and this was all before 7am. So we continued further to Pelican Creek where we saw swan and a very close Osprey.

From here we drove along the road to Lake Butte and stopped to admire the climbing marmot which decided to climb up a fallen tree. As we continued up the road Darren thought he spotted something moving in the woods. Would you believe it there was a mother and baby grizzly bear in the woods. To begin with they we partially hidden behind some trees but what came next was totally amazing. We stood for nearly an hour watching the mother and cub strolling, digging, posing, suckling and generally having a great time and all really quite close too. It was truly a magical sight and I didn't realise how excited I was about actually seeing bears until it had actually happened. I have actually seen a real life bear!! I can't quite believe it. The best was a well known bear not numbered called Raspberry she is 8 years old and her cub is Snow and she is two and a half. I really can't describe how brilliant it was to see these bears at such a close proximity and totally in the wild. I was definitely one happy girl!

So after all the excitement we headed back to the cabin on a high for breakfast and packing so we could move onto our next location and see what the rest of the day brings!!

Did I mention I've seen a real life bear and cub!! So very excited.

After breakfast we checked out and drove towards Mammoth Springs stopping along the way. First stop was fishing bridge and Fishing bridge stores, just to have a little cheeky look around the shops and to buy my new favourite drink - Mountain Dew! Then we stopped at the mud volcano to see the geothermal activity including mud volcanoes and fumeroles.

From here we drove on back towards Yellowstone canyon where we visited Artist's Point and saw the falls from the other side giving us a totally amazing view over the canyon and river path. After this we stopped for lunch at Watipi Lake for some lunch in the woods where we were joined by some greyjay.

After lunch we drove to Canyon and then carried on past Mount Washburn towards Tower. As we were coming round the corner past Mount Washburn we noticed there were a number of parked cars and we stopped to take a look, only to see two blacks bears strolling through the woods and even more exciting one was a cinnamon black bear and one just a normal black bear! How much more excitement could you have in one day?! As we stood and looked at the bear we noticed a few marmot sitting on the rocks so this kept us entertained long after the bear had disappear.

We then continued our scenic journey to Mammoth Spring and as we arrived at Tower Junction I spotted a coyote in the field opposite so we stopped to see if it came any closer and it surely did. The coyote walked right up towards the van, crossed the road, walked along the road a bit more, then crossed over the road again before then leading the cars down the road. After about ten minutes the ranger came and moved it off the road.

Our next stop was the petrified tree where we saw not only the petrified tree which had been turned to rock by a volcano but while we were here we were lucky enough to not only see a marmot but a while family of marmots with mum and three babies.

From here we then slowly made our way to Mammoth where we found our lodges which are surrounded by ground squirrels and we settled ourselves in before going to dinner and had a little relax on our own personal verandas!

At dinner we were joined by the elk who were grazing right outside our windows as we ate so this obviously provided a little more entertainment.

After dinner we went for a walk around Mammoth to see if we could spy owls. We didn't see any owls but we did see elk and bison and we even saw a baby elk curled up on someone's front door step. After looking around we headed to bed after the most exciting day so far!