Surprisingly, we only saw 3 elks in Yellowstone. We were so glad we started in Gardiner, where they were literally everywhere. Another funny story, in Yellowstone an employee was very rude to us & others demanding we go back to where we came from (his exact words), because an elk was near a restaurant in Mammoth that we were trying to get to for lunch. For us, that was our car. We found that quite humorous, because we had been surrounded by them for two days in Gardiner. (There was a group of them in the parking lot at a restaurant we ate at. We could have literally reached out & touched them, if we had been dumb enough to.) All we needed to do in Mammoth was walk behind the building to get to where we needed to go, but he didn't even suggest that. Maybe we have a warped sense of humor, but we found it funny that he was being so forceful considering our experience in Gardiner.
I think there were more bison in the park than humans.
We also saw 3 bears, deer, magpies, along with other birds, chipmunks & a coyote.
West Yellowstone was more of a tourist trap than Gardiner, but they both have their place. We enjoyed our accommodations more in Gardiner & appreciated the fact that they had a great, one-stop-shop gift shop. (I'm not much of a shopper.) The BBQ food truck there was beyond our expectations. WY had better restaurants, in our opinion. The town was easily walkable from our hotel. The plentiful gift shops were wasted on us, but my sisters would have been in gift shop heaven. Overall, we felt splitting time between the two worked better for proximity to different areas of the park. We didn't do much of anything in either town, but sleep & eat.
Our pictures are all on our Android phone. I'd prefer to send them directly to this site from there. Tips on how to do that would be very much appreciated.
Sorry, we've been dealing with storm issues. I was sitting in my running car in my driveway the other night, trying to charge up my phone and get some A/C when I started to reply. I just keep getting sidetracked by "life."
The park rangers will get pretty aggressive with people about the wildlife. Part of the problem is that there have been so many issues in recent years with visitors getting too close. They already had their first human hurt by a charging bison this season. Once inside the park, the 25 yards distance mandate for wildlife in national parks goes into effect (I think it's 100 yards for bears and wolves). We may just be accustomed to hearing them yell in these scenarios. I can only find aggressive bull videos, but there have been a number of instances in recent years where people have had to flee into the buildings because they got too close and were chased by elk cows.
It sounds like you had a really successful wildlife visit. I've been to Yellowstone numerous times and still never seen a bear in the park! I love magpies!!!
West Yellowstone is definitely more touristy, but it has its perks. I'm not big on gift shops either, but I feel like we had more options for dining. Gardiner felt more rustic, but it makes me feel closer to the park...if that makes sense. Exciting that you also made it into Grand Teton!
I use an iPhone, but I'm going to do my best to walk you through posting photos since I'm guessing the process is similar if not identical on an Android.
1. Click on the "Attach files" button below your message body (before posting)
2. This will bring up a menu with several options. I usually select "Photo Library."
3. This will bring up your phone's camera roll (assuming you have permissions enabled). You want to tap any photos you want to post. It will create a blue check in the bottom right corner if you've successfully selected that pic.
4. Click Add in the upper right of the screen to add the photo(s).
5. IF you're only added ONE pic, you'll just hit Insert, making sure to click Full Image (vs thumbnail). IF you're adding multiples, it'll give you an Insert Multiple button, which will create a little box to check on each pic you want to insert. Again, make sure to click Full Image.
NOTE- There is a limit to 10 pictures per post when using this method.
6. If you want to get fancy, you can play with the size of your image after inserting. I can't get a screenshot of it, but after you've inserted the image into the message, you can tap it and it'll have a box appear around it with little squares in the corners. You can use those square to drag/pull in and out to size the picture. This isn't required, but sometimes I do it if the image it inserts looks huge or too tiny.
I hope this helps!!! If you need screenshots to illustrate it, please let me know.