Well, not exactly in my actual neighborhood, thank goodness, but I don’t have to drive far to see some pretty impressive beasts of nature. We live an hour from Yellowstone itself but we are just a few minutes away from Yellowstone Bear World where you can see just about all the wildlife that lives in the park.

Like this big, handsome boy:

If you look closely you can see the wires that keep him at a safe distance from tourists. The black bears roam freely, like this well-fed one, but the grizzly bears are too dangerous.

So do the wolves, they came right up to the car last time we drove through:

It’s rather nice that they have a bit of everything at Bear World, from deer to elk to buffalo. They even have a gorgeous white elk:

In the spring time you can even bottle feed the baby bears!

Of course it’s more fun to spot all of them in the park itself, and while it’s not always easy to find elk or bear or wolves, it’s almost impossible not to see at least one (or a thousand and one) buffalo there:

Seriously, there are a LOT of buffalo in Yellowstone. Which is a good thing.

But if for some reason all you can find are *ahem* what the critters left behind, they sell this highly informative, must-have book at all the gift shops: