I bet you'll have the best scenery on your trip! We wanted to hike from Elkhart to GR lakes but a shuttle would have been a hassle so then we thought about the loop trip.
It makes me feel a little better when I think of the fact that a lot of people hike in Yellowstone and very few have had a bad experience with bears from what I've read. This trip works really well for a visit with my mom too because she loves to go to Yellowstone and sightsee. She's going to try to meet us after our hike so we can all stay at Old Faithful and explore the park together. We should have lots of pics and I'll try to figure out how to post some of them here after the trip.