Yellowstone

After Glacier I was poised to be impressed with nothing else. That is until I told my children Yellowstone National Park used to have a volcano but it was no longer active. I mean that makes sense right? It's Wyoming for heavens sake, not Hawaii.

Correction. We had a lot to learn.

Day one we rolled into Fishing Bridge Campground and wedged ourselves into the tightest space ever with dump connections that were elevated. For the love, this completely goes against the law of gravity. Needless to say we were not impressed.

Shawn was determined to sit outside!

We woke up the next morning and drove out to Lamar Valley to try and spot an animal we desperately wanted to see, wolves. We have become obsessed with the story of Yellowstone's reintroduction of wolves in 1996 after they were obliterated by humans. One lone wolf watcher with his scope remained and we learned you have to get there around 6 am to spot wolves.  Not cool; we don't do 6 am. The day looked up as we drove through the beautiful valley and even had the opportunity to go to church in Yellowstone. Now that was cool!

A visit to Canyon Village's Visitor Center quickly schooled momma as I learned Yellowstone is one of the world's largest, most explosive, and most unusual volcanoes. Well, I'll be. For the next few days we journeyed in awe of this hotspot volcano and its fumaroles, geysers, mud pots, and hot springs, and even more in awe of tourists who refused to obey signs and lead their children across fragile land that could collapse beneath your feet to peer directly into 200+ degree hot springs. "A little closer to the edge, Johnny, while I take your picture." We explored Yellowstone Canyon and braved an awesome hike down switchbacks into the canyon to the waterfall's head, but oh the hike back up!

 

We made a habit out of biking each night to Fishing Bridge's Visitor Center, a quaint little bird museum, playing on the beach at Lake Yellowstone, then going to search for animals. We had quite a bit of success spotting beavers, muskrat, otters, birds, and deer.

Tag at Lake Yellowstone!

The next day we toured, found a Jr. Ranger cabin and program about bug adaptations, and found Firehole River. We spent a glorious morning playing in the cold water and daddy even ferried us back and forth to a cave!

With a much awaited visit from Granny and Papa arriving that afternoon, we headed for a quick tour of the hot springs in West Thumb and found more glorious beach to explore.

Finally, Granny and Papa arrived! We talked their ear off, shared our adventures, and took them for a tour of our favorite Fishing Bridge sites. Our animal spotting that night did not disappoint! A bison came out of the woods and walked right toward us blocking traffic for miles without a care in the world! It was very exciting!

We couldn't wait to show Granny and Papa our bird museum!

Bison jam! He walked right toward us! 

We spotted this little guy by the road!

Our adventures with Granny and Papa began the next day with a visit to Old Faithful. It was everything we thought it would be! We got to see it blow twice! We visited the Grand Prismatic Spring whose rainbow colors left us in complete awe. We took Granny and Papa to the Yellowstone Canyon, but this time we took a different, but no less challenging hike down and back UP 332 stairs down the side of the canyon! I do recall Granny disowning her son at one point, but the view was worth it! We also took them to see the Norris geysers which were some of our favorites! The girls stopped by the Visitor's center to get their Jr. Ranger badges and we had an exciting encounter with a Bull Elk in the parking lot! Yellowstone will definitely go down as the best place to see wild animals for us! We can officially say we have been in an elk jam, a bison jam, and a deer jam!

 

Grand Prismatic Spring

Yellowstone Canyon

332 stairs up and down the side of the canyon!

We made it!

We needed a few breaks on the way back!

Norris Geyser Basin... feels like you're walking on another planet!

I love these cute Jr. Rangers!

They are learning so much! The rangers seriously quiz them!

Bull Elk jam in the parking lot! AWESOME!

Granny and Papa treated us to a buffet breakfast, an amazing dinner at their hotel, and we all will not forget capping each night with our evening walks to Fishing Bridge and rocking in the chairs outside the general store with our ice cream. We did not want Granny and Papa to leave us! The next morning would find them headed back to SC without us and the rolling turd headed on to the Grand Tetons.