Yellowstone Part One

We left Bear Lake and headed north. 

We arrived in Yellowstone about dinner time. We set up our camp, made dinner and were cleaning up when our neighbors called to us.

There were bison right by our site! Alex was in the road right next to our site. They were this close to us! cool. Also we were told numerous times by our 13 year old that there were no buffalo in North America- only bison. He was right. It is just hard not to call them buffalo.

The next day we got up, had breakfast and cleaned up. They were very particular that you leave nothing out. I was very particular that not one crumb was ever let into our tent. The whole bears and tent thing was a little terrifying to me. I just tried not to let it affect me.  One day we left our tub with pots and pans out and we got an official warning. We could not leave anything out- even if we had cleaned it.

Anywho...  We left the camp and started driving. We stopped at everything labeled on our map or if we saw a sign telling us something cool was there. We started at Firehole falls but our first geyser/hot spring stuff was here at Lower Geyser basin.

Then we saw Great Fountain Geyser...

Then went to Midway Geyser Basin

It wasn't until this picture that I realized that the kids coordinated their outfits perfectly.They all got dressed at different times and most of them put jackets on during the morning. But then when all the jackets came off- It looked like they have a mom who coordinates their outfits - they don't.

Then the kids were tired of going in and out of the car. It had been a long morning of walking around. So we went to Old Faithful. When we got there we found out that it would be about an hour until she blew. So we went to the museum and waited a 1/2 hour. Then we went out to the benches. But the benches were full. This is us waiting.

Later a bench opened up and we moved over there. We had to wait a half hour so the kids felt like it took a long time, but it was fairly close to when they predicted it. It was really cool. It went really high and it lasted a lot longer then I expected.

Yes I have the hand of the guy in front of us in every picture. But I can crop it out. Having a bench to sit on was worth it. 

There are tons of cool thermal stuff near Old Faithful but the kids were tired so we decided to drive for a while. We drove over to the lake- West Thumb. They have some cool thermal areas right along the lake. 

See the little geyser thing in the lake?

And another one. This is a huge lake. I wonder how many hot springs come up in the lake.

We left at 9:30 in the morning and got back to our camp at 5:30. It was a long day and we saw a lot.

We made dinner, had smores, and got to bed. Have I mentioned that I love camping but not sleeping on the ground? I got a cot for my birthday and it was perfect. I slept pretty well. 

The next morning we got up and as I made breakfast, The boys finished digging out a stump in our campsite. It was pretty rotted and came out fairly easy. They broke it up in little pieces and it was great kindling for us. 

This day we headed north.  We got stuck in some bad traffic. We were going really slow. A truck came by from the other direction and told us that a bison was in the road walking on our side of the road. Then traffic picked up and when we got up to it we saw that he had moved over to the side of the road.

we got closer,

and just started passing him when...

he started going right towards us! But it was no big deal. We got to go ahead, while the cars behind us had to deal with that.

But just ahead there were tons of bison all over the road and around the road- that guy was just trying to catch up to his herd I guess.

We got to Norris and someone had to go to the bathroom. So we were just standing there waiting for them to come back when Alex spotted some lizards. There were two of them just kind of doing a dance. If you zoom in on this picture you will see them about 8 inches from his feet. They were oblivious to us and kept getting closer and closer to Alex. I told Alex to hold still so he would not step on them. They ran right under his feet! It was weird and cool.

Then we saw Porcelain basin. This had a lot of pastel colors and cloudy springs. 

We really liked these colors.

Then we walked over to Back Basin. There are some really pretty springs

 

Steamboat Geyser. The kids really wanted this to blow. It will blow anytime between 4 days and 50 years. So we didn't have time to wait around for it. It will blow 3 or 4 times bigger then Old Faithful

Then we drove to Mammoth. We started at the top and walked down. There are such cool steps that are created by the minerals in the water. The minerals are white and any color are created by the micro-organisms that live in the water. So if it is white, it is basically dried up and no micro organisms are there anymore.

Can you see the water flowing right in the middle?

This one was the coolest. It was right down at the bottom. I liked starting at the top because you could see where the water was coming from.

It was so pretty.

Then the best part was that Andre, Alex and Jaxon walked all the way to the top and drove down to pick us up. That was the best! Saved my aching feet. (and saved Tanner's knee that got all scraped up on the day we left on our trip.)

This was a spring that built up that huge cone then became dormant. Weird.

We left the mammoth area and started around the loop. In my opinion, this is the most secluded, more wild area on the grand loop (the roads).  We stopped and saw a petrified tree and then we saw a bear! Can you see that black thing in the middle of the picture? That is it! We were driving along and the people in front of us were taking pictures and so I got my camera out and snapped a few pictures. The kids were excited to see one.

I was talking to my mom when we got home and she said that when we were in Yellowstone when I was a teen, we saw a bear right around the petrified tree area too!

Then we went to Tower Falls and that was really pretty.

They had a gift shop there too and all the kids love gift shops.

Then we headed back to camp. This was in the really high mountains. We were at 8859 feet elevation. There was lots of snow around the roads. It was really really pretty.

I had spent time downloading digital books on my Iphone before the trip. We listened to stories the whole time we drove. It was great because it helped keep them from getting bored and fighting in the car and they could still look out and see the beautiful scenery. 

That night we roasted marshmallows and told stories around the fire. One of the kids wanted to wait until it got dark. It doesn't gets dark until about 10:00 at night- so it was dusk- kind of.

And that was two days of Yellowstone. There are lots and lots more pictures I could show but I am trying to not overwhelm you with too many pictures.

Days 3 and 4 are coming soon...