Yellowstone Trip

We took you on your first big family road trip - we went to Yellowstone National Park! Not going to lie, we were a little nervous about the drive over and didn't know how well you'd do. But you surprised us and did extremely well. We also had lots of distractions to make it a little easier; a DVD player playing non-stop movies, books, and snacks. But the drive went pretty quick - we made it to Yellowstone in 4 1/2 hours!

Day 1: Stopped at Old Faithful on the way to our campsite at Grant Village. When we got there we had just missed it going off so we had an hour and a half to waste. We went into the lodge and had some ice cream and walked into a couple of the nearby buildings. When its started to get close to the predicted eruption we found a seat up front on the benches. Well we weren't there for more than 5 minutes and a storm blew through with rain down pouring on us. We all sprinted to the nearby lodge and it passed after about another 5 minutes. We found a good spot on the benches again and waited for Old Faithful to erupt. It was worth the wait and even better after seeing your reaction.

Taking a break!

Old Faithful Erupts!

Afterwards, we drove to our campsite to get checked in and get everything setup. We had a little visitor not to soon after we got there, a cow elk came through to say hi. We also got to listen to coyotes howl most of the night. 

Day 2: We had to pack up camp at Grant Village and head to our next campsite at Bridge Bay. Thankfully, this would be the last time we packed up camp until it was time to go home. By the time we got packed up and checked in to the next campsite it was lunchtime. So we had a quick lunch and decided to go check out the Mud Volcano and the Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We also did some site seeing along the way as we were told Hayden Valley was the best place to spot wildlife.  It was - we pulled over in a pullout, scanned the area with our binoculars, and found a herd of elk bedded down in the grass. The mud volcano's were pretty cool, a little stinky, but neat to look at. Buffalo were everywhere in the park and one happened to be right off the boardwalk at the mud volcano. It just sat in the dirt looking at all of us. 

Next, we went to the Lower Falls. The only way to get to the Lower Falls is taking a trail down the mountain to a series of steps, 328 steps to be exact. This is something daddy has always wanted to do so we had to do it! We all did really well down the trail and even the start of the decent down the stairs. But then I looked up and saw how high we were and had some second thoughts. Heights are not my cup of tea! It didn't help that the stairs were see through either. But I knew I'd regret it if I didn't do it so I powered through it and we all made it to the bottom. It was an awesome view and so glad we all made it together and could experience it as a family. The 328 steps back up wasn't that bad either...we just took it one step at a time and before we knew it we were back at the top!

Slowly making the descent down

We made it!

Beautiful view!

Back at camp, we had a couple more a visitors! A buck that wondered right through our camp and a buffalo that went through our campground. A ranger followed the buffalo making sure people didn't get to close. You loved our new campsite and especially loved the dirt mounds all around our site!

Dirty boy!

Day 3: We had a full day planned since we didn't have to do anything but eat breakfast and get on the road. We went to the brink of the Lower Falls, stopped and had a picnic, then went into West Yellowstone to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. The brink of the lower falls was amazing!! It was such a spectacular view! Though the whole heights thing made me a little uncomfortable as we looked over the edge of the platform. But it was so beautiful, I enjoyed it just as much a few feet back from the edge! You really enjoyed it and just wanted to run around on the platform. We were fenced in but it still made me really nervous so I stayed right by your side the whole time!

The brink

The 328 steps we did the day before!

After lunch, we went to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone. You had a little bit of a rough start as you fell asleep on the way there. You maybe slept for a half an hour and we had to wake you up to go inside. You weren't very happy with us and wouldn't stop crying. We had to divert your attention to something else to get you to stop crying. There were a few bear statues outside and they were great distractions! Once we got inside, you had a blast! You loved all the bear displays especially ones with cubs. You'd point and say "babies". You had so much fun exploring but had no idea what was in store next. We took you outside to where the LIVE wolves and bears were. We got a good look at one of the wolves as we walked by their enclosure. We didn't realize it at the time but we had just missed a scheduled feeding where you could watch the wolves being fed through the glass. So while most of people were watching that, the rest of the enclosures were empty. Two bears, brothers, Grant and Roosevelt, were in the bear enclosure and they were having a ball wrestling in the water. It was quite entertaining to watch! We timed it perfectly where the two brothers we just about done in the enclosure and they brought out two new bears. But before they did that, they hid food all around the enclosure. The next two bears were their biggest bears, a twin brother and sister from Alaska, Sam and Illie. It was fun watching them search out the food that was put in all sorts of places. From tree stumps on the ground to up in the trees. One of the bears pushed on the tree a couple times to make the food fall. They were beautiful and it was great being able to show them to you. Though I hope we never run into a grizzly in the woods!

The wolf enclosure

Watching Grant & Roosevelt play in the water

Close-up!

Illie (I think) looking for food

Afterwards, we stopped at an ice cream shop and had yummy homemade ice cream! This you thoroughly enjoyed!! Just look at your face!

Back at camp, you were Mr. Helper and wanted to do everything daddy was doing. That included helping build a fire!

Day 4: It was time to pack up and go home but before we did that we stopped at a few geysers on the way out. We also went to Biscuit Basin which had some absolutely beautiful, clear blue, pools!

Biscuit Basin

Sapphire Pool

We can now check off Yellowstone as one of the places we wanted to take you. It was a great trip and so glad we decided to do it! You did extremely well and actually surprised us with how well you did. We'll definitely be doing more family road trips!