On the road again! Next stop, Yellowstone, where we would actually stay for a few days!
As most people schedule their Yellowstone stay about a year in advance, by the time we started looking a couple months out, everything in the park and close by were booked. We ended up staying in the small town of Dubois, WY, about an hour drive from the South Gate. It was a beautiful drive though, and we actually ended up seeing as much wildlife on our way to and from Yellowstone as we did in the park!! There was a bear that ran alongside the road on the hill next to us and one evening an entire herd of elk was crossing the road!
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| First stop - Lewis Falls. And man, this was just the beginning! |
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| Yellowstone Lake - it was massive. |
We stopped on the side of the road near a river just to stretch our legs. There was a ton of geese droppings and Buffalo Chips everywhere.
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| Lise may have dropped a chip of her own while we were there . . . |
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| Dragon's Mouth Spring |
Next up was the mud volcano group. These pictures are of Dragon's Mouth Spring. It actually sounded like a dragon was breathing in there because of all the bubbling and steam. It sure was stinky though!
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| Aly's got a current fascination with living in a van. This was right up her alley. |
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| Upper Falls |
When we got to Upper Falls, only outlooks were available; the hikes above and to the base of the falls were closed for renovation. Kind of a bummer, but the girls found some rocks to climb on anyway.
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| Aly caught this picture of Chris looking at me and I absolutely LOVE it. |
Love these peeps of mine. Even when they do silly things and want a picture of everyone's butts at Yellowstone.
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| Lower Falls |
So, Lower Falls ended up being one of the highlights of the trip. There was an overlook of the falls, and they were beautiful, but behind you was a trail that led down to the riverbank. We decided to check it out and we're so glad we did!
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| Look! We actually found the yellowstone in Yellowstone! |
It actually started raining on us a bit as we hiked down to the water, but not too bad and it smelled delicious!
There was a small stream flowing into the river, and of course, everybody had to try and cross it. They all ended up with soaking wet feet, but had a great time and - thank you arid desert - everybody's shoes were perfectly dry by the next morning.
After playing around in the river we headed back to the top where we found more exciting things - some great souvenirs and Huckleberry ice cream!
It was seriously so beautiful everywhere you looked that you couldn't even take it all in! We next drove through Hayden Valley where we were promised we would see some wildlife - and we did! Those Bison are amazing, beautiful creatures. As I mentioned before, it was a late spring and the buffalo were still shedding their winter coats. I was loving the chance to wear sweatshirts in June, however. The temperatures were around 65-70, perfect for hiking and exploring!
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| Bison in Hayden Valley |
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| Love, love, love the wildflowers! |
We also saw a few bears on our adventures. 3 black bears (full-grown) and 2 young grizzlies, so all the bears were approximately the same size.
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| So happy Lise would humor me by doing a yoga "tree pose" in front of this petrified tree. |
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| Mammoth Hot Springs |
We finished off our first day at Mammoth Hot Springs. It looked like melting ice cream covered in butterscotch. By this time we were far up in the Northwest corner of the park at dinner time and we were hungry. Luckily there was a diner available with lots of hamburger/sandwich type options. And double luckily they served breakfast all day long so our 3 youngest could have cereal for dinner. Ah, kids. Gotta love 'em.
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| Yellowstone day 2. First stop - Old Faithful |
Old Faithful was, well, faithful and put on a good show. But it wasn't necessarily the best thing we saw. However, after we saw the display, we explored the trails in the Upper Geyser Basin behind Old Faithful and that was amazing!
It blew me away how you could have frigid rivers made from snow runoff running right alongside steaming hot geysers. Sometimes the water from the geysers was even running into the rivers!
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| Beautiful Chromatic Pool and geysers steaming in the background |
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| Love this picture of Lise, but I especially need to take note of how she turned her retainer case into a necklace. She has gotten so many comments from that (all the adults think she's a genius!) It was definitely handy and a great way not to lose your retainer, I can tell you. |
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| Big Splash and Kylie in the armpit - perfect. |
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| Here's Kate holding a Bison on the tip of her finger!! (Or as she said, "it looks like I'm holding a turd".) |
Another thing I loved is that each day we were at Yellowstone we packed a lunch and found really great picnic spots to just relax for a bit and make sandwiches. On our second day, we saw a skunk while we were eating; luckily he was headed the other way.
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| Gibbon Falls |
The second day was really the day for geysers. We saw a lot in the Midway Geyser Basin.
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| Grand Prismatic Spring. Looks way better from a helicopter view I'm told, but still pretty neat. |
On our way out of the park, we did a last-minute stop at West Thumb Geyser Basin and I'm so glad we did. It was way less crowded than some of the other more famous sights and it was that perfect time of day just before dusk.
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| Aly & Lise waving to me with a geyser in front of them and Yellowstone Lake behind them. |
At this point, we were getting a little punch-drunk with all the hiking and driving and we started to go a little crazy with the pictures.
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| Here's Kate, trying to get into the panoramic picture as many times as possible. 😆 |
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| Getting off the trail without really getting off the trail. |
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| Love, love, love all my girls. |
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| And Love, love, love my hubby too - even though he has to put up with all us girls. 😄 |
So, as we were getting ready to leave the park I was saying how we got to see lots of bison, elk, and bears, but I still wanted to see a Moose. Well, we stopped at a little cafe/souvenir shop for dinner and, wouldn't you know it, there was my moose!! 😂
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| I found my moose! |
We were also treated to a beautiful sunset behind the mountains and across the lake as we left the park. It doesn't get much better than that!
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| Day 3: Grand Teton National Park |
For our 3rd and final day, we headed to the Teton's and decided that hiking around Jenny Lake would be a good way to spend our time.
We didn't have as much time as we needed to hike the 7 miles around the entire lake, so we just did a portion and then worked our way back. It was so gorgeous though. This experience just reaffirmed to me why I love the mountains and why hiking in them is one of my favorite things to do.
While we were hiking we took a little break to stop at this Sandy spot along the lake. So, so beautiful. I couldn't get enough.
Good-bye, Yellowstone (and the Grand Tetons!). You did not disappoint! We hope to come back again soon.
