Yellowstone

Sunset lake geyser, I think.

Just a very cool shot, I loved how clear the water was here.

Old Faithful shot from the balcony at the Inn.

We finally got a shot of the Continental Divide, we passed it a total of ten times in 3 different locations over the 3 days we were there. It only took until number 7 to finally stop and get the shots.

Cute buffalo on Wednesday morning as we were leaving. The baby looks so cute.

Sorry, I didn't put more on. I have about 300 photos of just Yellowstone that I just put on my computer. I had no idea that I took that many pictures.

We got to Yellowstone on Sunday and left on Wednesday morning.

Has anyone everyone told you that Yellowstone is a very large park? Well they really weren't kidding.

We needed to find a place to stay on Sunday and drove around the park for about 4 hours. The first 3 camps were already full but we found a spot at Indian Creek. After setting up camp we decided to go to Mammoth Hot Springs. It was very cool but windy and the springs smell of sulfur. Very stinky. We then went to the town of Mammoth and saw some elk just sitting in the grass of the little town.

That night we had to put all food and drinks in the car because of bears. A little scary but that is also the fun of Yellowstone. We did hear wolves this night and that was a little freaky for me.

We got up at about 6:30 on Monday morning and closed up camp and went to find a place that was more centrally located. In our frantic, half asleep packing we left the bike lock. Bummer but thanks to Dad we had an extra. (He is always thinking, and we love him for that.)

We got down to Grant Village at about 9 am so it was about and hour and a half from the first place. Grant has just opened on Monday for the season and we were officially the second people to check in. They had a spot for us in Loop H and it was awesome, right next to the bathrooms and there were 2 bear boxes by it as well. We were told when we checked in that a grizzly had been spotted on Saturday at this camp ground. So just be careful about what we were doing and to make sure that you really clean up your camp all the time.

So Monday after setting up camp again, we went down to the Grand Tetons (read that post).

Did I mention how cold Yellowstone is at this time of year? It is in the 60's during the day and at night it is in the low 30's. And yes, we were in a tent. Pretty cold. The only thing that we couldn't keep warm was our feet. On Tuesday night, Mikayla put on 4 pairs of socks and was still cold. I think her circulation might just be bad:) The weather is also very strange, it rained on us everyday that we were there, but sometimes it would only last for a couple of minutes and others it might be for about 30 minutes and then it would be beautiful again. Very weird weather, you truly have to be prepared for anything.

We heard on Tuesday that the bear was sighted on Monday walking across a bridge that we have to drive on to go to and from the campsite. And that we was also seen swimming out to a little peninsula by Loop I. Did I mention that we are at Loop H? Well, needless to say, I am writing this right now so we survived the grizzly bear and made it out of Yellowstone just fine.

Tuesday we decided to spend our time at Old Faithful and around that area. I think that we were gone for about 7 hours that day and that was just one part of the park. Remember this place is huge!!!!

We got to see Old Faithful erupt 3 different times. When we first showed up it went off about 5 minutes after we got there. Our timing was perfect. We then did a whole loop around the Upper Geyser area and that took about an hour and a half and when we were heading back to the visitors center everyone was gathering to watch it again. This time we only had to wait about 10 minutes. We then left the Old Faithful area and started touring the other geysers and paths that are around Geyser Country. We got to see the mud pots that were really cool because it is mud that is just bubbling up. Again, the geysers really smell and you have to turn away to that you don't gag on the smell. It was windy yesterday so we got the steam in our faces quite a bit. On our way back we stopped at Old Faithful again, I really wanted to see Old Faithful Inn. Such a beautiful building, Mikayla was even impressed with it. We got some icecream (huckleberry, our new favorite) and sat on the second floor balcony. And with our luck about 10 minutes later the geyser went off again. It was so cool to see it from 3 different angles and views that it really gives you and appreciation for how great the geyser is.

Overall, we got to see 2 moose, 1 bull elk, several other elk and countless buffalo. The buffalo is my new favorite animal and Mikayla is really attached to the moose.

We definitely agree that we need to come back and spend AT LEAST a week to see some more. We didn't see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone so that is on the list for the next trip.

So that brings me to Wednesday, another day of driving. We were on the road for about 9 hours. We left Yellowstone and headed all the way across Montana and almost across the top part of Idaho. We have stopped for the night in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. It is our second hotel and we really need the showers by now. It has been several days, I don't really know if we stink or not but I think we get cleaned up tonight.

Tomorrow we are heading to Seattle, it should take us about 5 hours to get there.