We're back from our first BIG family trip -- we went out west to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks! I couldn't wait to show the kids some amazingly different and gorgeous parts of our country, and it didn't disappoint.
I visited Yellowstone with my family when I was young, but MJ had never been. The first thing on our list was Old Faithful. What an awesome way to start! We arrived early and got to see it erupt twice as we walked around Upper and Lower Geyser Basins (and also saw other geysers erupt). The kids were awestruck.
(Funny story: like most geysers, Old Faithful always has some steam drifting out of the top. As we approached it the first day, seeing the whisps of steam coming out, a woman joined us on the path. She was so excited to see it erupt, and kept talking about how perfect her timing was, that she was there just in time to see it erupt. After about 5 minutes, she said, "Wow, it usually only erupts for 3 minutes, right? And it's been five already!" And I realized that she thought the steam was the eruption. I said, "Um ... that's not the eruption. When it erupts, you'll really know! It goes hundreds of feet in the air!" She seemed really stunned. If the steam impressed her, I wish I could have seen her about 30 minutes later, when Old Faithful actually erupted. She probably fainted!)
At that point it was still early morning, and steam was seeping out from seemingly every crack in the ground. It was otherworldly and so eerily beautiful. And cold -- about 48 degrees that morning! We were all shivering, but within a few hours the sun was streaming steadily, the fog had burned off, and it turned into a beautiful day.
Next, we went to Biscuit Basin, then headed to Midway Geyser Basin to see what Sweet Pea was most excited about -- Grand Prismatic Spring. You couldn't see much from the surface level because of the steam, but the colors were still so vibrant that even from a distance, you could see the colors reflected into the steam above it.
After a nice picnic lunch, we hiked up the Fairy Falls trail, which brought us to an overlook where we could really see Grand Prismatic Spring.
We stopped by the Fountain Paint Pots on our way out of the park for the day -- it's the only place in Yellowstone where all four geothermic features can be found together: geysers, hot springs, mud volcanoes, and steam vents. It was pretty interesting.
The next morning we got up at 4:45 am to drive to Hayden Valley to see animals at dawn. We had breakfast and warm drinks in the car, and our binoculars were ready. After driving 1.5 hours to arrive in the valley, we were dismayed to realize that the entire valley was shrouded in thick fog. We couldn't see a thing! As we crept south on the main road, I told the kids that we could have been passing an entire herd of bison, or pack of wolves, or even a bear -- and we would never know.
Frustrated, we adjusted our schedule for the day and headed to the Mud Volcano area, which has cool-sounding features like the Dragon's Lake Spring, Sour Lake, and Sulphur Cauldron. It was super stinky from the hydrogen sulfide fumes, which both amused and disgusted the kids, and due to the early hour and the fog, we were the only ones there. It was a little spooky to walk around the boardwalks in the faint dawn light, all our sounds muffled by the fog -- especially when we passed a sign warning us that there had been a lot of bear activity recently!
We headed further south to Lake Yellowstone, which was huge! Way bigger than I'd expected. And there wasn't any fog in that area, so we enjoyed really nice views along the lakeshore. At one point we had to stop to allow an elk to cross the road, which was pretty cool -- it was the closest animal encounter we had during our trip.
We went as far south as West Thumb Geyser Basin, along the western short of the lake, which was probably my favorite. There were geysers and hot springs all the way along the edge of the lake -- some of them were even in the lake! There were hardly any other people there, and we took our time exploring and letting the kids run around on the boardwalks.
There was even a geyser just for Sweet Pea and Little Man!
Then we headed back north, and fortunately, by the time we returned to Hayden Valley, the fog was gone. It was a beautiful, clear morning, and we drove slowly for an hour ... with no animals in sight. I couldn't believe our bad luck. Would we really visit Yellowstone for multiple days and never even see a bison? But then we stopped to stretch our legs and walk up a little hill, and from the top we could barely see a herd of bison -- probably about a mile away. They looked like tiny brown specks. (They might have been bushes, actually.)
But fortunately we spotted a few bison a little closer, laying down in the tall grass. We watched them for a while, and put our binoculars to good use. So we did see some bison after all -- we just had to work hard to do it!
We were close to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone by then, which was next on our list. We stopped at three of the overlooks to get different perspectives on it. It's huge! And the Lower Falls are impressive. The overlooks were so close to the edges of the canyon walls that MJ opted to stay in the parking lots! But the kids were fearless, even if I was a little nervous with their erratic running and jumping so close to the edge.
After the canyon, it was lunchtime, but we'd already had a long day, so we headed back to the hotel for a relaxing afternoon. I took the kids shopping for little souvenirs, and they made good choices: Sweet Pea picked a sweatshirt; CC picked a t-shirt, and Little Man picked a wooden rubber-band pistol (is anyone surprised?).
On our last full day in Yellowstone, we went horseback riding. The girls were beside themselves, and the guys were good sports about it. We had a peaceful two-hour ride in the nearby hills, enjoying gorgeous views and weaving through beautiful forests of birch trees.
MJ rode Shiner (a draft horse -- huge!); I was on Apollo; CC rode Stitches; Sweet Pea was on Sam; and Little Man rode Red Bones (a name he loved).
After lunch, we went back into the park for the last time. We headed north, to the Mammoth Hot Springs area. It's so markedly different from the other parts of the park that it was really fascinating. There's no geysers there, but the stepped terraces formed by the hot springs are beautiful, and the white travertine is so dazzling, it looks like ice.
The recent flooding at Yellowstone made splashing in the Boiling River inaccessible, as well as driving through the Lamar Valley to see wildlife. But we visited Fort Yellowstone, and got a little taste of military history as we toured the buildings. We were surprised to see that people still live in the officers' quarters! It's not an active Army base anymore, so I assume the residents are park employees.
On our way back to the hotel, we stopped one last time -- to see Gibbon Falls. It hadn't been anywhere on my lists of things to see at Yellowstone, but we'd driven by the overlook every day, and all the people stopping had piqued my interest. It was very pretty -- a river and waterfall gushing down a crevasse -- but the walkway and rock retaining walls were particularly impressive. There was even a display explaining how it was all built.
And then our visit to Yellowstone was over. Three full days gave us plenty to see, and I feel like we got a solid feel for the park and all its features. It's truly remarkable, and I understand why we saw so many international visitors while we were there: you can't find anything like it elsewhere in the world!
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