Yellowstone--a few thoughts and lots of photos

Whenever you plan a trip, there is bound to be a few snags. Scout had swimming lessons leading up to our departure, Beamer's leg became infected and he had to see the vet, and I had agreed to watch a friends' kids a week or two earlier and wound up watching them the afternoon before we departed. But, finally, on Thursday June 27th, we set out at 8 am for our "Family Vacation" of the year--a camping trip to Yellowstone National Park. We set off in the truck with our camper trailing behind us, and we arrived in Cody, WY around 4 pm.

In Cody, we stayed at the Ponderosa Campground. It seemed the type of place for the seasoned RV-er: full hook ups, tight sites, and a bathroom with cowboy-themed shower curtains. When the girls walked into the bathroom, one said, "This is fancy!" and the other said, "Ooh, there's carpet!" (Yes, carpet in the public restroom... ick.) We got a bite to eat at a local restaurant, and later walked to the Dairy Queen. In essence, it was a night to stage our big trip into he National park.

The next morning (the 28th), we left around 9 am to head from Cody into the park. It's over an hour to get to the park entrance, and it took us another 45 minutes or so to reach our campground. On the ride in, we drove through Buffalo Bill State Park, and national forest and saw gorgeous and interesting landscapes. Upon entering the park, we saw one random bison just hanging out in the middle of the road. From the ride into the park from the West entrance, there was a bit of construction, and we saw quite a bit of evidence of the forest fires that have occurred in Yellowstone over the last 30 years or so.

We were able to check into our campsite at 11 a.m. on Friday the 28th, and we were thrilled with our spot.

Cory setting up the camper

The view from our spot--you can see Yellowstone Lake

These things were all over the place

A close up of the placard--very necessary for the tent campers!

We had a few minutes of set up, but it wasn't long before we set out for one of Yellowstone's main attractions...

There are tons of benches around Old Faithful for folks to wait for "the show"

It is an impressive sight to see

Inside the Old Faithful Lodge (it's pretty big, and dark... as you can tell from the photo)

A multi-story log cabin--very interesting

There are walkways around the geyser basin, and here is Scout standing near a Hot Pool

Cory is explaining something to Ruby

Looking back at the Old Faithful Lodge

Along the geyser basin walkway

When it's hot and there is anticipation involved, there is bound to be some complaining. Cory had a great idea to head back to the campground, have some dinner and THEN head back out to see something after it cooled off a bit. At around 7 pm we headed out to the Mud Volcano.

All this girl wanted to see was MUD POTS!

The walking path around all the features was maybe a 1/2 mile

Beautiful views of the surrounding area

Scout took this one

My big girl is such a fantastic hiker!

My sweet family standing by a mud pot

This is the name of the mud pot

Ruby did this thing where everything became a button/a computer--so here she is pressing the nail heads on the fence rails because they are "Buttons"

 The fascinating "computer" stuff started for Ruby at the Old Faithful visitor center, where there actually is quite a bit of interactive button-pushing. She then became a bit obsessed, you can check it out here: http://youtu.be/BVh-oq6ZlRc

 After we saw the interesting formations at the Mud Volcano, we turned around and started driving back towards the campsite. Along the way, we stopped to check out a walkway that takes you down to the Yellowstone river past some tiny rapids.

More work on her "computer"

On Saturday the 29th, we had plans to take a boat ride on Yellowstone Lake. But when we got up, we had a very special visitor--a young elk. The few photos of this are on Cory's camera, but it was a very fun way to spend our breakfast time. Since the elk was munching on various things around our campground, I'll assume it was his breakfast time, too. After the excitement with the elk, we drove down to the Bridge Bay Marina and Cory bought our tickets for the boat ride. It's a passenger boat, but nothing fancy. There are plenty of windows to take in the view, and since it's a lake not an ocean, the ride is smooth.

There are a few islands in the lake, and the tour boat goes past an island where there had been a "ship wreck"--Scout really wanted to take a photo of this!

Scouty took this photo, too...

Then we headed out to check out The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Along any drive, there is so much to see, particularly wildlife. While we were in Yellowstone, we saw tons of bison, a few elk. two grizzlies, and Cory saw a black bear as well. Additionally, we saw a few pelicans, lots of squirrels and chipmunks and plenty of mosquitoes (dang!).

 Now, Cory took some AMAZING photos of the canyon, but I just took a few snapshots.

This girl really wanted to see WATERFALLS! (And this was a pretty impressive one!)

This is near "Artist's Point"

Ruby does not look happy to be at Artist's Point...HA!

The last time that Cory visited Yellowstone was when he was a kid, and I think he always had a hope of completing the Uncle Tom's Trail hike. So, he did. I think I took the better option of driving down to the Artist Point look out--given my not-so-love of heights and all. But Cory got some great photos, and he enjoyed his hike. After we were done with taking in the beautiful vista, we headed back to our campsite for some downtime and dinner. After dinner, we headed to the West Thumb area--a place of hot pools and fumaroles that's adjacent to the lake.

This is the Black Pool--but you'll see some fingers in the photo working on her "computer" again

Sunday June 30th was a big day of driving for us. If you know Yellowstone, it's a big place and there is essentially a huge road that traverses the park and makes a figure-8. Our goal for the day was to drive the outer part of that 8 and make it all the way north to Mammoth Hot Springs. The roads are pretty slow in Yellowstone, between the speed limit (45 mph), the constant stopping for wildlife (mainly bison), road construction or repair, and the navigating of mountain roads (as the northern part of the park has lots windy roads).

Piggies!

Scout with her "Groovy Girls"--constant companions on the trip

An elk near the Mammoth sign... the animals seemed exceptionally content in this area to just amble about the populated ares, and sadly lots of the humans didn't keep their distance

Beginning our walk around the hot springs, a gentleman offered to take this photo of us

 It was HOT at Mammoth, and we ate our lunch in the car because there wasn't a shady spot near us. We continued on our road trip, and we saw plenty from the car.

Another impressive waterfall--I think this was called Firehole Falls, it was near the Firehole swimming area

We stopped along the way to take in another geyser area, this one was called the Paint Pots, I believe. After that, we stopped at the Grand Prismatic Pool--a gorgeous example of the different microbes that inhabit the pools and the colors that they create.

Checking out the mud pot--this one is mainly white, with some pink, thus the term "Paint Pots"

The Grand Prismatic Pool was very congested, but completely worth it

At this point, another trip to Old Faithful was in order. This time with ice cream. We stopped at the Old Faithful Inn to get ice cream, and while we were there, Scout spotted a friend.

Can you spot the "friend"?

After that big day, we kicked back at the campsite and stayed put for a bit. I should say that we stayed at the Bridge Bay campsite, and it was really lovely. There are campsites in Yellowstone that do not permit tent campers or even pop-ups, but ours was a mix of RVs, trailers and tents.

Our sweet little fire pit

After three full days, it's amazing, there was still plenty to do. We took a little hike up to the Natural Bridge (for which "Bridge Bay" is named).

A view of the marina

This is the view of the natural bridge from the bottom--it took about 30-40 minutes to hike out to this area (after stopping to look at every rock, stick and dandelion)

Ruby enjoyed the uphill climb, though she didn't seem to like the "flatland" part as much!

Once you get to the bridge area, there are a few pools of water

Impressive!

Dunking toes in the pools of water

My three gorgeous hikers

We had lunch back at the campsite and then took a quick trip over to Fishing Bridge. While we were there, we took some time to play around at the lakeside.

 A short little video of the girls at the Lake is available here: http://youtu.be/0qCSY5Jm9gM

Then a picnic dinner followed by another road trip--this time to the Norris Geyser Basin. Admittedly, we didn't have enough time to walk around the Old Faithful Geyser basin, but to me the Norris Geyser basin was completely amazing and impressive. Of all the different thermal formations, I found this area the most interesting. The walking paths really took you through some different areas and it was about 2 miles of boardwalk trails.

Bison along the road, near Hayden Valley

Our picnic spot a few miles from Norris Geyser basin

Cory loves his camp stove

We noticed this "Charlie Brown Christmas tree" in the clearing and Scout asked if she could take it home

Ohhh, there's someone else running out to greet us in the clearing

Standing by some big poop! You know how kids love poop!

At Norris Geyser Basin

Scout took this one!

When the thermal springs change paths, it kills the trees that were previously growing there, leaving a slightly spooky landscape

I believe that this is Steamboat Geyser

This guy loves himself some thermal features

Then the culmination of our trip was a ride through Hayden Valley.

You know there's a story...

Two grizzlies on the other side of the river, and many a tourist wants a snapshot. Well, momma grizz was having none of that, so she sent those 30-some people that got too close for a good run up the hill back where they belonged. Wish I had a photo of that!


Yellowstone was a big thumbs up... now, I must rest, this blog post took me hours!