Summer adventure day 5 - Yellowstone

On Wednesday morning Danny went out and found a donut store in Rexburg.  Look how happy they are to be awake early.  The girls thought it was a really cool coincidence that they had the same monkey print pajamas.

 

 

While we were packing Claire kept Mateo and Grant busy.

 

We finally headed out to West Yellowstone, Montana.  We left Grant behind with my mom and Natalie.  He didn't even cry, but I felt really bad because Elaina was crying. Natalie was originally going to come with us to Yellowstone, but they decided to go the week previous to our visit because Pete was staring an internship.  I told Natalie that I felt guilt about leaving Grant behind and she said not to because it would be hard with a two year old.  We soon found out that it was hard with a 6 year old.  There is a lot of walking in the hot sun in Yellowstone.  Claire soon caught on that every stop would be walking and started to say that she didn't want to do that anymore.  So we had to modify some of the things we were going to see.  We also found that the park was quite crowded especially the parking lots.   Despite all of that we still had a great time and saw beautiful scenery.  We stopped at the sign by the entrance and luckily there was another family there that could take our picture. 

 

 

Our first stop was the Norris geyser basin.  The kids had never seen a thermal hot springs area, so the change in the landscape was quite dramatic.  It goes from beautiful green forests to a weird desert landscape with very hot pools of water.

 

The water that runs out of the pools has different colors of algae growing in them depending on how hot the water is.  The pictures don't due the colors justice.  The colors were so bright and vibrant.

 

We saw our first small geyser going off. 

 

 

We walked to the other side of the basin which is more hilly with trees.  We came across a ranger giving a talk about fires in the park.  We learned that most of the fires are started by lightning and that for the most part they are good for the park.  We also saw Steamboat geyser.  This geyser last went off on July 31st at 7:30 pm.  Before that it hadn't gone off in 8 years!  Natalie was there on July 31st, but unfortunately she was there at 5:00 pm.  The ranger said that the geyser does not normally steam like this and this was still an after effect of the eruption the week before.

 

See what I mean, traffic jam in the middle of the park. 

 

 

Our next stop was Mammoth Hot Springs.  The ride there was beautiful.  Just after a bend in the road it opens us into this valley.

 

This picture of Mammoth Hot Springs looks like either something from a movie or that we visited there in the winter.  The white is all mineral deposits from the water.  There are many springs under the ground that open and close for various reasons.  The right side of this spring used to have water on it but is now dried up.

 

The water comes out of the top of the mountain and comes down the hill.

 

With the sun and the bright white mountain it was hard to see. 

 

 

In this area there is a lot of board walk to explore.  The trail takes you up the mountain and many stairs.  This is when Claire started to lose it.  We told her that we had done the hard part and that we just had to go back down.  In her defense it was quite hot.

 

This is the view from the very top of the Mammoth Hot Spring.  You can see our van if you look really close.  It is next to the black SUV on the right side of the center cluster of cars.

 

As we were walking Andrew spotted a snake.  Luckily this time I had the camera handy.  He was so excited to show this picture Grant when we got home.  The snake is quite camouflaged.

 

Then we went to see some bubbling mud pots which were also very stinky. This one is actually called mud volcano. 

 

This one was called Dragon's mouth.  It is a cave with steam coming out of it that sounds like a dragon breathing.

 

We drove through the gorgeous Hayden Valley.  We were on the look out for buffalo because Natalie said they had seen some in this area the week before.

 

So pretty!!

 

 

And then we spotted a buffalo.  This was very exciting in our car... 

 

...and everyone else's cars.

Apparently several buffalo had crossed over the road moments before we drove by. There were a lot of cars parked everywhere taking pictures of them.

 

Our next stop was one of my favorite parts of the park - the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. 

 

There are two big waterfalls and lots of "yellow" stones.

We were there in the late afternoon looking into the sun, so it was hard to get great pictures, but it was really amazing.  You can view the canyon and the waterfalls from both sides of the canyon in multiple areas.

 

This picture of us was really washed out and I tried to correct it, but I don't have very good Photoshop skills.

 

There was an artist there who was painting the canyon.  This area is actually called Artist's point. 

 

 

Then we went to a viewing spot to see the upper falls better.

 

Then to the top of the upper falls.  Just behind Andrew and Claire the water goes down the falls.

 

Andrew took a picture of this sign and couldn't stop laughing at it.

 

 

This is a view down the other side of the canyon. 

 

The kids were done after this so we headed for dinner at a diner in the canyon area.

 

 

On our way back to the hotel (we couldn't get a room in the park so we had to drive back out to West Yellowstone) there were cars parked all along the road again.  We stopped too to see a bunch of elk hanging out not far from the road.  We had a good first day in the park, but we knew that we might have to either skip some things or do less at each place to get the kids to last the whole day.

 

 

 Meanwhile, back in Rexburg...my mom and Natalie took the kids to the Idaho Falls zoo.  As you can see, Grant did not want any part of petting the bunny.

 

 

He liked the ducks though.

 

Snack time.

 

Grant found the chickens that he loves.

 

He told my mom zebras are his favorite animal now.

 

Eating lunch.

 

 

 

Finally, it is bath time with Mateo.  Grant gets so dirty these days that he leaves a ring around the tub.  Grant didn't seem to miss us much while he was spending time with his cousins.