Yellowstone

We spent one day of our trip in West Yellowstone, and one day in Yellowstone park.  I think we could’ve spent three days at least just in Yellowstone.  There is so much to see and do there! 

In West Yellowstone, we went to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center.  We had a picnic lunch outside before going in.  They had bears, wolves, and birds that had been hurt in some way and couldn’t survive in the wild anymore.  It was fun to see the bears and wolves up close, and we learned a ton about the bear and wolf population in Yellowstone over the years. 

     

 

Some little wolves in their wolf den:

 

The next day we went to Yellowstone.  We decided to do the loop down to Old Faithful, over by the lake, stop at the Fishing Bridge, go up to the Upper and Lower Falls at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, and then loop back out of the park.  Our first stop along the way as the Lower Geysers.  There was all sorts of neat things there – crystal clear boiling water, mud pots, a couple geysers, and more. 

     

Our next stop was Old Faithful.  We actually timed it perfectly, arriving just about ten minutes before it went off, eating lunch, then seeing it again before we left.  It is quite the sight!

 

 

Asher thought he was pretty cool walking around with his sunglasses on.

     

After Old Faithful, we each split up and went to the things our family wanted to see.  Laci came along with us, and we drove around Yellowstone Lake.  We saw a wolf running alongside the road at one point.  Once we left the lake area, we were in some grassy areas and we saw a lot of bison.  We stopped at one point and looked down in a field where there were fifty or so all together, but didn’t get any pictures.   Our next big stop was at Fishing Bridge.  You can’t fish from the bridge anymore because it is a spawning ground now, and there were tons of tiny fish to see. Right as we arrived, a bus of Chinese tourists was just unloading.  Several of them asked to take pictures of our kids, especially Asher, while we were there.

     

Our next stop was the Upper Falls.  There was so much water, and it fell so forcefully, that you couldn’t even see the falls hit the river below because of all the splash and spray of water.  It was amazing to see.

   

Since we stopped at the Upper Falls, we had to see the Lower Falls too.  The hike down to the falls had a really steep area, and we were a little worried about how we would do with all the little kids, so we looked at it from above at a few viewpoints.  Davis said this one looked like a zucchini, since the water above had a darker green hue to it, but once it came down the falls it had a lighter green tone to it like the inside of a zucchini. 

   

We also stopped just past there to get a good view of the canyon.  It was so far down, and the rocks along the side looked amazing!  The kids were tired of getting in and out of the car by then, (and we were tired of getting them in and out), so Shane and I hopped out to quickly get a look at the view.

We stopped just past that in Canyon Village, and we all got some ice cream. 

     

On our way out, we saw a few more animals – a big elk, some more bison, a mom elk and her baby, and we just barely missed a bear.

 

We definitely want to go back again when the boys are just a bit older, and stay for at least two days to see more of the park.  We were glad we got to see so much in one day!