Day 49 - Yellowstone National Park

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Posted from: West Yellowstone, MT - 

Miles driven: 145

Total trip miles: 8,549

Yellowstone kind of sneaks up on you. We didn't do anything that we considered a hike, yet I logged just under 7 miles of walking in the park.

We started out driving through the west entrance and driving towards Old Faithful. We drove through the gates right at 7:00 am and there was a ranger there to check our pass. This was the earliest we have seen rangers at the fee stations in any park. 

Our first thought as we looked at the steam rising up from all over the park in the cool morning air was: How would you know if this place was on fire?? It looks like a lot of campfires. Obviously the smell was not a smell of fire, but it really drives home that this entire park is sitting in an active volcano. 

Here we are at Midway where the Grand Prismatic Spring is the star of the show. This is the colorful pool of water you see on many Yellowstone materials. It is second in popularity only to Old Faithful. But early morning is not the time to go. Too much steam.

The kids are standing by the Grand Prismatic Spring. We could see the colors, but it is better later in the day. Unfortunately you have just about no chance of parking here later in the day. The parking lot is really small.

We arrived at Old Faithful just in time to join a 90 minute ranger led hike around Geyser Hill. I can't say enough how much we appreciate these hikes. 

She led us to a good vantage point on the hike to watch Old Faithful erupt.

Family picture!

The Beehive Geyser doesn't erupt nearly as often as Old Faithful, but it usually erupts longer and higher. We happened to be fortunate enough to see it erupt at the end of our hike. They call over the ranger's radios when it is close. The hike was over, but the ranger flagged us down and told us to go check it out. 

All in all we saw 4 geysers erupt on our walk. Nice!

Caleb is ducking his head in this picture of Beehive erupting because it rains water on you.

Standing in front of the Old Faithful Inn. The lodge in the Disney movie, Planes Fire and Rescue was based on this lodge. 

It was like an indoor treehouse on the inside. 

The crows nest (top of the "treehouse") has been closed since an earthquake in the 50's. 

Caleb sat down at one of the desks to work on his Junior Ranger book.

Grace and Cameron worked on theirs too. 

We found enough things to do here that we decided to stay around until the restaurant at the lodge opened at 11:30. We were all hungry for a big meal! 

We got the best seat in the house in the corner with open windows all around and a nice breeze. 

The food was good and we all left very full and happy. 

If you have seen the Planes Fire and Rescue movie, then you know why we took this picture of the fancy white SUV in front of the lodge. (Hint: the superintendent is here)

Bison!!! 

They were everywhere and caused quite the traffic delay. 

This one was at least able to find a decent parking spot. 

Yellowstone Canyon. 

The kids and the lower falls. It is hard to see in this picture, but a stripe of water coming over the falls is bright green. Cameron called it Scope Mouthwash green and he is exactly right. It was that green! 

Boiling mud!!!! We stopped to walk around the Painted Pots area. The kids really wanted to see the bubbling mud. They were not disappointed. We stood and watched this for awhile. After we drove away, the kids said this was one of their favorite things they saw all day. 

Matt said this was a pretty view... So I snapped a picture. That is all.

We arrived back at the campground around 6:00 pm and decided we were very happy with our day.