Yellowstone at Last!

We left our freezing camp site before 7 am and headed out the west side of the Bighorn National forest.  We stopped to see some pretty waterfalls along the way and had the place all to ourselves because it was super early.  
 We were all pretty slap happy from hardly sleeping.





After driving through rural Wyoming, we breezed through Cody and checked out their cool teepees and ate mediocre pizza.  After getting gas for the car, Brian ran in to grab a drink and walked out with what looked like a 700 ounce soda.  He said they were all the same price so he went big.  I think it was called the Guzzler - but we rightly named it the Bladdar Blaster.  
 Then we were onto the eastern entrance of Yellowstone! 


We stopped at a trailhead to Yellowstone Lake that Brian wanted to do and there we saw the first wildlife of the trip - a buffalo!  My favorite!  I was super happy.


Then, as we hiked over a small bluff this big guy was right on the path.  Yikes!  We didn't want to die, so we walked waaaay out of his way and then back to the trail.  I have to admit Yellowstone is one of those places you hike super aware of your surroundings because who knows what crazy animal will be lurking around!
 We made it to a pretty overlook of Yellowstone Lake.  Brian said he could just sit there all day enjoying the view - but the rest of us coaxed him on after probably 10 minutes.  


 Here is a tired Grant pondering his imminent death after we maybe warned him too much about not falling into boiling geysers or getting too close to animals.  Haha.  He was pretty worried, but he loosened up as the trip went on, and hiked close to people carrying bear bells :) 

Speaking of bears, as we drove the upper loop through the park we saw a zillion people parked up on a hill and sure enough there was a grizzly roaming around in the valley below.  He was the only bear we saw, and I'm okay with that.
Our last stop on the park was to the beautiful artist point to see the lower falls.  This was by far my favorite thing in all of Yellowstone.  So amazing!




After more than 12 hours on the road and operating on hardly any sleep, we finally made it to the cabin in West Yellowstone, Montana.  Yay!  It was great to see Mimi and Papa.  We hadn't showered in 2 days and had zero clean clothes, so they might not have been so happy to see us, but after many loads of laundry and showers it was all good.  

Comments

Jennifer's Kitchen said…
I love all these photos!!!! What fun!! And, yes, seeing ONE bear from a distance is a success in my book. I'm so scared of those things!!
July 15, 2015 at 11:18 AM
Unknown said…
I'm so glad you guys got to do Yellowstone. The kids will always remember it!
July 15, 2015 at 4:45 PM
Amy said…
Okay, all of the pictures are amazing, blah blah, but I'm still laughing about the 700 oz. soda!
July 17, 2015 at 1:33 PM
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