Yellowstone National Park

It's definitely time to update the blog. About a week ago I was happily snapping along when my clicker stopped clicking. Seven weeks and four states is what it took to fill up my memory card with about a thousand pictures. So, let's start with Yellowstone. 

Yellowstone is the iconic national park. It was the first to ever be designated a national park and it's, hands down, the largest and most diverse park in the system. When we were starting to tell people that we were heading there they told us to take at least a week to see it all and they weren't kidding.

I can't tell you how many square acres Yellowstone covers, but I can tell you this --we arrived at the northern entrance and found that the only campground that might have sites available was 62 miles away. Wow, the place is big. We discovered that this particular campground, Bridge Bay, was pretty much the most centrally located campground. From there it was an additional 60 miles to the south entrance, about 60 miles in a half circle to Old Faithful, a bit over that to the west entrance and 40 or so miles to the east entrance. If you've not been there, hopefully that can give you some perspective on how gargantuan this place is.  It's not desolate, though. Because it was the first national park it's really set up like a resort, much of it resembling a 1960's family style getaway. No kidding, in the Lake area you expect to see Baby and Johnny Castle walking down the road on their way to practice the lift. 

Gorgeous view from Fishing Bridge where, ironically, you can longer fish.

Our Yellowstone priority was Old Faithful, so on our first day we made a quick stop at the Fishing Bridge, where you learn a lot about cutthroat trout and the fish situation in both Yellowstone River and Yellowstone Lake, and then we headed to Old Faithful. On top of the long distances the max speed limit in the park is 45 mph with frequent stops for construction and buffalo, so the drive took long enough that Patton fell asleep and when we arrived her hair looked like this...

This is the parking lot of the Old Faithful area. It's crazy busy, but the buffalo don't seem to mind. If you look closely in the trees behind G and P you can see that there are a couple of them just hanging out. Our time in this area was cut short because of a storm front that moved in. We were standing outside trying to make some decisions about the rest of the day when rain and hail started coming down in sheets. The girls started freaking out, and we were a pretty good distance from our car, so we ended up running blindly through the parking lot trying to get our kids and our belongings out of the storm. Later, I realized that the whole time I was not even thinking that these buffalo were out there and when I said that out loud Gunnar said that as he was running he saw the buffalo running across the parking lot in the opposite direction. I was super grateful I had forgotten about them. 

Old Faithful is the most popular attraction in the park. Hundreds of people wait for each eruption.

There was a high wind the day we were there and the water started to drift toward the spectators on the other side of the boardwalk. Also, I love how happy she is in this picture, since Old Faithful was one of her list additions.

No zoom, folks. This is how close the buffalo get to your car.

 The second day we were there John ended up with a terrible eye infection. He spent most of the morning at the Yellowstone Clinic (thanks for covering that, TriCare), so the kids and I hung out at the campground doing school and working on their Junior Ranger books. When he got home I insisted that he rest, but he's John so he refused and we ended up checking out the Mud Volcano area. Mud volcanos are one of the four types of geysers. The kids could tell you what the other three are, but I can't (oops!). What I do know is that all four types are present in Yellowstone, which is one of the things that makes it so unique. Some of the geysers and pools in the Mud Volcano area are just bubbling mud and some are full of water. 

This one, whose name fails me, is the most pungent pool in Yellowstone. It's sulphur content is so high that there is a sign warning that standing too near to it can cause headache, dizziness, and nausea, so of course the Fire Team was all over it. 

The sulphuric smell was something that didn't even occur to me until we got to Yellowstone. The whole park smells (with varying intensity) like raw egg yolk. Now, I can never cook eggs and not think of Yellowstone.  

We were stopped at the top of the boardwalk by this guy... 

 He was just eating his way across the grass, but being this close on foot was a little intimidating. As he got closer to the boardwalk we backed up. 

But these people did not... 

The guy in the blue shirt got even closer than you see in this picture and all I could think was that it is no wonder people get mauled by buffalo. They lose their minds when they see them. We waited for him for about a half hour and he did eventually end up crossing the boardwalk without incident. 

 When we finally got past the buffalo and up to Black Dragon's Caldron it was sprinkling. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, it was pouring. The little girls were not impressed. 

 We had no choice but to finish the walk, though, because it was circular and we were closer to the end than the beginning, so we were able to see the best example of a mud pot in the area. 

So, here you have it, bubbling mud.

Being soaking wet makes our little girls understandably cranky, so we packed it up and went home. The next day, though, the weather was beautiful, so we headed up to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and hiked the South Rim trail.  

 This was actually my favorite thing that we did in Yellowstone. The hike was fun, the views were breathtaking, and the beautiful weather made it a pretty perfect day.  

The view from Artist's Point.

The painting that earned Artist's Point it's name.

Wildlife in Yellowstone program at the Canyon Visitors Center.

Buffalo Traffic Jam

 We closed out that day with some fishing and bank splashing at Yellowstone Lake.

 Because our first visit to Old Faithful was interrupted by the storm we decided to head back for another visit. We saw two eruptions, explored the visitor's center, got the kids' Jr. Ranger badges, and participated in the Jr. Ranger Wildlife Olympics.  

One of my favorite moments of the trip happened while we were loading in the car. A few spaces over there was a gentleman standing next to his motorcycle talking on the phone. He was clearly from New Jersey and it appeared that he had ridden his motorcycle from home. He must have been talking to someone from there because he was shouting into his phone "and they just walk right up to cars so I got out of there as fast as I could and then I saw some other deer looking thing but it has twisty horns and I didn't know what it was, but it's wicked amazing". It was certainly wicked amazing. 

They are supposed to be holding their breath. RS won, so I'm pretty sure she was breathing through her nose.

Comparing their run times to the animals in the park.

Getting their Jr. Ranger badges

 From there we headed to see the Grand Prismatic Pool, which is the coolest thing to see in Yellowstone. It's gigantic and rainbow colored, so the only really good pictures of it are taken from the air, but here are a few ground level pictures...  

See how the steam is blue? It's beautiful.

The orange/brown/yellow. Closer to the center there is blue, brighter yellow, green, and some red tones.

As we were walking down from the hill where the pool is a big wind picked up (imagine that!) and the steam was so thick at times that you could barely see. Here's what it looked like when we reached the bottom. 

The hottest spring in the park. 

 The last day we drove back up to the north end of the park and explored Old Fort Yellowstone. Like many national parks and historic sites, Yellowstone was a military outpost before it was a national park and several of the original/old buildings are still there. 

Bison skull in the visitor's center.

Measuring up to the bison.

Most of the old buildings are used for family housing and billeting for single park rangers.

The elk just hang out in the yards.

The flag in front of one of the houses was furled, so John fixed it, of course.

More elk

The old jailhouse. Then and now.

We took some time to hang out and watch the clouds. 

 From there we went to Mammoth Hot Springs. I got this picture and then my battery died. Of course, I didn't have my spare so we'll just have Mammoth in our memories.

We were in Yellowstone for a total of five days. We learned about volcanoes, geysers, and the history of the National Park Service. We saw things that you have to see in person to really conceptualize. It was a great time, but the people who said you needed a week were not kidding. There were a few things that we didn't see. No big deal, though. It's a good excuse to go back.