Day 3 - Yellowstone National Park

Today is a non-travel day. By that, I mean that we're going to sleep tonight in the same place we woke up this morning. We're still going to do alot of driving. Yellowstone National Park is a big place.

The morning starts off at 7:30am. I got up and found Charlie hanging on the couch in the living room. He'd gotten up early. We had a nice family breakfast, got our stuff together and headed out at 9:30am to head to the park.

9:45am

We're waiting in front of Wild West Photos in West Yellowstone. We're getting a staged photo shot of the family as a group. Charlie and I dress up as "outlaws", Laura and Elodie are "salon girls" and Katie opts to be a "cowgirl". We definitely look like a dangerous crew. It was fun.

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We're the first ones in the picture studio, so we breeze through and head to the park.

10:40am

We enter the park through the West entrance. There are alot of cars entering, but we have a National Parks annual pass and there is an express lane. It speeds us into the park

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On the way into the park, we passed a tree along the road where an eagle had made its nest

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11:35am

We stop at Lower Geyser Basin to view some geysers. Elodie is sleeping, so Laura and Elodie wait in the car, and Charlie, Katie and I go view the geysers.

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The area was pretty amazing, part of the runoff was bright orange. There was a sign that described it as a "bacteria mat"... whatever it was, it didn't smell that good, but it was interesting to look at

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1:30pm

We arrive in the Old Faithful area. This area is BIG. There's a huge parking lot, 3 lodges, two cafes and of course, a pretty well stocked store. We have lunch. While the girls and I "guard" a table, Laura and Charlie got us food. To pass the time, Katie sang a little song


3:15pm

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As is fitting for the "must see" attraction at the park, the viewing area for Old Faithful is huge. There's a raised deck/walkway ringed around it and benches 3 deep to sit and watch the geyser.



We grab a good spot and settle in to wait for the predicted 3:15 eruption. While we're waiting, I entertain Elodie by taking her for a walk. See made a beeline for a small grove of trees nearby.



She got pretty good at doing the "balance beam" act on the fallen trunks. She also did the funniest thing. She started hugging trees. Her hugs include a "check press", but the bark on the trees was ahere little rough, so she'd immediately turn and look at me, hold her cheek and say "Owie". Then she repeated the whole thing a few more times.

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Meanwhile, back at the geyser viewing area, anticipation was running high. We'd given Katie a camera for her birthday a little early, so she was eagerly awaiting an opportunity to use it.

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Finally, just a couple minutes after the predicted time of 3:15pm, the geyser erupted!



Charlie and I headed back to the gift shop because he'd left his hat there. Fortunately, it was in the lost and found.

4:40pm

We continue our Grand Loop tour of the park, passing along Yellowstone Lake and the Yellowstone River.

5:20pm

We pull in at Artist Point to view Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and the lower falls. The sight is pretty awesome.

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We also pulled in to the viewing spot at the brink of the upper falls. You can stand pretty close to the falls.

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The amount of water washing over the falls is impressive.



I talked the Charlie on the walk back and it had affected him deeply.

6:30pm

On the way back to West Yellowstone, we came across some bison on the road.

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We'd heard that the previous week, two people had been gored when they got too close. I believe it. Earlier in the day, we'd seen a whole pack of people crowding around some bison. We were constantly amazed at the lack of respect folks were giving these wild animals.

7:20pm

Back in West Yellowstone for dinner. We went to The Gusher. It'd been a long day for Elodie. She went into full toddler melt-down mode while we were being seated. It's always fun to carrie a screaming, furiously kicking, over-tired child into a restaurant while everyone turns around and watches.



Fortunately, she calmed down and we got to eat in peace.

I've got to say, one of the things I enjoyed most during our stay was Moose Drool Brown Ale... very tasty stuff.

9:15pm

Back to the lodge. Put the kids to bed. And, then we packed up for the next morning. Tomorrow is a big driving day. So, I said that this day wasn't a traveling day, but nevertheless, we did manage to log 157 bonus miles, which doesn't seem that long except when you remember that the speed limit in the park is 45 mph, and you can't always drive that fast. It was easily an additional 4-5 hours for just the driving.