After Jackson Hole we headed up to one of my favorite places...Yellowstone! We always come in the South Entrance so our first stop is West Thumb. On the edge of Yellowstone Lake, West Thumb consists of many thermal pools (I'm sure there is a scientific name for them but I can't remember it!) I love walking on the board walk looking at the different pools & how blue they are. Sometimes you'll get lucky and see elk or buffalo roaming out among the ponds.
Buffalo are one of my favorite animals. I don't know why I'm so intrigued by them but there are plenty of buffalo to see in Yellowstone! The end of May and early June are a great time to go if you want to see the babies....so cute!
The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is breathtaking. Also very nerve wracking for mothers of small children. The only thing keeping someone from going off the side are the rocks the kids are standing in front of. Thank goodness none of my kids were in the mood to climb. You have a great view of Lower Falls from this point....so stunning!
Grandpa and Grandma Harris with the kids!
Here we are at the Brink of the Upper Falls. Not as stunning as the Brink of the Lower Falls but a much easier hike especially with little kids and rainy weather.
Buffalo are one of my favorite animals. I don't know why I'm so intrigued by them but there are plenty of buffalo to see in Yellowstone! The end of May and early June are a great time to go if you want to see the babies....so cute!
The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is breathtaking. Also very nerve wracking for mothers of small children. The only thing keeping someone from going off the side are the rocks the kids are standing in front of. Thank goodness none of my kids were in the mood to climb. You have a great view of Lower Falls from this point....so stunning!
Grandpa and Grandma Harris with the kids!
Here we are at the Brink of the Upper Falls. Not as stunning as the Brink of the Lower Falls but a much easier hike especially with little kids and rainy weather. Our cute family!
Just a random tree I found interesting. It was at the Brink of Upper Falls growing by itself out of the rock.....what???!!!
Mud Volcano. It is just so interesting to me how many different features there are to Yellowstone. We have gone for many years and I still manage to find something new that I've never seen.
We were driving over the bridge to go to the campsite when Scott spotted this beaver in the river. How he saw it I'll never know. The kids and I jumped out and were able to watch it swim under the bridge, dive under water, blow bubbles, and eventually wander off into the weeds...so fun! Gage really wanted to see some otters but I think this pacified him!
We did ALOT of driving. Nate was great for a majority of it but there were points where he had just had enough. When the bottle wouldn't work I did the totally responsible mom thing and gave him a cookie (my favorite, EL Fudge, Double Stuff). He went really quiet and when we looked back there this is what we saw:
He was asleep sucking on his cookie just like he would his bottle!
Just a random tree I found interesting. It was at the Brink of Upper Falls growing by itself out of the rock.....what???!!!
Mud Volcano. It is just so interesting to me how many different features there are to Yellowstone. We have gone for many years and I still manage to find something new that I've never seen.
We were driving over the bridge to go to the campsite when Scott spotted this beaver in the river. How he saw it I'll never know. The kids and I jumped out and were able to watch it swim under the bridge, dive under water, blow bubbles, and eventually wander off into the weeds...so fun! Gage really wanted to see some otters but I think this pacified him!
We did ALOT of driving. Nate was great for a majority of it but there were points where he had just had enough. When the bottle wouldn't work I did the totally responsible mom thing and gave him a cookie (my favorite, EL Fudge, Double Stuff). He went really quiet and when we looked back there this is what we saw:
He was asleep sucking on his cookie just like he would his bottle!This was the end result the next day with the same type of cookie! It kept him happy but wow the price we pay sometimes for happiness!!!
Of course no trip to Yellowstone would be complete without a visit to Old Faithful!
Bet you can't guess what waterfall this is!
This kids checking out Firehole Falls. Yes, there is nothing there to keep them from going in. It is one of the moments you threaten them with their lives if they even think about moving...literally!
This trip has got to be the best trip we have ever taken in way of how many animals we saw. We headed over to Lamar Valley and this awesome Big Horn Sheep was just grazing on the side of the road. Definitely not your everyday occurrence...we were pretty excited!
On Friday we were headed back to camp by Hayden Valley when we saw 2 wolves-a black one and a great big grey one. I was just sick because I didn't have my camera out and didn't get any pictures. We had pretty much thought that we wouldn't see anymore because once again you don't see those every trip. The kids were so excited about it they bought Wolf backpacks with their splurge money!
I thought that this would be the only picture of a wolf pack that we saw until......
We were headed back to camp from Lamar Valley when this black wolf came over the side hill. What a thrilling experience to see him and to have him so close!
Then we're traveling up the road a ways and we see three ewes with this precious baby. The ewes went across the road but the baby disappeared. I was sick when all of a sudden...POP, there was the baby on top of this wall.
This is what it looked like on the other side of the wall. Where the baby went or how it got back up is beyond me.
We were feeling pretty good about the animals we had seen and came around a corner to this little guy! What! A real live bear right on the side of the road. Dallas had spotted a bear and her cub on a side hill but you could only see them in the binoculars and even then they were just little dots. The kids were so excited (o.k. and so was I). Wow, what a trip!
Look at how green the grass is here with the bear. So when we went just barely up the road and the road closed gate was pulled across our side of the road and not the other side we really didn't think much about it. There wasn't any ranger around explaining why the road was closed which there are usually always rangers around to explain things out of the ordinary and since it was getting late and we really wanted to get back to camp we went around the gate. We started up the mountain only to run into this:
It was snowy but not the worst snowstorm we've ever been in. Yes, it was a little unnerving, there were sheer drop offs and no guardrails. We had to get back to Fishing Bridge and about five miles from our turn off we saw her. I think she was more scary than a grizzly bear - the park ranger that turned everyone around and made us all go back over the summit and take a 2 1/2 hour detour in the snow and fog in the dark. How we didn't get killed or kill one of the many elk that kept running across the road I will never know. So here is what we learned: If there is a road closed sign pulled across the road even if a ranger isn't stationed there it probably wasn't done by some dumb tourist thinking they were being funny and just because it is green two minutes before you hit the road closed sign doesn't mean that it can't be a blizzard somewhere up the road. Also, if you are traveling in a blizzard and the person in front of you has plates from Florida or Texas, pull over, take a rest for an hour because you'll catch up to them in about 10 minutes! So after a very long, eventful night we made it back to camp around 11:00 that night. We decided to just take it easy the next morning and not rush the kids, etc...This is what Scott had to pack up the trailer in, only for us to find out that all of the roads in and out of Yellowstone had been closed....WHAT!
Yes that's right we were snowed in. The park rangers were telling everyone to go in and extend their stay, etc, etc....love Yellowstone as I do, I wasn't so excited with that idea. We decided to head down the road to the little cafe/store at Fishing Bridge and see what the day brought! Luckily around 1:00, the snow started to taper off and they got some plows in. Now mind you, it wasn't the worse storm ever but after seeing how some of the poor people that have never seen snow much less driven in it were, I can see why they closed the roads.
Of course no trip to Yellowstone would be complete without a visit to Old Faithful!
Bet you can't guess what waterfall this is!
This kids checking out Firehole Falls. Yes, there is nothing there to keep them from going in. It is one of the moments you threaten them with their lives if they even think about moving...literally!
This trip has got to be the best trip we have ever taken in way of how many animals we saw. We headed over to Lamar Valley and this awesome Big Horn Sheep was just grazing on the side of the road. Definitely not your everyday occurrence...we were pretty excited!
On Friday we were headed back to camp by Hayden Valley when we saw 2 wolves-a black one and a great big grey one. I was just sick because I didn't have my camera out and didn't get any pictures. We had pretty much thought that we wouldn't see anymore because once again you don't see those every trip. The kids were so excited about it they bought Wolf backpacks with their splurge money!
I thought that this would be the only picture of a wolf pack that we saw until......
We were headed back to camp from Lamar Valley when this black wolf came over the side hill. What a thrilling experience to see him and to have him so close!
Then we're traveling up the road a ways and we see three ewes with this precious baby. The ewes went across the road but the baby disappeared. I was sick when all of a sudden...POP, there was the baby on top of this wall.
This is what it looked like on the other side of the wall. Where the baby went or how it got back up is beyond me.
We were feeling pretty good about the animals we had seen and came around a corner to this little guy! What! A real live bear right on the side of the road. Dallas had spotted a bear and her cub on a side hill but you could only see them in the binoculars and even then they were just little dots. The kids were so excited (o.k. and so was I). Wow, what a trip!
Look at how green the grass is here with the bear. So when we went just barely up the road and the road closed gate was pulled across our side of the road and not the other side we really didn't think much about it. There wasn't any ranger around explaining why the road was closed which there are usually always rangers around to explain things out of the ordinary and since it was getting late and we really wanted to get back to camp we went around the gate. We started up the mountain only to run into this:
It was snowy but not the worst snowstorm we've ever been in. Yes, it was a little unnerving, there were sheer drop offs and no guardrails. We had to get back to Fishing Bridge and about five miles from our turn off we saw her. I think she was more scary than a grizzly bear - the park ranger that turned everyone around and made us all go back over the summit and take a 2 1/2 hour detour in the snow and fog in the dark. How we didn't get killed or kill one of the many elk that kept running across the road I will never know. So here is what we learned: If there is a road closed sign pulled across the road even if a ranger isn't stationed there it probably wasn't done by some dumb tourist thinking they were being funny and just because it is green two minutes before you hit the road closed sign doesn't mean that it can't be a blizzard somewhere up the road. Also, if you are traveling in a blizzard and the person in front of you has plates from Florida or Texas, pull over, take a rest for an hour because you'll catch up to them in about 10 minutes! So after a very long, eventful night we made it back to camp around 11:00 that night. We decided to just take it easy the next morning and not rush the kids, etc...This is what Scott had to pack up the trailer in, only for us to find out that all of the roads in and out of Yellowstone had been closed....WHAT!
Yes that's right we were snowed in. The park rangers were telling everyone to go in and extend their stay, etc, etc....love Yellowstone as I do, I wasn't so excited with that idea. We decided to head down the road to the little cafe/store at Fishing Bridge and see what the day brought! Luckily around 1:00, the snow started to taper off and they got some plows in. Now mind you, it wasn't the worse storm ever but after seeing how some of the poor people that have never seen snow much less driven in it were, I can see why they closed the roads.
To summarize:
Best trip ever as far as how many animals we were able to see!
Worst trip ever for the weather. We've seen sunny days and rainy days but never snowy days!
What a GREAT trip. I can't wait for next year!!!!!
Ryan kept a very detailed journal of all of the animals we saw.
Here they are:
(*indicates ones that we saw the babies as well)
Buffalo*
Pelican
Geese
Swan
Moose*
Rock Chuck
Mule Deer
Elk*
Chipmunk
Squirrel
Common Loon
Wolf (6)
Raven
Beaver
Big Horn Sheep*
Antelope
Coyote
Hawk
Magpie
Bear (3)*
Duck
2 comments:
Tiff,
It lokks like your vacation rocked! I am so jealous. I wanted to see a wolf or a bear so bad when we went, but alas, we did not. That is so cool that you got to see everything that you did. I bet the kiddo's loved it :)
What a fun vacation! We had a blast! Even with the crappy weather! Did you get the the pictures I e-mailed to you from the concert??
If not, let me know and I will re-send them!
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