The Rest of Yellowstone

So, where was I?  Oh yeah, Island Park.  After we floated down the river and threw rocks, we headed back to the hotel.  I went on a lovely run at sunset.  It was nice to be alone for a bit...well, just me and John Denver, running through the wilderness.  Awesome.  

The next day we got up and cleaned up our Island Park cabin, and headed to West Yellowstone.  Grandpa and me had a lot harder time putting the luggage bag on top of the car without Preston's help, but we managed somehow.  When we turned the corner to go through the Yellowstone gate, I could not BELIEVE how many cars were in line to get in.  It was ridonkulous.  After we waited in line for a bit, we made it in!

We struggled to find a parking place but visited a couple of geyser basins.  Then we went to one of the kids' favorite places in the park, Artists Paint Pots.  It is a little big of a hike, but they like to listen to the sounds of the mud popping out.  Cora and Daxton were starting to feel the sleep deficit a bit and were a little grumpy.  Luckily, Arden was still willing to smile for me:

Arden got ahold of the camera and took a bunch of interesting pictures.  I just like this one because Dax looks so dang excited.  At least the part of Dax that you can see:

 We saw a few elk, a bald eagle, and a whole bunch of buffalo/bison.  (I like to say the word "buffalo" more than I like to say the word "bison," so I usually refer to those big brown things as buffalo, even though I realize that is not technically correct.  Bufff-uh-low!)

 We were trying to do the "lower loop," but unfortunately there was a big traffic accident that had the road completely blocked off.  So, we took an unexpected break and hung out on the beach instead of just sitting in the car.  Who knew there was a beach at Yellowstone?  The sand had little pieces of obsidian mixed in with that, which is what makes it look so dark.  The kids, of course, had a GREAT time...throwing another 8,547 rocks.  (We sure did our part to return as many rocks as possible from the shores of the various water bodies of the greater Yellowstone area back into said water!)

 We finally worked our way back to Old Faithful.  Of course, as soon as we got there I saw a gigantic wave of people heading AWAY from the geyser that we had just missed.  We quickly ran to the ice cream parlor to beat the rush.  We were happily sitting on the porch rocking chairs when Dax licked his scoop right off the top of his cone.  It was more than his tired little self could handle and he burst into tears.  The line for ice cream was now down the stairs, so we all agreed to share ours and he calmed down.  We soon headed back to West Yellowstone to check into our new condo.  Pretty soon (right before bedtime) Preston and my sister and BIL showed up!  YAY!  I-am-so-happy-to-see-you-Preston-now-put-those-grouchy-kids-to-bed!

The next day I woke up with a huge headache and a sore throat.  Joy.  Why do I have a cold in July?

I cold medicined myself up and off we went.  Our big project of the day was the hike to "Fairy Falls."  Cora had been DYING to go on this hike since she heard the name of the waterfalls.  I tried to tell her that she would almost certainly not see Tinkerbell and her friends fluttering around the waterfall, but I am not sure she believed me.  We did some creative parking since there were so many cars in the parking lot and headed over to the sign to see what we were in for.  The first line of the sign said "Fairy Falls Trail:  1.0 mi."  No problem, let's go!

Turns out that it was 1.0 miles to the Fairy Falls trail HEAD, which was another 1.6 miles in.  That is 2.6 miles, total, 5.2 miles round trip.  Whoa.  Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound.  We walked and walked and there was only a little bit of whining (hey, I have a cold!).  Finally, we made it.  The falls are very pretty, even without any colorful pixies floating around.

Have I mentioned about the flowers on this trip?  I don't know how I don't remember the flowers at Yellowstone from my childhood.  They knocked my socks off:

 Guess what Dax did at the waterfall?  Surprise!  He threw rocks!

The kids' favorite part of the hike were the parts where we got to cross streams.  By the time we were heading back, most of the kids wanted to get carried.  Even Dax got a ride on Preston's shoulders for part of the way.  It was pretty warm, and we used up every last drop of water we had carried by the time we got back to the parking lot.  But we made it!

We quickly found a picnic table for a late lunch and then headed BACK to Old Faithful.  We got some more ice cream (Preston and Manda missed it last time).  This time we actually stuck around to see the main attraction.  It started raining a little right after the "explosion," which is what Arden kept calling "eruptions."  It got so windy that one of the big lodge pole pines right near the boardwalk blew over while I was watching.  We decided it was time to head back to the hotel.  I snuggled down in a blanket on the couch to nurse my cold while the other grownups thankfully entertained the kids by playing uno with them while we waited for the West Yellowstone fireworks to start.   I unfortunately didn't take any pictures, but it was a pretty good show!

The next day we were going to take Preston down the river since he had never gone, but unfortunately after we drove clear back to Island Park we found out that everyone else had the same idea, and we would have had to wait for hours to get a raft.  Okay, drive back to the hotel and hatch plan B, head up to Mammoth. Unfortunately after we drove clear up there, we find out it is raining like crazy.  Okay, head back to the hotel again and hope it stops raining before the rodeo we have tickets for.  No such luck.  Good thing my dad brought a zillion ponchos and umbrellas.  Don't I look thrilled?

 It POURED for the first 20 minutes or so of the rodeo, but after that it stopped and it was actually a beautiful night, complete with rainbow.  The rodeo was a pretty small with local talent, but it was actually really entertaining.  They had a little kid (well, he was probably 12 or 13) riding bulls!  Sure, it was a little bull, but seriously?  Wow.

They had all the usual rodeo events, but my kids' favorite part was the rodeo clown.  He not only got bulls to chase him around, but he told jokes and did little comedy routines between events.  Arden is totally into jokes lately so she was excited to hear some new material. (What do you get when you light a match on a duck?  A firequacker!)

The next day was our last full day.  We went to a few more geyser basins.  These pretty blue pools are my favorite kind:

 We went on another (shorter!) hike to Mystic Falls, and got someone to take a picture of the whole lot of us:

 Then, lunch!  Arden told me she was getting tired of sandwiches, which made sense to me until Preston pointed out that Arden wanted a peanut butter sandwich in her lunchbox every single time she brought lunch from home, which was about 80% of the time.

 After lunch it started clouding up, then it started raining.  We were passing a herd of buffalo and the rain turned to hail.  The buffalos started running for the trees!  We had been thinking of hiking down to the brink of the falls, but the hail changed our minds for us, and we decided instead to do the much shorter "Artists Point."  Still, we had to huddle under our hatchbacks and wait for the hail to stop:

But the waterfall still looked pretty!

 The next day we headed back home.  We STILL didn't see any bears, but overall it was a fun trip!  Here is how we all felt at the end:

ThE EnD!