Vacation Day 3- Yellowstone

So on Day 3 we got up early and got going so we could drive up to Yellowstone. It is about an hour and a half to two our drive from Jackson so we wanted to get going. The drive was beautiful. The main highway goes through Grand Teton National park and we passed the most beautiful still lake that all these people were stopped to look at. There was a bunch of swans and other animals far off but noting to exciting.

My co worker had given me a map of Yellowstone and told me where they liked to stop and what was must see. Honestly we could spend several days in the park and not see all the beautiful cool stuff. The first thing you notice driving into Yellowstone is all the small trees and all the downed tress that were a result of the HUGE fires from back in 1988. It is great to see things coming back, but so sad to think what it must have looked like before the fires. It is also cool to think how mother nature just knows what to do and is coming back on its own. So the first place we stopped was to look at all these geyser pits. Now everyone knows about Old Faithful but there are these geysers that are basically just hot sulfur pits. You could instantly smell the sulfur when you walk out of the car and the ground was boiling from the hot water. You could not get to close due to the fragile nature of the soil (and the fact that there is boiling water running under it that could break through). This area was right at the edge of Yellowstone lake. This lake is over 20 miles long and 14 miles wide so it is big. From there we went to see the Lake Hotel ( I would have never known it was there is Saundra had not told me about it), it was so worth the stop, it was like you instantly stepped back in time. It felt like you were walking on the Titanic or something, the hotel is all yellow and was constructed over 100 years ago, and has seen presidents and other famous people. It was definitely worth the stop.

From there we went on to the Canyon area but we were also on the lookout for a place to stop and have a picnic lunch. Know when you go to Yellowstone you get LOTS of info about staying away from the animals and they have things like bears (black and grizzly), buffalo, wolf, coyote, deer, elk, and moose and other tings but we had not see any besides some buffalo on a fenced in area on the drive up. (my parents saw a moose but we were not with them, and we stopped on the drive to Yellowstone where a big crowd was an apparently we had just missed a black bear. But when we turned in to a picnic area we were driving down this road to find a table near the river and Heath's goes wow is that thing real, as I look up to see this HUGE buffalo asleep in a picnic area about 20-30 feet away. He was real and be was beautiful. We were all floored to see them just hanging out right by where people were eating.

When we picked our table we watched another buffalo on the other side of the river roll around in the dirt and rest. After lunch we drove to the next stop and began to see more and more buffalo everywhere. At one point we were about to turn into this area to see these mud pits and we looked up to see this buffalo just standing on the other side of the road. Now mind you the roads are all 2 lane so we were really close. So many people were stopping and trying to get pictures that the park ranger came up and tried to get the buffalo to cross the road but no luck, he just hung out there. At the mud pits the sulfur smell was AWFUL. As soon as we got out of the car Allie said "mommy this place tastes gross" and she was right, the smell was so strong you could taste it. But it was cool to see the mud bubbling up and these caves with boiling water coming in and out (like in an ocean cave).

The next stop had these falls that were supposed to be great, in fact they call this area the Grand canyon of Yellowstone, and they were not lying. The falls were huge, and the colors of the canyon was so pretty. I had no idea there way anything like this in Yellowstone. We went and did a short walk to look at them , and my parents, siblings, and Allie decided to do about a mile walk to get a different view. Heath and I and Austin took the cars to meet them because Austin was about to have his mid day melt down and needed to nap. I think he was asleep within 2 minutes of getting going. We meet them at the end and the views again were incredible. I mean I know I keep saying it but WOW , words and pictures really do not do it justice.

From there we were on to Old Faithful. When we got there we had about 30 minutes or so before the geysers was supposed to go off (yes it really is that predictable) so we got ice cream and then went to find a spot on the bleachers. They now have this huge deck area that curves around old faithful with bleachers because it is such a huge tourist draw. It went off about 10 minutes before scheduled and to be honest while I thought it was really cool I thought it would go off for longer and go much higher in the air. They say that it used to but over time it has gotten shorted and not as tall.

We then went into the Old Faithful Inn which is so cool. it looks like a huge tree house, with these fireplaces that go all the way up through the middle (about 5 stories). they are so large you could walk into the fireplace. When the fires were going on they had to have people all around wetting the hotel to keep it from burning down because the fires got really close.

From there we headed home and it rained (hard almost the whole way home). Just an FYI it typically rains a little most evenings so if you ever go take an umbrella. The storms are usually not huge but just enough to get everything good and wet. All in all it was another great day.