Yellowstone!

Idaho Falls, Idaho

Seven years ago, we visited Yellowstone park with all ten of our children, ages 4 through 19. Kris was on crutches after a pretty severe and scary knee break a few weeks previously, but our reservations at the KOA had been in place for months and we were getting dangerously close to the time when our kids would begin to move out on us, so he was determined to pull off this vacation as planned. So we did. Yesterday we returned to Yellowstone with only five 'children' and no crutches.

Near Yellowstone Lake

Yellowstone is huge. There was no way we were going to be able to see it all in a day and we were not sure if we would have another day to return, so we decided on the lower loop which would at least get us to the most geysers. Our house in Idaho Falls is actually about two hours from Yellowstone so we planned to leave as early as possible to get the most of our day and 'as early as possible' turned out to be right about 8 am. Because early is just not our thing. About two hours later we arrived at the west gate of Yellowstone park and got started.

Hayden Valley

Our basic plan was to drive around that lower loop and stop at as many sites as we possibly could. So we did. And we saw lots of geysers, and bubbling 'paint pots' of mud, and waterfalls and bison. Lots and lots and lots of bison. Practically as soon as we were in the park we spotted the telltale sign of a wildlife spotting-lots of cars pulled over at the side of the road completely ignoring all those signs that say NOT to stop on the side of the road even if you see something spectacular-it turned out to be an elk which actually isn't all that exciting to people from Colorado, so we drove on to the next traffic hold up and this time it was a bison which is way cooler than an elk and so we did stop. In the nearby parking lot like good rule abiding citizens. Later in the day we encountered huge herds of bison crossing the road and walking right next to the road and even in some cases walking right ON the road and that one lonely bison we saw earlier lying all nonchalantly in the grass by the creek seemed pretty tame.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

At the first geyser basin we stopped at, Fionnula asked why the ground and the water was so hot, so we revealed, a little nervously, the truth about the entire park basically being within the caldera of a volcano. She can get a little anxious over potential dangers and so I was worried what her reaction would be, it was still early in the day and I wanted to see lots of things still and not have a panicked 11 year old on our hands all day. She asked if it could possibly erupt. I didn't think that lying was the way to go here and so I said that technically, yes, it could erupt and then one of her brothers was all "Well if I have to die, being here for an eruption would be one of the top ways!" and interestingly, that was the end of the conversation, she was good. Sometimes I overthink things I guess.

Old Faithful

We arrived at Old Faithful right after it had erupted and so had approximately 90 minutes to wait for the next one. We ate our lunch. We played with a raven. We listened to all the accents and other languages all around us which has been one of the greatest parts about visiting the parks this summer. Some of us may have napped briefly. After several false starts it did finally come through and erupt for us, though it took more than the predicted "90 minutes give or take 10" that had been advertised.




Then we moved on, from geyser basins to the "Dragons Mouth" cave to the lake to the canyon and its waterfalls and back to more geyser basins and finally finished at the artist paint pots as the sun was setting and then headed out of the park and back home to Idaho Falls where we were too tired to even care that we had missed dinner all together.

Artist's Paint Pots