We took lots of pictures, of course! It was really neat just to see the variety of natural wonders in Yellowstone. You have everything from geysers to mud pots to vast canyons and beautiful waterfalls.
They say the water is hot enough and some is acidic enough to burn through boots. Why then, did I really really want to touch it??
Smelly, bubbly, fascinating!
This geyser started erupting while we were there!
These are close ups of the very shallow streams. The sediment underneath was really neat looking!
Deer!
This is the Firehole Lake Drive. It had some really neat hot spots and was home to the Great Fountain Geyser which goes off once a day. We were there way too early to watch it, and couldn't make it back around in time to see it later. Here's some great bubbling action!
I love when Dan engages the kids' minds. He loves explaining it all to them and they love listening!
Aren't ALL my boys handsome? (Yes that includes Carson too! And this spot was a small section of boardwalk with our car very nearby, we brought carson out on a short leash just this one time and knew that it was best to keep him in the car after that)
This spot was a fun contrast of the mineral deposits and the boiling water.
Dan loved the crusty edges the water creates
Thankfully the weather was cool while we were in Yellowstone because doggies are not allowed almost anywhere in Yellowstone. Heaven forbid (and I mean this seriously, not sarcastically) a dog should run off the boardwalk and get burned by hot boiling water or try to take a drink! Carson spent our whole time in Yellowstone in the car. Like I said, it was cool and overcast and we kept the windows down and let him out in parking lots and areas that he was allowed. Not fun for him!
The boys liked Steady Geyser because it's always erupting. Small and steady wins the race?! :)
The flowing moss-like stuff under the water here was fun to watch. You just don't see things like this because we aren't used to being around natural hot water formations in nature.
Next was Old Faithful! It was far too touristy for me there. Huge crowds. Huge shops. Huge parking lots. It felt very un-natural in a park full of natural wonders. I get it though, if you really want to see a geyser go off, Old Faithful is true to her name.
Before eruption
During:
Here's a fun time-lapse video of the eruption!
After Old Faithful we headed over to the Mud Volcano. Did you know it takes a long time to drive around Yellowstone? From Old Faithful to the Mud Volcano took us over an hour. It's like saying, hey! let's drive to Denver and go look at some mud bubbling! By the time we were done in Yellowstone, I was done sitting in the car...
Anyways... our first sight at the Mud Volcano was a Bison! These guys are all over the place, but this one was just doing loops in the parking lot. At one point he charged up a hill where some ladies were taking a picture. The ranger was yelling for them to move out of the way. It was a little scary!
My favorite spot in this area was Dragon's Mouth Spring! It was a loud, gurgling, steaming cave that seemed like a dragon was sleeping inside and the steam was its breath and the noise was it growling.
Then we took a small jaunt north and were shocked to see this amazing canyon. They call it the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.
From here you can see the lower falls. Whoa!
The funny thing, as sunny as it is in those waterfall pictures, the weather suddenly changed and we got caught in a huge downpour. The grand canyon is pretty much the end of the lower loop, and we were considering doing the upper loop that day too, but it was 5pm, and the weather wasn't favorable, so we headed back to camp. That night we made a dutch oven Mountain Man breakfast with bacon, sausage, hashbrowns, eggs and cheese! It was SO good! We ate around the campfire while reading scary stories from a fun book.
The next day our plan was to hit a few things on the upper loop and then head to Rexburg. I truly thought we'd be out of there by noon. We were inside the park by 8:30am (we had to pack up camp) and yet even though we only saw the Artist paintpots, Minerva terrace, and Tower falls, we didn't get out of Yellowstone until almost 4pm! Driving, driving, driving... all day long...
The artist paintpots had a neat trail and some fun burbly gurbly mudpots!
Okay, brace yourselves, I got a good picture of my boys! Both looking at the camera, both smiling!
Next we headed to the Minerva Terrace which is in the Mammoth Hot Springs area. I would describe this area as odd, fascinating, and memorable. It's too bad we didn't see it 20 years ago when the water was still flowing through it. A lot of it has dried up, leaving behind almost eerie remnants.
The darker areas still have water traveling over it, and it has created these step like terraces.
Each terrace isn't flat like a plateau, but has these pools in the center, gathering water.
Look at the contrast of the black (dry) and the orange (wet)
There's even little stalactites!
There was quite a bit of hiking in this area, but you end up with a great view!
Alex wasn't having it. He said, I bet you're going to take my grumpy picture and put it on the blog. So I did.
I'm a mean mom! He was pretty upset with me. I told him if he calmed down and stopped being grumpy I'd put a happy picture of him on the blog. He finally did!
So I was surprised that we'd only done two things and it was already lunch time. At that point we'd exhausted our sandwich supplies and had been living out of our cooler and van since Sunday (it was Thursday). We caved and went to a little restaurant in Mammoth. Sometimes our teamwork is pretty awesome. We parked in some shade. Walked with carson to their public restroom spot and hit the toilets. I wanted a postcard and a smashed penny so while Dan waited for Alex to finish in the bathroom Cade and I walked to their gift shop. They didn't have a smashed penny machine there so we walked a little further to the restaurant and got in the long line. By then Dan had caught up with us and gave me his order. He went back to the car and I got our food to go. I came outside the restaurant and just a minute later he was there ready to pick us up and keep going towards Tower Falls. I mean, why waste time sitting in a crowded restaurant when you've got a 30 minute drive to your next spot anyways? Bam!
Tower Falls was the one thing I was really looking forward to. It's beautiful AND there's a trail you can hike down to the bottom of the falls.
But, sadly, the trail was closed!! I was pretty bummed. That meant our Yellowstone trip ended a bit anti-climactically. Sigh. Another time I guess!
Dan took a picture of the fun rock formations near the falls.
Supposed to look like he's touching that peak :)
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