It was a funny conversation that led to my dad coming out again. When he was here earlier in the month, we mentioned that we were planning on going to Yellowstone for our anniversary, and he asked who was going to watch Zuri for us. We told him we hadn't asked anyone yet, and he said, "why don't you ask your dad?" My response was "because you are six hundred miles away." He said, "well, why don't you ask him?" Subtle, Dad, subtle. ;-) Needless to say, I asked and he came.
Zuri was excited when she heard Grandpa was coming again to spend time with her. They had a great weekend, and so did J and I!
We got up at the unlawful hour of four in the morning to start our trip and we were on the road by four-thirty. I attempted to sleep, but I don't sleep well in the car, so about an hour into our trip I gave up. We were caught up in traffic just before the Idaho border due to a semi-truck carrying other cars that had caught on fire. We were about the fifth car behind the truck and we were stopped even before the firetrucks had arrived, which meant that we spent an hour waiting for the fire to be contained. Nonetheless, we made it to Yellowstone just after ten-thirty, so we were able to make almost a full day of our first day.
It was definitely a packed day. Within fifteen minutes of being in the park, we saw a golden eagle (we didn't get a picture), river otters, bison, and some pretty blue jays. We also saw a wolf, a badger, a deer, some elk, and antelope among several other animals throughout our trip. Unfortunately (or fortunately), we didn't see any bear, moose, or bull elk (which would have been the icing on the cake for J), and believe me, we tried.
Between J and I, we took over 800 pictures, and it has been really hard to pick the best ones. The next several posts may be very picture extensive, which is one reason I am splitting our trip up into days. I hope you enjoy the beauty of Yellowstone as much as we did.
We entered Yellowstone through the west entrance, and although we had mild traffic buildup near the entrance area, it dissipated as we drove further into the park.
Gibbons Falls
Funny story about this picture. We were getting back into our car after viewing the waterfall, and there was a bus of tourists/foreigners who were almost back at their bus. We heard a loud crack and watched as a pretty big piece of rock fell off the rock wall. One of the tourists said, "well, that is our cue to be getting out of here!" They were all nervous and rushed to the bus. I couldn't help but laugh, especially since we were on the opposite side of the road as the rock wall, and were far enough away that unless the whole side came down we wouldn't be in any danger.
Mammoth Hot Springs:
Note: All the white that you see is NOT snow. The water at the springs is boiling, and the different temperatures create the different colors that we see (orange, blue, white, brown, green, etc).
It looks like coral!
Canary Spring
Orange Spring Mound
When we saw this beautiful mound, neither Josh or I noticed the perfect "G" cloud in the sky. We both took several pictures from different angles and most of them had the "G" in it, but it wasn't until we were showing the pictures to my dad that the "G" was noticed. How cool is that?
I know this place has a name. It is slightly off the beaten path, and I didn't take a picture of the name to remember. It was beautiful, though. One of the amazing things about Yellowstone is that you can be in what seems like completely normal forest, and then -BAM- a steam pocket, a geyser, or something else beautiful and unique. Here are a few other cool things we found while exploring.
This stream was seriously that toxic looking green color. As far we could tell it was a normal stream, however, we didn't go into the water to find out, but there were ducks and geese near the water, which makes me think the coloring was due to moss--highly florescent looking moss, to be sure!
Throughout our trip we saw a lot of bison just off the side of the road.
Norris Geyser Basin:
The weather overall was pretty nice--in the 70's, but we had cloud cover when we didn't want it (to get the rich colors), and didn't have clouds when we wanted (such as hiking). While we were at Norris Basin it rained on us, but it was a light rain for only about fifteen minutes or so. Enough to cool us down (it had been a little warm on our hike).
A shot of my pregnant belly.
Crackling Lake:
The lake has a crackling sound as it boils; the whole lake has tiny boiling bubbles.
Steamboat Geyser:
Artists Paintpots:
The mudpots
These would be absolutely fabulous to see in the spring when they are spewing mud. As it was, we could hear the gurgling mud and see a little spurt now and then, but it was fairly dry. The mountain of mud was amazing though!
With daylight almost gone, we stopped at this waterfall as our last adventure of the day. I can't remember the name of these falls, but they were very pretty, and the view of the river was beautiful.
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