Sunday, June 30, 2013

Yellowstone


































This should have been a one post-per-day trip, but I don't remember exactly all the sites we visited each day, so it will just have to be long with a lot of pictures!  We left for Yellowstone the week after school let out for the summer, so it was early in the season for Yellowstone, but we got to see more animals than the last time we were there.  When we came upon the first herd of bison, my girls were so excited.  They did not realize how common it was to see bison everywhere you go in Yellowstone!  We drove straight to the Canyons area for the first night and got there just in time for bed.  The next day we explored the waterfalls, lakes and hot pots around the east side of the park before we made our way up to Mammoth for the second night.  Right before we stopped for the night, we had the opportunity to watch a black bear prowl around for food.  This was the first time I had seen a bear in the wild.  I zoomed my camera in as much as I could, but there were some nice people watching as well who let us look through their spotting scope to see it.  That was so cool!  The girls were very excited and they talked about it for the rest of the trip.  In Mammoth the elk just settle themselves on the grass of restaurants and hotel and watch the tourists!  It is so funny!  The second day we drove up to the North gate where they have the famous brick archway as you enter.  We backtracked and explored the west side of Yellowstone for the rest of the day and my family soon got so sick of looking at hot pots by the end of this day!  We managed to get to Old Faithful around dinner time and that is always fun to observe.  We went back to the Canyons area for the last night and the girls got their souvenirs (wolf stuffed animals) which they had been eyeing the whole trip.  We left Yellowstone after seeing a few more hot pots and bison and drove to West Yellowstone for our last night where our hotel had a indoor water slide.  The girls spend hours wearing themselves out riding that!  For the last day, we went to the Wolf and Bear discovery center in West Yellowstone.  The wolves were really active when we first arrived and that was exciting for the girls to see.  They liked watching the bears too and they also saw some endangered birds.  It was such a great trip.  The girls were really good travelers and they want to go back next summer!