Yellowstone

Well, we made it back home in one piece. In a nutshell, my feelings about Yellowstone for a vacation are as follows: #1 It is a LOT of driving- both getting there from where we live, and then, once you get there, still more driving! I think we spent the majority of the weekend just driving from place to place. We spent an entire day driving to get there, had one full day of exploring, then spent the better part of the next day driving home. I guess we should have planned things better. #2 The first buffalo you see there is cool- a novelty. But the novelty quickly wears off as they create large traffic jams, some cars with fascinated tourists taking pictures, others with people like me, annoyed, fighting back the urge to honk or throw something at the reeking beasts. #3 I don't get it...what exactly is so interesting about looking at a thousand different holes with water/steam/poo smelling mud coming out of them? I tried and tried to be appreciative, and in some ways I was, (I get it- nature is beautiful and all) but as I looked around at all the tourists, from all over the world (Japan, England, Germany, etc.) I felt sort of sorry for them and hoped that this wasn't going to be their main destination while here in the U. S. of A. Don't get me wrong- we had plenty of fun... but I guess I'm just not the geologist that I might be. Maybe I need to wear more polar fleece and Birkenstocks, and eat lots of granola, then I will be a better tree hugger. My idea of a vacation still involves sitting by the pool/beach sipping a drink and reading. But, at least now I can check Yellowstone off my "Places to Go" list!

Old Faithful. We got in Thursday evening and had just enough daylight left to enter the park and see something. We decided this would be a good place to start and took our chances that we wouldn't miss the eruption. (It only "goes off" every 90 minutes, on average.) Luck was on our side, it turned out. Just as we got there, the large crowd that had gathered suggested some excitement any minute now. We only had to wait about 10 minutes to see the action. It was neat. I won't use a more exciting word than that to describe it.

The sunset created a cool view at Old Faithful.

This was at Fishing Bridge. And no, you can't fish from fishing bridge. So don't try. It rained on and off on out last day there, but not too severely.

This is one of Marshall's pictures. (You can tell because it actually turned out good.) My picture taking skills leave something to be desired. You can pretty much assume all the landscape pictures, and animal pictures you will see here were taken by the him. Pardon the stereotype, but I think he must be part Japanese.


We took this long hike with all these switchbacks to get to these waterfalls. People were giving us funny looks for dragging our little boy along on such a serious hike. What they don't know is that I carried him much of the way. It was a good workout!

Not taken by me.

This either.

Or this.

Thinks he owns the place!

We saw a lot of this sort of thing while at Yellowstone. It was cute at first, but it got old fast. Especially when people were too scared to pass the stinking beasts, and so they just followed slowly behind them, taking pictures of them dropping ginormous piles of dung on the road.

Daddy and Drew

Thanks to Darren and Cynthia for lending us the baby backpack! We don't know what we would have done without it! Allie loved all the hiking. (Wouldn't you, from her perspective?)

Loop hike around Old Faithful at sunset.

Mr. Bubba Man

As we were first entering the park, we saw a family of elk crossing the river. M went to take a picture, and someone had taken the batteries out of the camera to charge them, without replacing them. Oops. No worries though- it turns out elk are a dime a dozen there at good old Yellerstone!

Yet another waterfall.

The fam.

LOL-this is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. This was our first buffalo sighting, and as per eager tourist usual, we (and when I say we, I mean Marshall) just HAD to snap a picture (after all, this might be the only buffalo we might see...) An argument soon ensued because this was taken out of the window of our moving car, and apparently I was supposed to stop so he could admire this beautiful creature more fully. Alas, the beast's tail is all we have as proof of that first sighting.

Cute Tiny.

She loved being packed around!

So, our trip had come to an end, and it was time to come home. In all, we had seen a bazillion buffalo, and plenty of elk, a few deer, and various birds. But the one animal I really wanted to see in the wild, the more elusive bear, had yet to be seen. We had headed out the south end of the park, and were approaching the Grand Tetons, when we saw this dude off the shoulder of the road, just minding his own business:

A grizzly bear! It wasn't a huge one, maybe even a teenager or something. But still so awesome to see in the wild. Our drive home was probably my favorite part of the whole trip. We drove through Grand Teton National Park, which had the most beautiful views of the lake reflecting the mountains (although I still can't say the word "Tetons" without giggling a little...I admit, I sometimes have the sense of humor of a 13 year old boy.) Then we drove through Jackson Hole, boring and very, very crowded. (Maybe it's only cool if you ski?) Another highlight was getting Marshall to listen to Twilight on tape with me for much of the drive (at least, the parts of the drive where the shrieks coming from the back seat had dulled to a faint roar.) And since Marshall rarely reads this blog, I am going to totally out him here and say that I could tell he was totally getting into it- awesome. Then we kept driving, as the rain picked up a bit, through the winding canyons that led up to Bear Lake. The incredible colors of the changing fall leaves were, (and still are) almost indescribable! The bright flourescent oranges and yellows and reds, contrasted against the bright greens still stubbornly hanging on to their colors just a bit longer- took my breath away. I regret now not having pulled over to take some pictures. That would have been much more pleasant to look at and remember than a buffalo taking a dump on the road. I digress...

We had a good time. Our hotel room was a little private cabin, which was gratefully upgraded to the deluxe model (thanks to my sweet-talking hubby.) It was a very nice little cabin- complete with a kitchenette, tacky rustic decor, a jetted tub, and some weird wolf thing I had to cover with a blanket because it was scaring Drew. Although Allie had a fever of 103 most of the time we were there (thanks, lingering ear infection), and although Drew had a puking migraine the day before we left, we still managed to get out there and enjoy some good old Grizwold family fun!