Yellowstone--the first national park

Day 8-10:  Yellowstone Park (WY and MT), West Yellowstone, MT

Friday July 8, 2011:  We woke up early (thanks again, B man! ;) )--Mike worked from the RV and Grandpa S. and James headed into Yellowstone park to scope out the sights.  We hopped into the rental car later in the afternoon and we all (me, James, Mike, Brendan, and Grandpa) entered the park together.  It was absolutely amazing.  West Yellowstone is a little bit out of the way (~30 miles from most of the sights), however the drive in was awesome.  Picturesque rivers and meadows and a bald eagle's nest (with an eagle inside) within miles of the park entrance.  (And Grandpa's gold appreciation pass got us in for free!)  We headed into one of the pots/geysers/pools area and a massive storm came in.  (not surprising, again, given my maiden name...)  We booked it though the geyser area (which was amazing!) and headed by car to Old Faithful (which spouts out just about every 90 minutes or so).  Just as we entered the gift shop, the storm worsened and started hailing.  The tourists (who I'm sure had limited experience with hail) were nearly as excited for the weather as the big geyser!  Headed then over to Old Faithful (it was still storming so B man and I watched it erupt inside--the guys watched it from outside).  It was amazing to be so close to magma (only 3-5 miles below the surface) and at the world's most active volcano.  The pools and bacterial mats were really interesting as well.

Warning sign near Geysers/painters pots

Old Faithful

Old Faithful

Day 9: Saturday, July 9, 2011

In what is now our Sullivan national park routine, Mike, B, and I woke up early and were out by 5:30 to catch the animal action at dawn. We were not disappointed. 2 hours and several elk, 30 bison (in the middle of the road, including babies suckling!), and a wolf pack later, we were back at the campground. Getting up early is somewhat painful (although we're up then now anyway) but is so worth it.
We split up for the first time today (I was happy to just hang out with B, the men headed on a 10 hour Yellowstone tour). Mike, James, and Grandpa had a long day but it sounds like it was a great way to see a good chunk of Yellowstone efficiently. Their tour guide was great, they visited the geysers and pools again as well as the pots, they visited Old Faithful again, and went to Yellowstone Lake and Lodge where they had a beer before finishing up the tour. B man and I had a great day. He napped for most of the morning, I finished up one of my books (Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother--very interesting book about Chinese parenting) and just relaxed. Then, the two of us visited the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center (which had live Grizzlies and wolves to see)--B loved it although I think partly it was because he thought the wolves were dogs :). Then we walked around W. Yellowstone--which was a neat little western resort town, had some ice cream (he ate like the entire cone, good boy!!) looked around in the shops, bought some "Moose Drool" brown ale and headed back to the campsite. We played with bubbles and his little play lawn mower and Barley and awaited the return of the men. We ate out at the Three Bear Restaurant (OK, somewhat overpriced average steakhouse food) and returned home. We were all asleep early.....

Bison in the road

Large, male, tagged bison!  Yikes!

pool

Grand Canyon Falls-Yellowstone

Day 10: Sunday, July 10, 2011


Up early again and went out to see the animals...we took a different route and didn't have so much luck with animal sites early. We headed back to the campsite, returned our rental car, and packed up the RV for another day of sight seeing. We started at the Grizzly/Wolf exhibit again as the guys hadn't seen it yet and then off to Yellowstone again. We took the northern route and started the sightseeing at the Grand Canyon/Yellowstone (not nearly as big as the Grand Canyon but still really cool). We saw a few more waterfalls and drove another 30 miles to get to Mammoth Hot Springs. On the drive, we saw a few bison and 4 bears (2 of the 4 black bears were apparently mating in the fields, although we missed that....) We didn't see any grizzly bears but I think I'm OK with that :) Mammoth Hot Springs was a cool spot as well. As we drove into the town, nearly 30 elk had parked themselves on the lawns of the hotel, the park administration, and some of the rangers' houses. They actually had permanent signs warning to leave the elk alone...I figure they must be permanent fixtures on the lawns! Then we got to see the springs after a short hike. They were not as active as they sometimes can be, but were still amazing. The pools were really cool--blue in the center (no bacteria can survive in those temperatures, then the orange rings contain thermophiles. Of course it smells sulfur-y but that's to be expected. We ended our trip about 5 miles north of Mammoth (Gardiner, MT) where we are camping at Rocky Mountain RV park.

We parked the RV and Grandpa immediatly started talking to our neighbor (ken) who was also a sea-bee (like Grandpa) and the two got along instantly. Small world, Ken trained in RI and served th two years after Grandpa S. Mike, James, and Grandpa talked about Grandpa's experience at the World Trade Center--it's amazing hearing the stories.

Mike and Brendan at the Grizzly/Wolf Discovery Center

He slides all by himself!

speaks for itself--Mammoth Hot Springs

Mammoth Hot Springs

Unfortunately, James has to head back to reality tomorrow. I think he's going to need another vacation to recover from this vacation! :)  Tomorrow, we drop James off in billings, MT and begin to make our way to see my good friend, Sarah Wallace, in North Dakota......