Yellowstone Trip {5/20: Hayden Valley, Brink of Lower Falls}

On Saturday (20th May) morning, we woke up in West Yellowstone, met Grandma and Grandpa at their hotel where the kids hopped in their car again (they had such a fun time riding in their car through the whole park), and headed back into the park, this time on the hunt for some animals! On our drive back to back to the Hayden Valley, we saw lots of bison and babies, a coyote, and some geese. At our first stop in Hayden, we talked to some folks with their scopes on a wolf waaaay out in the distance. We actually were able to see it running through the field through our binocs. We watched the wolf (wolves? couldn't tell for sure if we were seeing more than one) for a while, then we moved down the road where we saw another group watching grizzlies on the hillside. The kids were especially excited about this one, since they could see the momma and two babies with just their eyes! Further on, we stopped at another overlook and watched a coyote running and pouncing right below us. Some folks who stopped after us said things like, "this group can't be stopped just for a coyote!" and I was thinking, "yes! we're watching this coyote and it's really cool!" Gregg's dad had nice big camera and took some fun (and funny) pics.

First wildlife sighting: the wolf in
grandma's hotel lobby!

The grizzlies on the hill through Paul's scope.

Hi, coyote!

Doing its business.

Pounce!

Another little critter Paul captured on camera.

Once we had our fill of animal watching, and needed to fill our tummies with lunch, we headed over to the Canyon area again. We found a shady spot for our lunch and then some of us hiked down to the Brink of Lower Falls. Wowza! That's a lot of water!

I spy Upper Falls from the Lower Falls trail.

I love the rainbows!

The water was so yellow going over the edge.

Someday it would be fun to walk down that staircase
on the other side of the canyon.

Still lots of snow!

Back at the top of the trail, and sneaking a peek
of Upper Falls.

After our lunch and a hike, we started on the journey home. The kids rode with Grandpa and Grandma for a while, but around Ashton, ID, we stopped for gas and a switcheroo. We stopped for dinner at Wendy's in Idaho Falls, and after a detour because of a wrong exit taken by driver mom, we were on our way home. The kids got a little squirrely around Pocatello, so we popped on the Family Road Trip Trivia podcast and listened to a million episodes to get us home. Whew! What a fun trip!