Yellowstone, Why Not?

Gregg's parents made their annual pilgrimage to Yellowstone in mid-June. We talked with them as we drove home from Providence on Father's Day and heard what a wonderful time they had on their trip. It was enough to convince us to do it ourselves. That week! So we did some planning that evening after the kids were in bed and shopped and packed during the week and by Thursday afternoon (25 June) we were on the road!

We couldn't find any reservable campsites within an hour radius of the park that had any openings, so we opted for the brave route of a first come-first served campground along the Snake River between Alpine and Hoback Junction. We needn't have worried after all, and found a great little spot in the Wolf Creek Campground (the first non-group site after leaving Alpine, just about a mile or so past the turnoff for Lunch Counter and Big Kahuna Rapids). We set up camp, ate our dinner, explored the campground and went to bed.

Pretty penstemon!

Campground critters.

Putting up the pay stub on our site.

A little hot chocolate before bed.

The flowers were incredible everywhere!
(Even surrounding this rock near the restrooms!)

On Friday morning (26 June) we woke up early(ish) around 6:30 and were on the road by 7:00, headed toward Yellowstone. It was a two hour drive to the entrance of the park, but you can't beat the scenery along the way! We ate breakfast and listened to Ramona as we drove. Somewhere between Colter Bay and the South Entrance of the Park we saw a grizzly walking around through the trees off the left side of the road! (It was too hard to get a pic, but was definitely fun to spot!)

Our first stop in the park was Lewis Falls, a great little spot to get out and stretch the ol' legs and take in the vista.

After a few minutes of stretching, water bottle refilling, rock climbing and snack grabbing, we hopped back in the car on our way to Old Faithful. This is what Cal and Sam were most excited to see, so we decided to hit it up early. I was a little worried about arriving at the most popular spot in the park at 10 am (usually the beginning of the busiest time to be there) but I was pleasantly surprised to see over half of the giant parking lot empty! Corona is working to keep down the crowds! That's not to say we didn't see people. We were even surprised my how many different states we saw represented in the license plates in the parking lot. But it was much, much less than it could be and has been. And I did not miss the endless tour buses full of foreign visitors. It was kind of nice.

We arrived at the geyser viewing area about 20 minutes before it was expected to erupt, so we hung around the boardwalk area, trying to be in the shade and away from people as best as we could. The kids got a little antsy though, so we started moving toward the Inn. By the time we got to that end of the boardwalk, Old Faithful was sputtering and soon the show was on. It was a little anti-climactic from our angle because most of what we could see was the steam cloud and not the water column. But it was fine. We continued our loop past a couple other pools and small geysers and made our way back to the parking lot and the picnic area at the side.

Yes, it's a crowd, but for Old Faithful in the middle of the summer
in the middle of the day, I'd say it's pretty sparse!

Masked bandits. We wore our masks at most
stops, definitely if there were other folks around
that we'd be walking or standing near.

There she blows!

We loved this pretty blue pool.

This is actually what the kids were most looking forward to, I think: the teeter totter trees in the picnic area. They found a pretty big one and tried it out - too tall and scary, even with my help. They found a giant one and didn't even attempt to climb on - much too tall and scary. Then they found an itty bitty one very close to the table we picked out to eat our lunch at - just right!

Sandwiches and seven layer bean dip and leftover mac
salad - oh my!

After lunch we thought we'd like to check out Grand Prismatic Spring. We hiked to the overlook last time we were here and it was awesome, but we even thought getting up close on the boardwalk might be fun this time. No go on both of those stops. The lots were jam packed and cars were backed up down the road just trying to get in. For the Midway Geyser Basin parking we saw maybe fifty cars parked down the main road with people walking in to the area. It was nuts. I guess they all stopped there before hitting up Old Faithful? We kept driving.

The next thing on the map was a scenic drive off the main drag called the Firehole Lake Drive. We took it. It was lovely! We stopped at the lake and walked down the boardwalk to the end. Here we saw what may have been Cal's favorite name for a geyser: Young Hopeful.

It was the best cloud day! I was in heaven!

Yellow paintbrush off the boardwalk.

It was fun to see so many bison. We were remembering our trip to Yellowstone the summer before Sam was born where we saw exactly one bison the whole day! Not this time! There were plenty of bison jams to be had as we drove around the loop.

bonus video!

"bison jam"

(this was from a little later on in our day, as we were passing through

the Hayden Valley, but I'm putting it here to go with the bison pics)

We made a quick stop at the Firehole River to take in the views.

Our next stop was at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. We ended up on the North Rim, which didn't have the greatest views of the falls as the other side, I don't think. But even still, we got to see the yellow rock and the rushing water and it is always pretty awesome.

Snow!

Cal didn't want to get out at Mud Volcano (I think she mostly didn't want to wear her mask) so Sam and I hopped out for a quick loop around the lower boardwalk trail.

Mud Volcano

bonus video!

"dragon's mouth spring"

Mud Cauldron

Next we ended up at the Fishing Bridge Visitor's Center where we played at the beach a couple years ago with the Elwoods. It was breezy and the water was much choppier than last time we were here, but we brought swim suits and buckets and towels so we were much more prepared to play. And we had the beach to ourselves! The only problem this time was that it was late afternoon and we were getting tired and hungry, which is the only way to explain why Sam had a complete meltdown about ladybugs and us saying no to his taking them home as pets.

No, he's not scared or mad that it is crawling on him.
He is distraught that he can't keep it forever.

There were tons of ladybugs on the beach though.
It was kind of fun to see them all.

He laid there on the sand and watched his ladybugs for a good long
while.

Cal collected rocks and shells.

Our last stop of our loop was at West Thumb where we first busted out the stove and our premade sloppy joe filling for a "hot meal" in the picnic area. After dinner we took a walk around the loops. Pro tip: you can skip the shorter one - everything is dry and dead looking. There are much prettier pools and views if you take the long route down near the shore of the lake!

I mean, the view is still pretty, especially with a sky like that!
But all those pools and pots were dried up and boring up close.

This is more like what I remember seeing when I came here before
a long, long time ago.

So many shades of blue!

Had to get a family selfie in our masks!

I just love all the colors in Yellowstone - they seem more vivid
than anywhere else.

Fun to see a geyser inside the lake!

We said goodbye to Yellowstone and worked our way back through the Tetons and on toward camp. We arrived at the Snake River Overlook in time to enjoy some lovely golden light as we hiked along the rim and gazed at the Tetons. We didn't stay long enough for a stellar sunset shot, but it was so beautiful anyway.

Photo bomber in my selfie with Gregg.

On Saturday morning we woke up in camp, ate a hearty breakfast of corned beef hash egg mcmuffins (whoa nelly!), and headed out to Jackson for a hike up Snow King Mountain Resort downtown. It was warm and the hike was definitely uphill so we didn't make it to the top, or even halfway like we had hoped. But we still had some great views of the town and the kids got to watch the ropes coursers doing their thing. They now have big dreams of trying it and/or the alpine slide and/or the mountain coaster on a future trip. 

Seeking out the sunshine.

We took the Uphill Route.

The flowers were magnificent here, too!

What a view!

How's this for a sequence of family group shots?

For the record, I was trying to get her head off my face so
I could be seen in the shot.

That'll do, I guess.

I had to snap this for Heather - I thought it was an interesting
campaign that I had never seen before.

She said she's heard about it, but hadn't seen one
in the wild. There are brushes and scrapers to
help you remove rogue seeds and plants so noxious
weeds and invasive species don't spread. I thought
it was interesting, but I didn't use it. Hmm... I wonder
how many people actually do?

We picnicked at a park in town before heading back to camp for naps and quiet time (ie reading in the shade). After everyone was rested and refreshed we ventured down to the Big Kahuna and Lunch Counter rapids viewing area down the road and across the street from our camp. We spent a good few minutes watching the rafters, kayakers and surfers hitting up the white water there. We have dreams of doing a raft trip as a family here, too, when everyone gets a bit older and stronger. Back at camp we played some games, made some dinner (canned beef stew and biscuits never tasted so good!). Then we hitched up the old teardrop and hit the road for home.

I liked it. Some really hard scenes (domestic abuse,
starvation, hanging, racism) but a super interesting
story and ends on a hopeful note. I was first interested
in it because of the pack horse librarian angle, but I didn't
realize it was based on a family in Kentucky that were
blue! Like actually had blue skin. That threw a timely
race issue into the story that I wasn't expecting but was
really interesting and eye opening.

Lunch Counter Rapid riders.

Where did she learn this duck lips pose?

Here comes a raft through Big Kahuna.

Interesting leaves in our camp.

Sup sup sup suppa time!

And a s'more to round it all off before we call it a trip.

While many things about COVID are not ideal, I must say that taking advantage of Gregg's reduced hours at work by making impromptu camping adventures is definitely a perk. What's next?!