Yellowstone

We had a blast exploring Yellowstone’s many thermal features. Forget about Old Faithful... Grand Geyser took the prize for best blast in our book. See for yourself in this photo album.

Our timing was good the day we visited the Old Faithful section of the park. We arrived about 1:30. Old Faithful went off within minutes; Daisy and Castle went off within an hour; and Grant was set to put on its show anytime... within 2 hours of 2 pm, according to the “schedule board”. Grand, “the tallest predictable geyser in the world” wasn’t to be rushed, but finally erupted at 3:58... right on schedule! It was worth the wait.

At the West Thumb Geyser Basin, the kids learned all about scat and how to track animals from Ranger Eric as part of the process of earning their Junior Ranger Badges. They can now tell you with confidence who pooped, when, why and what they ate for lunch.

We were all surprised to find scat right next to some of the thermal “paint pot” areas since the ground is so volatile there, but apparently, the smoke acts as a natural insect repellent.


No bear sightings yet... but lots of buffalo, some deer, elk and a marmot or two. We apparently just missed the wolves the day we camped in the Northern part of the park. We saw the “Wolf Ranger”, who drives a very distinctive yellow SUV, pulled over near a meadow with his telescope out. Unfortunately, by the time we found a place to pull the RV over and walk back to him, the wolves had gone into the woods.

The kids decide to pose as elk one day as we were hiking along a roadside just to see how passing cars might react. One couple actually stopped to thank them... apparently it was the only “wildlife” they had seen all day!

The “Grand Canyon of Yellowstone” and its two spectacular waterfalls was another favorite stop for us. We hiked the 350 some steps down from the canyon rim on Uncle Tom’s Path to get a great view of the lower falls, which is said to be twice as high at Niagra.


The kids didn’t care so much for the mud volcano area. They found the sulfur smell unpleasant. On the other hand, they were glad we visited since we got up close and personal with a number of buffalo on the way there.

Drew recently purchased his first fly fishing pole and had a couple of opportunities to try it out during our time at Yellowstone. He hasn’t yet caught us dinner, but it’s not for lack of effort!