Last Day of Yellowstone!

 

Our faithful sandwich maker!
Oh how I appreciated him doing this every morning.

He would pack the lunches while I managed the kids.

It was a busier morning as we needed to check out and load the car.
This house doesn't look like much, but it was surprisingly very comfortable
and fit us perfectly.

We had checked marked off the West and North portions of Yellowstone.
Time to hit the East! Which meant it was hopefully wildlife day!!

There were 2 different spots we could gamble to see animals.
Lamar Valley or Hayden Valley

 We had differing answers on which would be best from google, to people we asked.
They were too far apart from each other to hit both, so we made a choice!

Lamar Valley was the gamble, so away we went!

I must say, this day was the most beautiful day as far as scenery went!

We drove up some windy, hilly roads into the mountains that felt like

we were in Switzerland!

When we saw cars parked on the side randomly,
we knew to start looking for 4 legs and fur!

People trying to get selfies were also funny to watch!

The only bear we saw!

There are no "Here are the animals" sign or location.
Or any guarantees there would be wildlife!

We were being vigilant as we got closer to Lamar Valley.

Then all of a sudden, we saw a bunch of brown dots in the distance!

HUNDREDS of them!!

They were on the move and going fast!

We screeched to a halt and ran over to see what we could see!

Of course the boys turned into outback content wranglers!

Phones out and running really close to them!

 As they were getting too close to my liking, I started

yelling for them to come back.

(There were lots of baby bison and I wasn't sure how protective the mamas would get)

As I was doing this, a saw a whole different family out of the corner of my eye, with little kids.

Charging in the same direction as the boys!

Video camera blazing!

They paused and looked at me as if they weren't sure to obey or not, lol!

 

I made Casey go get them, their faces says it all.

It really was so cool!

We found another nice picnic spot off the side of the road.

Let them run up some hills to burn off some energy.

 

Casey got pulled over for going too fast in a construction zone.

It was a super young kid, who looked like he just 

graduated from Jr Rangers that morning.

You could tell he was really nervous and probably his first pull over.

He gave some spiel about not wanting to ruin our Yellowstone experience

so Im going to let you off with a warning.

Haha, thank you sir.

You are too kind.

Potty break and pit stop

at Towers in the Air waterfall.

Our last stop is called the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

It has a lower falls and upper falls

I believe this was the upper falls.

This by FAR was my most favorite of all of Yellowstone!

If people were to ask me what not to miss, it would be this!

Getting down to the lookout spot was a bit more than I expected.
It was mainly a steep hill with lots of switchbacks. 

I didn't bring any water because I didn't think it would be a big walk.

I was nervous I would have to carry Della out.

I don't think any of us expected to see what we saw.
So unbelievably breathtaking!!

We made it out alive!

Our time had come to an end.
It was a fast and furious tour, but we accomplished a lot!

We hit the last portion by exiting South Yellowstone
on our drive to Wyoming.

There isn't a lot of touristy things to do in the area.
It seemed like this was where the camping and fishing happened. 

It felt more just like being in the woods.

A shot of the Tetons on our way to Jackson Hole.

Crazy to have 2 different National Parks so close to each other!

We stopped for burgers and ice cream in Jackson
before making it to home sweet Wyoming home!

Yellowston continued

We didn't make it out the door as early as the first day.
 Which meant sitting in line to get to the entrance.

We heard sometimes you could be sitting ducks for an hour or so, yikes!
Of course we chose to go the busiest week of the year, so we were worried.

Not bad for what it could have been!

 

We ventured North this day.

First stop, Gibbon Falls!

Trusting the Shaka guide and stopped at some Geysers along the way to Mammoth. 

Yellowstone really blows:)

Della thought I was pretty funny.

Why did this warning sign make me laugh so hard?

Talk about traumatizing!

In the car driving to the next stop I saw big wildlife for the first time.
I think I literally yelled STOPPPP, lol!

The Evans were in front and didn't see us, but Casey found a spot on

the side of the road where we all scurried to see the Bison!!

 

Artist's Paint Pots

You had to walk a ways on a trail before hitting the pots.

Not going to lie, it looked like a rinky-dink miniature golf course at first.
But the more we walked around the cooler it got!

The mud pots were like giant pits of bubbly Kinectic Sand!

It was popping and spewing, pretty cool stuff!

Twinning in our Ron Jon gear.

It's hard to see, but this water was bright aqua blue!
With like a milky complexion.

We found the dreamiest place to have lunch!
It seemed a little overcast with a nice breeze.

With a killer table spread , I must say!

We let them take a break from sight seeing and just be kids.
Which meant marching straight down to play in the water!

They were always waiting on us to walk up with the little kids

from the parking lot.

Which, parking is horrendous in Yellowstone!

Tour guide Stephanie!

This stop was a bigger one.
The kids were NOT having it with MORE walking!

Her showing us what she mapped out reminded me of

David Spades comedy bit on the dread of black diamond skiing runs.

Our kids: I think everybody, I feel like we should start on Pop Tart Fox Tails.

Lets go down that.

Stephanie: Nope, we're going down Devils Patagonia Ball Sack. 

Kids: No no no, that one seems hard.

If we go down Mother Goose Falls, it sort of goes into Peek-a- boo Rocks.

Which feels tricky, and challenging, but not overwhelming.

Stephanie: Nope. Hitlers Geyser Abortion,  here we go, 2 by 2. 

Emerging from the tunnel to see...

...that it was like the dark and dreary wilderness.
Wow, lots of ground to cover!

It definitely felt like the oldest and hottest geyser basin like the signs said.

 

Next stop, Mammoth!

Which is supposedly another famous stop like Old Faithful.
Not sure why?

It did not seem like anything special.

Maybe it was a good spot to put another village type place like Old Faithful.

The boys were done.

No more for them.

The girls were troopers and walked up the steps to take in

what Mammoth had to offer!

Always up for being my picture model.

Up at the top looking down to the village.

We grabbed pizza in town and took it back to the house.

Pizza always hits the spot after a long day!

Then us adults snuck out for dessert on our own.

Came back to kids who we thought would have crashed by now

with how much they were complaining on how tired they were earlier!

I went down stairs to check on everyone before I went to bed.

This girl has slept like this every night since she was a baby!

Legs out of the covers, flat on her back, and knees bent.