Wild West Trip II: Yellowstone Lower Loop

FRIDAY JUNE 28th

After spending a quick early morning at Old Faithful we packed up and went to the West Thumb Geyser Basin. 

Along the way we saw a herd of elk and stopped at Kepler Cascades.

West Thumb is neat because it's right on Lake Yellowstone. It was super chilly this morning so we didn't stay very long but it was a nice stop!

I made Dave recreate this picture from 2011 :)

On our last trip we stayed at Lake Yellowstone cabins, so we stopped there to show the kids and Ike got a huckleberry soda and a root beer that he was very excited about. 

We drove around the lake then up to Lake Butte Overlook, which we would be back to many times later!

We had hiked the Storm Point Trail before but I lost all of my pictures from it. So we decided to go again since we remembered liking it so much. It's a fairly easy hike out to Storm Point and the views were beautiful. 

On our way back to the van we got stopped by a buffalo in the path. We did a little off-trail walking to get around this big guy!

We weren't able to check into Canyon Lodge yet but we were able to get our laundry started!

Did a quick trip back into Hayden Valley before meeting up with Josh's parents and sister at the hotel.

Em was up for an adventure so we once again headed down to the Crested Butte area and we got to see our first grizzly! We were beyond excited. Some lovely people helped us figure out where she was on the hill and we were able to get it in our scope. 

Then on our way back we saw another coyote. They were everywhere this time!