Wild West Trip II: Yellowstone Final Days

SATURDAY JUNE 29th

This was day four for us in the park, but day one for Barry, Divana and Em. So we did a little of everything today!

First up was to see if we could spot that grizzly bear and cub again-and we did! We drove down to the Fishing Bridge area and over by Crested Butte they were out running around again. Here's a video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkcF2BYBkrI

We sat and watched them for probably 20 minutes or so before they ran up over the hill.

Spotted a bald eagle by the lake. 

Then we stopped at the canyon area to walk around and check out those beautiful views. 

We went back to hotel to relax for a while. Our days had been absolutely jam packed up to this point so it was nice to relax for an hour or so. We went to have lunch at the cafeteria type place that we could walk to and looked around in the gift shops a bit.

After our relaxation time we decided to go ahead and do the upper loop with them since they hadn't been able to see everything yet. We stopped at the places we'd been to before and saw a bunch of animals so that was awesome!

If you squint you can see two bears in this photo :)

Here's a zoomed in picture taken with my good camera. 

We went along the loop counter-clockwise, stopping in Mammoth for some ice cream. 

 After we ate dinner our family went out to go see Hayden Valley one last time at night. On the way Ike spotted a cinnamon brown bear and ended up causing quite a traffic jam because of it! He was the first to notice and after we stopped so did everyone else.

The skies were incredibly beautiful.

 

Sad to leave Yellowstone behind the next day but we were very excited to spend a couple days in the Tetons!

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!

Wild West Trip II: Old Faithful Area

 THURSDAY JUNE 27th

We got a later start this morning from Roosevelt to go to Lamar Valley, but it ended up working out great because we saw wolves!! This was one of the animals I really wanted to see this time around so I was so excited. 

They were very far away but we could see them with the scope we borrowed!

After our Lamar adventure we came back to gather our things from Roosevelt and we ate breakfast at the Lodge. It was really great!

Next stop was Old Faithful Inn. We stopped at pretty much all the turnouts and boardwalks along the way including the rest of Norris Geyser Basin (it was so crowded by midday!), Artist's Paint pots, Fountain Paint pots, and a drive along Firehole Canyone Drive. 

This is at Fountain Paint pot. We loved this one, it was super gurgley! 

Silex Spring-so vivid. 

Firehole Falls. 

After our tour along the eastern side of Yellowstone we made it to our lodging for the night. Our room wasn't ready yet so we wandered around, watched Old Faithful erupt once, and got some snacks. 

We loved the Inn, but the area itself was way too crowded. Definitely something to go to once, but we prefer the quieter side of Yellowstone! Our room was in the old section of the inn without bathrooms. 

We had some dinner then went to the Grand Prismatic Spring hoping the crowds had lessened by this time. It was a great play, much less crowded and we got a parking spot! We did the hike up to see it from above which was super cool. 

It was sooooo windy!

One last place to visit on this side of the park-Biscuit Basin. It is now closed because of a major eruption, crazy!

Once we got back to the Old Faithful area the kids and I went on a hunt to see more of the geysers. Grand Geyser hadn't gone off for a while so we decided to hang out there to see if we could see it. Dave didn't make it until the end but Ike and I stuck it out! It was so so cold and windy by this point. 

That evening Josh and I played cards while the kids used some precious internet that was available. A musician played until later in the evening so the kids came out to join us to listen to the music and hang out in this crazy cool space. 

Friday morning we were up early to check out Old Faithful under less crowded conditions and then moving on to eventually get back to the Canyon area for two nights!

Wild West Trip II: Grand Teton

SUNDAY JUNE 30th 

Today we moved from Yellowstone to the Tetons! I was very excited to spend some time in this area since we only came down for a short day trip on our last visit. It was just as stunning as I remember.


The rest of the family went to Old Faithful for the morning, so we went straight down and did a little exploring while they were doing that.

First up was Cunningham Cabin-the views were gorgeous from this old homestead.

Then we drove out to Schwabacher Landing to look for a moose even though it was about lunchtime and we knew the chances were low. That's alright it was still so pretty! We still had some time before our cabin would be ready so we went for pizza at Leek's Marina and Pizzeria. It was delicious! By now the rest of the crew was heading to Colter Bay also so we drove down to meet up with them. We perused the visitor center and I bought my park patch. 

Then we waited and waited and waited for our cabin! Their cabin got ready really quickly but we were not so fortunate. Once we were finally in we unpacked then our family decided to drive the loop around the park. 

Mormon's Row

After dinner we decided to do one last drive to look for a moose. We went to Schwarbacher Landing and waited for quite a while and sadly didn't see anything-still beautiful though! And then as we were leaving Josh spotted one!

And that was the end to a long, fun day!

MONDAY JULY 1st 

We were up early to go on a hike to Moose Pond near Jenny Lake. 

Sadly, no moose on Moose Lake and we took a crazy detour that made the hike back extra long lol. 

Then we drove the rest of the loop stopping at all the pretty places. 

Then it was time for brunch! We cooked out in the wilderness and it was so delicious.

After breakfast the clouds/rain rolled in so we camped out in the cabin for a bit (we had decent wifi here so everyone was happy about that!)

All the adults went to check out Jackson Lodge-it's just a beautiful hotel on a lake.

Came back and played a couple hilarious rounds of Telestrations before calling it a day!

TUESDAY JULY 2nd

We were on the road home fairly early-partly because we were dropping Em off at the airport along the way. Smooth drive home and the end to a wonderful vacation!