For our second full day of vacation we packed up and drove south out of Red Lodge towards Yellowstone. We would've like to drive over the Beartooth Highway and enter via the North East entrance like last year, but the Wyoming section of the highway was still closed. It didn't open until June 2, and even then it would close periodically because of new snowfall. But we had no issues going south. We had gone home this way in the dark last year so it was fun to actually see it. It was beautiful of course. We passed some authentic cowboys.
Once we reached Cody, we turned right and headed towards the east entrance of Yellowstone. We had gone through that tunnel in the dark last year when the kids were sleeping so they really enjoyed it this time.
There were a series of tunnels actually.
It was long, but not like the Zion tunnel.
Coming out and there was a huge reservoir beyond.
We had no idea how big that lake was last year.
There were many little touristy places along the way, and I thought this old mining building was cool.
We crossed this river several times. There was tons of water everywhere! Lots of snow this year, but tons of rain just while we were there.
Last year we did not realize how high in elevation it was coming out this part of the park. We climbed up into the clouds and the snow pack got very thick. Apparently late May is a little too early for Yellowstone!
There were all sorts of footprints in that snow coming down this hillside.
These roadside waterfalls were also everywhere.
Coming to the highest point.
Share the road people.
Moo?
We came out on the other side of the mountains to the lake which we all definitely remembered since it hadn't been dark at that point yet. We stopped at an overlook with this funny raven.
We stopped shortly after again for a bathroom stop,...
...to stretch our legs, and to throw rocks.
I set up the camera timer on that old tree limb.
Olders.
My sister always takes pictures of her feet in the different places she goes. I like to do it too. Pretty colored rocks!
Some video of them throwing rocks.
It was at this point we let the children start taking pictures with the three extra cameras we brought along thanks to my dad's idea back in February when they took the kids and their cameras to Custer State Park after the box maze (Ezra didn't get one, much to his chagrin). Noah took this one of Samuel, who unfortunately filled up his camera memory almost at once since we forgot to put a memory card in it. Samuel loved taking pictures.
This was either Noah or Evie's shot I believe. Not bad!
Our first scheduled stop was West Thumb, at the south eastern end of the lake, and the cameras came out promptly. It took me forever to go through everyone's photos. Oof.
Beautifully colored pools to start us on the boardwalk.
Another one over to the left. We were trying to avoid the busload of people who had went to the right.
More pools but not as colorful.
Getting down towards the lake shore.
The Abyss Pool.
I can't even remember what this pool was called but it let off the most steam of any of them there.
It was pretty good sized.
Terry and the kids are looking on from the boardwalk.
The bacterial mats after the big pool.
Next we came to the lakeshore and met that busload of people.
That cone like hole out in the water was called Fishman-something.
Fisherman used to catch their fish in the lake and then cook them in its boiling water!
Samuel took a picture of about every single thing at West Thumb. He did go back through and erase some so he could take more. He particularly liked the one he took of me looking like a goof.
Family shot in front of the water.
Evie and Samuel had their cameras ready.
Look at those clouds coming in! We knew we would need to move on quickly.
This mud pot section was where we were headed next.
We walked on up the boardwalk to where it started going down to the mud pots again. Pretty sky.
Looking for mud pots popping. They weren't very active.
Posing at the end of that section.
This was the pretty pool behind them.
The mud pots...
...this one would bubble a little.
Next we went through the middle section. Directly after I took this shot, Noah dropped his lens cap onto the ground below. We got unnecessarily upset and then had to apologize but sort of ruined his day. Vacations are hard sometimes!
There's the lens cap.
Perhaps it's there to this day.
I love the color of this pool and the color of the sky.
Just a touch of turquoise here with that sky again.
I used to have nightmares as a kid about getting sucked down those vent holes.
This one looked super cool with the sun shining, illuminating it with the dark clouds behind.
Terry had left with Evie because she had to use the bathroom so they missed this little baby elk!
Me and the boys were on our way back to the main board walk and back to the parking lot when we passed a park ranger and he asked us we wanted to see something cool. He pointed out that little baby that someone had just told him about. It was so precious and no one knew it was there! I felt so privileged.
Leaving the West Thumb area but how cool do those first pools look with those dark clouds behind them?!
From there we drove north to Old Faithful. We wanted to see all the stuff surrounding it that we didn't have time for last year. We saw some adult elk on the side of the road.
Now this looked familiar! It actually felt like home a little bit since we'd just been here last year. Aw, found memories.
We had 30-50 minutes until their estimated time of eruption so we just snapped a picture in front and moved on.
We walked off to the right, passed the bench we had sat on last year, and explored beyond.
Thought this Blue Star Spring was gorgeous.
Walking down to we knew not where.
Boiling pool!
Chinese spring with a cute Samuel thrown in. I also like the bank opposite the river with those bacterial mats draining their spring water.
The kids spotted a chipmunk.
We decided we didn't want to continue to the follow the path we were on because it would take us miles away so we turned back to where there had been a fork. We took it and paused on the bridge that would take us to the opposite bank from where we had been.
The clusters of whatever that is on the outside of the geyser was super cool.
Beehive Geyser is in the foreground and Old Faithful is in the background.
We wandered a little past but decided this was a good vantage point to stop and wait for Old Faithful to blow.
We didn't have to wait long.
Unfortunately, it rained on us the entire duration of the eruption!
I was the only one with an actual raincoat (I had borrowed it from the cabin) so I stood in the back and tried to shield everyone from the rain.
We all should've just laid under the bench apparently. 😂
Old Faithful in the rain with children's voices in the background.
From there we continued up the boardwalk even though it was still raining. Everyone else had left.
As we were walking up the back side of the boardwalk, another geyser started to go off!
We were so excited! I believe Terry recorded the entire thing.
Pretty pool next to the geyser.
I stepped back to try to capture the whole thing.
We discovered it was one of three (I think) geysers called the Lion Group Geysers.
It made our day. It was super special because there was absolutely no one else around. They had all left because of the rain.
Happy, wet kids.
Here's part of the eruption.
Zooming in.
I posted this one to Instagram.
This was the Aurum Geyser or it was next to it...
The Doublet Pool.
Bacterial mats on our way back to the beginning.
Pump Geyser.
I might have got the name wrong on this video...
Running down the boardwalk since we were done. It had finally stopped raining now.
Heading back across the bridge.
Stopping in the familiar Lodge bathroom. We've spent a lot of time waiting in that hallway...
We drove out the West Entrance and came into some glorious sun. It was perfect outside. If we weren't so hungry and tired we could've stopped and explored. It was beautiful. We saw these buffalo and their babies on our way out. The following day they caused a huge problem with traffic since everyone slowed down to see them and we were stopped for miles. 😡
We exited the park, but it was just as beautiful on the other side in Idaho.
More mountains and water and clouds though it was a challenge to get a shot without power lines in it. 😝
When we were only about 30 minutes from our airbnb, we got caught in this massive storm. At first it was only really loud and heavy rain...
But it quickly turned to tons and tons of hail. Thankfully it was only pea sized.
There was a van in the ditch on the opposite side of the road!
Our windshield wipers were working so hard that the hail was deposited into a nice little pile between the blades.
Here's some hail footage, but this wasn't even the heaviest part.
Mercifully, we finally got ahead of the storm and arrived at our airbnb in St. Anthony, ID. It had taken a lot longer than it was supposed to. Oofduh! But our place was beautiful!
Man oh man, after our first difficult night at the cabin with all the water trouble, all the rain pouring on us and our van, and the long hours of driving, we were so grateful to be somewhere warm and clean and spacious. We could have happily spent days there.
I warmed up chimichangas for dinner in this kitchen. They were the same thing we ate for our entire trip in Zion last summer. Ha ha. They tasted better after taking a year off. 😂
A wonderfully clean and bright and working bathroom never looked so good.
Terry played Battleship with the littles.
Terry is pretty sure Samuel won. Noah and Evie did some reading, their favorite pastime, and then we all went to bed. It was a good day and we needed our rest to do it all again the next day. We were headed back to Yellowstone for day two.
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