Yellowstone!

Last year, Shelley invited our family to go on vacation with them in Wyoming over the 4th of July! They had bought a property in Wyoming with our cousin, Jonathan, that they rent out and it was their turn to have it for the 4th. We would do a few days in Yellowstone together and then spend a few days in Jackson Hole! I was so excited! Yellowstone has been on my bucket list for a long time. 

Randomly, the week of our trip, my friend Brinn reached out on Marco to catch up and we realized we'd both be in Wyoming at the same place this week! What are the odds? It was so fun running into her daughter, Brooklyn, at the airport on our way up! She's living in southern Arizona right now with her new husband! 

We flew out of Mesa Gateway airport which was so convenient. Saturday, June 28 around 6pm. 

These girls were all giggles and anxiety taking off haha. 

We no sooner landed in Idaho Falls and got our rental cars than we were following Casey into the Arctic Circle drive through for some late night ice cream! Then we hit up the last Super Walmart we'd see in awhile to load up on groceries. Our rental cars were literally bursting with luggage and grocery bags. And the boys found some very important, matching And1 shorts and sunglasses they desperately needed. 

Gathering for family prayers each night was quite the circus! It makes me happy to see how much these kids love being together. 

Sunday morning we got everyone up early-ish to get to the western gate of Yellowstone before 9am, when it supposedly gets really busy. It worked! There was hardly a line of cars. We stuck together over the next 3 days, covering just about every inch of Yellowstone. Either we would have the 4 oldest boys in our car and the 4 younger kids would go in the Goodmans car or vice versa. It worked out great and helped keep the sibling fighting to a minimum. Except for a couple times when Olive was at Tanner's throat. Ugh. That girl can be vicious. Anyway. I sort of took the reigns on where we went in Yellowstone. I had done some research and asked lots of people what they recommended. I downloaded the Shaka Guide app and paid $20 for the Yellowstone guide. It was great! It was like having a tour guide in your car. The narrator is synced up to you GPS and knows exactly where you are in the park and talks to you about all the options for stopping and what all the landmarks are. There is pleasant music that plays in between her narrations and you get to hear about all sorts of history and trivia about the park. It was great! Our first day was spent exploring west Yellowstone. I was awestruck the moment we started driving. Wow. The most gorgeous landscapes and views. We stopped along the Madison river first. 

We took a little detour trying to find some hot springs but were unsuccessful. Found a pretty waterfall though!

Then we drove on to see our first Fountain Paint Pots! I had no idea that the entire park is on top of a volcano. Hence, why all the geothermal action. There was a half mile boardwalk trail to walk along. The steaming geysers and bubbling, cement looking marshes were interesting. It all smells a bit like rotten eggs because of the sulfur but it wasn't as strong as I was expecting. 

Plenty of "I'm going to throw you into the steaming lava" wrestling happened. Not to worry, it wasn't as hot as it seemed... at least in this area. 

On to the Midway Geyser Basin! It also had a short boardwalk to wander through. This is where we could see the 370' Grand Prismatic Spring that was quite impressive. For each of these stops we had a bit of a wait to get into the parking lots, find a spot and battle the many groups of people. Yellowstone is certainly a popular place in the summer! Apparently this stop is where a buffalo wandered in a few days ago and was boiled alive. I guess there was a video on Youtube. Sad. Must have been a very confused buffalo. 

Olive was always my willing model!

Here is where went awry. After the board walk, we drove a little farther up to a different vantage point to see the The Midway Geyser. This was close to a mile from the parking lot to see it. Very pretty. Well then, the Shaka Guide recommended a hike to Fairy Falls that was supposedly on 0.6 miles one way. We figured, why not?! Seemed like a great place to have a picnic lunch. So Casey hauled a big, insulated bag full of ice packs and lunch and we started walking. And walking. And walking. What in the heck? This was taking forever. And Tanner started crying and complaining almost from the get go. Multiple people had to stop and use the natural facilities. We were too far in to turn back so we kept going. FINALLY we arrived at the water fall. The kids were OVER IT. Luckily, Theodore the squirrel was a bit of a reward. They loved feeding him. We feasted on lunch and grudgingly headed back. Well, after all that walking, the kids would have nothing of "hiking" anymore. Especially Tanner. 

Also, why am I a literal giant??

That's better.

Our final stop of the day was Old Faithful!! Cue the Dennis the Menace scene. 

Old Faithful is one of the main villages that Yellowstone has. Meaning, its such a popular stop that they created a whole little "town" around it. There's a huge visitor center, restaurants, shopping, lodge, etc. This area is known for their huckleberry so I got some huckleberry ice cream for everyone to try. 

Old Faithful goes off every hour and a half or so and lasts about 10ish minutes. We had timed it pretty good so that we only had to wait a little bit. But staring at a mound of dirt, waiting for it to erupt, makes time go very veryyyy slow. Plus we were in a timely crunch because church started at 4:30pm at the lodge nearby and it erupted right at 4:30. When it finally did go off, I hate to say, but for me it was a bit anticlimactic. I mean, I've heard about this thing my whole life. I guess I thought it would be bigger. 

After we had our fill of Faithful, we hustled over to the lodge and found the members meeting in a gym type area in back. They were in the middle of the sacrament when we arrived so luckily, we were able to partake. They had two speakers afterward, a closing song and prayer and that was a wrap! Apparently this "ward" isn't really a ward, but the church calls a local couple to have sacrament meeting inside Yellowstone each Sunday of the busy, summer months. We were grateful! It allowed us to still maximize our trip on Sunday and go to church!

We drove back to the west entrance to leave after that and get dinner at a place Brinn recommended. Everyone was tired, as you can see, and very hungry! Buffalo Bar was  win.

Tanner and Della were a cute couple and generally each ordered something they both liked and then did halfsies. 

The kids all slept downstairs at the Airbnb and 4 teenage boys is a raucous time, I tell you. 

Day 2 

We entered again through the west, but then headed north and saw Gibbon Falls, which were really beautiful.

Then we stopped at a small place on the side of the road called Beryl Spring. Shelley had to let out some gas. ;)

Then we went on a short hike, *ahem walk* around the Artist's Paint Pots. This is about when the murmuring and complaining really picked up speed. "ANOTHER geyser?" "Why do we have to do this?" "I don't want to go on any more hikes." "Oh wow, look, another steaming hole in the ground." "This is lame." 

For the record *I* thought this stop was cool! I've never seen anything like these bubbly, hydrothermal pots. The colors are amazing and the views were beautiful.

Like this geyser basin, for example. The aqua blue was unreal.

We were going to find a picnic spot after this, but the Goodmans pulled over to check out some buffalo across a lake they spotted. Little did we know how many buffalo we'd get to see the next day!

Our lunches were magnificent. Sandwiches on Grandma Sycamore bread, fresh fruit and veggies and hot honey hummus. All sorts of chips and snacks. This picnic area was right next to a stream so you know kids were getting in and playing!

On to the Norris Geyser Basin! It is Yellowstone's hottest and oldest geyser basin. It had some longer boardwalks but we only forced the kids to go along the shorter one. 

After that the Shaka Guide said to pull over for the "Roaring Mountain" but you couldn't hear anything. Boo. Then we drove by the Obsidian Cliff, but the exhibit was a just a dinky sign. 

Next, we went to Mammoth and drove along the Upper Terrace. This was supposed to be a major stop but I'd say it was a bit underwhelming. It has a village like Old Faithful, but not nearly as big or crowded. We parked and started to walk up the trail, but the kids revolted. I gave up and said that whoever wanted to stay, could stay. So all the boys stayed and hung out under some trees in the parking lot and the girls and adults went a hikin'! 

The boys were rewarded for their laziness with some wildlife wandering up close to them!

And that was a wrap for day 2. We headed back to town and ordered pizza from Pizza Petes. It was a good amount of driving but I never tired of the views!

Us adults snuck away for some ice cream, as adults do.

We had been trying to get over to see the Kings, but it wasn't working out. We finally got our chance on our last day. Travis and I woke up a little earlier and drove the few miles to their campsite. Michael's grandparents have owned property and land over here in Montana for decades. Michael spent his summers here growing up and him and all his 7 siblings meet up for a week or two every summer now. We've always heard about this place and it was so fun getting to see it! It's absolutely stunning land. Very different from the camping I grew up doing. There are a couple permanent houses, but they also set up these heavy duty canvas tents and the teenagers live here all summer while working at rodeos and ranches. It was fun getting to meet Michael's siblings and see them for a bit. Wish we could have stayed longer!

Goodbye, Airbnb! You were very expensive for your grandma- like interior, but it was cozy and fit us well. Just know that if you want to stay near Yellowstone, you'll be paying top dollar! This place ended up being $1,000 a night!!! And we really couldn't find anything any cheaper.

It was a puzzler to decide how to spend our last day, but after some recommendations from workers inside Yellowstone, we decided to drive all the way to Lamar Valley. That's on the east side of the park. That was supposed to be our sure bet on seeing tons of buffalo and more wildlife. The boys were jonesing for animals. So we started at the west entrance and drove east to Canyon Village then north to Tower Roosevelt and then east again through Lamar Valley til we were nearly to the east entrance of the park. It was GORGEOUS driving!! Different than the west side we'd been seeing the past two days. And sure enough, once we got to Lamar Valley THERE WERE THE BUFFALO!! Hoards and hoards of them. They were basically in a long line, traveling across the fields. We pulled over and the boys started running towards them. I get it, and allowed it, until they kept getting closer and closer. We were told over and over again to stay so many yards away from the wildlife. They are WILD after all and there are full websites of dumb tourists getting injured or killed because they got too close. I got upset after awhile and made Travis go bring them back. Olive and Tanner had ventured closer too and, my gosh, I didn't need my whole family gored and maimed. The boys thought the whole situation was epic and it completely made the trip for them. Thank heavens no one got hurt. 

The boys had fun with the binoculars.

We found a great spot for lunch after that. Full enjoyed my peanut butter and crystallized honey sandwiches every day. 

Casey was going 20mph over in a construction zone and got pulled over. The kids equally thought it was hilarious and were terrified for him at the same time. The 20 year old ranger had mercy and only gave him a warning.

We stopped at Tower Falls and it was pretty. You aren't super close, but still a cool stop.

Our last stop is known as The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. There is an Upper Falls and Lower Falls and I can't remember which one we stopped at. If I could do anything differently, I would have made sure we explored all of this site because it was very impressive. We had to walk down a switch back trail farther than we expected to get to the edge of the falls but it was 100% worth it. Absolutely stunning views! Highly recommend this stop. 

Time to say goodbye to Yellowstone. I LOVED this experience!! 10 out of 10 for me. I wouldn't necessarily say I'm a nature girl but I don't know how you couldn't love Yellowstone. I'd come back in a heartbeat. Maybe not with my kids though. ;) We drove south to exit out of the south entrance. We really covered all the places! My jaw was hanging open the entire time. I couldn't get over how absolutely breath taking it was. I kept taking pictures, but none really did the views justice. 

We stopped for dinner in Jackson Hole at Liberty Burger. It was fun to walk through the downtown area and take the iconic picture under the antler arch! Learned there are actually four arches in the same town square. It's certainly a posh, beautiful cowboy town! We got some ice cream then kept driving for another hour south to get to the Goodman's house.