YELLOWSTONE

In July , we went to Yellowstone National Park.

We stayed one night at the Old Faithful Inn.

Waiting for the eruption of Old Faithful Geyser.

Hiking around Old Faithful Geyser Basin the first night.

Left to Right:  Justin, Deanne, Erika (front), Megan, Cassie, Garrett

The rest of the time, we stayed in a cabin. 

There was a hot tub and a pool...

...and a stocked fishing pond that Garrett loved.

The next day, we toured West Thumb geyser basin.

It was a chilly morning.  We only had light jackets and were freezing.

But there were very few people there.

Who wants to go for a swim to warm up?

We then hiked down to Duck lake. 

We didn't see a soul the whole way there and back.

Then we hiked Pelican Creek Trail, a trail that

led down to the beach of Yellowstone lake.

Megan writing in the sand.

Garrett and Shane looking for animal tracks.

Yellowstone Lake

At Mud Volcano area, there was a buffalo sitting off to the side of the trail,

the first one we saw up close.  He was attracting quite the crowd too.

At Artist Point, we finally found a yellow stone for Deanne.

Leading up to the trip, Deanne kept asking what was at Yellowstone and

and some wise crack kept telling her we were gona see lots of yellow rocks.

At the top of Artist Point

Justin, Garrett, Deanne, Erika

The view of The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone from Artist Point.

Next we took Uncle Tom's Cabin trail to view the bottom of the falls.

It was some 300 stair descent to the bottom of the falls.

Going down was the easy part...

We made it to the bottom, but

we were hoping there was an elevator back up...

We finally made it back up to the top with many rest stops along the way. 

 (we couldn't find the elevator)

Deanne and Shane were the first ones to make it up.

Why is everybody sitting down?  Stand up and smile!

The following day, we stopped at Mammoth Terraces.

It was a hot day and very crowded.

but such cool formations

We never run out of entertainment when Garrett's around.

we all thought this looked like the face of a monster

Justin's imitation...not bad, huh?

Norris Geyser Basin

The kids couldn't resist touching the water even though the

signs said not to touch because it was dangerously hot.

But, no worries, no one lost a finger...

...or a life

Go ahead Garrett, jump in!

stopping periodically to count the children

and make sure no one fell in...

yep, we got all 6

Deanne showing off the color of her eyes.

On the hike to Ice Lake, we saw several bears.

This is one of them.

they kept jumping out and growling at us, but

they were so cute, we let them be.

Looking for critters at Ice Lake

Midway Geyser Basin

Deanne and Erika by Grand Prismatic Springs

Grand Prismatic Springs- my favorite

We hiked to Mystic Falls and climbed around the rocks

Mystic Falls without any people in the way

Last stop was Firehole Canyon Drive Swimming hole.

It was pretty cold water, but they were up to their necks swimming around in no time.

On the way back home, we stopped at Mesa Falls