We planned to leave Thursday afternoon and drive as far as Idaho Falls that night. I made the necessary arrangements to excuse the girls from school on Friday. The car was loaded, the girls were belted, I turned the car key...and nothing...the battery was dead. The girls suddenly were all in tears thinking that we would not be able to go to Yellowstone. (I had talked it up soooo much to help them get excited for the trip.) I quickly charged the car battery, hopped back in...and we were off! We met Dave and Rhonda Ebel in Draper and Rhonda hopped into my car to help drive. She took us all the way to Idaho. It was nice to have an extra adult in the car with me. It was late by the time we got to the hotel, but they staff let us go for a quick swim before settling down to bed.
Friday morning came way too early. We got breakfast on the way and started our voyage to Yellowstone. Rhonda sat in the passenger seat this time, while I drove. (Dave was in their car with his dad. So, he wasn't a lone driver.) Some of the families met us at the hotel the night before, and others would meet us in Yellowstone. The trip was long, but iPods, movies, the Nintendo DS's, and kid swaps made it bearable for all.
Rockin' out with Buddies - (minus two of my own)
Norris Campground
(Notice our tiny little red tent.)
We arrived late afternoon to the campsite. It was challenging finding a spot for 5 tents together, as it was a first-come first-served basis, but we figured it out. We had been told by the ranger, that a bison had come down into that campsite just the week before. He didn't cause too much trouble other than almost running down a little girl. Oh, thanks! Apparently, the bison caught eyes with a little girl several yards away. She froze in fear, naturally, and did not try to run. The bison charged at her, stopping literally a few feet from her before changing directions. Talk about scary. We were all nervous about the bison from then on. Luckily, we did not get such a close encounter in our campsite. However, bison is pretty much all we saw the whole trip. We saw very few elk, and even those were way up in the more forested areas up off the road. One gorgeous 5 point wandered by the stream in our camp the first night, but that was all we saw of him. I managed to take a few shots of him. No moose. No bear. Oh, we did see a lot of black ravens. One was a menace to our camp, puncturing a potato chip bag that had been briefly left on the table during lunch-time clean up, and stealing a cookie that one of my girls was on her way back to claim on the picnic table. That was kind of funny to watch. Makenna was just feet away from reaching for the cookie, when the scavenger bird grabbed it and flew off, almost flipping her in the face with his wings.
The Visiting Elk
Mean Ol' Raven
Some of my favorite spots in Yellowstone are the bold blue/green hot pots. The color of the Earth in those pools is gorgeous. I absolutely love "The Grand Canyon" of Yellowstone with the Upper Falls and Lower Falls alike. The hike down (and up) "Uncle Tom's Trail" with seemingly endless stairs is an experience (that you don't recover from quickly) but well worth every breathless side ache. "Artist Point" is my all time favorite spot where visitors can stand at the far end of the canyon and look down to the winding river, across to the falls, and up at the blue sky.
One of the hot pots along the trail in the Norris Geyser Basin.
(It matches Dakota's shirt.)
A beautiful scene along the Virgina Cascade Road.
There is a gorgeous waterfall just down from this.
Views along the North Rim Trail.
Lower Falls as seen from the North Rim Trail
Lower Falls as seen from the bottom of Uncle Tom's Trail
A view of Yellowstone River from the bottom of Uncle Tom's Trail
Artist Point in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
A View from Above
We had rain two out the the three nights/days we were there. It was not the best weather. Some days, the rain came out of nowhere. One of the days, we were picnicking off the side of the road by a stream. The kids were having fun wading in the icy water, when out of nowhere came the crashing of thunder and lightning. We had to scramble very quickly to get the kids out of the water, gather their shoes and socks, grab the food, and run like the dickens to the safety of the cars. The girls were all screaming and we were absolutely soaked by the time we got in the car. The muddy feet were soon all over the car making a real mess of things. What more can you do but laugh?
Brooklyn
Makenna
Dakota
Oakley
This was taken just seconds before the rain came down.
It was very cold the first night, not so cold the second night, and cold again the third night. I mentioned earlier our days were filled with fun activities. Our nights...a different story. The first night camping proved to be not so cozy in our "too small for us" tent. I had borrowed Holly's (my sister) 4-man tent thinking that just maybe on adult and 4 small children could fit into it. I couldn't have been more wrong. By the time our air mattresses made it in, there was no room for all of our gear, and we were already busting at the seams. We made it work, or so we thought, and then we tried to sleep in it. My mattress pad lost it's air half way through the night, so I had to climb onto one of the girls' pads. Brooklyn was right on the edge of the tent and froze all night, only to discover that the rain fly was not covering the netted part of the tent's window sufficiently, allowing the cool night air to freeze her backside. We were squished, cold, and tired. The next day, it rained into the evening. I was nervous to even check the tent's "innards" for fear of the wet mess I'd find. Sure enough, I should've checked earlier; the inside of the tent, along that same open side Brooklyn was on was drenched. The air blower, flashlights, gloves, and hats were floating in about 3 inches of water that had accumulated in that lower corner of the tent. Brooklyn's mattress pad, sleeping bag, and blanket were wet. I spent some time in the bathroom in front of the hand dryer trying to "blow dry" the stuff before bed time. I missed campfire time complete with S'mores and such. Bummer. I was very grumpy and so were my children. Once Brooklyn's belongings were dry, we moved her over to Rhonda and Dave's tent so that our tent wouldn't be so stretched out. From then on, we stayed dry (at least, inside the tent). I realized quickly how difficult "Yellowstone" camping is when all the precautions for bear and other critters are taken. No food can be left out, even for a few minutes. Tables have to be Cloroxed down. Camp surroundings have to be impeccably free from food/odor remnants. No lotions, soaps, etc. with odors can be in your tent or on your person at night. Clothes that were eaten in must be changed out of and stored in the car so as to not attract bears into your tent at night. A lot of work!!!!...on top of being a mom of 4 rugrats running around a camp that had just had bison in it the week before. We also kept tripping over the tree stumps that were sporadically left throughout the site. I'm surprised more of us didn't kill ourselves on those things. Oakley, did however, suffer a big "owie" the last night evening we were there. She got going too fast along the blacktopped road curving through the site and she tripped, banging her head on the pavement, and skidding across it. OUCH! The big goose egg was quite a looker. Luckily, Robbie & Tami Asbell were with us, both medically/emergency trained professionals. Robbie was so good with her. He held her, watched her, put ice on her head, and checked her out thoroughly before letting her out of his reach. Thanks, guys!
Hurts so bad!
Seeing bison got old. We saw sooooo many herds of them. In fact, we got stuck in "buffalo jams" many times on this trip, having to wait forever sometimes for them to clear out of the road. It was fun the first couple of times, but soon, it got frustrating. The girls did enjoy seeing the steaming hot pots, although they did not particularly enjoy the sulfuric fumes coming out of them. Old Faithful was as beautiful and as faithful as ever. Too faithful. We pulled into the parking lot just in time to see the top of it's sprays above the tree line. We had literally missed it by a minute. We had to wait a good 90 minutes (give or take a few) to see it go off again.
Old Faithful
I think we got tired of eating cold cut and peanut butter sandwiches out of a cooler, tailgate style by the third day. But, we were always thankful for the nourishment and the fact that it was right there with us. We didn't want to take the time to go all the way back to camp just to eat, especially on those days that we had traveled to the other side.
Even though it was very tough to go camping without Darin's assistance, I am really glad we did it. We made new friends, saw some beautiful creations, made memories, and didn't shower for four days. Pew! I hope Darin can go with us next time. (His back should be in better shape next year.) Thanks to all the families and friends we went with. We had some good laughs. We were all glad to finally get back home after the long trip back. Home was a good place to be after being away for 4 1/2 days. Below are miscellaneous pics from our adventure in Yellowstone.
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