Touristy stuff

Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean. - John Muir

Nature always seems to refresh Craig, the kids and I. We love getting out and taking a hike in the quiet sounds of nature, in the sun or a fresh stream, lake or river. Part of what we were mostly excited about on this trip was how much we would be out doors and the amazing beauty that God created and thankfully, much of our trip has been that. We have seen some amazing things and some beautiful states. Some what we expected and others not at all what we expected. But more on that later.

Going into Yellowstone we knew it would be crowded being one of the most visited National Parks. We thought we could get away from the crowds by doing off the beaten path hikes. We were able to do that, but to see the best thermal features and waterfalls, we needed to do the touristy stuff. There is SO much driving in Yellowstone! We drove along and pulled off at a lot of stops to see some of the stuff.

Our fist stop was a little walk down to the Yellowstone River. It wasn't a major attraction, so it was quite nice. Craig had to carve up little C's walking stick first.

This was a very relaxing little stop that we could just play around at. There were fish on the sides of the river and millions of huge moths and other flying bugs flying by. There were these black bugs that looked like long skinny black flying cockroaches! We could catch a bug and throw at the fish, then watch it pop up and eat it.

This was pretty cool! We stopped at one of the hot spots and saw some more mud pots (not much different then our little secluded hike earlier in the week) but at the end of this one was the Dragon's Breath. The picture just doesn't do it justice! The water was boiling way back in the cave and it would force steam out. The sound was incredible. It sound's just like what you would imagine huge real dragon breathing to sound like.

We had lunch at a cafe near Old Faithful...

The kids got sworn in...

And we saw Old Faithful.

Remember Lone Star? Lone Star was amazing! Old Faithful was like Disneyland. There were so many people! After we saw it, we left Yellowstone a day early. We were so worn out by so many people everywhere that we had to leave. Instead of cleansing the spirit, it was draining the spirit. I'm glad that so many people can see it, but I would rather see the back country and the not so popular parts of Yellowstone. I am so glad we did that first!

Now onto Northern Montana! I can't wait to see the whole west side of Montana.

Mammoth Hot Springs

Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you. - John Muir

We went up to the northern part of Yellowstone to meet our friends that we are staying at the cabin with. I was very excited to see it, thinking we could go in hot springs.

It was quite beautiful, but we couldn't go in them. We wouldn't have wanted to anyway when we got there. It was so hot. It felt and looked like we were in the desert.

This is a dormant geyser cone.

Doesn't she look scared?

Now do they look scared? It's a real grizzly! Aren't they brave?

The hot springs really were amazing to look at, but with 100 other people on the board walk it kind of took away from the nature feel. On the way back we decided to do a little hike, just about 3 miles round trip with a huge elevation change going down to the bridge. It was also very hot and dry. We thought it would be easy because it was only 1.5 miles there. We also thought the bridge would be so cool.

The bridge was cool, but not what I was expecting, I thought it was going to be a swinging bridge. I was also pretty amazing being so high above the river.

Of course, here is the monkey. If he see's something to climb, he must climb it.

Here is all the kids, so cute & happy to be hiking together. We were supposed to have only 4, but that little brown one in the background decided to join us on the walk.

After the hike that was pretty difficult on the way up, we saw grizzly on the way back to camp. We have seen so much wild life! I love it. So far, tons of bison (of course), elk, deer, black bears and grizzly's. This was our second grizzly. We have also seen tons of little wild life, but that's not as exciting when we have squirrels running around our backyard at home.

We can't wait to see more wild life! We are still waiting for mountain goats and big horn sheep.

Natural Bridge and Lone Star Geyser

We have been so busy trying to see everything that the kids have been going to bed late every night and even though we’ve been sleeping in, their lack of sleep has been catching up. Today, Craig decided we should ride bikes to cover more ground. Great choice! Even that was hard on L, but she did it and she very was happy she did! 

First we road to Natural Bridge. I wasn’t expecting much and hadn’t seen any pictures, but yet another great choice by Craig. 

Craig and L decided to wait with our bikes while little C and I hiked up around it. That is little C and me up under the bridge.

We could see them from the top too!

It's still the first ride of the day, so she's not to tired yet. She asked us first thing if we were going to hike because she didn't want to take another hike.

Daddy and L taking selfie's at the bottom of the bridge.

After the bridge, we stopped at a tourist stop of a thermal area. I wasn’t excited about that either because the crowds were wearing on me. But, once again, Craig made the right choice. It was amazing! We did get there at the same time as a tour bus, so we walked the path in the opposite direction as the people on the bus and missed most of the crowd. 

The water was so amazingly clear, it looked like a piece of perfectly clean blue glass covering a hole. The blue was so intense and the water so clear, these pictures just don’t do it justice.

If there are people around, I will ask them to take a picture of us. I'm getting good at it!

The different colors mean a different color. Blue is the hottest at around 200 degrees fahrenheit, then white, yellow, orange and last brown. The blue is so clear because it is so hot that nothing can live in it. It is blue because it is reflecting the color of the sky.

After the boardwalk, L had a little nap in the car on our way to Lone Star Gyser. We followed this creek all the way.

Luckily, this water wasn't too acidic to go in.

L loves taking pictures. She stayed out of the water so she could take a bunch.

We made it! Can you tell how it gets it’s name?

This geyser is said to be more spectacular then Old Faithful, but it goes off about every 3 hours. We heard it went off at 3:30 and 4. We weren't sure which was the right time because the thing about this one is it fakes you out, it will have one or 2 minor eruptions and then a major one. We new we had to be there by 6 incase the 3:30 was a major eruption. We got there at 5:45 and waited for it.

We waited some more…

Oh! Here it is!

Nope.

Back to waiting…

Lone Star tricked us twice! There were 2 minor eruptions, one at 6:30, then another one a bit later. We heard how spectacular it was so we thought that couldn't be it. There was a couple people that lived there that said, they have seen it better then that. But they waited for about 20 more minutes and decided to leave. We waited another 10 minutes and...

Here it is! Finally at 7:30, 1/2 hour late.

Isn’t it cool how C & L can make it come out of their mouths?

This geyser was so spectacular! It went on for 30 minutes. We were able to see it so close up that the water was spraying down on us.

And it made a beautiful rainbow completely across the sky.

Since it was so late, the sun was much lower. Craig noticed on the other side how awesome it looked with the sun behind the water.

I am so glad we waited! It was totally worth it. Especially to see the sun going down behind it. Actually at 7:30, we still had 2 hours till sunset, but it was low enough to give us this magnificent view.

As we were riding back to the car, L said, “Mommy, I’m glad we did that. It was so cool! Now I’m really a Geyser Girl.” (The 6-7 year olds are of the Jr. Ranger Program are Geyser kids and the 8-10 year olds are Grizzly cubs.)

We did end up seeing Old Faithful with about 1,000 other people and from a bit further away. Old Faithful shot up probably a little higher but only lasted about 5 minutes. Lone Star actually shot up for 20 - 25 minutes then pure steam continued to shoot out of the top of the Geyser Cone for another 10 minutes. It really was amazing, I think this was our favorite part of Yellowstone.

Yellowstone Sinks!

Yes, it stinks! We had no idea it would stink. When we were driving in that first day, we thought little C or L kept farting. Nope, we realized, it was just Yellowstone. But we will get to more of that later.

For our first hike we decided to see Upper and Lower Falls. I love water falls and found a nice 5 mile loops that had some lakes toward the end of the hike that we could cool off in.

The water fall was beautiful! It was crazy how much water was rushing over in one spot. We found rainbows near every waterfall.

Selfies are the best way to get a picture of all of us. We look happy, yep, we are not very far into the hike.

C is starting to get hot and wanting to go into that water.

The bummer about the hike was each time we came to a beautiful look out or another waterfall (there were 3), there was a huge crowd of people. We were taking a hike to spots where there were parking lots. We were doing all the work that people could just drive up to. That was really a big disappointment when we thought we were going to have a nice peaceful hike!

After we passed the 2nd waterfall, we came upon this elk. We waited a while and then he just kept creeping toward us.

We had to walk off the trail to let the elk pass. He was so cute and had velvety antlers.

Back to the crowds looking at the beauty.

The waterfalls were amazing, but the crowds took a little out of the nature for me. Really, there were SO many people!

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Yes, it sounds funny, but that's that they call it, "of the Yellowstone." The colors are amazing.

Finally, we passed all the people and the parking lots. We came to an area that looked like a dessert and heard some boiling sounds. Then we smelled it! The stink. 

The were so cool, but so stinky! Sulfur.

Besides the stink, it was getting really hot! Hiking in about 85 degrees with no shade. We couldn't wait to get to the lake to take a dip.

And then we reach the first lake! What a bummer. It was cool, completely filled with lily pads, that's probably why it was called "Lily Pad Lake." Maybe we should read the hike descriptions a little better next time.

Finally, a secluded, beautiful, clear lake.

 It was called Clear Lake and it was true to it's name. We could see the bottom all the way through.

Of course we went in...

Only to later find out that the lake was acidic and we shouldn't go in. Luckily, our skin didn't peal off or anything. 

The rest of the hike was very peaceful.

We saw these big guys along the trail. Again we had to go off trail to avoid them.

Happy Trails...