Family Driving Vacation- Day 17: Yellowstone National Park, WY

Mason headed out on a late night wilderness walk (and to get some ice from the main lodge) while I’m going to catch up on some blogging, and hopefully the little ones fall asleep.  Today I was feeling tired, because I just couldn’t really fall asleep last night, and then I got hooked in to reading a book that I have on my kindle app (one of the only phone features that works out here in the land of no service).  Anyways, for some reason Mason and I were up early and Woodrow joined us around 7:45am.  Theo, was snoozing away.  Mason took Woodrow out to run around near our cabin while Theo and I rested.  Eventually I got up and started getting everything packed for the day while Theo continued to snore away.  (Haha, Theo just said from his bed “are you happy” so I looked over and said, “Yes, I love you.  Goodnight.”  He straight-faced looked back and said, “I was talking to Robert.”  Oy! ) Anyways, I ended up waking Theo up around 9:00 because we wanted to get a good breakfast this morning since there aren’t a ton of food options in Yellowstone and our room doesn’t have a fridge, so we had to get rid of our sandwich meat and things we brought with us. 

We loaded up the car, only to find a dead battery.  Crap!  Very fortunately, there was a couple getting ready to head out for the day, and they let us get a jump from them.  Yay for putting jumper cables in our car!  Mason thought that the car had a rough time starting yesterday, although I hadn’t noticed, so we went to a service station in the park (5 minutes from our motel) and got a new battery.  Our car is 7 years old and this was the first replacement-apparently that’s good for a car battery.  Luckily this only took about 10-15 minutes for them to replace, but hopefully it’s saved us some major headaches down the road.  We rushed back to the Lake Yellowstone Lodge right near our cabins and they were still serving a breakfast buffet until 10:30.  We were really glad that something was still open, because most of the breakfast spots we found close at 10.  The breakfast was very tasty and we were on our way by 10:40. 

The shortest route from our lodging to Old Faithful closed the very beginning of September for road work, so we decided that we’d go on that adventure today.  It was an hour and a half drive.  Mason offered to drive because he’d, “rather drive than play flight attendant.”  Guess the boys are a bit needy sometimes-thank you books on tape (from my childhood) and a kid’s song cd.  Oh yeah, and the ability to fade the music to the backseat.  The drive was very pretty, Woodrow and I both took naps in the car.  I was still feeling sluggish.  Although the ride was long it was very scenic, AND we got to see lots of Buffalo!  We decided to go straight to Old Faithful and we’d see the sights on the drive back.  We arrived around noon as Old Faithful was going off, but we parked, walked around a bit and then waited for the next time it would go off.  Apparently it’s pretty regular and goes off every 60-70 minutes or so.  While we were sitting and waiting at Old Faithful a Ranger came by to give a short announcement and then pointed out that a Geyser somewhat near us was about to also go off.  He said it was the largest, most predictable Geyser and was actually larger than Old Faithful.  It’s called the Grand Geyser and goes off every 6.5 hours or so.  We could see it from our seats and it was pretty amazing!  Old Faithful was pretty cool to see and I’m really glad that we saw it, but I guess I was expecting more…I don’t know…it’s a pretty cool phenomenon. 

I could tell that Mason probably wanted to walk around some more and see the surrounding Geysers, but I think he could tell that I was not really in the mood, so we went back to the car and drove around to some other sites.  We took the Firepot Lake Drive and got out to see some bubbling geysers.  Part of me just wants to know how hot the water really is.  It’s a little intimidating because all the signs warn of boiling hot water, and a thin crust of earth, so you have to stay on the boardwalks and paths they have…but I just want to know…

Theo has a great time getting out at these spots.  He is pretty sick of being in the car, so he runs and does his “wiggly walk” that he made up.  Sometimes he runs and does his wiggly walk with his arms out and he looks pretty goofy and gets some funny looks, but he’s pretty cute, and as long as he’s not crying or whining, it’s all good!  Woodrow is equally happy to get out and explore.  I had to stay right by him to make sure he didn’t fall off the boardwalks or go diving for the water.  Woodrow is a water baby and when he sees those pools of water he gets this look in his eye like he’s just going to go for it. 

Another spot we stopped along the way was Gibbon Falls.  It was so stunning!  We didn’t stay too long, but it was such an amazing view.  The water can just move so powerfully.  We continued our drive and since it was about 3pm at this time we decided to venture to the Northeast part of the park.  Our guides told us that pretty much any type of animal would be towards the Lamar Valley, including black bears and grizzly bears, so we drove a few hours checking out that part of the park.  We stopped at a couple of pull-outs just to take photos, and I got to drive on another twisty, steep, I’m-going-to-fall-off-this-mountain road-yay!  We saw soooooooooo many buffalo.  It was amazing.  I’m so glad they’re all here and have this land to road free! 

We drove just outside the gate of the park to find some dinner.  In our hopes to find something a little different and cheaper, we found a little Bistro café to eat at.  Definitely bistro prices with café portions, but it did the trick.  The drive back through the park was stunning!  The sun was setting and it was just breathtaking.  When I wasn’t freaking out that Mason was going to drive me off a cliff, I tried to snap a few photos and enjoy the beauty within our county.  I know many people say they want to visit foreign destinations, which I do as well, but I hope people explore America too.  Despite some of the frustrations and stresses of this trip, I’m so glad we’re taking in and enjoying the country-it’s spectacular!

The trip back to our hotel brought us by more buffalo herds, some crossing the road right in front of us, Elk, and pronghorn deer.  No bears for Mason.  One of the rangers told him they are starting to head high in to the mountains to fatten up for winter.  Maybe he’ll get to see one tomorrow-I know he’ll be looking.