Family Driving Vacation-Day 19: Yellowstona National Park, WY

This was our last full day in Yellowstone.  Honestly, I think we could have condensed and had one less day here, but it was okay, because this was a lower key day even though it had quite a bit of driving.  When we got up we decided to head a little bit South of our hotel and check out a trail to a natural bridge.  The trail was 2.3 miles long, but wasn’t too hilly (until the end).  I’ll admit that by this day Mason was probably ready to go on some bigger hikes and I was ready to be home in my bed.  When we pulled in to the parking lot there were several people with cameras standing next to a field.  Of course bear radar went off, but it turned out there was an owl diving in and out of the grass.  It was a cool early morning wildlife sighting. 

We started our trek into the forest along the trail and Mason spotted the owl sitting on a tree branch.  By this time it was almost 11:30, so I was pretty surprised that an owl (and his friend) were ot in the daytime.  They were huge, but a beautiful grey color.  Mason and Woodrow took off a bit ahead of us, chasing the shade, while Theo and I were given the chance to have some deep thoughts about trains, his birthday, how at Gram’s house he Sesame Street Playhouse is waiting for him to come back to play with, we talked about how he wanted to get Grandpa an umbrella for his birthday (shoutout-HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!) and how he wants Grandpa Dave to visit and bring more clay.  The little dude talked and talked and talked. 

Theo talked so much we actually had walked past Mason and Woodrow without noticing it, so he called out to us where were able to see the natural bridge above us.  We decided to hike up some switchbacks (my nemesis) so we could get to the other side of the natural bridge and it was pretty cool.  The bridge was small and made of rock, but it was amazing to see what this Earth is capable of.  On the way back to the car, Theo and I had a length discussion about letters, their sounds, and words that start with each letter…Mason walked a bit ahead again, because we never shut up.  J  The hike took us an hour and a half so we decided to head to the North Rim/Upper Falls Drive.  Woodrow and Theo both fell asleep on the drive here, so Mason and I took turns walking the .8 miles down to the Falls.  It was BREATHTAKING!  I could have sat there a long time and just watched the power of the water as it fell over the side of the cliff. It was so strong and moving, and I just kept thinking, who in their right mind would look at Niagara Falls and decide to travel over it in a barrel. 

After this we decided to head way North (again some roads were closed for construction so we had to take a longer route) to the Mammoth Hot Springs.  This area is in the Northwest portion of the park and was where the original Yellowstone Park village began.  We grabbed some late lunch (it was after 3) at The Terrace Café and then went to check out the Mammoth Hot Springs.  Mason and Theo walked ahead this time and I carried Woodrow while walking slowly throughout the springs.  They were very pretty, and I wondered if they generally had more water flow than we saw, but Mason took some stunning photos. 

A funny Theo story, he kept talking about these orange shoes.  He had mentioned them a few times in the past week, and I kind of brushed it off saying he didn’t have orange shoes.  This time we dove into the conversation.  I thought that he was confusing his red sandals at home for orange shoes, because sometimes he mixes up pink and purple, so I thought maybe this was the case.  Then he started to tell me that he wore them to pick up Mason from the airport.  So this is when I really thought he meant his red sandals, because we’d just picked Mason up at the airport recently.  However, Theo went on to tell me that it was when he and Mason were watching the planes go “shoo shoo shoo” (as he waved his hand) and then I realized that LAST November (2013) he did have 1 pair of orange gym shoes (he only wore a handful of times, they were tie and hand-me-downs that didn’t fit great) that he wore to go watch a flyoff with Mason.  He was like, “yeah mom, when I wore my flight suit.”  I swear the kid has crazy recall (though selective). 

Anyways, we enjoyed the Hot Springs, and watched this herd of Elk that was in the main street area.  There were lots of people trying to get close to take photos, and the park rangers were going nuts because the Bull Elk (male) kept charging into the street.  Mason got some great photos.  We grabbed some ice cream from where we had eaten lunch and started our trek back to our hotel (a 90-120 minute drive).  We grabbed a late dinner at the cafeteria again, and Mason and Theo headed out for Night Hike part 2 while Woodrow and I packed up the room so we could have a quick escape in the morning.  What a beautiful day!