Yellowstone Day Two, July, 2018

Friday morning I got up early and went for a run into the park.  After a few miles I turned off the main road and ran up into a hilly area with dirt roads.  It was beautiful and serene and I was completely enjoying the quiet until I realized that I was setting myself bait.  When I entered the park, the ranger had warned me that I should run with bear spray.  I laughed when she said it, but as I stopped and realized that I was completely alone, in the middle of the woods, it somehow seemed more realistic.  I headed back to the hotel and got home just as the kids were waking up.  We got everyone ready, had breakfast and loaded up the car to head back into Yellowstone.  As we were driving in Luke said he didn't want to go home and asked if we could stay in Yellowstone forever.  He said "I thought nature was going to be really boring, but it isn't, it is so cool".  Well done Yellowstone, you have definitely won the hearts of our family.

Before we got into the park we stopped to get Yellowstone shirts and hats for everyone.  Luke had found a tie dye shirt the first day and was desperate to have it to wear into the park.  Ruby wore her sweatshirt until she got way too hot, hoping the sweatshirt would attract a wolf.  I completely gave up all of my expectations of fashion and embraced the tourist life. 

As we entered the park, we started down the same road but then headed the opposite way when we reached the crossroads.  Our first views of the day were of Gibbon Falls, a quick stop along the Gibbon River.   The falls were beautiful and the kids loved having some wide open space to play.

From Gibbon Falls we headed to the Norris Geyser Basin - this was at the top of my list of places I wanted to see.  This was probably the busiest places we stopped and we had to wait about 10-15 minutes to find a place to park, but it was completely worth it.  The entire area was so completely other worldly - most of the time we were there it felt like we were in the middle of a set for a really wild science fiction movie.  The geothermal features were stunning and the colors were amazing.  It is hard to come up with the words to really describe how amazing this location was. 

We started off in the Back Basin area where there were so many burned out pine trees and the ground was a weird white color with random pools of water.   

In the middle of the Back Basin was Steamboat Geyser, the largest active geyser in the world.  It can shoot water over 300 feet into the air but is completely unpredictable.  While we were there we saw a minor eruption which was still pretty impressive.  We watched the water shoot up for over a half hour and it appeared to still be spewing when we left.  It was amazing how much heat and steam we could feel just being that close - the kids couldn't believe how smelly it was. 

As we left the Back Basin, we headed down to the Porcelain Basin where we first encountered the craters filled with milky blue water.  The color is caused by the mineral makeup of the water and it is stunning.  We couldn't stop taking pictures because it was so awesome.  The kids had so many questions about the colors, the water, and all of the steam vents.  They were a little nervous so they stayed really close to us which was ideal - I was a little worried with them falling off a boardwalk.

During the course of our few days in the park, we spent plenty of time in porta potties and tried to make sure the kids all had time to play and run around since we spent a lot of time in the car.  It was great to feel so removed from the world and just enjoy nature and our family.

The last place that we visited was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, a 24 mile long canyon on the Yellowstone River.  I had never even heard of this canyon which was shocking to me once we saw it.  The views and vibes were completely different that of the geothermal areas, but equally impressive.  We were able to stop at several different locations to observe the falls from so many different angles.  The heights were dizzying, and being among such amazing cliffs, and observing the power of the waterfall really just made you feel so small and insignificant.   I think this was definitely Tim's favorite views of the day.

On our way out of the park, we saw more buffalo, a herd or elk and a bear.  Ok, Tim was the only one that saw the bear, how lucky was that.  The bear was swimming across the river towards our side of the road.  We all jumped out of the car and ran to try to see it, but missed out when the bear went into a thicket of trees.  The rest of us were sad to have missed seeing the bear, but the excitement of seeing so many animals was the perfect way to end our last day inside Yellowstone.