Yellowstone

I decided to be brave and take my kids through Yellowstone National Park while we were at my parents. So, Wednesday we took off at about 8 a.m. My mom came with me (Yeah!!) and we brought along my nephew Josh. Ryan was a little bummed because Dyllan couldn't come. He had to work with his dad that day.

It's almost a two hour drive to West Yellowstone, Montana and then we took about 8 hours to drive around the lower loop of the park and then another two hours home.

I had both my small pocket sized digital camera and Chris' nice Canon camera, so I gave Ryan and Kennedy both cameras and told them to go for it. As a result 202 pictures were taken of our drive through Yellowstone. Here they all are ... JK, I'll just post a few, but the kids had a great time taking pictures.

We saw everything we wanted to see except for a bear. My cousin Holly is a librarian in a library in Mammoth on the Northern loop, she told us that she has seen a lot of bears this summers, but us, not a one. Lots of bison, deer, elk and a few coyotes. Would have loved to have seen a bear though. Boo.

Here are some pictures of our long, fun day.

A quick look at the participants, excluding my mother and myself.

And now for some great scenery...

Just some random shots of hot pools and mud pots with a cool mountain and a bison mixed in. The thing about the hot pools and pots is that they definitely smell like sulfur.

More shots of hot pools and Ryan by the lake. The shot in the lower right corner is a geyser in the lake behind Ryan. I've seen it bubble before, just not while we were there.

Old Faithful. Need I say more. The kids posed in front of it when it started to settle down. The lodge is behind us and they had a nice cafeteria in it. You can get all sorts of different things to eat, which was nice with four kids and two adults.

Some close ups of some really deep, blue pools by the lake. And a few of a waterfall towards the end of our trip and a shot away from the waterfall. It's great to see how the trees have started coming back after the fire in 1988. I remember the smoke and ash coming to Teton Valley and going through the park in 1994  and 1997 with Chris and seeing the burnt trees. Definitely much greener now.

Pictures of the animals we saw. Coyotes (we saw two), bison (saw a lot), a lot of deer and elk and the boys (definitely animals). We also saw a moose near Island Park, but I couldn't slow down fast enough to take pictures of it.