Yellowstone National Park

Earlier this month we made the drive to Yellowstone National Park. Just Greg, Isaac, and me went. While I love going on vacation with our families, it was fun to be together with just our little family and go at our own (read: Isaac's) pace.

We left on a Thursday afternoon and drove to Idaho Falls and spent the night there. The next morning we headed the rest of the way to West Yellowstone. We made it there about noon and after checking into our hotel, Isaac had to make sure there was a pool, we went into the park. Anyone who has been through the West Yellowstone entrance within the last, oh, eight or ten years knows that one of the first animals you're going to see is a bald eagle. There is nest right off the side of the road.



Soooo cool.


I think the animals are my favorite thing about Yellowstone. It's amazing to see them. That first day in the park we were lucky enough to see this buffalo up close. And when I say close, I mean he was less than 5 feet from the car.




I don't think you can see them in the pictures, but there were people STANDING outside their cars with this huge animal just feet away from them taking pictures. That is insanity. In fact one of the papers you are given when you first enter the park is an illustration of a guy getting flipped up in the air by a buffalo's horns. It said on it "Many visitors have been gored by buffalo". For some reason, Isaac thought that was hilarious. So, as we were watching this buffalo from our car and these crazy people are getting out and taking pictures in front of this beast, Isaac was yelling, "Many visitors have been gored by buffalo!!" I didn't even bother to tell him to be quiet. LOL.

We also saw elk and sheep.



Of course there's the other cool features that Yellowstone has. We went to see Old Faithful and while we were sitting around waiting for it to go off, Isaac decided to try his hand at photography. Here's a sample of his work:





When he was tired of waiting for Old Faithful, he decided to entertain the people around us with a chant of "Let's do this, Old Faithful!" and various dance moves. He's such a ham. When Old Faithful finally went off, we got sprayed big time.


One thing I didn't remember from past visits to Yellowstone, is the smell. It's pretty bad. Every time we would get out of the car, Isaac would say, "Ew, geyser!"



Here's my favorite thing we saw.





It's in Mammoth Hot springs. It was so pretty. it looked like someone had come in and designed it. The picture doesn't do it justice. It was made of salt and minerals, but it looked like ice in the middle of the desert.

We also pulled off the road and dipped our feet in the river. It was COLD!




The one animal we didn't see in the park was a bear. In fact, we went to buy Isaac a t-shirt and he told me he wanted one that said, "Isaac went to Yellowstone and didn't see a bear." LOL. So on the way home we stopped at Bear World in Rigby, Idaho. You drive your car through this little zoo where bears, buffalo, elk, and wolves roam around. It's pretty neat. They also have a petting zoo and a few kiddy rides.

Yellowstone has so many cool things and we had a lot of fun. Here's just some more random pictures. As if I hadn't posted enough already. ;)