Yellowstone

I've taken my time posting about our Yellowstone/Teton vacation. I guess I better get to it before the high of a great vacation fades. I think I'll post in sections. Today I'm going to post about camping and exploring in Yellowstone.

When one spends three days in Yellowstone you are able to see a lot of sites. We saw and smelled many a gieser and hot pot, waterfalls and animals. Sammy was more than happy to climb onto Carp or Carson's back to take in all the sites. We did do a lot of walking around. The first day the kids were really tired. It couldn't have been all that bad because when they woke up the next day they were ready to do it again.

Ahhhhhh - the sulfur smell of Yellowstone. It really wasn't all that bad. I do live with 4 guys so I have become somewhat use to, well, stinky smells.

I took over 400 pictures on this vacation. Trying to decide which ones to post was a challenge. Most geisers have a beautiful aqua blue/green cast to them. This was in the Artist Hot Pots area. I just loved the different color it had compared to everything else I saw.

We only ate out a couple times on this trip. Most of the food was stuff we brought with us. Every afternoon we would stop at a picnic area for lunch and let the kids run around. I chased Sammy around A LOT!

At one of the picnic stops Nathan, our resident entomologist, found this crazy looking bug. He didn't have his Audubon Insect Guide with him to identify it and we didn't let him keep. However, we took this picture and showed the creative creature to every ranger we came across. One mentioned he had seen one before. None of them could name what it was. I kind of wish we let him keep it. It's antennas are something to be proud of!

Throughout the 3 days that we stayed in Yellowstone Gabby and Nathan worked on getting their Junior Ranger patches. Whenever we visit a national park we look for opportunities like this. It just makes the trip more memorable if the kids actually look at what is around them. Ranger programs help do this. Carp paid the closest attention to the junior ranger work.

This is what the older boys did while Dad worked on Junior Ranger stuff with Gabby and Nate. Personally, I don't know how Carson could relax without losing his balance and falling overboard.

We stayed at a cabin in Island Park then camped at Norris campgound in Yellowstone. The kids loved both places. However, camping made the biggest impression on Sammy. She asks us all the time if she can go camping.

Norris campground is right along Yellowstone Lake. We walked down one night and skipped rocks and played near the water. It was quit cold in Yellowstone at night. It actually got down to 29 degrees one night - in the middle of August!

This is a random picture. It's a tree that has fallen over and it's roots are exposed like some rabid octopus. (Can an octopus be rabid?) Anyway, I got Seth to climb it for a picture. I love the funky look of it.

Success! Both Nathan and Gabby earned their Junior Ranger Awards. They received patches for their hard work. All our kids collect patches. Nathan and Gabby got a Yellowstone patch and a Junior Ranger patch from this leg of the trip. Way to go!

My next post will be some pictures of things we saw and animals we gawked at.