We left Friday night and stayed at the Red Lion in Pocatello to break up our drive. Saturday morning we ate a big breakfast at the hotel and drove through the Ashton marathon to go see Lower and Upper Mesa Falls, they were so beautiful.
Then we drove for a couple more hours into Yellowstone. We got there at lunch time so the first picnic area we saw, we stopped and fired up some hot dogs. Then we saw a few small geysers, Gibbons Falls and Old Faithful, which was Ruth and Will's favorite thing.
We found our campsite after that, cooked up some dinner and played in the tent for the rest of the night. The next morning we got up early and went on an amazing hike through the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and part of which included the Uncle Tom's extremely difficult trail. I was uncertain about taking the kids down this trail, but it was so fun and well worth the view here at the end.
After our long morning hike we got in the car and drove to Lamar Valley where we saw lots of bison, this guy was not more than 10 feet from the car. It was nice to relax for a while and let Claire get a nap.
Then we ate some lunch at the Mammoth Hot Springs area and traveled the Norris Geyser Basin. We all really enjoyed this mile and a half walk because each of the geysers were so different, we especially liked the bubbling blue mud hole and the green dragon's cave. The day was winding up so we went back to our site, organized things, ate some dinner and then walked down to the lake.
Monday Brad and I got up and made breakfast and cleaned up while the kids slept in. We packed up the tent and said goodbye to Yellowstone. We drove down to the Teton National Forest and stopped at Jenny Lake. Here we did the 2 mile round trip hike up to Inspiration point
The Teton's are very beautiful
On the way back down from that hike we stopped to see Hidden Falls.
After all the hiking and walking we did over these past few days we went into the general store and bought some slushies. We got back in the car and headed down to Jackson Hole where Brad took each of the kids up the ski lift and down the alpine slide. They loved it.
Then we killed some time at a great playground in Jackson until it was time for the Chuckwagon dinner.
During our entire trip, especially as we hiked around, Ruth asked everybody she saw where they were from. She is so friendly and loved conversating with people from all over the world.
Yellowstone, Grand Tetons National Parks. August 2013 | My new trip on Roadtrippers.com!
