We arrived into Yellowstone Park in the afternoon, entering through the south. Our Yellowstone goal of the day was to see some animals while we drove from the south to the western entrance, stopping at a couple spots for views and geysers.
First stop: West Thumb Geyser Basin
We couldn't believe how big Yellowstone Lake is! And we only saw the "thumb!"
I don't know the name of this pool, but it sure is pretty!
Abyss Pool
Grandma, Seth and Josh
Old Faithful
Next we drove to Old Faithful, hoping to catch it right before it's explosion. Instead, we waited way so long and it when it finally blew, it was kind of anticlimactic. I wish that we would have walked around the Lower Geyser Basin, instead of sitting and waiting.
Right after exiting the Old Faithful parking lot, we saw our first elk of the trip. Then, we pulled over with a bunch of cars and got to see a grizzly bear! Finally, Ben spotted two wolves in a pull out area just before leaving the park. He slammed on the breaks, whipped a u-turn, while Jeff and Diane (who were behind us) drove into the pull out area. The sound of their truck scared the wolves away, but we still got a glimpse of them running off. Overall, it was an awesome animal viewing day!
The next day we packed up from the cabin we rented in Island Park, ID and entered the park through the west entrance. Our first stop was the Midway Geyser Basin to see Grand Prismatic from the ground. It was amazing!
First (and only) all family picture
The colors were so bright
Stunning
I enjoyed photographing it!
I love these boys!
Excelsior Geyser Crater
We could only imagine how massive this geyser was when it exploded!
On a side road, we happened upon the Fountain Geyser right as it started erupting; it was a much more exciting and fulfilling geyser experience than Old Faithful, especially because we didn't even have to wait!
As we left the parking lot for the trailhead to hike to the viewpoint of Grand Prismatic, we got to see our closest buffalo yet
Several people recommended that we hike to the upper viewpoint of Grand Prismatic and it was great advice! It's an easy hike and it is best to go midday because that is when the colors are the brightest. Totally worth hiking in the heat of the day.
Seth, Josh, Sam
Fam picture
Grandparents and grandkids
We stopped for a picnic lunch and then headed to see the Yellowstone River and its upper and lower falls.
Brink of Upper Yellowstone Falls
It was amazing to hear the power of the river and the falls
On the way to our next viewpoint we saw two bull elks right off the road; Ben was thrilled!
Next to a viewpoint of Lower Yellowstone Falls
After seeing the falls, Josh spotted some bison on the hill; we were skeptical that he really saw them, but Josh continued to insist, so we stopped and sure enough...we was right.
After this Josh was deemed the "buffalo spotter"
Our final adventure of the day was to drive through Hayden Valley to see some wildlife and then on to see some boiling mud for Ben's mom
This buffalo was laying literally right by the bathrooms
It was crazy to see one so close and kind of scary too!
Seth showing how close the buffalo was to us!
It was even scarier when the buffalo got up for a moment!
One of many boiling mud pots. It was so neat to see such a variety of geothermal wonders!
Finally, we drove north to Gardiner, Montana where we stayed our last two nights at a cabin on the Yellowstone river. The cabin was actually still technically in Yellowstone Park and we saw so many elk and antelope on the road to the cabin.
This guy was so unconcerned about us driving past him
We saw him in the same spot the next day too
After all the driving the past two days, we were super exhausted for our final day in Yellowstone. In fact, due the amazing, relaxing and beautiful spot of our cabin, we decided that it was worth it to have a slow morning and not rush out to the park. Jeff and Diane watched the kids for Ben and I and we went into Gardiner for souvenir shopping and lunch together. The kids had so much fun playing here by the river! Sometimes the best moments of vacation come from resting at your vacation home!
In the afternoon, we drove to the park one last time. We stopped at Mammoth Hot Springs first.
They were done withe pictures by this point
Being the good daddy he is, Ben scouted out a spot for the boys to do some rock climbing
Kids do so much better traveling if they get to be physical and not just sightsee
Our boys love a good rock climb
Our destination of the late afternoon/evening was to animal watch in the Lamar Valley, sometimes called the Serengeti of America. We read to not stop for the first buffalo you see, because you will see SO many. That was so true!
Here's a close-up, but we literally saw several herd of 50+ buffalo
They were everywhere!
Seeing the calves with the mamas was a highlight
I had jokingly said after seeing our initial bison that "I really want to see a buffalo cross the road right in front of me." Well, that happened multiple times during this evening. We even saw a buffalo right next to our car rubbing its head on a post. It was so cool.
We packed a picnic dinner to sit and eat while seeing the beautiful view
A highlight of the night was seeing a pack of black wolves through our binoculars and the spotting scopes of "wolf chasers" (people who go into this valley specifically just to find wolves) who were kind enough to share their view
Look at that moon!
And that was the end of our last minute road trip 2020. We woke up our final morning, which happened to be July 4, and drove 11 hours to The Dalles, Oregon to watch fireworks with Ben's brother's family. It actually was a much faster and easier drive than we anticipated. It got us thinking that maybe we should try to go to Yellowstone again soon! (Especially during Covid where the crowds were so much better...no tour buses, no international travelers...it really was an exceptional time to visit the park!)
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