Yellowstone

Dear Briggz,

            Yellowstone may be big but there are wall-to-wall tourists!  A good percentage of them are very rude as well. We decided to follow the advice of one of the park rangers and go on a “short hike from Biscuit Basin to Old Faithful”. We were told that it would be a 2-mile hike, no problem right??? WRONG!!  We did get to Old Faithful and along the way we saw many other geysers and hot springs. But when we happened to question another ranger as to the length of our hike he informed us that it was more like 6 miles.  Whew! Anyway we caught Old Faithful at the right time and only had to wait 10 minutes for it to erupt. Not bad huh?  The hike back was long but we made it to Pokey with a few tired legs.  

C's legs could not take the hike back so J carried him 2.5 miles on his back! now that's brotherly love.

Old Faithful

That night we attended the nightly ranger program and turned in for the night in preparation for another long day ahead of us.

The next day we had a slow start. We spent the majority of the day at our campsite. The boys spent a lot of time riding their bikes while mom and dad spent time trying to plan our next campsite. The boys also took a dip in the river that was located behind our site. Mom and dad decided to soak their feet a bit. That water was cold.  We could see several people fly fishing down stream. A much needed quiet day at the park.

The third day we decided that we needed to get off of our butts, so we headed out in search for a few more sites. There are tons of hot springs and geysers. To think that there is volcanic activity below us is amazing. There was so much to see and we quickly realized that we would leave Yellowstone only having seen a very small percentage.   

That evening we decided to head to West Yellowstone Montana to take in a rodeo. Well we saw some broncos and bulls. Nobody said it would be like the “PBR”, Professional Bull Riding, but it was fun. The boys were able to take part in a cow scramble where they chased a calf trying to remove a ribbon that was loosely attached to its tail. Avery also won a dance off!! The worm is still affective as a dance move!!

A after winning the dance contest

A and C in the calf scramble.  Trying to remove a ribbon from a calf's tail

The next morning we would rise early to go white water rafting.

After an early morning drive through Mammoth to the North entrance of Yellowstone just outside of Gardiner Montana, The Yellowstone Raft Company was our destination. We had a quick intro to rafting. Mom and Dad were selected to sit up front a set the pace for the other paddlers. C sat between us, J was behind Mom and A was in the middle behind C. Each of the boys took turns “riding the bull” which means that they sat on the “bow” of the raft. We were on class 3 rapids. We each got the opportunity to take a dip in the water as well. Seeing the mountains of Yellowstone from the river was awesome. We all had a great time, and built on some life long memories.

For our final day we chose to go see the Prismatic hot spring. It is hands down the most colorful and hot spring in Yellowstone. We viewed it from ground level and then decided to take a small hike to a nearby mountain for a bird’s eye view. Looks like the postcard!!

We had a great time in Yellowstone but it is time to move on. Glacier National Park is in our sights!! 

Will write again soon,

Dad