Yellowstone….

Because of the floods in Yellowstone and the closing of the upper loop and restriction based on license plate number our 3 days in Yellowstone was changed to 1 day. So we made it one grand day. We were driving through the west entrance by 6:30 and ready to watch Old Faithful before 8AM. We then hiked the 4 mile loop around all the geysers near Old Faithful and pretty much had the boardwalks to ourselves which was really nice. After that hike and a quick stop to see the inside of Old Faithful Lodge we headed to Fairy Falls hike and Grand Prismatic Springs Overlook trail. The overlook was crowded but once we got on the hike to the waterfalls it thinned way out and we had a great 5.5 mile hike and beautiful falls. From there we ate our lunches in the car and stopped briefly at a couple pulls offs along the way and made our way to Canyon and the South Rim. We ended up hiking all along the South Rim to Artist Point and again pretty much had the trail to ourselves which was amazing. And the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is just beautiful. We stopped a bit later to see the mud pots and pools which the kids just love and it makes them giggle to see the mud boil and bubble. Even 8 years ago when we were there with just Caedmon and Leighton, Caedmon was just 2 and he giggled and giggled at the mud pots/pools and it was the same again. We drove on down to the edge of Yellowstone Lake and got some fudge from the little general store and found a spot along the lake to enjoy it. At that point it was super windy so we enjoyed the lake from the van and celebrated our 13+ miles of hiking with the fudge. We slowly made our way around the bottom of the lower loop back to Old Faithful Lodge and grabbed the dinner we had pre-packed and settled at some tables on the patio and enjoyed watching Old Faithful one more time while we ate our dinner. Yellowstone is one of those amazing places that can’t be enjoyed in a day but we made a pretty good effort at hitting most of the highlights. We saw plenty of bison and some bears in the distance and elk and deer as well. I missed going to Mammoth Springs and the kids were bummed that we didn’t get to see the Roosevelt Arch at the North entrance after we have been listening to the Ken Burns documentary on the National Parks the past couple months. So it just means there is more to explore and we’ll be back sometime.