Yellowstone

Yellowstone is a very short drive from The Grand Tetons, literally only a few miles apart.  We left Yellowstone in the afternoon and in the evening we went on an awesome hike along the Yellowstone River called the South Rim.  The spot at which everyone views the majestic Yellowstone falls that we've all seen an image of, was the North Rim trail, and completely packed.  Don't get me wrong it was breathtaking, but to get away from the crowds and get a view from afar, was a highlight for me.  Any hike that takes my breath away because of the work out AND the views is a keeper.  Plus it was right along the rushing river and if Ty started accusing us of torturing him again we wouldn't be able to hear him.  Tuesday we spent a good part of the day in and around the iconic Old Faithful.  FOR ONCE our timing was perfect and we walked up to the viewing platform within seconds of her reliable blast of gushing water and steam!  Wooo hoooo!  I can't even tell you how elated I was!  I'm not sure what was more exhilarating, the geyser or our timing.  Anyhow......we wanted to see her blow from another vantage point.  We had some time before the next eruption so we hiked along with TONS of other folks to see the plethora of other geysers, hot springs, mud pots and fumaroles.  We decided to take the scenic hike to Observation Point.  Any time the hike is a smidge more challenging the crowds dwindle significantly.  Once at the top we chatted it up with a photographer from Canada who is there often.  He was super interesting plus he knew what the signs would be before Old Faithful would erupt.  Surprisingly the Beehive geyser erupted and a then a few minutes later Old Faithful erupted.  We where able to see them both erupting simultaneously. It was pretty cool!  The Canadian gentlemen told us over and over how lucky we were to see them erupting at the same time and that it was our lucky day!  Apparently the Beehive geyser only erupts once or twice a day and Old Faithful erupts every 60 to 90 minutes.  However she was 6 minutes late when we saw the double eruption.

Despite our good geyser luck.  Our visit to Old Faithful ended with a visit to the on site health clinic.  Libby had a suspicious looking bite on her neck and worry wart Daddy had us practically stop in our tracks and run to the clinic.  Paul had lymes disease last summer, my sister Amy had a scare this summer, and our Niece Ava, who is only 5, is just recovering from it.  So off we went!  We soon found out there have been no reported cases of lymes disease in Yellowstone this or last year year.  And without the characteristic bullseye ring around the bite, and without us having actually removed the tick, there is no way of knowing.  The doc was confident that it wasn't a mosquito.  Satisfied with what we were told, we continued on our way to our 40thousandth junior ranger program....on time!!  A little later Libby was itching like crazy.  Why we didn't look further, and neither did the doc, is beyond me.  However,  upon closer investigation, we saw that poor Libby had little red bites all over her neck at her hair line at the base of her neck, around her ears, on her scalp, and even a few at the top of her little peach fuzz hair line that runs down her back.  The most bothersome one is in her ear.  For that one we made a trip to get some benedryl.  We think Libby was a tasty treat for something called a Buffalo Gnat.  We know this because there was a woman in the waiting room with the exact same issue.  Buppy, please fight the urge to google Buffalo Gnat on the internet.  And if you just can't stop yourself.....please DON'T tell us about it!  Love you Bup!

Our last day in Yellowstone we visited the hot springs in Mammouth.  Very interesting indeed....and beautiful.  The pics speak for themselves.  There was also a ton of elk milling around all over the place.  They were everywhere!  There were signs all over the place that said not to approach them, but if you were walking anywhere around the park and administration buildings you had to go out of your way to avoid them.  It was keeping the rangers pretty busy because people where ,of course, approaching them.  Goofy!
When I recall our visit to Yellowstone, the wildlife will be what I remember.  Every day we saw elk, deer, bison, and even a bald eagle.  It was crazy!

We'd heard from several people that you could look through the telescopes of naturalists in the Lamar Valley who where studying the wolf packs on the surrounding ridges.  We decided to let the kids stay in bed(you can do that in an rv) and get on the road early.  The Lamar Valley, which is in the eastern most part of the park was a 2 hour drive from our rv park in West Yellowstone. The Lamar Valley is known for it's wildlife, but we really wanted to see the wolves.  We had no idea what we where in for.  We never did see the wolves,  but we saw thousands of bison instead.  It took our breath away.  The heard never seemed to end.  We kept driving and we kept seeing more and more bison!  It was amazing!  The 6:30 am start made for a REALLY long day(didn't get to our next stop till 11:30 pm) but it was more than worth it. To top it off the kids finally got their wish and where able to play in one of the many creeks on our way out of the park(and still in their pj's) much to Paul's dismay.  It took me several minutes to convince him that the kids wouldn't drown in the ankle deep water.  Sheesh!