SUCCESS! We have now completed our second family road trip of 2009. This time we traveled across the uninhabited state of Wyoming to the north western corner where God created the incredibly beautiful and mind boggling underground (at this moment in time) volcano called Yellowstone.
We traveled with our dear friends, the Bisping family. We each had our own RV. Yes, this is everything the Bispings packed and brought laying on the ground next to our RV. Due to some scheduling and logistic issues we had to do some fancy loading and unloading and reloading.
Early one morning we stoked up the campfire and roasted s'mores. Yep, after breakfast because the night before we landed in our campsite
way after bedtime which also means
way after s'mores time.
Bison are HUGE and bison are EVERYWHERE in Yellowstone. The first day or so we'd stop for every sighting, near or far. After the first day we quickly learned there are thousands of bison in the park. There is no need to throw on the brakes every time a bison came into view thus causing major traffic jams on the thin two-lane roads.
Never-the-less to be so near the largest mammal in the North America is completely
awe-some
"Yes, baby boys, turn your backs on the ginormous animal behind you, look at me and smile!!" These animals could crush these baby boys with a single snort from their nostrils. It is an amazing amount of trust to turn their backs to the bison, scoot backwards toward it (I kept pushing Elias closer to it) then casually smile at the camera - CRAZY!!
With a slight turn of our head to the left or right we'd move from God's great bison to one of the most powerful volcanoes of our time simmering beneath our feet. This geyser is called 'Dragon's Mouth' because of the sound it makes as it releases built-up pressure.
Does he look bored? Yes, there are hundreds of geysers in the park but come on each one is so unique!
Yes, we are wearing coats and gloves! The weather was still quite chilly. Every day we saw every sort of weather from the warm sun to sprinkling rain to driving rain to sleet to snow. We even drove through blizzard conditions over a mountain pass late one night as we tried to get back to our campsite!! If I had to do it again I would still go up early June as the park was pretty empty.
One of our most favorite things about our trip to Yellowstone was seeing all the wildlife. This little herd of mountain goats stopped us still. The baby danced back and forth over the road as the adults casually grazed on the grass along the edges of the pavement.
The waterfalls were powerful.
Addie wouldn't go near the red dirt. She truly thought it was disgusting. There were beautiful colors everywhere, in the dirt, on the rocks and in the water. The volcanic activity and chemicals cause all kinds of different reactions to various elements.
Our grand finale was to visit Old Faithful. Here is the whole gang, drenched from a down pore minutes before the eruption of good ol' O.F.
