Wednesday morning was our last "easy" morning. We had breakfast with the family and then said our goodbyes. Next stop - Yellowstone National Park. We drove all morning and here's what the kids did.
Conrad had packed his own backpack for the trip. He included a pen, some sheets of white paper, a compass, a few books. It was really cute some of the stuff he thought of bringing. While we were in Missoula, I went grocery shopping and also picked up a sketch book for Conrad since he had already used up his paper. I also picked up a little surprise - some colored gel pens. what a great buy! These items kept him busy for HOURS. Here, he is drawing the earth (the circle) with mountains (the triangular shapes pointing inward on the circle).
At the park entrance, it was clearly marked that all sites were full, in the entire park. So at least we didn't waste any time looking. Instead we made a quick decision about what one area we wanted to see (what would be most impressive to a four year old?), and headed towards the geysers. We bought some ice cream cones, and waited for Old Faithful to erupt. Yep, he was awed. We stopped in at the Visitor Center, watched some cool video clips explaining what a geyser is why it blows water and/or steam. We went for a hike around the area and then watched her again. We weren't in too much of a hurry, but also knew there was quite a bit of driving to be had since we wouldn't be sleeping in the park. On the way out of the park we saw some beautiful little waterfalls roadside, as well as avalanche warning signs, and another grizzly bear. We also started gaining some elevation and knew we may be in for a chilly night.
(ice on lake)
As it turns out, we didn't get any rain and even if it had, we would have stayed pretty dry. The first campground we came to on the east side of Yellowstone was clearly posted as a grizzly zone. Tents, pop up campers, or any other soft sided sleeping units were not allowed. Tim was leaning towards pushing on to the next town and finding a hotel room. I persuaded him that we could just sleep in the truck. It was already 10pm, what's the point of paying for a room when we would only be there for 8 hours or less and even worse, what about all the scenery we would miss between here and there since it was already so dark??
Turns out, THIS is what we would have missed. That is a lot of snow. Where Tim is standing in this picture is a road we had hoped to take to a trailhead we had heard about. Apparently there's a spectacular waterfall a short hike from the trailhead. Guess we'll have to see it next time?
Later in the day, we saw less snow and eventually got off the road to get a closer look at Steamboat Point. Tim was thrilled to get to do a little off-roading, and I was enjoying the wildflower display.
