The Grand Teton National Park!!!

 

 

We slept in a little this morning.  Then we headed to the Tetons.  To get here we had to drive through part of Yellowstone.  So I got to see a little bit of the park this morning.  I said goodbye to my happy place but was looking forward to seeing the Tetons.  We are in a sort of cabin here.  Not cabin enough for our liking, there are tons of cabins all around us and they are in 4 units to each cabin. 

We drove down into the park and the mountains were beautiful.  It was kind of hazy so my pictures aren’t great but it was beautiful to me anyway.  I never can seem to make my pictures took how I see things.  We found Colter Bay visitor center and got Junior Ranger books.  We sat in on a talk by a Native American about beadwork…old and new.  He had some beads that were over 200 years old!  His name was Clyde Hall, he is Shoshone.  As he was talking he mentioned that he had family in Kentucky, they had been there since the 1930’s.  David’s maternal grandmothers last name was Hall, his paternal grandma was Blackfoot.  We bought a couple of things he brought from his trading post.  He gave the boys a necklace. 

We then went in search of food but everything was closed in the area where we were.  So instead we found a picnic spot and ate from the cooler again.  I have really enjoyed do that because of the very cool places we have found to picnic.  Today it was by Jackson Lake with mountains behind it. 

We got to the hotel and waited for the only restaurant close to open for dinner.  It was a bit pricey but everyone seemed to enjoy what they got.  I got bison pot pie, David and Anthony got grilled tuna.  Michael got a turkey bagel with quinoa salad.  Jacob got buttered pasta with a fruit salad. 

After dinner Jacob, Michael and I went for a little walk around the cabin area.  We found an amphitheatre with an awesome view.  We may try to get up early and go watch the sun come up.  We will just have to see if we manage that.

 

                                  

Our beautiful picnic spot.

 

 Boys sewing on their patches.

 Sunset at our "cabin."

 Our evening walk.

Learning to play Texas Hold'em

Last day in Yellowstone

 

I was so tired yesterday after bringing in all of our clothes and re-sorting them so I could pack them into bags for each place…I just didn’t have the energy to blog.  And today we are at Flag Ranch outside of the Tetons and their internet is spotty at best.  This blog may have to wait until we leave Wyoming. 

This was our last day in Yellowstone.  We visited a few more geyser basins, sat by the Firehole River and the boys skipped rocks for a while.  We found a wooded picnic area and had lunch. 

We got back to the hotel earlier than we have been so I tackled the repacking and laundry.  Only to find out that I will have to do at least one more load to get us home.  While laundry was washing Michael and I took a walk around West Yellowstone looking at souvenirs.  We found a little place that had grap bags.  Michael had no idea what they were so I had to get one for him!  We walked a little more and stopped to get ice cream.  While we were eating it he opened his bag.  There was lots of interesting things in it so we decided to take one back for Jacob who wasn’t feeling very well.  When we got back to the hotel everyone was excited about the grab bags and since they had adult bags too we went back and got one for everyone.  I remember loving grab bags when I was young.  Martha use to get them for Jacob when he was very little but he didn’t remember it. 

Yellowstone day 4

Today we saw the Norris Geyser Basin, The Artist Paint pots and The Fountain Paint Pot Trail.  We went back to Old Faithful to go to the gift shop.  We had a nice picnic by a little creek. 

 

This is day 14 of our trip.  We are all tired but have so much more fun things to do.  I am working on laundry again tonight and hopefully will only have to do one load tomorrow and we will have enough close to last the rest of the trip.  I try to pack light so we have room to fit everything in the van.  We are still packed full even with planning on doing laundry!  Because everyone needs extra shoes and swim suits and jackets because it can get cold here in Yellowstone.  It is usually in the mid 30's in the morning and then around 70 in the afternoon.  Today was a little warmer than the last 2 days have been.  I need to figure out what I want to see tomorrow since its our last day here. 

 

Oh..I forgot to mention that yesterday Jacob lost a tooth.  He seems to do that when we are on a trip.  He lost one at Mount Rushmore 4 years ago and I know he lost one on our trip north to Maine but I can't remember were we were at the time.  He will be out of baby teeth soon.  He seems to be later than a lot of kids loosing them.

 

 Steamboat Geyser.....it is the largest geyser in the world.  But it has lots of small eruptions most of the time.  The last big eruption was in 2005.  It can go 3 times higher than old Faithful when it has a big eruption.

 Emerald Spring

 Veteran Geyser

 

 Monarch Geyser Crater

 

 Minute Geyser...this one has a sad story.  Many years ago it would erupt every minute and go 70 feet.  Tourists would throw rocks into it and now it just kind of sputters all the time.  That is upsetting to me that now we can't see this geyser as it should be.  That is why the park service tries so hard to keep the parks natural.  But unfortunately people don't always act as they should :(

 Michael in front of a steam vent.

 

 Norris Geyser Basin

 

 Artist Paint Pots.

 Silex Spring

Fountain Paint Pot

 Four years ago today I saw my first glimpse of Yellowstone.  It was my birthday and I couldn't imagine spending it in a better place!!!  I feel very lucky to get to spend another birthday here in this magical place.  There really is no other place like it anywhere.  We had another long day of pure beauty.  We drove around the lower loop today.  Stopped at the Canyon Visitor center, it is a great learning place.  Then we went to the Canyon Dinner for lunch, the setting is interesting.  There are long U shaped counters where the server can walk down the middle to take care of everyone. 

 

After lunch we headed down towards the mud volcano and Dragons Mouth.  On the way we saw lots of buffalo.  The smell at Dragons Mouth is stinky to say the least!!  But it is very cool so everyone tries to ignore the smell.  %

 

Then we were on our way to "The Fishing Bridge" visitor center.  There we went to a ranger program about river otters.  I love otters but the ranger told us that there is only a 10% chance of seeing one.  That visitor center is right on Lake Yellowstone so we spent a little time there just enjoying the view.

 

I wanted to eat in the Old Faithful area for my birthday dinner.  On the way there we saw a pond with tons of lilly pads!  It was right on the Continental Divide.  When we got to the Old Faithful Inn we saw that reservations were encouraged to eat at the Inn.  We were early though and in the front part of the line so we waited and they got us in :)  I had the best roasted red pepper with Gouda soup!!!  The waiter heard David ask me if I wanted cake for my birthday.  I told him no, I had eaten to much already!!!  In less than two minutes the waiter was back with huckleberry ice cream with a candle!!  It was very good!!  But I was so full, the little boys didn't mind helping me to eat it.  To end our day we saw a few dear grazing in a field.  Another excellent day in my happy place!!!!