Yellowstone 2010

Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, though it also extends into Montana and Idaho. Yellowstone was the first national park in the world, and is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially Old Faithful Geyser, one of the most popular features in the park.^[1] It has many types of ecosystems, but the subalpine forest is dominant.

We left for Yellowstone on August 8th in the morning.  Drove about 5 hours.  Brooklyn was a pretty good girl for the most part.  She is 23 months so that is a long ride for a little one.  This was our first time every being in Yellowstone and boy was i excited.  i really wasn't sure what to expect, movies and pictures is all i could base it off of.

We got settled in on Sunday afternoon and went to explore the town.  It is such a cute town.  I love small tourist towns.  We enjoyed dinner on Sunday in our kitchen at the hotel (motel?). What a peaceful evening...we thought. (Side story- we started to hear a guy and a girl cry-yelling for their dog foxy,  so we just assumed it ran out of the hotel, and they would find her in a few minutes so no biggie.  But after about an hour of the girl screaming the dogs name, Kathy and i were a little concerned, yes it was annoying, but some people's pets are like their kids.  So Kathy and i convinced each other to go talk to the lady and see what we could do.  Jeff got us a flashlight our of the van and we went on for the hunt. We walked over the Foxy's owener's car and saw a gorgeous women in the passenger seat with a walker.  We asked her if she would like us to help find her dog, or help her walk around to find her dog. She was hysterical, she allowed us to help look, we first looked into the hotel room and suit cases were torn apart, and bed sheets were all over the room, looked like a search has been done there already.  But just in case, Kathy looked under the bed while i  showed the flashlight under there and bam, there was that little dog! They were so thankful of us, Kathy and i both got a little chocked up.  We did our good service for the day, and it took about 3 minutes. )

We woke up early to start our Adventures....we loaded up the ice chest and books and toys. It was a little cold out side, but nothing was going to stop us.  We started into Yellowstone!  If you know me at all, you know i love love the forest and trees.  i could just drive in the forest for hours.  First thing we came across was Elk, yes Elk right off the bat. We pulled over like everyone else and got out of the car to take pictures.  The Elk was pretty close, and then is where we got yelled at.  Surprise surprise.  So we got back in the van and drove to our next destination. 

I have a terrible memory, so bear with me,  If you have never been to Yellowstone, you know it is shaped like an 8.  So we did the top Loop Day 1.  We hiked Norris Geyser Basin, it was a lot of fun, TONS of Geysers, both big and small.  It is an amazing site to see for the first time.

 Brooklyn was a pro, and as you can see got a little nap in.  Boy was it a work out, good though.  Of course Grandpa took over the rest of the time.

Day 2 we went to a few waterfalls, that were HUGE.  We saw and hiked, the Paint pots (day 1) and  saw the mud volcano, boy did those smell.  We also saw Yellowstone Lake, which is huge and boy was it beauitful and looks so clean.

Old Faithful!

 We had a picnic each day and enjoyed every bite.  Something about having fresh food and nature makes it so inviting. 

Brooklyn is covering her nose..

Fun with Grandma in our hotel room.

Bison were everywhere, We even saw one ram his horn into a car. The hellers have been to Yellowstone for 4 years now and have never seen one aggressive towards a car. Brooklyn waved out the window and said hi everyone one of them.  she was terrified at first but warmed up pretty quickly.

Waving good-bye

Oh our way home, Brooklyn was being silly for Grandma.

We had a wonderful time and would do it again anytime.