During the day for the two days we stayed at the cabin, we made the short trip into Yellowstone National Park. As large as the park is, to see all the highlights unfortunately requires lots of driving. Here are the kids with Grandma and Grandpa at the entrance to the park:
The first day, we did the Lower Loop which hits most of the famous places in Yellowstone. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and cold (temperatures in the 40s and even snowing at higher elevations), so we didn't stay outside the car too long in many places and some of the pictures weren't as pretty as they otherwise could have been. One benefit is the weather perhaps thinned out the crowds that would normally be in Yellowstone (though with coronavirus, it's unclear how crowded the park would have been even if the weather was nicer).
Our first major stop was Norris Geyser Basin, a large geothermal area with many springs and other geothermal features (notice all the steam in the background).
We then made our way to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone where the Yellowstone River has cut through the canyon creating large waterfalls and exposing beautiful colors along the canyon walls. As usual, it was hard to get everyone to smile or even look at the camera at once. Oh well - spending time together was ultimately more important than getting the "perfect family portrait" anyway.
I do like these next couple of pictures with Karina - first getting smothered in a hug by Grandma (at least partially because she was cold).
And then just her with her nice smile and the river far below.
Of course, no matter how many times I see some of these sites (having gone to Yellowstone numerous times when I was younger), I have to take some pictures of the scenery.
I brought along our telephoto lens in case we saw wildlife far off and I wanted to take a picture of it. That scenario never came, but it was kind of nice to switch lenses to get this photo of a far off waterfall at one of the overlooks with rock formations in the foreground. I was annoyed at how difficult it was to switch lenses, but I suppose I don't do it frequently enough to make it easier.
In what would become a recurring theme of our time in the park, we saw a lot of elk, and more particularly bull elk with their antlers. This was somewhat unusual as we don't typically see that many bulls together. Here's one representative.
Lydia was interested in the wildlife too.
We made a stop at Lake Yellowstone and the beautiful Lake Hotel (that like most of the facilities was closed due to COVID-19) to let the kids run around instead of being cooped up in the truck. Derek took full advantage and they had fun throwing a few rocks into Lake Yellowstone.
We made it to Old Faithful and were excited that we were fairly lucky with the timing since the crowds waiting for the famous geyser to erupt were pretty large (meaning it was likely to happen soon and we wouldn't be stuck there waiting for a long time). Unfortunately, because of the clouds, the eruption was not nearly as dramatic as it would have been with a clear sky since the geyser water and steam just blends in to the overcast clouds, but here are Derek and Karina with Old Faithful erupting. Derek thought it was funny to wear my hat and pretend to be Daddy.
In all my times coming to Yellowstone, there was one famous site I had yet to truly see. Every time we came to the Grand Prismatic Spring, we would walk by it at surface level, I would recognize it by name, and be underwhelmed because it never looked as impressive with different colors as it does on the postcard images that are taken at higher angle than I had ever seen it. I always just figured that the famous images were taken with drones or something. However, my parents had learned about the overlook trail, so we made it a point to make the supposedly short hike up to see it from its proper angle assuming we could find where the trail started. We were successful (I still don't know why the park doesn't more clearly mark this trail on their map) and for the first time in my life, I saw the Grand Prismatic Spring the way it is supposed to be seen and it was beautiful.
The kids got suckers for the hike if they did a good job. Lydia's was blue and she had to show off her new tongue color.
This picture is nicer of her (still with a blue mouth) and a stream on the walk back from the overlook.
We found some rocky outcroppings along the road that Karina climbed around on.
Our second day in the park, we went to Mammoth Hot Springs at the top of the park. Karina, Grandma, and I took a walk down from the top of the trail to the bottom parking lot to meet with Grandpa and the other kids who didn't want to make the walk. Here are Grandma and Karina on top of the Mammoth Hot Springs tower.
The twisted trees are kind of cool.
I used to really like Mammoth a lot more because it used to be a lot more colorful. Shifting of the water far beneath the surface has changed the spring so not nearly as much water comes out as it did when I was younger leaving many of the features chalky white instead of the orange color.
On the way out of the park on the second day, there is a nice pullout south of Mammoth with a large boulder field to climb around on. We stopped there for lunch and the kids and I loved playing on these boulders and climbing as high as we could. Derek made himself a sword with a couple sticks.
The girls got fairly adventurous with their climbing on some large boulders.
Yellowstone was fun for me at least, but I always love going there. I think the kids got bored with the driving and didn't appreciate it as much as they might when they are older. I am glad we got to go there together.
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