Yellowstone

Ever since we moved to Idaho we have talked about going to Yellowstone, but we kept on putting it off. This year though, our kind neighbors offered for us to stay in their cabin that is near the west entrance for the park. We were so excited. We planned it out to go shortly after the park opened from COVID-19, but before it was open to the tour buses or camping or things like that. We saw a lot of people there still, but I think it was less crowded than it would have been. Nathanael and Mary-Anne and their family were able to come up with us. We went up on a Thursday, hitting the St. Anthony sand dunes on the way. Then we stayed Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night, and come home on Sunday.

The cabin was super nice. It had five bedrooms, but the kids still wanted to all bunk up together (boys in one room, girls in another). Although camping is a lot of fun, having a cabin to relax in made the trip very comfortable.

On the first night we just played around the cabin and used the four wheelers that they have there. We had a small problem with one of the showers and it was stressful trying to fix that, but everything else on the trip was great.


Here we are at the entrance. Right after entering we saw a coyote and then not long after some bison that were walking right in the middle of the road.



Our first stop was Old Faithful. We ate lunch there while waiting.







Then we walked around maybe a mile or two of boardwalk to see all sorts of different geysers and pools. There were signs all over warning people not to step off the boardwalk and how there was a risk of death, so we tried to keep a close watch on the little ones. I think Julia thought the geysers and pools were especially cool - at least I heard her telling one of her siblings that, she is at an age now where I don't know that she would ever mention to mom and dad that something is cool or fun.



This was another geyser that was erupting while we were there. It might have been as big as Old Faithful and it was definitely going off for a longer time. A couple of us went in the spray from it and surprisingly it was cold. Not surprisingly though, it smelled really bad.



Later that day we did a short hike to see the Grand Prismatic Spring. It was a really colorful lake.



I think we went home after that. It was a long day with the different walks and all of the driving, so it wasn't long before people were sleeping.

Then I think this was the next day, starting off with a waterfall.



Then we saw some mud geysers. Each of our kids did short reports on different parts of the park. Elliott did his on these mud geysers, so he thought they were especially neat.





One looked like a cave with dragon's smoke coming out of it. With the water and waves it made a noise that sounded like a dragon was breathing in there too. And it definitely smelled like a dragon's breath.







We found a nice spot for lunch and the kids loved paying in the trees by the river. Not sure if you can see in this picture, but the boys are across the little water over in the trees.



If you look close, Christian is about 10 feet up one of the trees on the other side of the water.



Then the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The whole park was beautiful, but I would say this was the most breathtaking part. We did a short hike on one side, then drove around to different view points of the canyon and waterfalls.













The last thing we did was visit the Mammoth Hot Springs. They were really cool looking too, but I think we were all pretty tired by this point.









We finished the day with pizza and a movie back at the cabin. The next day we held a little sacrament meeting and then it was just a mad rush to clean up the cabin and get home.

It was a really fun trip. Our neighbors were so nice to share their cabin with us. And it was so fun for Nathanael's family to come. Our kids love spending time with their cousins. Even though we were not able to do our big trip this year due to COVID-19, it looks like we are going to get in lots of family time with cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents, which is always really great.