We went to Yellowstone for fall break. In Utah the kids get three days off school in mid-October every year. The whole state gets the same three days off. We decided to go to Yellowstone for the extra long weekend. We drove up on Thursday morning. By Thursday afternoon we were in the park! Here we are by the Fountain Paint Pots area.
Grant and John had a nice educational trip. Grant read of lot of the longer signs and even started keeping a journal on the trip of all our activities.
At Fountain Geyser
John, inspired by Grant I think, also started keeping a journal of our trip.
John also had a lot of fun reading all the names of the geysers on the signs. He would loudly read the signs that said not to step off the trail too.
It was cold - colder than when we went 4 years ago.
So it was a little uncomfortable walking around in the cold but we still had a good time. The days we were walking around the park it was in the 30s. It was bearable until a stiff wind came up.
Walking toward Grand Prismatic Spring
Grand Prismatic Spring area - they closed some of this area the next day because of high bear activity. But we didn't see any bears.
And at the Old Faithful Visitor Center
Waiting for Old Faithful to erupt
Matthew and Anna waiting
Woohoo!
October 2019
We tried to sort of reenact a picture we took four years ago
October 2015
Kids being silly - 2019
We had dinner at the Snow Lodge Dining room at Old Faithful
The kids were well behaved and we even got a few nice compliments on their good behavior in a slightly nice sit down restaurant. Phew!
We had fun swimming at our hotel
The next day we drove up toward Mammoth Hot Springs
A bison walked right next to our car, but I didn't get a good picture.
But we did see a lot of other bison.
At Gibbon Falls
At Norris Geyser Basin
There was a little dusting of snow
By Steamboat Geyser
We did a little hike here and the kids got tired and grouchy
I told them to look happy in this picture...
and then in this picture they could look however they wanted
More views at Norris Geyser Basin
Norris Geyser overlook
We ate some lunch and hiked around the Mammoth Hot Springs terraces
Emma was tired
But she perked up a little
Some of the terraces
John wanted his picture taken
Top view of Palette terrace
Emma and I bringing up the rear
Front view of palette terrace
We found the yellow stone! I always assumed Yellowstone was named after sulphur rocks that could be found in the area. But we found out its actually named after the Yellowstone River that goes through the area. The river was named by native Americans after a rock formation of yellow rock - that is not even in the park.
Lots of elk near the the Fort Yellowstone area
more elk
We got ice cream near Mammoth Hot Springs - they loaded us up with lots of ice cream because they were closing for the season soon and had to get rid of all the ice cream
Driving we saw some mountain goats
More bison
The next day the west entrance of the park was closed due to snow on the ground
This map shows which roads were open (in green)
So we couldn't get into the park...we went to see an Imax movie in West Yellowstone and then hung out at our hotel. The kids got to play in the hotel game room and we swam some more.
It was a lazy day
And it snowed a lot more
We waited until the next day to leave because it was snowing a lot.
The snowy car as we got ready to drive back south to Utah
We had to let it defrost for a while
We had a great time and got to see a lot of things even though snow put a damper on some of it. Here we are driving out of West Yellowstone
