We spent last week in West Yellowstone visiting the park and enjoying a wonderful vacation with lots of family. Matthew's mom and step dad rented a huge house where we joined them with two of Matthew's sisters and their families. My parents also stayed with us on their out west journey with their camper. For this trip we decided to buy an extra plane seat even though technically both girls could fly infant-in-arms. We enjoyed having the extra space! Here's Elsie being a big girl on our first flight.
Leonie sitting with Daddy. This flight was a little awkward since the girls had to sit across the aisle from each other and couldn't both sit with me. Luckily they mostly stayed distracted with new toys and food.
The second flight had three seats on both sides so we were able to all sit together. It also had tv screens in each of the seats and that helped both girls fall asleep for this late flight! Elsie spilled water all over her shirt and refused her sleep sack for this portion of the trip.
We spent our first night in a hotel rather than adding a two hour drive to the end of a long day. Early Sunday morning my dad came to get us and all of our luggage. After the girls' nap at the rental house we visited the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center. Grizzlies sure are impressive!
Leonie was fascinated by the ravens at the park and kept call them frogs! Their calls do sound like a croak.
We visited just in time to see a feeding for the bears. We enjoyed watching them forage but Leonie and Elsie weren't too interested.
There was a small playground at the center too. Here's Elsie on the slide.
And Leonie.
Monday we went into the park early to do a short hike and visit the Grand Prismatic Spring. We brought the carriers for the girls and got lots of use out of them. Here's Elsie with me.
Elsie hiking with Grumps.
Family hiking! Elsie is between us.
There was a lot of baby swapping. Here's Elsie on Grumps.
And Leonie with Mommy.
A view of the spring from the overlook. We walked around it at ground level too but the view from the overlook was so much better!
Another family photo.
The gravel at the overlook was more interesting than the view for these cuties!
Our cute little hikers! Leonie on the left.
On the way home we stopped for a picnic along the river.
On Tuesday we left the girls with Nanny and Pop and did a quick hike along the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We started at the famous Artist Point overlook and had to get a few photos there too.
My mom took these photos of the falls.
We hiked two miles out to another overlook of the canyon along mosquito infested trails but it was a pretty impressive view!
I saw this little chipmunk along the trail next to this interesting plant. I've been meaning to look it up but haven't had the chance.
After heading back to the rental for lunch and putting the girls down for a nap, Mom, Dad, and I left for a horse ranch in Idaho. We met up with most of the rest of Matthew's family in plenty of time for our scheduled trail ride. As we waited, the skies darkened and a storm blew in. We ducked into one of the small barns at the ranch and it was a good thing - after the cold rain started one inch hail started to cover the ground! Needless to say, the trail ride was delayed.
After the worst of the storm passed, Mom, Dad, and I decided to go ahead and hop on for a short ride before the cookout dinner. The rest of Matthew's family stayed back and Matthew, Jane, Richard, and the girls decided to stay at the house. Here I am on Lucky and you can see the rest of the storm going by.
Out on the trail. Mom in front of me on JP and Dad in front of her on Target.
The next morning we headed off bright and early towards Old Faithful. On the way we saw this group of momma and baby elk. Matthew took this photo out of the car window.
We had perfect timing this day and showed up right before Old Faithful's scheduled eruption time. Here the girls and I found a bench while we waited.
A pretty impressive geyser!
After the main event we walked around the upper geyser basin to look at more geysers, hotsprings, and pools. The girls enjoyed their traveling options - they spent time in their stroller, in the carriers, and walking along with us.
The girls were quite fascinated by this little geyser erupting away.
A selfie in front of the same geyser.
Some carrier time.
Grandma and Elsie.
By this point in the week Elsie was getting a little worn out. She fell asleep in the car a couple of times and actually slept while in the carrier.
Walking back to Old Faithful.
We stopped for another picnic on the way back to the house. Here's Leonie being a little rock climber!
On Thursday we left early again with ambitious plans to see a couple of sites in the park. We didn't get off to a great start as Leonie had a little upset tummy episode that resulted in her car seat being washed in the Firehole river. On the plus side, she felt fine after emptying her stomach! We stopped at the artist paint pots while the car seat dried on top of the car and saw lots of different colored hot springs and one boiling mud pot. I think the mud pot was my favorite feature in the whole park. It didn't photograph well but I took a video that I'll post in the next installment. Here's Leonie riding with daddy. Elsie was asleep on my back for the whole hike.
Another picnic, this time in the car! Sleep schedules were all messed up anyways, so we decided to let the girls nap in the car so that we could see a little more of the park. Leonie on the left.
Next up we visited Mammoth Hot Springs. Leonie was our tour guide at this point while Elsie went back to sleep.
The beautiful springs.
Leonie hiking with Grumps.
On Friday most of the crew was feeling a little tired and decided to sleep in. Matthew, Mom, and I decided to get an even earlier start (5:30am) so that we could try to catch a glimpse of some more wildlife. Our earlier start paid off on the drive in when we saw this black bear jump into the river and swim across!
Next we found these elk along the roadway.
We made our way to Hayden Valley to see what we could find. These gorgeous views were worth it!
An iconic Yellowstone photo. I couldn't quite capture the steamy breath of the bison but it still turned out ok.
We found these elk along the river and were able to hike close enough to get a good look.
We discovered the best way to find the rare wildlife was to look for other visitors. When we hiked back to the car after seeing the elk we saw a collection of people on top of a little hill along the roadway. They all had binoculars and spotting scopes out so we hurried up to see what the fuss was. Just as we arrived a tiny dot, later identified as a grizzly, scampered over a hill. Mom and I saw it briefly but Matthew missed it so we hiked along the ridge and waited for another sighting. We were rewarded with another (far away) view of a large grizzly bear that was being followed by a coyote! Here's a very blurry and zoomed in photo that I took.
And for reference, here's the zoomed out view from my cell phone. The bear was right in the center.
We visited the mud volcano after Hayden Valley and found this in the parking lot - a thermal feature forming under the pavement! It really reminded us how quickly things can change at the park.
Our last stop was a waterfall overlook. Here's Mom and I.
Later in the day Matthew went back out with his family to revisit Old Faithful. He decided to wait for the eruption of the Great Fountain Geyser and it also looks pretty impressive!
The photo they got on the way out of the park. We never did get a family photo at the sign, oh well.
We didn't get too much time for playing games at the house but here's a photo of Matthew and family during one of a few Bridge lessons.
Group shot at the house. It was a great place to stay and quite a fun filled week!
Finally, a sleepy Elsie on the way home. It took the girls about a week to recover I think.
