Yellowstone

One of the highlights of our trip to Montana was going to Yellowstone National Park. It's in Wyoming. I say this because if you had asked me two weeks ago what state Yellowstone is in I wouldn't have known. And, I learned that Mount Rushmore is not in Yellowstone. I think it's safe to say that I have forgotten everything from social studies.

Driving to Yellowstone.




We went to three states in about twenty minutes. Idaho is about ten miles from Yellowstone, so we had to stop and get a picture to prove we've been there.



And then we went across the street to get a picture in front of the Montana sign.




Interestingly there was no "Welcome to Wyoming" sign. So we settled for the Yellowstone sign.




Bears use trees to sharpen their claws, stripping them of their bark. We stuck to the big roads so, thankfully, we didn't see any bears. It was really interesting to me that there were so many people watching and photographing deer. I guess folks who live in the city don't get to see many deer. We've got them in our backyard (and the deer poop poop to prove it).




Daddy being artsy.






Old Faithful resides in the park and we arrived just in time to watch him erupt. They can actually predict within ten minutes +/- when the next eruption will be.





Gorgeous!





Your daddy likes it when I take photos of him driving.




This was a really interesting part of the park. We were really looking forward to walking on the walkways that go over these shallow bubbly ponds. But the ponds were no longer there in this part of the park. Turns out the landscape of Yellowstone is constantly changing. The springs that supply hot water to different areas of the park open and close at different times in history due to mineral buildup and earthquakes (it's like when a pipe gets so full of mineral deposits that it closes off, then flows again after an earthquake). Twenty years ago this area was a series of waterfalls. Now what remains are these odd mineral shapes. This was all incredibly interesting to nerds like us.




Daddy being artsy again.



This is the little town that is just inside the north entrance to the park. We stopped here on our way out for some ice cream.




The north entrance. It looks very intimidating (and Auschwitz-like) to me.



And we got to see a beautiful sunset on the drive back to Bozeman.


It was a really fun day, and I'm so glad we took the time to go. We spent much of our travel time planning future vacations with you. We've got some fun plans for your childhoods.