I've been planning for the five of us to visit Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons for a very long time. During all of this it was doubtful if they would be open, but it happened just in time! We visited Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Utah (three of those new states for Kris and me), got to see my wonderful cousins and families, did lots of hiking, white water rafting, wildlife spotting, city sightseeing, and basically I'm convinced this whole area is magical.
The boys picked the Brink of the Lower Falls hike in the canyon or the Grand Prismatic Spring as their favorites until they went white water rafting, and that adrenaline rush won the overall for them.
Day one
We flew into Jackson, Wyoming. Did you know the city is named Jackson and not Jackson Hole? Lesson number one when planning this trip. As we landed, Kris and I checked our phones and we were treated to the news there was a wind storm at home and it peeled the roof off the dairy barn. Welcome to vacation!
We got our rental car and drove to Grand Teton National Park. We went on the Jenny Lake hike to Hidden Falls and up to Inspiration Point.
Mountains, water, waterfalls ... all completely stunning. We saw a fox, a marmot, and we had an absolutely gorgeous hike. Definitely go on this hike.
We drove into Jackson, ate out at the Snake River Brewing Co (I had a bison burger, my first), and walked around the hip town. We stayed at the Antler Inn, which was within walking distance of everything.
Day two
Yellowstone day! Right on our drive in we saw two bears. It's easy to see wild animals, because other people are parked along the road staring, or with cameras, or with binoculars, so you just stop and look too. We also spotted animals on our own. They are so prevalent, it's that easy. (Especially bison. There are places where it's bison as far as the eye can see. Plus they like to walk in front of your car.)
Our first stop was Old Faithful.
I've avoided looking at pictures and videos of Yellowstone my entire life, because I like being surprised. So I've never seen Old Faithful. We hung out about 45 minutes before it was scheduled to go off, and so we walked around the boardwalks and looked at the springs. I loved seeing them, and didn't realize they just got bigger and better along the way!
Old Faithful lived up to its name. It lasted longer than I expected, and I was happy to see it - finally!
Grand Prismatic Spring
At this stop, I was marveling at the beginning - steam, colors, different - and then we got to the spring and I couldn't have loved it more. Even the steam was blue and orange! It was so incredibly colorful, beautiful, and different! It's like nothing I've seen. It was Max's favorite too - he just calls it the rainbow pool, which is a pretty descriptive name.
We could see people up high, looking at it from above, but you can't get to that trail from this parking lot. Go one mile south of Midway Geyser Basin to the Fairy Falls parking lot, and the Grand Prismatic Spring overlook is just over a half mile from there.
Fountain Paint Pot Trail
This featured bubbling puddles of water the color of chocolate milk. Here's where I realized - if this were in a park near us, it would be THE THING for miles. Here at Yellowstone, you're like - wow, that's cool, but it's no erupting geyser or rainbow pool.
Competition in this park is fierce.
Bison
Bison are dangerous! The signs warned us everywhere. They just looked like cattle to me. I didn't go close to them, but they sure seemed familiar.
Mammoth Springs
Word on the Yellowstone street is that these look different all the time. This was like walking into another world. You get out and you're in another land - this one gray, white, and orange. It was so different than all the other places.
Lamar Valley
We drove to see miles and miles of rolling mountains and bison. We saw bison nursing from their mothers, we saw bison with heads so huge you wondered how they could hold them up. Everywhere you looked, it seemed like you should take a picture, and none of them did it justice.
Gardiner, Montana
The drive to this entrance was just as breathtaking as anything in the park. The Garnder River runs through it - the internet helpfully tells me this is also sometimes called the Gardiner River - and we ate at the Iron Horse Bar & Grille high above it. We walked around the town, took at a picture at the entrance to the park, and noted something interesting that we loved - every place does everything there. Want a cup of coffee? Want to spend the night? Want to buy some clothing? Eat? Gamble? It's like every establishment offered a one-stop shop. We liked the entrepreneurship!
We stayed at the Yellowstone Gateway Inn, which were little houses right in the middle of it all. The owner was really nice, too.
Day three
Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
This was one of our favorites. This and the Grand Prismatic Spring were all our number one or number two for the trip, depending on the family member.
I really wanted to go on the hike to the Brink of the Lower Falls. So much! We got there and it may have been closed ... but we went anyway, and it was TOTALLY worth it! The hike down was gorgeous, and then you get to stand RIGHT over a giant, beautiful waterfall! It was so scary it made your adrenaline rush. You should go on this hike.
Yellow stones and waterfalls
Ah...now we see where it got the name. The walls of the canyon were made of yellow stone! We drove all along this and got out at several places to the overlooks, and we hiked to it where we could. I loved this place.
Mud volcano and dragon's mouth spring
The spot on the map said mud volcano, so I felt we had to stop. The mud volcano anywhere else would be amazing. In Yellowstone it's just like ... well, this isn't a canyon or rainbow spring. THIS IS WHAT YELLOWSTONE DOES TO YOU.
The Dragon's Mouth Spring I really liked, because it was like a creature was in a cave, making scary noises and breathing steam. It really made you not want to go in there. Loved it!
Yellowstone Lake
We had a picnic and played along the lake. It was beautiful and clear. The sand was black. The water was framed by mountains, and the lake is huge. It was like we were the only people in the world.
Lake Overlook Trail in West Thumb
We went across the parking lot (it wasn't easy to find - we had to ask people inside) to find the Lake Overlook Train in the West Thumb parking lot. There were many signs saying to watch out for bears, which made the boys make tons of jokes.
We climbed really high to see the overlook, and we were the only people there. I wanted to go closer to the edge to see, and then I realized ... the ground was boiling. Even though we were super high - we'd climbed a steep hill - we were far from the water - we were still close to the core of the earth! If you're not careful here, you can accidentally stumble into boiling pots of water. I LOVE IT HERE! This never has happened anywhere else I've been.
After the hike, everyone was exhausted, but I suggested we just do a little walk through West Thumb. Kris suggested to the boys that at some point I would need to be cut off. However, we stopped at the car for Oreos and water and we merrily went to go look at more boiling lakes on the boardwalk. We saw two women go off the path and pose along the crust of one. One woman put her hand in it and exclaimed that it was hot. The rest of us marveled that she was breaking every rule that was posted in the park, and I half expected her to fall into it. The signs were wrong ... she escaped unharmed.
West Yellowstone, Montana
We drove to West Yellowstone to stay at the Crosswinds Inn and walked around the town. We ate at a place called Bullwinkle's, and right after that, the shop owners and hotel manager and restaurant owners told us that they'd been issued news that their water had coliforms and we could NOT drink the water in their town. We'd all just had one or two glasses of it at the restaurant and we all felt fine. Maybe those coliforms came after. Ha!
Day four
Grand Tetons
On the way from Yellowstone to the Grand Tetons, we saw a grizzly bear, a wolf, and moose. None of us could believe it. Over the whole trip we also saw fox, marmot, elk, pronghorn, birds... I didn't anticipate seeing much of anything on this trip, because you just never can predict animals. But so cool.
Hiked String Lake Trailhead to Inspiration Point
We met up with my lovely cousin Carrie and her son Mitchell! We agreed to meet in the String Lake Trailhead. We didn't have any service here - we rarely did when we were in the parks, and it was really hard for us to find. My suggestion is - just start asking people. People were very helpful in directing us to it. My GPS didn't have us even close to this parking lot. It's just a little parking lot, and it looks like there is a tiny beach in front of you. I didn't ever see a sign for this. But! It starts at String Lake, and we went left.
This approaches Inspiration Point from the other direction, and it was an amazingly beautiful hike. Water, mountains, high paths along the water...and the addition of my lovely cousins, who live near and know everything! We hiked until we hit snow, and then we turned around.
We saw two moose right off the trail. So close. We watched them so long that we just eventually ... were done watching them. They didn't seem to mind us at all. Fun to see!
Hike around String Lake
We drank some water and ate sandwiches in the parking lot, and then we hiked around the entire lake - this is a different path with the same trailhead. The boys played in the cold water, we saw where there was an avalanche, and it was a great hike with pretty views.
Idaho Falls
Carrie lives in Idaho Falls, and Kris and I enjoyed seeing all of the irrigated fields on the way to her house, including - yes, potatoes. We spent the night with her super fun family!
Day five
Bad news - one of our beloved employees was in a car accident. Thankfully, she was okay, but she couldn't work that morning. Kris spent some time on the phone on the way to ... white water rafting on the Hoback River in Jackson, Wyoming!
We went with the Lewis & Clark Company, and we had a fantastic time. Everything in your being says ... do NOT go into that giant rapids with your children. But we did! You'd be paddling air, screaming, trying to do what the guide said, and laughing afterward. It was just the right amount of fun and scary. I could have done it for many more hours. It seemed to go so quickly.
Tour of Museum of Idaho
Carrie is the curator of the Museum of Idaho and she gave us a tour of the yet-to-be-opened exhibits, and a tour of the archives! We all loved it, and I'm so glad we got to go.
Walking around Idaho Falls, Idaho
We ate Mexican food in the downtown, and then we walked all along the beautiful falls and parks along the river while Carrie told us about the interesting and somewhat sordid history of the town's origins. They showed us around the town and we spent our last night with them, eating huckleberry ice cream, which is super popular in their area!
Day six
Salt Lake City, Utah
We got into real traffic. I wanted to put my feet in Salt Lake, but the place I picked to get to it, you had to pay to get in. Something to see next time...
We ate in downtown Salt Lake City and walked to the temple. They had Bird scooters there, and Kris had a credit on it, so we let the boys share one as we walked around. It was their first time riding one. We also stopped to look at the Capitol but we were getting late for ...
Provo, Utah
My cousin Cindy and her family live in Provo! Her husband Barney immediately met us with rockets for the boys to build. Cindy, Barney, their kids, their grandchildren, and my aunt Robin all went to Rock Canyon Park, ate dinner, and set off rockets. These people know what kids like. It was a beautiful, mountain setting, with the Great Salt Lake in the background. We all talked and talked and spent the night with them.
Right before we drifted off to sleep, with our alarm set for 4:00 a.m. to get to the airport in Salt Lake, Kris got a text that the cows were out. Sleep tight!
All in all, I feel like Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons are America's playground. It's so wonderful to go places right in your own country and see things you have never seen before. Enjoy your trip!
