Earlier this year, Jeff and I decided to book a trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks over the boys' fall break. We haven't been back to Yellowstone since our snowmobiling adventure and Jonas has never been. Danny went once but he was too young to remember so we figured an autumn trip to the park on it's 150th anniversary was only fitting. We headed out on Thursday (October 13th). To be honest, this was the least planned trip I've taken with the family. Usually I have a general idea of what we'll be doing each day and about what amount of time it would take to do such activity, but this time I just knew where we'd be staying and what park we'd be in each day. Thursday was a complete mystery to me. I wasn't sure when we'd leave or when we'd get there so I didn't really plan anything for that day, but we definitely found something fun to do! We didn't leave too early. Jonas had spent the night with his cousins so we left in enough time to pick him up on our way north before Krystle and her kids had to leave for the activity they had planned for the day. Once we grabbed Jonas, we just kept going north. We stopped for lunch in Pocatello then moved on. It was apparent that we would have more than enough time to get to our hotel before dinner that night so when we saw Bear World, we decided to stop. On our way into the park, Jeff saw a poster that advertised feeding a bear cub. Both of the boys were pretty excited about that possibility and we lucked out to secure the last two slots for the next feeding time, which happened to only be a half hour from when we arrived. We killed that half hour roaming around the small petting zoo and Jonas chose to ride a couple of the kiddie carnival rides. Finally, the time came for them to help bottle feed some 9 month old bear cubs. I have to admit I was a little jealous and bummed there weren't more slots open. The cubs were so cute! There were 6 cubs total and each of the people feeding the cubs got to rotate through feeding each of them. Jonas decided his favorite was Gunner. Danny liked Nugget. As they fed them, Danny and Jonas were instructed to stroke the cubs' heads. They both loved the experience. After the feeding, we then drove through the wildlife park. We saw elk, deer, bison, and of course, bear.
We spent a couple of hours at the park before making the last push to our final destination, Island Park. The hotel we were staying in was beautiful! It was right on the river. We enjoyed a dinner outside by the river then Jonas chose to swim before calling it a day...in anticipation of the next day's adventures!
Friday (October 14th) and Saturday (October 15th) we spent in Yellowstone. We hiked nearly 10 miles total on Friday and another 8-9 miles on Saturday. Jonas was a trooper! I'm sure we worked his 7-year-old legs more than he wanted to, but even he will admit that he really loved the diversity of Yellowstone. We saw everything from waterfalls to cavernous springs. We sat in awe of the power of the geysers and beauty of the hot springs. We laughed at the bubbling mud pots and got minorly frustrated at a herd of bison that caused an hour and a half delay because they simply wouldn't move off the road. Still, the amount of bison we saw was incredible. They got so close to our car one time and weren't too far away when we were at Old Faithful. We also saw a little black bear (but it was hard to take a picture of it), an elk, and deer. I think our favorite waterfall was the Lower Falls that emptied into the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The sheer power of those falls was intimidating and the majesty of the canyon was inspiring. Our favorite geyser was Grand geyser. After we saw Old Faithful, we decided to walk the upper geyser loop. Several geysers happened to be bubbling or spouting as we strolled down the path. When we got to Grand, we saw several people sitting there waiting. There was a number to call to find out it's expected eruption time. We learned that it was supposed to erupt at 12:30, give or take 90 minutes. It was 1:00 when we got there and it still hadn't erupted so we decided to sit and wait. The boys weren't too excited to potentially wait for another whole hour, but it turns out we only needed to wait an additional 15 minutes for the best geyser show ever! This is the tallest erupting geyser in the world. It reached heights of upward of 200 feet and spouted for at least 10 minutes straight. Moreover, we were so much closer to it than we were to Old Faithful. It was quite the show! I loved the diversity of Yellowstone. It is such an intriguing place with so much uncertainty. There are some geysers that you simply don't know when or if they will erupt...then there's always the possibility of a completely new eruption. It was a constant reminder of how fragile life really is.
After we finished seeing what we hoped to see at Yellowstone on Saturday, we moved on to Jackson, WY and the Grand Tetons. Sunday (October 16th), Jeff's real birthday, we spent doing what he loves - being active and out in nature. October was the perfect time to go to both parks because we missed the summer crowds; however, much of the concessions and amenities of the parks have also shut down for the season. Thus said, there weren't any visitors centers to explore in Tetons (there were still some open at Yellowstone, especially at Old Faithful)...just the rugged grandeur of the mountain range. We decided to scale back our miles of hiking to only about 6 that day...easy right? I think Jonas appreciated that we drove most of the park, but we did get out to hike back to Taggart Lake and I'm so glad we did. It was this breathtaking, glacial lake, nestled at the base of Grand Teton. We got to hike along a river (which the boys enjoyed jumping through the rocks), through a lodge pole pine forrest, and eventually along the banks of the lake's still waters where we had a picnic. It was perfect! Once we finished the hike, we drove on to Jenny Lake where we got out and the boys skipped rocks. Jonas was even successful. I, however, only managed to throw one rock that actually skipped once. We spent several hours in the park admiring the beauty either from the car or on foot. On our way back into Jackson, we stopped at the Moulton's barn. This is the most photographed barn in the world because of the beautiful backdrop of the Teton mountain range....and it lived up to its reputation. We got there and there were several people that ranged from professional to casual to take pictures of the old barn. And yes, I was one of them. Finally, we ended our day (and our trip) in downtown Jackson. We strolled through some shops, stopped to snap a pic at the famous antler arches, had dinner, and indulged in an ice cream treat to top of Jeff's birthday. The whole trip was rather perfect. We were all a little sad to head home the next day; yet, Jonas is already planning our fall break trip for next year.
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