Marc didn't have school Monday or Tuesday, Today, so we took advantage of the nice weather and long weekend and went to Yellowstone! I only went once and was there for a few hours and Marc has never been! Since it is only about an hour and a half away we could resist, especially since we will not be living so close for much longer! We started out our trip here:
This is us in line at McDonalds. We had buy one get one free breakfast sandwich coupons. I decided to take a picture because there was a long line, but we were only there about 5 minutes before we had our food!
We were pretty worried that there were going to be a lot of people since it was a long weekend. I looked online for hotels and there was not a single room Friday, Saturday, or Sunday nights, I thought perfect everyone will be leaving! It was true! We passed so many cars on the way up! A lot of RV's and cars from other states! I was so happy! I tried to take pictures, it was seriously a caravan of happiness! The pictures didn't turn out so great, but I did take a few on the drive up...
It is a really pretty drive! The weather was so nice, we drove with the windows down for a little bit! Marc says that the closer we got the more excited I got. But really it was because he had never been and I was excited for him! Here is when we entered the town of West Yellowstone. Even the town is fun to walk around in. There are lots of little shops and buildings.
This was the line into the park, something else I was worried about! I was afraid that we would get to the gates and there would be too many people that Marc didn't want to go in. But as you can see, at 11:00 am, that was not the case!
We bought a season pass for $50, it normally costs $25 for 7 days, but the season pass allows you to go for a whole year! We plan to get our moneys worth and more this summer! Here are a few pictures as we got into the park...
You can see in some of those pictures the burnt trees. The fires in 1988 burnt a large portion of the park, but after 21 years it is still a little noticeable. We decided we wanted to see Old Faithful, so we made our way on that stretch of road to it. There are quite a few places to stop and see the geysers and paint pots along the way. As soon as we got close and could see the smoke I heard a huge gasp! Marc was really excited! I tried to get his reaction a second time on the video camera, but it wasn't the same. We stopped and took a few pictures. It was about 60 degrees and windy, which helped the sulfur smell blow away from us!
We even got a picture together!
We made our way a little further and found some more geysers by this really pretty river! We had fun walking around here, the geysers here were really loud and most of them were bubbling really loud!
Marc took this shot of one of the geysers and was pretty proud of it so I posted it just for him!
After we left this spot we saw a bunch of cars pulled off in a spot, that only means one thing...wildlife! There was a herd of Bison! Marc was really excited, so we stopped with all the other cars and took some pictures! The little babies were so cute and curious! They were about 15 feet away from us. After we got in the car we both said, "that was stupid"! There are signs all over that say not to get too close, but we saw them after we got close.
We then got to Old Faithful! We weren't sure when it was supposed to go off again, so we sat down and waited. We were there about 20 minutes before it went off, we heard some pretty funny things! This lady sat down behind us and said out loud to everyone, "Is everyone just sitting here waiting for this thing to go off?" I wanted to turn around and use Jeff Foxworthy's famous "here's yer sign"! Are you kidding me lady! There are benches all around these smoking holes in the ground, what else are we doing! She then kept saying that Americans were strange and there was nothing like that in Iran where she was from! I am pretty sure she wasn't from Iran, I just know. Marc made me laugh pretty hard though! I think he was tired of waiting because out of nowhere he said "And Today is the day Old Faithful dies..."! We had heard recently that due to strong seismic activity some of the geysers were not as active, I think Marc thought that it would never go off and we would be able to tell our kids we were in the thousands of people that waited for Old Faithful when it lost faith! I couldn't help but laugh the whole time! Here are a few pics from that, oh, and Old Faithful still is faithful! As we were leaving we saw a family from India, the little boy with a VERY thick accent said "We waited here for so long just for that". The accent makes it so much funnier, try thinking it in your head! Really I laughed for about 5 minutes after that!
We also went and walked around the Old Faithful lodge! It is so cool! If you ever go, it is definitely worth it! It is a 7 story log cabin, restaurant, hotel, gift shop etc. There are two there to walk around, but this one is really worth it! I took some pictures, but they didn't turn out. Just go look for yourself! We kept driving and looking for a spot to eat our picnic lunch, we got near Yellowstone lake and had to stop! How beautiful is this?
We couldn't find a nice grassy spot to lay out blanket out and eat, so we used the car. We made sandwiches and had carrots, cucumbers, and cherries! It was so delicious. We laid down in the back and looked around for a little bit after! We were so full!
Then we walked around the lake and the geysers there! It was really pretty! Marc tried to take a few pictures to see how deep some of these pools are, we couldn't really guess, they are so deep, so blue, and so stinky!
We saw an elk and I tried to take a picture of Marc with the elk, it didn't really turn out, but you can see the elk in the back over his shoulder!
As we were leaving the park we found some really pretty waterfalls. You stand really high above them but they were so beautiful!
Here are a few cool shots at another set of geysers, these ones were really smoky, As you walk by you feel like you are walking in a fog bath! Every pore opens, Marc liked staying there for awhile, he said it made my hair really curly! There are also a few Marc took as we were leaving, I think he was sick of driving, so I took over, then he went camera happy!
As I was typing this novel... Marc came in and I told him I wouldn't post a picture, I thought it would be embarrassing, he told me to! So I am sorry, but here it is:
Don't worry, he is just posing! He isn't doing anything that could get us kicked out!
Sorry this is super long! We had a really fun day and only saw about a 1/4 of the park. We plan to go back a few more times! If you want to go, we'll take you!
