Yellowstone Part 2: Geysers, Tadpoles, & Wolves!

On Thursday we decided to venture into Yellowstone National Park and see what we could see. Jonah and Lilly were very excited to see the geysers. They had read about them in a book at home. So we packed up the kids and headed out. We quickly learned that you have to be patient about getting anywhere in Yellowstone. People frequently slow down or block the road to get pictures of animals that they see. Our first delay was because of a buffalo lounging in a meadow off the side of the road. We didn't pull over and I didn't get a picture, but we did see him out our window. Next were some elk who were grazing. I got a quick picture of them as we drove by.

Jonah insisted I get a picture of this dead tree in the river. He thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Our first stop was at the fountain paint pots. We got out and took the walkway all around to get a good look at them. The kids thought it was really cool how the water and ground were all different colors and the mud was boiling. We got to see a couple of the smaller geysers going off.

This was the pit with all the mud boiling in it. Sometimes the pressure would shoot mud quite a few feet in the air.

I loved the beautiful blue color of this spring

Lilly struck a pose for me

This was one of the smaller geysers

After we'd made our rounds at the paint pot, we headed to Midway Geyser Basin to see the Grand Prismatic Spring. I was overwhelmed by the beauty of Yellowstone! It's amazing how diverse it is, with the beautiful green trees and grass and then right in the middle you have these boiling geysers and multicolored ground.

The hot water from the spring runs down into the river

Jonah loved seeing the different colors that the bacteria made the ground

Nate and the girls. Jayne loves this backpack carrier. Whenever she sees it she says, "My ride!"

Grand Prismatic Spring

On our way back to the car we met a couple with a pretty dog that the kids just had to pet. It was one of those really large poodles. Sorry, I don't really know my canine vernacular. But the kids loved her and she loved them. Lilly informed me that we need to get a dog just like her and name her Uno One Barnum.
By the time we'd made our second walk to see the spring, the kids were wiped out. They fell asleep within five minutes of getting in the car. So we decided to head back to camp and have some lunch.
That afternoon, Amanda and Emily took the kids down to the river again to catch tadpoles. There were countless tadpoles in this river!
They came back with an entire jar full of the little guys to show us. They were also sporting some very wet and stinky clothes, but it was worth it because of the gigantic smiles on their faces!
For dinner we roasted hot dogs and had s'mores. My sadly deprived children had never roasted hot dogs or marshmallows before. They loved it, of course. We did the s'mores the old fashioned way with Hershey bars and graham crackers. Yum!
Later that evening, Nate and I got to leave the kids with Grandpa and Grandma and go walk around West Yellowstone a bit. It was really fun to check out all the little shops. They had so many amazing sculptures and ceramic art and jewelry and anything else you can imagine. We got some old fashioned candy and homemade fudge from the Rustic Candy Shop. Nate talked me into trying five different kinds of fudge(not that I needed much convincing). We had double chocolate, huckleberry, salted nut roll, peanut butter chocolate, and raspberry cream. We also got a cup of huckleberry ice cream to share. It was so relaxing to just sit on the bench outside and watch all the people and share our ice cream.
But the most important thing that happened while we were exploring the town was that we found showers! I really hate how stinky I get when I'm camping and I'm one of those people who have to wash their hair every single day. So we made plans to come back the next afternoon before our big date(more on that tomorrow) so I could have a shower and be clean! Hooray!
As you can probably guess, we didn't get much sleep this night either. After the noisy neighbors finally went to sleep, we found a new thing to keep us awake....wolves. We could hear an entire pack of wolves howling not too far away. It took me a minute to figure out what the noise was. I thought maybe it was just dogs people had brought camping, but it was a lot more shrill than your usual dog howl. Boy! That noise sent shivers up my spine. The kids were fast asleep, but Nate and I laid there and listened. Suddenly, the material my tent was made with seemed extra flimsy and I was secretly longing for four walls and a bolted door.
Anyway, I'm sure they weren't as close as we imagined. But I sure was happy to see the sun come up that morning!
One more day left! Part 3: Mosquito bites, Nature Walks, and Theatre!