Yellowstone National Park, Idaho/Montana/Wyoming

Bye Bye Salt Lake

We left early and the kids ate peanut butter sandwhiches and grapes in Louie for breakfast again.  It’s about a 5 hour drive up to Yellowstone, up through Idaho which was really beautiful.  There is a lot of farmland and rolling hills, quite dry and lots of watering going on but beautiful nonetheless.  As you near the Montana border you can see the Southern end of the Rocky Mountains, very majestic.  We were a bit worried about how cold it was expected to be, zero or below zero each night so we opted to stay in the valley rather than the mountains.   We couldn’t stay in the actual park because of lack of hook ups to electricity but also because they only allow hard sided campers in there (because of the bears we think).  If you want to stay nearer the park, head for West Yellowstone, there are two great campsites there and only minutes from the gate. West Yellowstone is a gorgeous little alpine town with everything you need and some great trout fishing shops.  I couldn’t help but think of Dad a lot while we were here, he would have loved it.  It is trout fisherman heaven that’s for sure, winding rivers for miles.  It actually reminds me a lot of NZ, the Tongariro and National Park.

Island Park, Idaho

Of course the more we mention Dad, the more questions we get from young Leo; “if Grandad and Zara are well again, are they coming to see us on earth?”, “…but where ARE they?” etc. 

Spencer lurrrrves flowers

Daddy's girl

Sunset at camp

Yellowstone itself is everything we thought it would be, absolutely gorgeous.  It’s moving into Autumn here (Fall) so the colours are just divine.  The park is in both Montana and Wyoming, the majority being in Wyoming.  We joked that we woke up in Idaho, bought coffee in Montana and picnicked in Wyoming each day.


Yellowstone is actually very volcanic so it’s a mix of Rotorua meets Lord of the Rings scenery.  The first huge eruption was 2 million years ago, then another about 1.3 million years ago and then the last about 640,000 years ago.  This resulted in a huge basin and magmatic heat that powers the parks geysers, hot springs and mud pools.  This park has everything from forests, lakes, rivers, hot springs,  and geysers to magnificent waterfalls.  Not only that but it is alive with wildlife like bears, moose, elk, bison, wolf, coyote and a huge amount of birds.

On our first day in Yellowstone we headed towards Old Faithful, who faithfully erupts every 40 -120 minutes.  The nearby visitor centre estimates the next eruption for you so you know when to be in the area.  On the way we saw many lava pools, hot springs and quite a few buffalo/bison.  One herd was lazing about the hot springs area keeping warm.  Justin was so funny, he started out doing 5 miles per hour trying to spot game despite the fact that the speed limit was 45 mph and the roads are paved with lanes and everything.  Eventually, after long queues of people behind us he began to realise it was not the Kruger.  Saying this, apparently over 100 elk, bears, wolves and buffalo are killed each year by vehicles to slowing down should be a priority.

Madison River

The way we do it around here.....

We got to Old Faithful about 1 hour before she was due to erupt so broke out our picnic lunch and enjoyed it before heading back over the viewing platforms.  She was about 6 minutes late but she showed up in great form, it was wonderful to see.  Leo was a bit worried he was going to get showered by it and couldn’t believe hot water was going to shoot out of the earth so his eyes were very big as she started to head for the skies.

Sleeping Old Faithful behind us

Thar' she blows!

On the way back we saw buffalo and elk, one had a baby who was feeding, it was just lovely.  Didn’t see any bears but thought we might get lucky the next day.  There are only 200 moose in the entire park so you have to be very lucky to see those guys

Mama and baby Elk

Buffalo

Beautiful Buck

We stopped in West Yellowstone to mooch around the shops and grab a pizza before heading home.  Two tired kids and shattered parents we rugged up tightly for the cold night ahead……

How many layers do I need mummy??

This is just ridiculous!

All rugged up!

It WAS cold, Leo kept coming out of his sleeping bag and I couldn’t bear to lie there thinking he was cold so I crawled in with him.  Spencer went through til early morning but once I wrapped another fleece over her she seemed to head back off to neverland.  Justin slept through the whole night the lucky b******

On our second day in Yellowstone we headed North up to Norris and then across to Canyon Village.  I cannot describe how vast this park is, it is HUGE and it has normal roads and even petrol stations inside it.  There are lodges, restaurants, campgrounds and visitor centres available.  We let the kids have a good run around at the Gibbon Falls on the way up to Norris which was great and then they slept while we “hunted” game (saw more large herds of bison and a few elk) until we reached the picnic spot we were after.  It was a lovely spot, right on Yellowstone River, just beautiful.  The kids had a blast and we went for a nice walk (with eyes in the back of our head) down by the river.  The bears are actually desperate right now to bulk up before winter so we really thought we’d see one but the closest we got was a bear paw print by the river.

Gibbon Falls

Spencer and Mater

Chilling by the Yellowstone River

Proof that there are bears in Yellowstone!

Bubba Bison

Despite large signs warning how dangerous buffalo are, the people here don’t seem to care.  They get out of their cars literally about 3-4 meters with them, kids too and the buffalo have babies with them.  We haven’t heard of any incidents with buffalo but in July a guy hiking with his wife was killed by a Mama Grizzly.

When we got back to camp that night we heard there were 18-20 grizzlies “operating” in our area and not to leave food out because they were quite aggressive.  This made walking to the toilet late a night a real pleasure I can tell you.

Bye Bye Yellowstone, thanks for the time – you are truly beautiful and here’s hoping another eruption is a long way off because you are perfect the way you are.

Bonneville Salt Flats & Salt Lake City, UTAH

Our first view of Salt Lake

We arrived quite late in the day and managed to find a KOA (Kamp of America) on the outskirts of the city.  There is nothing near the Salt Flats unless you camp in Wendover and that was too far out of our way so we got up and drove the 1 hr 20 min drive on the Dwight Eisenhower highway out to the Bonneville Salt Flats.  We were quite excited because there are racing meets only 5 times a year and we had managed to time our arrival perfectly to see people try to beat the land speed records for their class of vehicle.

Lake starts turning to salt!

The drive out there passes Salt Lake and then everything turns to salt!  Literally, the highway is right through the middle of salt fields.  When we arrived we learned that we could actually drive Louie right out onto the Salt Flats, first we drove out to the pit where we could see everyone preparing their vehicles.  They look like something from outer space, long, sleek and totally impractical for comfort!  We then took a drive out to the Spectator area, this is in the middle of the flats and where the vehicles reach their maximum speed.  The kids sat up front with us on the drive and Leo had his first driving lesson.  He held the wheel while Justin controlled the pedals, the funny thing was Justin seemed to forget he had control over our speed and kept telling Leo to “slow down, slow down!”

Salt mining

Justin and Louie at the "pit"

Speed demon getting ready

On raceway track starting line

Another hopeful

Leo admiring the handiwork

Leo enjoying his first driving lesson

We set up our picnic at the spectator area and sat down to wait.  There were only a few other cars there which was nice.  The salt is actually quite cool to the touch despite the hot sun and it being the middle of the day.  Salt got EVERYWHERE, it’s really sticky.  Justin couldn’t resist and put some on his chicken sandwhich and Spencer’s face was a treat when she treated it like sand and stuck a whole load in her mouth.

No mans land

Picnic at Spectator pit

Salt anyone?

Waddya Want?

Where is the saddle?

Only loo for miles, called Honey Pot!

What IS this stuff?

The pilots have a 60 minute window to prepare their car, race it up the 1 mile track, prepare it again (repack chute etc) and race back down the track.  Their speed in the middle of the track is then averaged out to find the speed trial result.  After a false start we saw the Speed Demon flash past us at about 700 ks per hour (446 miles per hour), wow!  It was a crazy speed, unbelievable really.  We got in Louie and went back to the entrance area only to find that we had been moving during a “lock down” period.  Apparently there should be someone with a radio at each location to tell vehicles to stop but no one told us, it’s all a bit relaxed really.  Speed Demon (driven by the self made multi millionaire who founded Juice Plus) beat the current land speed record of 402 miles per hour for his class (single seated, piston driven, fuelled vehicle) but only managed to do it one way down the track, on his return something happened and he had to stop so missed his 60 minute window.

Speed Demon in action

We met a lovely old man called James Halliday who is a speed buff and comes out to the 5x a year meets to watch.  He told us the current land speed record is 700 miles per hour (around  1000 kms/hr), held by an ex-airforce squadron leader who drove a  vehicle with two jet engines.  Apparently he broke the sound barrier and you can see it on youtube if you search on it.  Kiwi Bert Munro is still talked about in these circles, they have a big photo of him with his shirt off in the local café.

Team Wright ticks another bucket list item off

Leo looking for some action

We were actually a bit worried about “salt” blindness (as opposed to snow blindness) because it really was very bright so we didn’t want to spend all day there even though more races were scheduled.  The kids don’t have sunglasses and Leo was started to really squint.  It was a magic day and Justin had some fun with Louie on the drive back across the salt flats to the highway. 

Leo has managed to save enough stickers to finally get his beloved Buzz Lightyear so off to our friend Walmart we went.  Spencer fell in love with a dog we have named Pooch and we just couldn't turn her down, she has been such a good sport about playing with nothing but Leo's trains/cars/planes on this trip.

He's mine, he's finally mine!

Sucker...I didn't even need stickers...

We decided to stay an extra day in Salt Lake City to give the kids a break from the car considering we had to drive so far to Bonneville flats so the next day we took it easy at the campground and found a nice walk by the river behind the camp with a huge playground for the kids to tire themselves out. That afternoon we caught the free shuttle from the camp into Temple Square.  We thought it was a great service until we were delivered into the hands of Sister Howell and Sister West (two Mormon “tour guides”) who adopted our family and wanted to show us the sights.  Salt Lake City is the World Headquarters of the Mormon faith and they literally own everything in Temple including a massive Conference Centre that seats 20,000 people!

Temple Square church

Spot the little man - biggest organ ever! ;o)

We had a particular interest in the Temple there because Justin’s Great Aunty Joyce had been married there.  Anyway, between asking about our faith and asking if we would consider their faith etc the sisters managed to show us the tabernacle (this has the biggest organ I’ve ever seen) and the outside of the temple.  I asked if we could go in, hoping that our family connection would get us the pass but the answer was “no, but God wants you to go in so you should prepare yourself” (?????).  Leo and Spencer didn’t think much of the pictures of Jesus they were given but we did enjoy the visitors centre (also owned by the Mormons) it had beautiful life-size paintings of Jesus’ life and a spiralling ramp up into space (Leo loved this) where a massive statue of Jesus was.  This was to symbolise the rise into Heaven.

Aunty Joyce's temple

The symbolic rise into Heaven

Basically the Mormons follow the Christian bible but the big difference is, they have “modern day prophets” and when the sisters told me they were going to hear the prophet and the 12 apostles speak next week I thought (with all due respect) that they were crazy.  It turns out they have a prophet and modern day 12 apostles too.  They asked what the hardest thing for us would be if we were to believe their faith.  I told them I was a bit dubious about modern day prophets because of all the false ones out there and asked how they knew he was the real deal.  They didn't answer me.  Justin asked who chose the new prophet each time the old one died, “they are chosen through prayer” was the answer…..

The final straw for me was when I asked them where the rest room was because Spencer had just filled her nappy….”between the crucifixion and the resurrection”….I was about to explode in laughter when I realised they were talking about the large paintings depicting Jesus’ life, and there they were, the toilet doors right between the picture of Jesus on the cross and Jesus rising again.

After about an hour of asking them questions and debating the meaning of life whilst trying to stop our kids destroy the model of old Jerusalem and knock old people over on the ramp up to heaven Justin and I needed a serious drink.  We left the sisters with good wishes and headed down to the Gateway which is a shopping area.  It’s like leaving oneworld and entering another but for some reason the whole city felt a bit subdued to us.  It was a very weird atmosphere.  We enjoyed a nice mojito in the sun and then headed back to where we met the “free” shuttle (free but with conditions that you enjoy a tour with the sisters!).