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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Spencer lurrrrves flowers |
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| Daddy's girl |
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| 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.
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| Madison River |
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| 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.
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| Sleeping Old Faithful behind us |
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| 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
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| Mama and baby Elk |
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| Buffalo |
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| 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……
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| How many layers do I need mummy?? |
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| This is just ridiculous! |
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| 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.
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| Gibbon Falls |
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| Spencer and Mater |
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| Chilling by the Yellowstone River |
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| Proof that there are bears in Yellowstone! |
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| 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.
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