Yellowstone National Park- Day #1



Monday, July 30th, 2012    The Barretts Take On Yellowstone!



Jonathan with a bison
behind him.







We all woke up early and were on the road by 8:50am which is quite a feat when there are 16 people and most of them like to sleep in!  The drive to Yellowstone was about 2 hours long.  We were actually in the park when what did we see....but a GRIZZLY BEAR!  It was pretty far off but still impressive!  We also saw a Bison on our way in which is always cool.  We are excited to see how many animals we can spot here and we were off to a good start!





A view of Old Faithful never seen

before- this is my niece Katie :)



Our first stop was at the the Devil's Tabletop where we saw a bunch of paint pots.  If you have never seen geysers, please try to see them.  There is nothing quite like Hot Springs and the geysers that they create.  One of our favorite pools was at this stop, we just love the intense blue that the bacteria creates.  A Ranger explained that different colors are produced by the phylum bacteria for different temperatures, thus getting the blues, reds and yellow colors.  We had fun being sprayed by the geysers...it was just like being in a steam shower.  The kids were not big fans though of the smell :)  There are so many colors, smells, visual simulations here.  What an incredible place!

Our next stop was at Old Faithful!  We stopped into say hello to it first and then had our picnic lunch while waiting for the time for it to erupt again.  We had fun as the time approached and today she was fashionably late but still within the predicted time...amazing!  It is so much fun to see the geysers erupting and incredible to look over the landscape and see other eruptions.  As Old Faithful finished her show,  we headed around the pathway to see more geysers and hot springs.  We loved seeing the phenomenal colors and textures.  We were sorely tempted to touch the water many times because it is so hard to imagine boiling water coming out of the ground.  The texture  of the ground was so incredible and we had fun identifying different animal prints that had walked this ground at some point but it was now hard as rock (or at least it looked like it).  It was a wonderful walk but there was an option to do more.  It would be over a mile more so we all took a vote to see who wanted to proceed on further....or GO GET ICE-CREAM.  Yep, not hard to wonder which one one out.  And that ice-cream was yummy :)

West Thumb Hot Springs

Next we headed to West Thumb and this spot was Hot Springs located right on a lake.  As we drove into the area, there were people beside the road obviously looking at some animals.  It was an elk.  So, the kids and I hopped out of the car so Dave could go park in the proper place. We followed the elk and got some pictures of it eating.  It did not seem to mind at all.  Annika, Jonathan and I were walking back to the parking lot, when they look into the woods next to us and they say, "  Mommy, there is a bear in there."  Mind you, the woods are pretty thick so I am thinking, yeah, right.  As we stop and look....there WAS something big, black...could not really see for all the trees BUT it was fairly close to us.  As it lumbered by, we could see it WAS a bear!  YIKES!!!  I tried to get pictures but they are not real clear.  We did not know that the Park Ranger had been trying to get people out of the woods and away from the bear.  We followed it and saw it run away across the road.  Cool- now we have seen a grizzly AND a black bear. 

The hot springs at West Thumb are incredible.  To see the turquoise blue next to the dark blue of the lake is breathtaking.   The colors are spectacular.   I had asked how they knew about how deep the springs were.  He said that they used to pull aluminium boats across the springs with people inside and they would lower a steel rope to check the depth.  Wow!  That would be hot.  They are not allowed to do that anymore :)





The Grand Prismatic Hot Spring!

Our last stop in the park was at the Grand Prismatic Hot Springs. It is the largest pool in Yellowstone and the third largest in the world.  As we walked up to it, I had to comment that it was SO large, it was hard to see.  Is that not the strangest things?  But, it is true.  It was so big that you could not take it all in at once.  The best view of it actually, is an aerial view.  As we walked by it, it was like getting a huge steam bath.  I suppose this would feel really good in the winter time.  What another amazing day of seeing such unique things that God has made.   There was a river that water from the hot springs ran into and the kids could not help by wade into the river.  They said that it was warm on the far side of the river.  That is our hope on Wednesday, to go swimming in the Boiling River.  WOW!  That sounds adventurous, doesn't it?

Our final stop for the day was at Pete's Pizza and Pasta and what a wonderful meal it was.  We were able to eat outside on this gorgeous evening and some of the best pizza I have had (after the Pizza Dude Ranch, of course!).  We started our long drive home and enjoyed talking about all the amazing creations that we had seen.  After showers, everyone tumbled into bed and we all looked forward to sleeping in the next morning.



Very hungry and happy kids!