We did not drive too far out into Lamar Valley because we were all getting tired of sight-seeing.  On the way back we saw another herd of bison.  After this sighting, we did not stop anymore to look at the bison because they were so ubiquitous.  Instead, we were just like, “Oh, it’s just more bison…keep driving”.  Ha!

We did make a stop to see Tower Fall, which you can see after just a short walk from the parking lot.  Nice to see that there is still flowing water in other parts of the country!

More evidence of fires…

Next we went to the Canyon Village Visitor Education Center.

We attended a ranger talk about the “Dogs of Yellowstone”, which includes foxes, coyotes and wolves.

The visitors center had some fun exhibits.

There was also a nice theater where we watched a movie about Yellowstone.

Afterward, we checked into our campsite, which also was in Canyon Village.  We were so glad they have a reservation system!

Talk about a dense forest!

Our campsite was pretty spacious, and conveniently located across the street from the bathroom.

We ate dinner at the Canyon Cafeteria, and it was pretty bad.  I stood in line for a wrap, only to have the employee tell me, “This doesn’t look good, I wouldn’t feel right serving this to you.”  I appreciated her honesty and purchased a turkey sandwich even though I was pretty tired of sandwiches by that point.  We bought one kids meal which came with only two chicken strips and a handful of baby carrots.  I ended up buying a hot dog for them next door.  D  tried a bison sloppy joe, which was ok.  Overall, we were quite disappointed, especially considering that the food was still expensive!

After dinner, we looked for souvenirs, but did not purchase anything.

After lunch we drove towards Lamar Valley, eager to spot some more wildlife.  On our way there, there was a large herd of bison really close to the highway.

The baby bison, (calves?) were so cute!

A few of the bison even started to walk along the road!

At one of the visitor centers we saw a movie about the devastating fire that destroyed much of Yellowstone in the 1980’s.  At the time, much of the public was outraged by the park official’s stance to not actively fight the fire and let nature “run its course”.  While evidence of the fire remains, the new growth is really inspiring!

I had my camera in my hand at all times while D drove because there was so much beauty to attempt to capture!

Continuing our drive, we saw another group of people pulled off to the side of the road.  We were curious to see what they were looking at, and it turned out that the excitement was over a pair of big horned sheep!  Apparently, they are not a common sight, so that was fun, although they were pretty far away.  This is when my 20x zoom came in handy.

We saw a small parking lot along a river so we decided to pull-off.  The kids immediately began to collect rocks.

The kids took the opportunity to throw the rocks since they haven’t quite mastered skipping rocks yet.

God’s creation at that moment, in that space, was truly awe-inspiring.  I was getting a lump in my throat just taking it all in!

Our next stop was Mammoth Hot Springs.  There is a large visitor center and hotel and is a hub of tourist activity.  Waiting in line to pick up our junior ranger booklets, I was reminded that we were indeed in cowboy country!

You can’t really see it in the pictures, but there is water trickling down all of these rocks.

I loved the puffy clouds that day!

This guy was waiting for us to drop crumbs from our picnic lunch by the river.

The boxed lunch came with a sandwich, bag of chips, cookie, drink, apple, and piece of candy.  They also packaged the condiments, lettuce and tomatoes separately, which was nice.

It was nice to eat right by the water, but D and I received tons of mosquito bites!  The kids somehow managed to escape.

Our next stop was Norris Geyser Basin.  k’s funny stance was in response to my directive to not block the sign.

This sign reminded me of k and n…not that they would ever do that, of course.

Um…ouch?!

I tried to capture the vastness of the basin with a panoramic shot.

I love that pale blue color.

I would say that Norris Geyser Basin is a “must-see” on anyone’s Yellowstone itinerary.

The gates to Yellowstone are open 24 hours a day.  We needed to have an early start in order to see everything I had planned for our first day in the park.

The One Horse Motel had some interesting offerings for breakfast: oatmeal, coffee, packaged mini pastries, Costco chocolate chip granola bars, dum dums, etc.  I also picked up our boxed lunches from nearby Ernie’s Bakery & Deli.  I actually ordered and paid for the lunches online the week before, and they were ready and waiting for us!  I was quite impressed.

We also made a quick stop at Woodside Bakery because I had read rave reviews.

As I recall, we tried the cream cheese croissant, raspberry scone, and huckleberry muffin.  They were all quite light, which I am sure was due to the abundance of butter used.

The kids waited with D in the car while I purchased the pastries.  When I returned to the car, n asked, “Did you go to Big Gun Fun?”, which was right next door to the bakery.  Haha!

The drive into Yellowstone from the west side was amazing.  The river was right next to parts of the highway.

There were steam vents, or fumaroles, which made for some mystical scenery.

Our first stop inside the park was the Artists’ Paintpots Trail.

It was pretty chilly in the morning.  As soon as I took this picture, the small geyser behind them started gurgling a lot.  The kids joked that it must have been angry that I was trying to take a picture of it!

It was surreal to see steam rising everywhere.

Here are the paintpots (notice the different colors).

On our way to our next stop, we also spotted our first bison!  We joined a small group of people pulled over to the side of the road to get a closer look!

The road to West Yellowstone, Montana was quite scenic.

We checked into the One Horse Motel.  It was quite “rustic”, and not inexpensive, but it served our needs fine.  The kids thought it was hilarious that the toilet paper roll was so far away from the toilet.  There were only two double beds, but there was a fridge, microwave, television and wi-fi.  AND, there were no flies!  Yes!

For dinner, we ate at Wild West Pizzeria.  We ordered a side salad, macaroni and cheese and Canadian bacon pizza.  That was probably too much cheese for one meal, but they are known for their mac and cheese, so we had to try it.  The food was quite good, especially after subsisting on sandwiches, cup o’noodles and oatmeal.

I thought it was interesting that they had this sign in Chinese on the door of the pizzeria.  There were also numerous signs throughout the town that said “No Smoking” in Chinese.  There were quite a few Chinese tour buses in town and in Yellowstone.

West Yellowstone is small, and pedestrian-friendly, so we took a walk after dinner.  It stays light out really late, so it felt perfectly safe.

D and I had a good laugh about this KFC turned Pho restaurant.

There was also a park right outside the motel, which the kids enjoyed.

We also picked up a pint of ice cream, which was labeled as “Huckleberry” flavor.  I had read about the Wilcoxson’s brand beforehand, which is made in Montana.  However, when we tasted it, I thought it tasted an awful like little blueberries.  Sure enough, when we read the ingredients, it only contained blueberries, no huckleberries in sight!  That was a disappointment, although it did not stop us from enjoying the ice cream.

On our last day, we took a tour of Crystal Cave.  We went to the Visitor Center nice and early so we would be sure to snag tickets (you must purchase them in advance on the day of the tour).  The Visitor Center was packed with people trying to obtain wilderness permits, and this was before 8 a.m.!  Thursday and Friday of the Labor Day weekend did not seem too crowded, but I would definitely not recommend coming on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend.  The line of cars entering the park while we were leaving was absolutely astounding.

The Crystal Cave is located on a windy road off of Generals Highway, so you must allow plenty of travel time to make your tour departure.

We saw a deer in the parking lot.

There is a decent hike down to the cave.  With every step down, I was dreading our hike back up after the tour.

There is a pretty waterfall near the entrance of the cave.

Our tour guide, Wilson, reminded me of Andy Samberg for some reason.

After being debriefed on the rules of the cave, we headed for the entrance.

This formation is named Jabba the Hut.

It felt strange to be in this underground world.  There were lights for the tour, but at one point Wilson turned off all of the lights for a couple of minutes.  I have never experienced such utter darkness.  Can you imagine being the first people to discover this cave?  The kids had fun, and it makes me want to visit other caves in the future.

Back into the light.  The kids were surprisingly great going back up the mountain.  I think there was even less complaining than on the way down, for some reason.

For lunch, we stopped at Sierra Subs and Salads in the gateway town of Three Rivers.  It might not be a place to go out of your way for, but it is definitely worth a stop if you are passing through since the choices are limited inside the park.

We also stopped in nearby Strathmore, just off Hwy 68, to pick up some orange ice cream at The Orange Works Cafe.  If you are ever in the vicinity, I urge you to STOP!  The orange ice cream was so soft and creamy, and tasted like real, fresh oranges!  D ordered two larges, so we shared one in the front of the car, while the kids shared on in the back.  D and I finished ours a lot quicker than the kids, but we all thoroughly enjoyed it!  What a nice way to end our trip.

After visiting General Sherman we went to the Giant Forest Museum and trail.

This wheel shows the chances of a seed becoming a tree.  It is amazing to think that General Sherman started from a seed the size of a flake of oatmeal!

The trees were so tall, I became dizzy just looking up at them.

Hey, what do you know?  Another meadow!

After a full day of hiking we were ready to rest.  We we rode the shuttle back to the campsite and relaxed at our campsite for a bit.  At 5:00 we went to the Wolverton BBQ that we had purchased tickets for in advance.  This was our “splurge” meal, and it was a fun experience.

The barbecue is an all you can eat buffet.

Everything was good except for the chicken, which was really dry.  My favorites were the sweet chili ribs and the apple crisp made in a dutch oven.

During our dinner, D actually ran into someone he knows from work!  He was there with his wife and three boys.  A small world, indeed.

There was some after dinner entertainment.  This woman played a naturalist/author from the early twentieth century.  (That’s D in the foreground, with his makeshift sun-protection).  This portion was a bit long, and the majority of people left early.  We stuck around, since it was still early in the evening.  Many of the other attendees were international (Canada, U.K. and Belgium).

The patio overlooks Wolverton Meadow.  It was pretty, but there were a lot of bugs that we had to keep shooing away.

At night, there was a nice crescent moon.  We all fell asleep quite easily, as it had been a long day.

After lunch we rode the shuttle back out to General Sherman.  One tip is that there are two shuttle stops for General Sherman.  If you get off at the stop for those with disabilities, you do not have to walk as far to reach the tree.  We gave the kids the choice—guess which one they chose!

Seeing General Sherman, the largest tree in the world, in all his glory was amazing.  Pictures do not do him justice.

A kind soul offered to take our family picture.  We look so miniscule in comparison.

We continued on the trail…

…and D spotted a bear!  Oh my, he was pretty close.  However, he was above us, on a sort of cliff, so it did not seem too scary.  It was pawing at the log, probably looking for grubs, as we saw in the movie.

While we were waiting for the shuttle, someone pointed out this bug on the outside of the bathroom.  I’m so glad we do not have critters like this at home!