Day 9

Day 9???  Is that right?  The days have started to run together. 

Another day at Yellowstone and probably my favorite day in Wyoming.  I forgot to take a picture of the kids at the beginning so I did it on this day.  When I had the kids stand in front of the Yellowstone sign, Nathan, who is very sensitive to bright light, said, "Mom, I'm going to have to be binocular boy today." Haha!!  

I think this is the only individual picture I got of Ryan that day.  The rest of them looked like this because he wasn't very cooperative:

We toured the southern loop, which, btw, takes about 27 miles to get to from the entrance.  And when you get behind cars/trucks/RVs that go 35 miles per hour, it takes FOREVER to get to where you are going.  And I guess letting Grace drive wasn't a great idea!

One of our first stops was the West Thumb Geyser Basis where there were like boiling mud puddles and hot springs…boiling hot springs!  I elected to stay with Ryan because he wasn’t feeling well. Mike, Grace and Nathan hiked the trail.  Ryan felt bad that I was missing it but I never mind these moments.  I might have missed the sightseeing but spending time talking to any one of my children without distraction is worth so much more.  Plus there was one boiling mud puddle right near the parking lot so I did get to see it.  And so do you!

After the Geyser Basin we visited Old Faithful. 

This is clearly the most popular, visited spot in Yellowstone allowing us to drive up and down the aisles looking for license plates.  It’s amazing…we have seen Hawaii three times and Alaska countless times but Vermont is the one we can’t find. 

As we waited for Old Faithful to erupt...I call this Fun With Geysers: 

I let Nathan...err...I mean Binocular Boy take some pics.  The first one was of himself.

Mike was wondering what he was doing:





But Nathan actually took some pretty good photos.  If only Ryan and Grace would've cooperated:

But he did get this one.  Okay...I edited it a little because we weren't exactly centered.



And when Nathan wasn't shooting pictures, he was...

Finally, Old Faithful delivered on schedule....And thar she blows:

We decided not to walk all around this Geyser Basin because we could see so many of them from where we were sitting and it was getting late (5:20 p.m.) and we were only ½ way around the loop (and then still had that 27 mile stretch from the loop to the entrance.  Mike does not do well with skipping things he wants to see…I think his OCD kicks in J…so it take a lot of coaxing to get him to move on.   He finally overcame his disappointment when we stopped at the Grand Prismatic Spring.  After seeing this, it’s completely understandable.

It was about this point where it started raining and dropped to about 55 degrees.  We figured we would just return to the hotel but decided not to let the rain stop us from seeing a few more things.  And we are sooooooooooo glad we didn’t because although we were cold and having that wonderful rained-on look

we saw the most amazing waterfall and canyon we have ever seen.  These pictures just can’t capture the enormity and depth of the canyon or the awesome, powerful force of the water or just how insignificant one feels standing next to such an amazing place.  Truly, truly inspiring. 

 

Sigh…

The only other thing I would’ve liked to see is a Grizzly and preferably one that is standing on it’s hind legs, right next to the road, posing for a picture.  J But this is the closest I will probably ever be to seeing that: