Yellowstone Rocks

We haven't dropped off the face of the earth (or off the edge of the Grand Canyon - though we came close... topic for another post).  We've just been so busy seeing the world that we've had no time to write about it. Now we're determined to catch up.

About a month ago we visited Yellowstone for the first time as a family, and it was lovely:

(Here's proof that the stones are really yellow:)

This was the first trip after our hiking extravaganza at Glacier, and we naively expected more of the same - how could we have predicted the crazy wildlife we'd encounter as we visited one of the biggest North American ungulate preserves during fall rut?

We spotted our first bison herd shortly after entering the park and excitedly pulled over to take turns watching the distant group through the binoculars.  We needn't have exerted ourselves, as it turns out we couldn't help running into bison at scary close range every time we turned around:

We stayed inside the park at Yellowstone Lake Lodge Cabins, which web reviews (discovered after prepaying for the reservation) had warned us would be "seedy" and "dumpy".  We were so excited...  But when we arrived we were pleasantly surprised to see that our cabin had been newly renovated, clean, larger than expected, and right across from beautiful Yellowstone Lake:

On our first morning excursion, we were lucky to see a herd of bison crossing the river, steam rising off their backs in the cold morning air.  Once they were safely on the other side, we hiked down to watch them against a backdrop of steamvents:

We heard an elk bugle repeatedly and he finally came into view, wandering amongst the bison:

We were so engrossed in the views before us, that it took a minute for us to register the rumbling behind us and turn around to see one of the more nerve-racking sights of the trip: a much larger herd galloping out of the forest, down the hill behind us, and toward us and the river.  Fortunately, they passed to one side as we ran to the other, and we enjoyed being part of our very own Nature episode:

Close calls with nature ended up being the general theme of our trip. We saw countless big, lonely, male bison without herds holding up traffic wherever we drove:

The big guys were larger than cars and obviously very comfortable as they slowly ambled down the middle of the street while we watched from what we hoped was the safety of our car:

Once as we carefully drove past a couple of bulls, I rolled down my window to take a picture and was surprised just how intimidating it was to be so close without anything but air between us (especially after seeing how fast they can gallop and watching a couple of bulls fight over a group of females).  These are truly powerful animals:

We also met a friendly coyote who let Kevin take pictures before scampering away:

We saw grizzly bears and wolf cubs from a distance and sat on a hillside for 30 minutes watching a black bear's ears pop up from a bush occasionally where he was eating berries.

On our last day in Yellowstone, we went to see a pertified redwood tree and Kevin and I decided to hike to Lost Lake, a quick mile away, leaving the kids to dirt-surf down a hillside (Henry's favorite activity of the whole trip).  The black lake was stunning and peaceful (especially without the kids):

As we got close to the end of our hike back, we looked up the hill to where we'd parked our car and noticed a group of people watching us with binoculars and taking pictures.  I felt like I was on the red carpet until we looked over to our left and saw the beautiful big black bear beside the trail:

Good looking as we are, it turns out that Kevin and I weren't the main attraction after all...  We skirted around him and enjoyed a great 30 minutes watching from a safe distance.

Of course it wasn't all wildlife at Yellowstone - we also had a great time visting (and a slightly less great time smelling) the geothermal features like steamvents covering the side of a mountain:

Bubbling mudpots that kept us entranced for over an hour,

dripping mineral springs,

their tremendous artistic potential,

and the desolation left in their wake:

And of course the geysers!  We visited Old Faithful early to get good 'seats' and waited, and waited:

And then enjoyed the show right on schedule:

 At risk of running on too long, I'll mention the other highlight of our Yellowstone visit:

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone was stunning - I'd take it over Old Faithful any day (though Kevin says you really need to see both).   It's a magnificent gorge cut out by a beautiful river.  We enjoyed it from above:

then decided to hike down to see the falls more closely.  After about a half mile, we hit about 380 steep stairs cutting down through the rocks:

Going down was easy, it took a lot of jelly belly incentives to get back up.  But the views so close the falls were gorgeous, including some fantastic rainbows:

All in all, Yellowstone delivered an unforgettable few days - we highly recommend the trip! 

Now, on to our next adventure...