Day 13: Another lovely day in Yellowstone

We woke up in the Lake Hotel Annex, just in time to send Marta from our room to Billy and Jen's, where a subset of our crew was preparing to head out onto Lake Yellowstone for an early morning, fairly chilly fishing trip. Unfortunately, Marta suffered an injury to her toe as they prepared to leave, but I think her having caught a fish out on the lake helped ease the pain. Danny, Mary, and I found ourselves without cousins for a few hours that morning. It was a lazy morning, one that I welcomed after the get up and go that we usually need on this road trip. Also, we had the unique experience of having zero cell service of any kind from the moment we drove away from the Old Faithful Inn after dinner until about 11am, on the drive back to the Inn to meet Greg, Molly, and my parents (the non-fishers). It was then that my phone lit up with text messages from Jim first informing us about the Bruins' bummer loss the night before, then wondering whether we'd been eaten by bears. 

No bears today, but we did see an elk as we drove by!

The Old Faithful Inn is positively majestic. 

And a super cool benefit of hanging out there is seeing the geyser erupt as you get out of your car or walk to breakfast!

After meeting up with everyone, and hearing tall tales from the fishermen and women, we ate a quick lunch from the back of the cars and headed off on our day's touring which would take us around the west side of the Grand Loop Road, stopping wherever things looked neat. 

For example: Mary Mountain!

First neat stop: Gibbons Falls

Danny scales rocks

Cousins are the best

Next cool thing: Fountain Paint Pots

These pools and springs are unlike anything you see anywhere. It's so cool! One of those little pots splattered my sweatshirt as we watched. 

Then, when you look up and out at the horizon, you catch views like this!

Or, if you have vision like Jenny's, you can see elk hundreds of yards away, without needing the 200x zoom on your camera!

Next stop: The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone!

But not before Mary would fall asleep first...

Mom and Dad ran down to check out the Lower Falls of the Canyon while I stayed its Mary in the car and Danny took off with his cousins. When mom and dad returned a bit out of breath from the hike back up, I started running down the trail, camera in tow, doing my best to be polite as I scooted past people on the switchbacks. Wow, was it worth the effort!

And now, an ode to awesome iPhone pictures... 

And Dad snapped this one of another bison on the other side of the road (not an iPhone pic, though)

Finally, we drove back to the Lake Hotel to find a spot to eat a picnic dinner. It was very chilly, getting colder by the minute, so we went to the hotel and set up a picnic in the common area near our room. It was perfect! 

Molly, Emily, Danny, Mary, and I stayed in our room there (with 1 double bed... We are really good at fitting lots of people in tight spaces!) while the rest of the crew headed back toward Old Faithful for a stay at the "old part" of the Old Faithful Inn. Considering their shared bathroom situation and lack of phone, we were pleased to be cozy in our little room together. :)

Day 12: Yellowstone! Geysers!

Prior to this trip, Billy did some amazing work to secure reservations for us at 4 different locations in the park. Finding suitable accommodations for 13 people at reasonable rates is not an easy task! Especially when much of the park is booked nearly a year in advance! Billy called each day and kept a spreadsheet of whom he spoke to at Yellowstone reservations, what their interests were, and what new information he gleaned from each of them. It was an exercise in diligence and it paid off with great accommodations each night, at unique places. He even had the foresight to cancel the campsite we had for one of the nights after noting that overnight lows were remaining in the high 20's or low 30's as early June turned into late June. Well done, brother!

We woke up Monday morning at the Grant Village Lodge relatively near both the South Entrance and Old Faithful. We even got to sleep in a bit which was lucky because Danny shared my bed and he might be the wiggliest sleeper on the planet. 

Our first stop was Old Faithful, the most famous, and apparently reliable, geyser at Yellowstone. 

Mary has grown since we last came to Old Faithful 2 years ago!

Mary is a bit more entertaining now than when she was 9 months old, making her big cousin Molly crack up in hysterics. 

We decided to take the road less traveled and hike along the backside of Old Faithful to see the many other, lesser-known, less-reliable geysers with names like Beehive, Goggles, Infant, 

Spasmodic, and Aurum. 

Then we all sat down to watch the eruption from slightly afar

(My poor mom has gone through more Puffs Plus than a person ever should need.)

Then we were treated to a rainbow!

Time for lunch! Delicious grilled chicken sandwiches and leftover pizza from Salt Lake City

The kids went on a hunt for bear clues.

 

Then time to climb trees!

Finally off to an afternoon drive down Firehole Canyon, with a beautiful river, waterfalls, and an impressive canyon. 

 

Then Molly took my camera for me to take pictures around the Lower Geyser Basin while I stayed behind in the car with a sleeping Mary. 

Molly is quite the budding photographer!

Em, Liam, Marta and Sam take a break

Driving back to the Old Faithful Inn for a lovely dinner to celebrate Dad's birthday without bears, we see this bison... and the man standing waaaaaaay too close to a wild bison. People can be not-so-smart. 

Following an impressive dual-meltdown by my two angels, Mary fell asleep less than 10 minutes before dinner, so into the sling she went, sleeping soundly through much of dinner.

But she was ready for play after dinner!

On the way back to the cars, we came across these clouds: 

Sure enough, it started hailing! It calmed to a downpour followed by a chilly rain. We waved as we passed the campsite where we were originally supposed to stay that night. Thank you, Billy, for making THAT change!