Grand Tetons and Yellowstone

Oh, what fun we had!!  This was such a great vacation!  I’m so glad we finally got to do it!  Cameron and I have been trying to take this trip since . . . well, we moved to Colorado!!  Of course we’ll have to go back and see more than just the “tourist stops” that we did with our limited time-frame and lack of mobility on my part.  But surprisingly we saw almost all of the roadside stops, which thankfully there are more of in Yellowstone and Tetons than in Rocky Mountain.  We were never at a loss for something to see! 

The boys did really great too.  Jayce was cranky about being in his carseat so much, but that was to be expected.  We took lots of toys, coloring things, books, and snacks, and it was only the last leg of the trip home (after dinner and before bedtime) that I had to climb into the backseat to entertain them.  

The first day in Grand Tetons was absolutely gorgeous!  The weather was a perfect cool, fall day, and we got some great pictures.  Even enjoyed Lunch outside on a picnic table.  We stayed in a cozy little “cabin” at the “Cowboy Village Resort”.  I loved it – it was perfect.  2 rooms: a bedroom with 2 beds for everyone, and a sitting/kitchenette area.  Plenty of space for us.  Riley especially liked having the beds so close together and by the first morning there he had discovered he could flip from one bed onto the other.  Crazy Boys!!!  The second day was colder and windy.  So we did some shopping around Jackson Hole, and then headed up to Yellowstone.  Our drive took us around the west side of the park (we stayed in West Yellowstone), and the drive was such a different landscape compared to the eastern side of the Tetons!  So cool!

That afternoon we stopped at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone.  I really enjoyed this place!  It has a zoo-like feel to it, but it’s more of a sanctuary for bears, wolves, and birds of prey that can no longer survive in the wild.  Most of the Grizzlies they have had become habituated to people and relocating them proved unsuccessful.  So instead of putting them down, they get to live out their lives teaching others about bear safety and testing “bear-proof” containers!  We got to see the bears at feeding time (more like snack-time I’m sure).  They rotate the bears out of the viewing pen, and in between rotations they let older kids go in and hide snacks all over the pen for the bears to hunt for.  It was really neat to watch the bears flip rocks and dig around to get all the goodies.  

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were all spent in the park driving around to see all the stops.  We got around all but one section of the two loops, the Tower-Canyon Village section had already closed for the season.  And did some of the “legs” too.  We saw lots of wildlife, Bighorn, Elk, Deer, Bison, and all sorts of birds, hawks, and ravens (Riley enjoyed pointing out the millions of ravens!)  No Moose, bears, or wolves, but that was ok – considering we stuck to the roads!  Riley’s favorite (and Jayce’s too) were the bison!  Jayce would squeal and mumble (like only he can do!) every time he saw them on the roadside.  It was so cute.  Riley also liked the geysers and steam vents.  Which makes this Mommy very happy!  Such a cool act of nature and I loved that he thought it was cool too.  Yellowstone did a great job of adding kid-friendly signs at some of the bigger locations (and a whole kid section in the Old Faithful Visitor Center) to get kids interested and explain how the heating and cooling processes work. 

The first day in the park was cool and rainy, a great day to see wildlife, and hardly any people.  The views were a little obscured at some points, but overall a good day to sightsee.  The second day was COLD and windy.  This wasn’t our favorite day.  Jayce didn’t like walking around in the cold and Cam had to carry him a lot of the time, but the sun was shining and the skies were blue – great for pictures!  The third day was another gorgeous day.  Sunny and warmer, we got some more great pictures and the boys enjoyed getting out and seeing things a little more.  It sounds like we had perfect timing for our trip – the week following our departure they were forecasting a bunch of snow for the park.  So I’m glad we got in there and saw what we could before everything closed up and became accessible only by snowmobile.  Not that it’s a bad thing – I would love to (one day) see the park by snowmobile . . . just not while I’m 7 ½ months pregnant!!  Lol  Well, not much else to tell about the trip – So I’ll share a few of my favorite pictures with you all!  Enjoy!  And if you haven’t been to Yellowstone – YOU SHOULD!!!  It’s a must see for sure!!

Grand Teton

Mammoth Hot Springs

Old Faithful!

Lower Falls and Grand Canyon of Yellowstone