A few days later we spied a group of three on the road leading to grandma and grandpop's campsite. We had great views of this moose, though he (male, as evidenced by the rack) wouldn't turn around so my best shots are of moose butt. The children could see these moose well and we were excited to have experienced another moose sighting. When we arrived at the campground all excited about the moose, grandma seemed accustomed to this (and not quite bored by it, but close), saying "oh, you mean the group that is often sighted in the marsh on the road to the campground?". Yes, that must have been the one. I guess living in Wyoming for several months will have you thinking that wild animal sightings are the norm and not something to get too excited about!
Midway through the duration of our trip we journeyed up to Yellowstone. It took about two hours to travel the hundred or so miles into the heart of the park, where we spent most of the day driving around Yellowstone with several stops out of the car to see the sights and to view wildlife. We spotted a large herd of bison on our drive north, the first bison sighting of the trip. Little did we know that we would end up seeing dozens of bison throughout our day in Yellowstone at a closer distance, but we were so excited by this first sighting that we stopped to take a look. Amelia and John enjoyed playing with grandpop's binoculars to get a better view.
Lovely view of the Grand Tetons in the background.You can't see the bison because they are too far in the distance for this angle, though you could see them in person.
Our first stop within Yellowstone was Old Faithful. Ironically, Amelia had heard of the geyser (perhaps from an episode of Pink Panther, but I am wishfully thinking that maybe she read about it in a book or heard about it in school instead!) so she was more excited about this than I thought she would be. Scott and I had visited Old Faithful when we were in Yellowstone 12 years ago and though I appreciate the science of it all, this is not my favorite part of Yellowstone.
However, one thing that made this more enjoyable this time around was the fact that we only had to wait about two minutes for the geyser to erupt. The estimated time between eruptions is 90 minutes, and with the visitor's center closed for remodeling I was wondering what we would do to entertain the children if we had to wait over an hour for the eruption to occur. However, much to our delight we did not have to wait long at all and we were quickly treated to this glorious display of firing gasses, which Amelia and John said was impressive.After Old Faithful, we made our way to an opposite section of the park to view the waterfalls. Two waterfalls, the Upper and Lower Falls, are situated close to each other near the grand Yellowstone canyon. I fondly remembered this scenery from our first visit so many years ago and seeing it again was a highlight for me.
The falls thunder down into a river that runs through Yellowstone canyon. Notice the small tree growing out of the rock on the canyon's edge.
I think the patterns in the rock lining the canyon are spectacular.
View of the river running through the canyon. Though this looks peaceful, the rushing sound of the water from the falls is quite loud in person.
Family goofing off (except my sweet Amelia!) while mom tries to capture a good shot. 
We saw dozens of bison throughout Yellowstone, but this was one of the closest views we got. I took this shot from the passenger seat in the car, to give you an idea of how close the animal was to us. My mom was right - they are ugly animals. But I appreciate their large number throughout the park as Amelia and John had fun playing "Who can spot a bison first?" from the backseat of the car.
We also came across two large elk, the one in the shot below is a male. Scott got frustrated with me because at the time I was scrambling so quickly that I thought I saw a moose, however I completely agree that this is indeed an elk.
It was a fun day and a necessary component of our trip, but we were glad when we had made the return trip back to Jackson. It was certainly a long day with lots of driving, and after the novelty of the animal-sightings wore off I spent a good deal of time as the referee for the children's fighting match in the backseat. We had rented a relatively small four-door car, so unfortunately the kids were in each other's space WAY TOO MUCH. And add John's spunk and unwillingness to leave his sister alone, and you can imagine where this left us. I felt like such a nag saying for the hundredth time, "Keep your hands off of your sister !" (and occasionally brother). Many bribes for good behavior were issued and forfeited by both children at one time or another. Now I completely understand why Scott opted for captain's chairs in the backseat of the vehicle that wee use for long driving trips at home!
No comments:
Post a Comment