Yellowstone 2012

Well we have another trip to Yellowstone for the history books..  I have lost count how many times I have been since I married Gary.  I have learned to love Yellowstone, there is a special feeling there.  This year we went with Gary's parents..  Usually there are more than just our family and his parents so it was a little quiet, but it was very low key and that was really nice.
We stopped in Ashton, Idaho to stretch our legs a bit.  We went to Mesa Falls.  Abigail was asleep when we got there so Gary took pictures for me..  I saw the lower falls (bottom left).  Very pretty!!  The kids really liked it.  We also stopped at a place where the fish were huge.  It's at Henry's Fork on the Snake River.  We threw crackers to them and they gobbled them right up! 

We finally made it into the park..  Here is my favorite part of the drive, when we round the corner and see Lamar Valley!!  Ahh, so pretty!!

 We stayed somewhere different this year.  Usually we stay in Cooke City, MT, but this year we decided to try a different cabin.  We stayed in Silver Gate, MT.  It's about 10 minutes closer to the park.  After driving all day in the park those last 10 minutes take forever.  It was nice being closer.  We left Sunday morning and after way too many stops we got there around 6:30.  Our cabin was two bedrooms with a kitchen and small sitting area.  We sat out on the porch a lot too.

On Monday we went to one of my favorite places in Yellowstone, Norris Geyser Basin.  There are all kinds of trails you can walk along and see all the geysers.  Those geysers have such pretty colors!  Jackson didn't like the smell :) ...  We decided to take the longest trail so we could see lots of geysers.  While we were walking a thunder storm rolled in and rained on us..  Brrrr, it was cold!!  We got pretty wet too.  Madi was the only smart one that brought a jacket.  She ended up giving it up to Abi so she could stay covered, what a good sister!

 On Tuesday we met up with one of Gary's friend from work and took him and his boys fishing by Tower Falls.  This too is one of my favorite spots.  Very few people know about this spot to fish so we always have the stream/river to ourselves.  It's always so peaceful.  I am always a little nervous when we're there though.  Tower Falls has the biggest bear population in the park, though I have never seen a bear there.  Madi enjoyed picking all the wild raspberries and eating them, they were really good!

Wednesday we all piled in our Yukon and headed down to Old Faithful.  Jackson was getting a kick out of all the geysers and he said he wanted to see Old Faithful.  We drove the two hours, saw Old Faithful, and turned around and went back.  That was kind of a long day for me.  I am glad the kids got to see Old Faithful again though.  YNP had built a new visitor center so we spent some time in there looking in the book store and watching some films on Yellowstone.  I was happy to relax and sit down for a bit.

Thursday is when the trip really got fun for me.  Gary, Madion, Jackson, and I got up at 5:15am to go see the wolves!!  They are only active in the morning and we thought the kids would enjoy it.  It was so cool to see them!  There were times when we could hear them howl and bark at eachother.  I was so glad we got up to see them.  I would totally do that again, and that is saying a lot, I am NOT a morning person.

After we got back we had a lazy morning and relaxed for a bit.  After breakfast we drove down the road and fished the Soda Butte river in Lamar Valley.  When we got there Abi was acting tired so she and I stayed in the car to see if she would take a nap.  She ended up looking at her books so I put her in the backpack and we walked down and met up with Gary and the kids.  I love fishing this river because there aren't a lot of trees for me to catch my fly on and the kids and find little pools of holes of water and play in them.  I can keep a good eye on them while they play and Gary and I fish.  It's peaceful to listen to the water and then look down the river and see your kids playing and having a fun time.  After we were done fishing Gary played with the kids in the water.  Madi and Jackson were fearless and wanted to swim in the cold water.  Gary, being the good Dad that he is, enjoyed throwing them in and getting the kids all wet.  The kids were in heaven.

Friday started out like any other day, it was nice.   We decided to go fish a meadow by Virginia Cascade Falls.  I love this place too.  The fish were tiny this year, but they are still fun to catch.  While we were there a family from Japan stopped and talked to us about our "fly fishing"...  I guess they had never seen people fly fish before.  They were in the States dropping their son off to college in Washington.  They were nice people.  After we fished for awile Gary's parents wanted to go fish another spot so we went to the "Brookie Pond" up by Mammoth Hot Springs.  We go there every year and the kids love it.  Even Abi scooted down into the water and enjoyed herself.

After the kids were done playing we decided we should head back to the cabin.  We were supposed to meet Gary's parents for dinner there and we didn't want to keep them waiting.  While we were driving Abigail was in one of her moods.  She was tired and bored and when she gets that way she screams my name just to hear herself talk.  I often turned around to see what she wanted, offered her a drink, snack, but she never wanted anything..  Here is a little sample of what we got to listen to..

Ahh, gotta love Abigail!!

Well, we finally reached Silver Gate.  We were driving up to the cabin and Gary's parents passed us in their truck.  We were a little confused because ALL of out stuff was in the back of their truck.  They turned around and we chatted about what was going on.  Well, apparently we only had the Cabin until Friday...  We thought we had reserved it until the next day.  When Gary's parents had come back from their fishing they walked into an empty cabin.  They cabin employees had come in, packed all of our stuff and taken it down to the office.  Oopsie...  Oh well..  I had put dinner in the crock pot that morning so we drove into Yellowstone and ate our dinner on the side of the road with some bread.  By then it was 7:00pm and we knew we still had a two hour drive through the park to get to West Yellowstone.  While driving through Yellowstone Madison had reminded us that we told her we could stop at the Madison River and get her picture taken.  She was named after that river so the river is special to her.  We got back on the road and we couldn't find a hotel room anywhere.  West Yellowstone had a few, but was super pricey.  Rexburg and Idaho Falls was all booked.  We were able to find two rooms at The Guest House in St. Anthonys, Idaho.  We were so happy to finally lay our heads down and sleep.  All of us excpet Abi that is.  I was up with her until about 1:00.  She wasn't crying just restless.  Finally she let me cuddle her up to me and she fell asleep.  I was in H.E.A.V.E.N..  She rarely lets me cuddle her.  I didn't want to put her down!  After awhile I could barely keep my eyes open so I layed her down next to Madi and I slept on the roll-away bed.  The next morning we got up, had breakfast and got on the road.  

We finally pulled into our driveway around 2:00.  We were sad to leave Yellowstone, but happy to be home.

Until next time Yellowstone!!  Love You!!!!