Yellowstone
We scheduled Thursday and Friday in Yellowstone. We started early on Thursday morning. Right after going into the East Entrance, we hit road construction. The road perched on the side of the mountain was being rebuilt for about 10 miles. We had to wait 30 minutes before we could proceed into the park.
Thursday we traveled along the northern part of the park. We drove from the East Entrance to Mammoth Hot Springs and back around. We hit Yellowstone Lake, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Tower-Roosevelt, and Mammoth Hot Springs. On the way back we stopped at Norris Geyser Basin as well.
As would be expected, the scenery was beautiful. There was still a lot of snow on the higher peaks and there were almost no tourists to block the views. The only large collections of people were around rare wildlife.
We did see a lot of wildlife. My family likes to look at them, and we had plenty of opportunity. We saw dozens of buffalo, many elk and deer, two wolves, some coyotes, a bighorn sheep, a black bear, and a grizzly bear. Back near our lodge we also saw some moose.
Of course, Yellowstone is also known for its unusual geologic features. The canyon is pretty, but the springs and geysers are more interesting. The Mammoth Hot Springs were almost entirely turned off when we visited. There were a few trickles of water on a few springs, but most of the larger, more famous springs were dry.
Friday was the day to look at the geysers and hot springs on the western and southern parts of the park. The geyser basins were neat. Most of them were pretty active. We saw Old Faithful (the other place with lots of tourists), and while it was erupting, my camera battery died.
Grand Tetons
After we left Old Faithful we drove down through Grand Teton National Park. We didn’t see wildlife, but the scenery more than compensated. We basically drove straight to Jenny Lake in the southern section of the park. There was a boat to go across the lake, but we decided that we didn’t have enough time (we were driving all the way to Pinedale). They also had canoes and kayaks for rent, but wouldn’t start renting them for a couple of days until the water warmed up a little more.
Jackson is at the southern edge of the Tetons, We had supper there and drove on to Pinedale to stay with at the Loftus house for the night.
Saturday
On Saturday we went to Dan Kimball and Mary Maes’ wedding in Rock Springs. The wedding was nice, though we were trying not to laugh during it; Dan and Mary were trying not to laugh too. It was quite different from a Greenville wedding – people didn’t seem to know what to do all the time.
After the wedding we drove back up to Jackson to meet my family. We had supper at the Bar J Chuckwagon. The Bar J serves a western meal and performs a live western music show after supper. The meal was incredible and the show was hilarious and a lot of fun.
After church on Sunday we drove up to camp with my family. The road was pretty good by all accounts. We hiked to the cliffs and then settled into one of the cabins.
In the morning my family headed back down the mountain to drive toward Chicago. Our vacation was essentially over and we were starting camp.