Trip Motto: Be Flexible

Michael came up with the trip motto of Be Flexible.  He encouraged the kids in flexibility when we had to change plans, which is pretty much inevitable when dealing with both a family with 4 kids and nature. 

Michael’s wanted to visit Yellowstone since he did his elementary school state report on Wyoming, so this trip has been a long time coming for him.  Yellowstone sounded interesting to me, but I hadn’t actually formed an intention of visiting. 

I’m glad Michael had, though.  It’s amazing.  This is the Lamar Valley, which is in the northeast corner of Yellowstone.  It looks like the idyllic recreation of the Old West, but it’s not a recreation at all.  Well, I guess in some ways it is:  wolves were hunted out of Yellowstone a long time ago, and were recently reintroduced.  They live mostly in the Lamar Valley. 

Can you see the bison dotting the landscape?  We also saw pronghorns (a type of antelope).  There were people who’d been out since 6 a.m. watching for wolves.  I’m not sure they’d seen any this particular morning.

The craziest landscape changes happen within Yellowstone.  Lamar Valley, meet Norris Geyser Basin, where things bubble, smoke, and spew.  Not much wildlife here.  It’s a crazy and amazing landscape.

Apparently, the first descriptions written about Yellowstone were published as fiction.  You can see why. 

At the beginning of the hike that took us up this hillside, it was raining.  By the end, we could take off jackets and fleeces.

And things are still changing.  The geyser behind the girls here used to erupt every three minutes.  Because of an earthquake a few years ago, it now erupts continuously. 

An entire hot lake.  You can see it steaming.  The bacteria that like that temperature of water are what make it that color.  Bizarre doesn’t begin to describe some of the sights here.

And then you have the fun that people have had there.  This is the Old Faithful Inn.  It’s a pretty spectacular bit of architecture!

And if you thought funky steaming, bubbling, craziness wasn’t enough, Yellowstone throws in a beautiful canyon – the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone – to be sure you don’t leave unimpressed.  The picture up above looks like we’re posing in front of a painted canvas, but I can assure you that we were very much there.

Incredible!  One begins to get an idea about why the place is called Yellowstone, too.

We got to see an osprey’s nest.  They nest in the canyon and eat fish from the river.  The reason we noticed this one is that we saw one of the parents swoop from on high to get to home base.  Can you see it there on the rock pillar? 

The canyon continues on. 

I mentioned that we all made lists of things we’d like to do next time.  Michael, poor guy, would have loved to fit a whole bunch more in on this trip, but the baby needed her nap and the kids needed a fairly reasonable bedtime after all the activity of the day.  Despite his instinct to go, go, go, he took the trip motto to heart and was flexible. 

 

So maybe there will be a next time.  And maybe next time we’ll see more, hike more, get up earlier, stay up later.  Or maybe not.  We’ll just have to be flexible.