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Continued from last week

Day 12

This was a day of sightseeing throughout the park. So we woke up and had breakfast at the lodge’s small restaurant thingy. Not many options, not very good food, and not cheap. But without a fridge in our room, we were at their mercy.

Then we wandered around the visitor’s center of Old Faithful for a while. We watched a short informational movie about Yellowstone and geysers – showtimes are based around Old Faithful eruption times – and then the kids went through the exhibits. It was fairly well done, and they had a room just for kids.

Then we were off on our day’s adventure. Yellowstone is huge, and there are no shuttle buses to take you around like at the Grand Canyon, so there is a lot of traffic. Driving wasn’t so bad, but the parking was awful.

Our first destination was Lake Yellowstone. I didn’t have a particular thing to see or do there, other than the lake itself. On the way there though, I saw a stop that looked interesting – the Dragon’s Mouth.

I keep wanting to call it Dragon’s Breath, but you get the idea. This is a geyser that is tucked inside a small cave, so the smoke billows out from said cave and one can imagine the smoke coming from a dragon. Plus the watery sounds are amplified by the cave, so it sounds rumbly and stuff.

On the hill next to the Dragon’s Breath were some bison. It seemed more tourists were interested in the bison than in the dragon cave.

After that was the drive over to Lake Yellowstone. I thought about going to the lodge/hotel because they’d probably have a dock and a beach, but there was a parking pull-off near a long peninsula of small rocks, so we stopped there. The boys had fun throwing rocks for a while.

And this part of the park had a better view of the mountains in the distance.

Next stop was the canyon section of the park. First activity there was lunch. There were a few restaurants, but not really a lot of options. One child wanted a hot dog, which was about $7.00. Others had the cafeteria-style meal, which wasn’t a great deal but it was a better value than a $7 hot dog. And being one of the few options, the restaurant thingy was crowded. It was one building that was a gift shop and a restaurant and snack shop all in one building with no walls between them.

And then outside in the parking lot, some wildlife was blocking traffic.

After lunch ,we popped around the corner to look at the waterfalls of the canyon. The one road was closed due to construction, so we had really only one option for going to the falls. It was a parking lot at the top of the canyon, then a path with many, many switchbacks to go to the river level and the top of the waterfall. It made Some Wife very nervous, albeit not as bad as the Grand Canyon. Here is the Yellowstone Canyon:

Then we continued on the large loop that takes cars around the park and we stopped at the steamboat geyser area. The Steamboat Geyser is the tallest geyser in Yellowstone, but it is not very predictable. I think they said it didn’t erupt at all between 2015 and 2018, but then it had erupted a few times in the first few months of 2018. We walked around the trails, but didn’t see any geysers – just some stinky smoke.

Then we stopped at some more paint pots.

And then we went to our last major stop of the day – the Grand Prismatic Spring (AKA GPS). Most tourists have gone to the boardwalk that runs alongside the GPS, but that doesn’t give you the big picture view. So we started with the hike along Fairy Falls trail so we could go to the GPS overlook. It was over a mile, plus some uphill hiking, but it was a nice view.

Here’s near the beginning of the trail. The GPS is on the right, and on the left you’ll notice the hill we went up.

And here’s the view from up there:

After that, of course, was the trip along the boardwalk to see the GPS up close. That required a trip in the minivan, and some patience to get into the GPS parking lot.

There is a walk next to a smoking crater, smelling like rotten eggs again.

And then the varied hues of the hot springs themselves:

I’m surprised more people don’t fall off the boardwalk into the springs, seeing how narrow and un-hand-raily it was.

There were quite a few Chinese tour buses stopped here, and those tourists were quite fond of their selfies. As far as tourists go, this was the worst (i.e. most crowded) spot.

Then it was back to our cabins and get ready for dinner. Some Wife wanted to eat at a place where we could sit down and they would serve us. There are a couple of options for that at Yellowstone – one in each lodge. The main lodge wanted reservations, but the snow lodge just put you on a waiting list, so we went there. It was a long wait, and we were not quite sure it was worth it. Everybody liked to be able to sit down and order a real meal, but Some Wife wasn’t happy with her burger (dry and crispy) and I wasn’t happy with my salmon (wasn’t sure it was actually cooked). I don’t know if things were bad because we were near the end of the day for them – near closing, but based on that meal I can’t recommend them. Try the other place that’s not at the Snow Lodge.

Then we watched Old Faithful, went souvenir shopping, and got ready for bed.

Then it was evening, and morning the next day.

Day 13

Our last travel day. It was going to be a long one, so we tried to sleep in as best we could. We had breakfast, wandered around the Old Faithful area, then we packed up and I checked out. No one wanted to stop at any attractions, so we just looked at the areas as we drove past.

On our way into the park, there were maybe 3 other cars in line before us to get into the park. On our way out this day, we got to see what it is usually like. We had no problems leaving, of course, but going into the park was another story. We passed car after car after car waiting to get in. Two or three lanes of solid traffic, from the rangers’ gate all the way out into the town of West Yellowstone, through some traffic lights. At least half a mile.

Our plan was to stop at a pharmacy to get something – I forget what, probably a bandage – so we made it into town and parked near one. After walking up to it, we discovered it was closed for the day. It was part of a small mall built into the side of a city block, and along the road were some more businesses like a bookstore and restaurants that were open. Since it was lunchtime and we were planning on eating in West Yellowstone, we found a place that looked decent, had bathrooms, and the kids liked it. The winner: Pete’s.

The kids ordered pizza and pasta and breadsticks and we ordered a pitcher of lemonade. Only one free refill, but it was a refill of the pitcher, so it was plenty. Good food, nice people, do recommend.

The came the long drive of the day, about 3 hours. We had to make it from Yellowstone to Bozeman for our flight that day. That was a nice scenic drive, following a river most of the way. It mostly looked like this:

We stopped just outside of Bozeman because enough kids were complaining about needing a bathroom, plus I could fill up the gas tank there for the rental van and not pay airport prices. We made it to the rental lot, where I was expecting we would be close to the terminal. But no, the rental area was under construction so I had to park in the middle of the unattended lot, not near the terminal. Then we had to unload, make sure the van was clear, remember our mileage, and walk a quarter mile to the rental counters.

When we got to the counters, my son asked me if I remembered to actually turn off the minivan. It had one of those newfangled proximity keys that you can leave in your pocket the whole time, so you can easily leave the van running and leave it and walk away. You know you have the keys with you so you’re not concerned, but the engine is still running because the keys don’t need to be in the ignition anymore. Being an unattended lot, it could have sat there all day, consuming all the gas I just put in so that it would be on empty when someone finally did check on it. But since I haven’t gotten a bill from them yet for the gas surcharge, I assume I did remember to turn it off.

Bozeman airport is cozy. No problems getting anywhere, and the view is nice while you wait for your flight.

And here is what airports usually looked like when we were waiting at them:

We made our flight out, had a brief layover in MSP, and made it home around midnight local time. Of course to us it felt like 9PM, so it wasn’t too bad. Our van was still in working condition at the off-airport parking, and our house was still in working condition when we returned.

The End

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