It's Basically on the Way...

Justin and I decided that we needed a weekend trip.  Okay, we always think we need to take a weekend trip somewhere, but since Justin has gone back to school our travels have been drastically reduced.  We already had a trip to Boise planned last weekend for the baby blessing of our new niece, Caroline, but Justin said that we should leave right after school on Thursday (no classes on Friday, for Columbus Day) and drive to Yellowstone since that's "basically on the way."  It's not really even close to on the way, but since when has that stopped us?  We planned on leaving Thursday afternoon, but then in a rare moment of academic irresponsibility Justin decided to blow off all of his classes for the day and we left late that morning so that we could drive the longer "more scenic route."

For the record, very little of this drive that took us through nowhere Wyoming would be described as particularly scenic.  This became apparent very early on, and our first inclination was to just blast through all of it and get to the part where we would be driving through The Grand Tetons.  However, we have a little passenger that still requires periodic reprieves from the thrill of the open road.  We made our first diaper changing stop at Fossil Butte National Monument.  It's not a super exciting place, but the visitor's center was interesting, and the National Park Service is good about always having changing tables and clean restrooms, so we saw no reason not to stop.

Always a huge fan of Dad.

An impressive display of fish fossils from the area.

My people with the fish fossils.

Vivian waving to me, as though she expected that she and her Dad would just be continuing this vacation without me.

And of course, all of us with the sign.

We didn't spend too much time there, since we realized this alternate route was also significantly longer, and we were burning daylight.  We didn't stop again until we arrived at the Grand Tetons National Park visitor's center 30 minutes after they closed.  Lucky for us, the restrooms remain open, so we still got to take a little break from all the driving.  

Everyone is thrilled to be out of the car for a bit.

We made one more stop at a lake along the way just to snap a few shots, since it was really beautiful with the sun setting in the background. 

Lake Jackson

From there we drove through Yellowstone out the West entrance.  The drive was very uneventful up until the last 10 miles or so, when we found ourselves behind a driver that appeared to bit of a novice to the whole concept of using brights.  His constant flipping of them on and off was not only entirely unnecessary, but so rapid that if we'd had an epileptic in the car he probably would have induced a seizure.  We eventually got to somewhere where we could pull alongside him, and ascertain that he appeared to be a foreigner.  So maybe the brights really were a whole new concept.  That's definitely how it seemed.  Regardless, we checked into the timeshare at West Yellowstone, and started making dinner while Vivian literally ran from one end of the place to the other with her hands above her head shrieking in open celebration about being released from the confines of her carseat.  Justin and I found ourselves just standing there watching, wondering how it is that we've created this little person.  In all seriousness, I love this stage she's in right now.  It's definitely one that keeps us busy, and our house looking perpetually trashed, but it's super fun too. 

The next morning Vivian had me awake much earlier than I wanted to be awake, but since I was awake we were able to make an early checkout and get into Yellowstone at a decent hour.  We decided to spend the day on the north end of the park, since that's the end that neither of us have ever seen.  

Our first stop of the morning at this place with hot springs.  

We stopped at a spot, that we still have no idea what it was actually called.  It was full of hot springs.  We ran into an elderly couple there.  The wife stopped to chat with us for a second.  She asked us how hot we thought the water is in that spot.  We told her that according to some of our reading, the water in the area is extremely hot.  She seemed surprised and then admitted to us that she had already TOUCHED the water to test the temperature.  Honestly, I think Justin and I just stared at her in silence for a second, because she hastily added that it was clear over on the edge, and that it hadn't really seemed all that hot.  Who decides to stick their finger in water that appears to be boiling in places, just to see if it's really THAT hot?  She does.  That's who.  It was so weird.  

Our next stop was Gibbon Falls.

She's been doing this ridiculous cheesy grin lately.

The falls were small, pretty, but the place was packed.  UEA weekend, it was all people from Utah.

Next we continued on to Porcelain Loop, part of the Norris Geyser Basin.

On the banks of a little pond at the end of the loop.

Then we decided to take a mile and a half loop around the Norris Geyser Basin.  It turned out to be way less interesting than we had hoped.  It was good to just be outside, and the further away from the trailhead we got the fewer people we encountered, so it was worth the walk.

She had this astonished reaction to basically every hot springs we saw.

Some of the Norris Geyser Basin

By the time we were done there it was lunch.  We took a break to eat at the far end of the park, and then spent the rest of the afternoon driving around trying to spot some interesting wildlife.  We saw a lot of Bison, a bunch of Elk, and actually spotted either a wolf or a coyote stalking a pack of buffalo.  It looked like a wolf, but it's size was more like a coyote, so who knows.  Eventually we realized that our time was ticking away quickly.  We got on the road back towards Grand Tetons National Park, but we stopped a couple of times along the way.  First for Tower Falls. 

It was hard to get a good picture of this one.

Next we stopped at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

Her cheeks just finally got too heavy.

The Upper Falls

Next we visited the Lower Falls.

After that we really had to get going.  We made one final stop at the sign at the edge of park, just as our sunlight was starting to slip away. 

The temperature was already dropping.

We started our long drive to our hotel in Driggs, Idaho, about 20 miles west of Jackson, Wyoming.  By the time we got to Grand Tetons it was dark, and we really weren't expecting to get caught in a herd of stampeding buffalo, but that is what happened.  I didn't know that buffalo could even run that fast, but in the dark they just initially just looked like shadows flitting across the road.  Justin was driving, although usually I am the night time driver.  I'm grateful it was him that night.  He hit the brakes as soon as he realized what was happening and swerved the car to avoid a collision with crossing buffalo.  The car finally stopped inches from a massive buffalo that had briefly stopped to stare at our car careening towards it.  I was looking down when Justin hit the brakes, and by the time I looked up the buffalo was already gone, but I did look up in time to see another buffalo running full speed at the passenger side door.  I have no idea how he managed to get around us without hitting the car, but he did.  I almost had a heart attack in that brief moment as I thought we were going to t-boned by a massive charging buffalo of all things.  We sat there for a few very tense moments as we continued to watch buffalo streaming out of the woods and bolting across the street in front of us and behind us.  We wonder if they were being hunted by the way they seemed to be running in a dead panic.  One of them in front of us stumbled, fell down, and was back on his feet still running before it even seemed possible.  A minute later they were gone, and we continued on our way, feeling a bit shaken by the incident.  

By the time we arrived at our hotel we decided that despite our plans to return to Grand Tetons the next day to do some exploring before we left for Boise, that we really should just save that for another trip.  We left for Boise the next morning.  The good news is that we had a great time with the family.  We arrived in time to spend a little time visiting baby Caroline and her parents, get lost in a corn maze that basically turned into a giant mud pit in the pouring rain, and now we still have all of Grand Tetons left to explore another day.  We're looking forward to that day.