Yellowstone Road Trip! (Post 1 of 2)

Last month, the 4 of us took a 6-day road trip out west. We spent a night in Montana, 2 nights in Yellowstone, a night in Jackson at the base of the Tetons, a night in Rapid City, and then we made it home for bed on day 6. Here's pics from the first 3 days:

Loaded up!


Road trip treats.


Getting ready for games on the "table" I made for the car.


The "table" also worked good for some movies.


Kroll's Diner in Bismark, ND. I tried their famous soup.


Diner Vibes.


It's a good sign when their "malt menu" looks like this.


A few hours later at Theodore Roosevelt National Park on the far side of ND.


Sun going down, moon coming up.


A solitary bison.


Sunset!








Some random hiking by phone flashlight.


Time to hit the road for Montana before bedtime.

We pulled into Glendive Montana for the night - we'd spent the WHOLE DAMN DAY on Interstate 94. We got some sleep, and I got up at around 3 a.m. to go for a run. Then I loaded up the car, hauled sleepy boys out to the car as well, and we hit the road around 4:30 a.m. Everyone slept for a few more hours. When everyone was awake and hungry, we stopped in Billings for a late breakfast. The boys and I had never been to a Cracker Barrel, so Sarah thought it was time we changed that:

BREAKFAST!


Chugging his syrup bottle.


Our first Cracker Barrel.


Wyoming a few hours later! (Dadmobile in the background.)


The landscape was starting to change.






Nearing the eastern entrance of Yellowstone.


Behind Chimney Rock.




I've wanted to see a bear in the wild for YEARS! And before we even
entered Yellowstone, we got to watch 2 grizzlies along a river!


So happy to have seen these bears!


WE MADE IT!!


Lake Yellowstone.


Breezy selfie on the shore.


Lots of BIG ravens around!


We'd be saying the next 2 nights about 1/4 mile from Old Faithful!


4 million people each year take this photo. ;)


Inside the old lodge near Old Faithful (we were staying in a newer lodge).


Heading out for a hike through the Upper Geyser Basin.
(Where there are LOTS of geysers and geothermal activity.)










Looking back toward the Lodge (barely visible at upper-middle).
















There's my crew on the right!








We turned around at this big overlook (as the sun was going down).

As we were heading back, my wife suddenly says "WHAT'S THAT?!?..." She motions ahead to the left, and there's a big bison heading toward us. We freeze, and it just keeps sauntering our way. I say "let's quickly get in front of it" and lead the way down our path, but everyone else stays put. So I turn around and re-join my family.

Our trail is to the right, and this bison is about to cross our path!


IT JUST KEPT COMING! Signs all over say to not approach the wildlife,
but it doesn't say anything about the wildlife approaching you!!


We ducked behind some small trees for "protection."

THERE WAS ANOTHER BISON HEADED OUR WAY BEHIND THE FIRST BISON! And they were blocking our way back home. How many more could be coming? Will we be stuck in a herd? We need to cross through to get back! So once the first bison (we now know he's a bull bison because we've seen him up close) is past us, we quickly shoot behind that one and well in front of the next one that's coming to get back down our trail. We get QUITE close to this wild bull bison:

Screenshot from upcoming video.


Direct link: youtube.com/shorts/uvWzP9UTL6s?si=LntbTossh9tnQsvU
Walking behind #1, watching #2 head our way!


Looking back at #2 once we've made it through!
The small trees on the far left is where we'd been "hiding."


Garmin map of my hike: note going through and then coming back.
The dark blue squiggle is stopping once we're through to take that last photo!


Watching the moon come up over different geysers.


Back safely at the lodge 30 mins later WITH A STORY TO TELL!

We ate out of our cooler / mini fridge for supper, and had a similar breakfast the following morning (calling this "day 3" after a day out to Glendive MT, a day getting into Yellowstone, and now day 3 about to be a full day in Yellowstone). We headed out to see some more springs and thermal activity: we had 4 hikes, a short one, 2 long ones, and a final short one.

A herd of elk along the way!


Did a little rainy hike at Fountain Paint Pot Trail.
Looks like the end of the world.




Lots of cool little things to see on this loop!

Then we headed back down the road just a few miles to Biscuit Basin. I had a good idea that paid off: the big Biscuit Basin parking lot was closed because of a small geothermal explosion that wrecked part of the boardwalk a few weeks prior, and I wanted to find a trail AROUND that closure. Well, that was easy, and then because of the closed lot, we SAW NOBODY on this amazing hike to Mystic Falls and back!

Starting the hike!












Pee break!




The drizzles turned to snow!








Made it to the falls!!












Ending our hike.






Lunch from our cooler on the road.


Down the road towards Grand Prismatic Spring.




Didn't have a great view of Grand Prismatic Spring as it was so steamy, but here
were other pools on that little loop (I'm not counting this loop as one of our "hikes").


Then we started a big hike! We had a great view of Grand Prismatic Spring on that hike!








Changing landscape...


... ending at 200+' Fairy Falls a few miles later!












We had the falls to ourselves for 20 minutes!




A group of 4 friends showed up to the falls, so we asked them to make a pic of all of us.




Bye bye Fairy Falls!


Rest break nearing the end of this big hike.








Back at end/start of our hike.




My Oreo had the cookie on the WRONG WAY and it imprinted into the cream!


More apocalyptic landscapes!




A close-up with a black bear! We were in our car, and
it was looking for goodies on the side of the road.


On our final short hike of the day.
I think this was Black Sand Basin.


A bubbler!


Back near our lodge in the big flakes!


Flakes in his hair.


Charlie found a souvenir to take home.


Our "fancy" meal in the Snow Lodge. Sarah had salmon and I had elk ravioli.


Charlie's big sundae for dessert!


Henry had a lava cake.

We went to bed that night and were ready to hit the road the morning of day 4 - we were headed into the Tetons! (First I got up and did a solo run doing many laps around Old Faithful.) I'll have pics from the final 3 days in another post.

In the meantime, here are a few pics I took with my 35mm film camera on some film that expired 13 years ago:

Just into Wyoming.


Outside of Yellowstone.




Lake Yellowstone!


Dadmobile at breezy Lake Yellowstone.


This cutie.










A film shot of Ms. Bison.




On our snowy hike to Mystic Falls.




Love this one.


Mystic Falls!


Fairy Falls a few hours later!


Exploring more geothermal activity.

Back with training updates as normal shortly, and then the rest of these pics within the next week or so.