On Wednesday, Karl left work as soon as he could, so around 4. We went jumped into our packed car, and headed up to Yellowstone. The traffic was terrible, we were had some car issues, but we got to the town of West Yellowstone, checked into our hotel, and passed out.

Bright and early the next morning, we had an AWFUL breakfast. The we were off!

We planned on going to Old Faithful at the very start, so that we could it out of the way on what we hoped would be the least full day in the park.

Old faithful is the biggest attraction at the park, and they have built a whole village around it. The ranger station even had a chart of that days expected eruptions. We got the kids signed up for the junior ranger program, and got them their books and pencils to see if they could earn their badges.

It was 10 minutes until the next predicted eruption and we were so excited to check it out!

 

I mean look at Lucas.

And even though we didn’t have long to wait, it sure felt like we were waiting forever!

Will it ever erupt?

Then, not very suddenly, and with lots of notice-Old Faithful erupted!

 

Karl started his “grumpy selfies” here. When I asked him, “is that a thing?” his answer was, “It is now.”

HI buddy.

 

After the spectacular event, we went to check out a rangers information station. It was really great. We learned all about so many animals that were in the park, and got to touch their pelts, their horns, and their tracks.

They had some really incredible rock samples too! That is a huge, but very light pumice stone.

 

The youth ranger class began, and we needed one to get the kids their Junior Ranger Badges.

The group gathered around and learned about the rock cycle.

Lucas was very engaged.

We played a game where we were igneous rocks, sedimentary rocks, and metamorphic rocks.

Then we had to fight the boy to go hike around a little.

There were truly lovely things to see.

 

 

 

Then sometimes they were SO beautiful…

BUT SO SO Stinky!

Coming around we had a really cool experience. Old Faithful erupted again,

 

 

BUT THEN, Beehive erupted too! And we were right there.

My cuties.

We continued out loop.

Saw some more cool bacteria mats.

 

The Ear Spring.

 

The weather was so perfect. We were really having a nice time outside.

 

Kids feet were hurting, so we took a little rest near castle rock.

We went to a little Grill nearby, and had a $50 lunch of grilled cheese and hamburgers.

Worth it! We think.