Day 5: Rexburg, ID to Billings, MT

 

*Picture overload from Yellowstone!*

We knew today would be a big day when we planned to drive through the entire loop of Yellowstone AND still drive nearly 4 hours afterwards to Billings, MT in order to at least feel like we made a little headway towards our final destination. It was a beautiful drive towards the park, and we were really happy to know that we would get to go with Matt and Kylee. Also, we totally owe Anton for his detailed map of must sees! He’d be so proud to know we hit nearly all of his recommended hot spots.

The drive towards “Yellow-Rock” as the girls called it was pretty and scenic. We followed alongside a mountain range in the distance.

Before Yellowstone we drove through this national forest. It kind of reminded us of home, except the trees were different.

We hit some construction. Instead of cones, they have ‘pilot’ cars to take you through the area… But, it didn’t look like anything was going on to me.

We left Idaho and crossed into Montana! This is the first NEW state ventured into for all of us.

We entered Yellowstone through the West Entrance.

We crossed over into Wyoming, this was the best sign I could manage on such short notice. (So far we’ve been through WA, OR, ID, UT, MT, WY).

We were excited to see our first real bison (buffalo)! They actually seemed a lot like cows.

Our first stop was in the Lower Geyser Basin where we walked on the Fountain Paint Pot Trail. This was probably our most favorite part since there was so much activity and so many different colors. We had so many pictures that I kinda went through and picked some of my favorite ones of just the scenery.

The Grand Prismatic Spring was our next stop, but since it was still a little cold, there was too much steam to really see it’s beauty.

We then went to Old Faithful and managed to get there just in time to see the Geyser go off, without even waiting! Just perfect if you ask me, but, the only downside is my pictures have a ton of other people in them. Oh well.

Allie had fun being a big helpful cousin.

After the crowd died down, we were able to get up close to Old Faithful (she’s puffing in the back).

Here’s the group of us. We had so much fun with these guys and are super thankful to their hospitality!

The girls fell asleep and we stopped at a view point for West Thumb Geyser Basin.

Since the girls were asleep, Kylee and Henry watched the truck.

Here’s a view point of Yellowstone Lake.

Just some scenery of the drive through the loop. It’s actually pretty long. Took us all day to drive, including our stops.

We then went to see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, which included upper and lower falls.

This guy was so random. He liked the attention, that’s for sure. I never saw him paint. He mostly just stared at the tourists walking by. It was kind of funny to sit and watch. I speculate whether he even really painted this.

We said goodbye to Matt and Kylee and headed towards Mammoth Hot Springs which is up near the North Entrance. On the way, we nearly hit a bison (I could have touched him from the truck) and by the time I got my camera out, he was already well behind us because Aaron was fearful he’d head-butt our vehicles and didn’t want to stop to see if that would happen.

So, we turned around and followed the poor guy into a more open space. They are HUGE up close!

We didn’t get to see a whole ton of wildlife other than Bison, but did stumble upon a herd of mule deer.

More pretty scenery. It was amazing how much the landscape changed through out Yellowstone.

Our final stop was Mammoth Hot Springs. It was nice to wear the kids out again with another hike since they took a nap in the car. We knew we would be driving late into the night and wanted them to sleep in the car. But, so far… it’s about 10pm and the kids are STILL awake. Not exactly how we planned it, but no real complaints yet!

(look at how Malia crosses her legs… such a poser!)

These flowing hot springs were just beautiful in the way they carved their path through the landscape. Nature can be so amazing!

close-up…

Look what the girls found!

It was a pretty drive towards Billings, MT as the sunset on our lovely trip to Yellowstone. Tomorrow we make a significant dent and will make it all the way to South Dakota!

Today we hit over 1500 miles so far on the trip. Forgot to mention in yesterday’s post that we hit 1000 miles. Only about 1/2 the miles completed so far!!!