Hey Hey Hey Yogi

The kids and I went to Yellowstone National Park this weekend. We went through the West Yellowstone entrance. After we barely drove into the park, a nice little herd of Bison had traffic stopped as they meandered down the road. We also saw some elk too, but the bison are pretty neat to see so close!
Our first stop was at Fountain Freight Trail and we walked a little ways in to see the Ojo Caliente Spring. John's first comment was why does it smell like breakfast? The Ojo Caliente Spring runs right down into the river and it was a really deep blue color. Next we stopped at the Fountain Paint Pots and walked around there and saw a mud pot glurping, and also the Red Spouter Pot, and the Fountain Geyser also. Carol really liked the color of Silex Spring. We then drove into Firehole Lake and saw Surprise Pool, White Dome Geyser and Firehole Lake.
After FireHole Lake, we finally made it to Old Faithful! This was the one the kids wanted to see the most! We waited forever, but it was worth it! The kids got to help a Ranger with his demonstration about Old Faithful. then Old Faithful exploded!!! It was so awesome, like always and Carol and John both loved it! It was so extremely busy at Old Faithful. The kids and I then went into Old Faithful Inn and saw the interior of the old lodge. We then loaded back up into the car and had lunch while we drove to Upper Falls.
As we drove to Upper Falls, we saw Yellowstone Lake, Fishing Bridge, Sulphur Cauldron, trees, bison, a lot of tourist and finally made it to Upper Falls. What beauty! I've been past Upper Falls before, but never took the time to stop and look. The noise the falls made was amazing!
We turned back around after seeing Upper Falls and as we drove back down towards West Thumb, we happened to see a BEAR! So lucky for us! It was right by Elk Antler Creek and was so amazing to stop and watch. There weren't too many tourists there yet and the Bear had just woken up from a nap. I've seen bears before, but this was the first time that I have seen a bear in Yellowstone Park. It was just a small Grizzly, but still a Grizzly! We watched him wander around for a little bit until he went over a ridge and disappeared from sight. So Amazing and Awesome! Definitely one of the major high lights of the trip!
Along with driving around Yellowstone, we met up with my parents at Flagg Ranch and camped for the night! It's pretty cool camping in Papa's big tent with Papa and Gram. We had fun burning hot dogs and marshmallows on the campfire while Papa cooked edible hamburgers on the Coleman grill. The kids went for a walk with Papa to the Flagg Ranch store and came back with ice cream for everyone! The mosquitoes about ate us alive! I finally gave up and went and hid in the tent behind the mosquito net. Poor John and Carol have at least 20 bites, even though they were doused in spray.
Super early Saturday morning we went fishing on Lewis Lake with Papa and Gram. Talk about cold and wet weather! Even though we felt like drowned rats we enjoyed the good fishing on the lake. I caught several lake trout, my Mom caught several, including a huge one that broke the line once it got too close to the boat and the kids each caught a few fish. Papa was the fishing guide and kept our hooks loaded and the boat trolling. At one point we watched the mist come in on the lake and then move off.
After fishing we stopped at Crawdad Creek and caught crawdads! At first the kids where extremely freaked out over the crawdads since my Dad had told them that if the crawdad pinches you you will go blind from the poison. Of course my kids believe anything that Papa tells them, so when Dad caught a crawdad and went to go put his fingers in the pincher, John jerked Papa's hand away and shouted "Don't Papa!" We laughed over that! Both the kids finally got brave and held the crawdads.
Driving home was pretty nice, we drove home through Jackson Hole. I had to stop and get a New York Sub Shop sub. Yum! We also drove by my old schools, including my now non-existence High School. The new high school looks really nice and they've built a new elementary school where my high school used to be. We also drove on Martin Lane and the kids got a good giggle about that. We stopped at my old childhood home on KDC Lane and I showed them where Momma used to live and play. The kids liked that and liked seeing Munger Mountain.
All in all, it was a really fun trip, but we are very glad to be home and showered!