Yellowstone Day 2

On our 2nd day in Yellowstone, we didn’t see the cousins at all. They had plans for a chuckwagon cowboy cookout and wanted to spend the day near where that was happening. We had plans for a hike & campfire dinner with Lynden folks, so we all had a good day even though we weren’t together. The downer? Pouring rain.

We took it easy in the morning and let the little girls swim and the older girls use the exercise room.

I sat by the pool. Someone had to be the lifeguard, after all.

Since we were having a slower day, we stopped to take a picture at the entrance on our way into the park. As you can see, the rain let up for a little bit. We stopped at viewpoints along the way, since we were not in any sort of hurry.

We drove over to Canyon, seeing no wildlife on the way, and headed onto the North Rim Drive of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. I think I actually like it better than the actual Grand Canyon. I don’t know why…I think because you can see the water and trees better. And it’s not 115* at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We saw this big nest way down in the canyon and with my zoom lens, we figured it must be an osprey nest. This was later confirmed by our ranger friends.

We also went on South Rim Drive and checked out all the viewpoints there.

We took the steps down on Uncle Tom’s trail, which we did not do in 2003. I don’t even think we knew about it! There are 300+ steps down into the canyon for a view of the falls and it was an awesome view, even in the rain. The rain did make the steel steps a bit slippery and slightly more terrifying…but we did it!

I bought those ponchos for our last Yellowstone trip in 2003 when there were only 4 of us. I’ve packed them on every cross-country trip since and never before used them. Why I never bought two more, I do not know, but thankfully neither Sarah nor Bethany mind the rain, so it didn’t matter that we left them poncho-less.

The girls fell in love with the stuffed bison. Unfortunately, our van was packed to the gills and old Joe wouldn’t fit.

After we were done in Canyon, we drove down to the Lake Hotel and Lake Lodge area to see if we could find the cabin we stayed in last time we were in Yellowstone in 2003 and we think we did! Then we wandered around the lodge a bit and we did see some bison there.

Then we were off to Mud Volcano for our guided ranger tour with one of our favorite rangers and LCHS teachers, Mr. Kredit! Another Lynden family joined us, and along the way, a few other families as well. Mr. Kredit was in prime form and we loved that hike!

Mud Volcano was sloppier than usual because of all the rain from that day. Mr. Kredit likes to use children in his illustrations…

After the hike we headed to the home of Mr. Kredit’s daughter and her husband, who are two of our other favorite rangers and LCHS teachers. We shared a hot dog roast & s’mores with them and the other family from Lynden. At one point we realized that every adult present, other than Ed, was employed in one way or another by Lynden Christian. Then we realized that the only adult outside with the children was Ed. LOL!

Oh, look! Some more bison. But they are not IN THE MIDDLE of the road. I love bison ON THE SIDE of the road.

I am wearing Mr. Kredit’s Ranger hat. Why? Because he let the school nurse wear it in the picture he took with her family because he said she was one of his best students. So when it was my family’s turn I said, “If she gets to wear the hat, so do I!” So he let me. Probably only because I’m Sarah’s mom and he likes Sarah.