Last year, I took pictures. This year, I was lazy. But never fear, because there is more than one photographer in the family. Behold, the images of Neal Scott!
This is the view out of the van as we left Grandma and Grandpa Hendricks' cabin in Island Park to drive to Yellowstone. Yes, we picked a weekend with a poor weather forecast.
We tried going earlier in the season this time because (1) my pass expires in July, and (2) we were hoping to see baby animals. These bison did not disappoint.
We also went several new places this time. Here's our family at Gibbon Falls. Miriam was excited to get out of the van to see the sights. She kept telling Grandma Scott to "Run!"
Stopping at the Artist Paint Pots was a bad idea (I'll admit it because
it was MY idea). It poured on us almost the entire time. The majority of
us turned around and got back to the van just as the rain let up. Only
Analee, Seth and Grandpa Scott were courageous enough to walk the whole
loop. Poor Miri's pants got soaked; I took them off her and laid them in
front of the heater vents (going full-blast) so they'd dry before our
next stop.
The group at a familiar Grover-Yellowstone stop: Norris Geyser Basin. (Take a look at my 22-week pregnancy pooch.) When we've gone in past years, Norris has been our last stop on the loop, and we've kind of given it the short end of the stick because we were so tired. This time we saw more sights and spent more time looking.
Seth giving Miri a shoulder ride at our picnic spot. It was lunchtime right after our Norris stop, so we asked a ranger if we could eat our lunch in the campground without having to pay to stay the night. He directed us to the appropriate spot.
See the two brown spots on the right? Those are the first two bears I've EVER seen in Yellowstone: a sow grizzly and her cub. We stopped the car and took a careful look through the binoculars.
Grandma Scott giving Analee a piggyback while Andrea and Bekah walk behind. Our last major stop was the Mammoth Terraces. Canary Spring turned out to be my favorite attraction on this trip.
The girls spent their hard-earned money (most of it acquired by picking up pine cones in our yard) at the gift shop in Mammoth. I think that's the part of the trip they were anticipating the most. Bekah bought a bag of polished rocks and a charm bracelet with Yellowstone animals on it. Ana bought a bag of rocks and a geode.