Island Park Part 2

Our second day in Island park we got up early and headed off to Yellowstone.  And by early I mean 9:30, which is pretty early in my mind when a crowd is involved!  But we made good use of our time and spent an entire day in Yellowstone.  I probably could have spent a second day.  And we found some places that we want to hit for sure if we ever go again.  The number one spot being the Fire Hole where there is a slow spot in the river and a little swimming hole.  I was jealous of the people jumping in!

The places we did get to were great. 

We saw elk...

Waterfalls

Stinky hotpots (I'm guessing Owen and Bria were really bothered by the stink...why else would they look so miserable!)

 

We saw Old Faithful....

 

Luckily we were able to see it twice.  I'll take a moment to share a little story with you.  See the people on the side of this ^ picture?  I was sitting directly in front of them.  They were actually very nice.  We chatted while we were sitting waiting for Old Faithful to do it's thing.  Then they asked Cy if he would take their picture while the geyser erupted because they had seen it the day before and this time they wanted a picture, standing directly in front of the geyser while it was erupting.  So when the water started spraying they hopped right up, right in front of me and Cy started snapping.  Then they told Syd and Cy to stand up so they could return the favor.  Then the california couple hopped back up for another shot, you know, just for good measure.  I missed the whole thing.  This was a little ironic.  This was my third time at Old Faithful.  My previous 2 visits I somehow managed to barely miss the eruption.  Both times.  What are the chances of that?  And this time this nice couple tried to ruin it for me again.  But in the end, after the eruption that I missed, we walked around, ate ice cream and then walked the path behind Old Faithful.  And it erupted again.  And it was an even better view.  And I even saw the whole thing.  So there couple from California....I won in the end :)

 

We also saw lots of hot pools.  I'm not sure why but I thought they  were beautiful.  Something about the teal crystal clear water is just mesmerizing to me.

We made it to Yellowstone Lake also.  The water was so clear.  It was beautiful.

 Owen was also taken by the beauty.

Our last stop of the day was the "grand canyon of yellowstone"  I'm sure it has an official name, but I don't know it.  It was gorgeous.  And the waterfall that fell into it was huge.  I could have spent a lot of time there.  Especially since we had to do a steep hike in and out, and I was wearing flip flops.  

 We also saw plenty of buffalo.

A trip to Yellowstone wouldn't be complete with out lots of buffalo.  We left the park around 9 that night.  Emmie was thoroughly disappointed because she hadn't been able to pet a bear while we were there.  But we went into West Yellowstone after that for pizza and she found a large bear statue to pet.  So life was good again.