July 3 - Last Day at Yellowstone

Took a last drive through the park down to Old Faithful area. Spent the rest of the day packing up and getting ready to leave tomorrow.

July 2 - Bunsen Peak Hike - Mammoth - Jr Ranger

We hiked up Bunsen Peak just south of Mammoth on the north west corner of the park. It was just over 2.2 miles up to the peak at 8,585 feet in elevation. That was a 1,300 feet climb from the trailhead. The view was great and we had sandwiches at the top. We were very cautious because there was a bear with 4 cubs spotted at Swan Lake that week. Swan Lake is about 5 miles south of Bunsen Peak. We didn’t see the bears but we did see a really nice fox on the way down. I wasn’t able to get the camera going in time but everyone got a really good look at it so I guess you had to be there.

Then we drove up to Mammoth Hot Springs to have ice cream and look at the terraces. The terraces were a little disappointing because the water level was pretty low so they weren’t able to see them glisten in the sun like they normally do. Then it was back down to Madison to be sworn in as Junior Rangers by our friends, Jay & Sandi Mengal. They are the same naturalists that they boys met at Tuckahoe State Park two years ago. Jay & Sandi are going to be back at Tuckahoe next summer. Hopefully we’ll be able to get the boys down there again then. We saw a coyote on the drive home and I was able to get a photo of it.
Back to the motorhome, showers and then we all met Jay & Sandi for pizza in West Yellowstone.

That is the peak that we hiked up.

You can just make out our minivan in the parking lot next to the road below.

July 1 - West Yellowstone Museum Day

We went to the Wolf & Bear Discovery Center and the West Yellowstone Museum. Basically Thursday was our day in West Yellowstone looking and reading, and watching short movies about bears, Yellowstone and the fires from 1988 when 45 percent of the park burned. Learned alot but didn't take many pictures.

June 29 & 30th- Yellowstone Canyon - Old Faithful

We had planned to take a hike up Bunsen Peak but MomMom decided to let us sleep in since the weather didn’t look good enough. We had breakfast at McDonalds and it was a lot of money. Then we drove into the Canyon area of the park. We walked out to Artist Point on the South Rim of the Canyon. PopPop and MomMom really wanted to see that because it was closed when they were here before. We hiked Uncle Tom’s Trail which is more than 300 steps down to the bottom of the Lower Falls. Then we hiked down the Red Rock Point on the North Rim which takes you down to another view of the Lower Falls. Then we took our pictures pushing on the Glacier Rock. We drove down to Fishing Bridge and had lunch. Then we drove around the bottom of the lower loop to show Mommy where we hiked up Elephant Back Trail before she got here but it was CLOSED. We don’t know why but think someone may have seen a bear there.

Then we stopped at the Madison Junior Ranger station to attend a Ranger Talk about horns and antlers. Here is what we learned:

In Yellowstone four animals have antlers and 4 animals have horns.
Antlers are White tail deer, elk, moose and mule deer
Horns are Pronghorns, big horn sheep, bison and mountain goats.
Antlers are bone and Horns are made out of fingernail material.
Only the boys have antlers but boys and girls have horns
Antlers fall off every winter. Horns don’t fall off except for the pronghorns.

June 28 - Mom Arrived!

We rode bikes in the morning. Mommy arrived and we picked her up at the airport in Bozeman, MT. We came back in through the “head” of Yellowstone Park at Gardiner, MT. We took a picture of Ryan, Jacob, Mommy and PopPop at the Roosevelt Arch. We saw deer at the Ranger station in Mammoth. We headed east towards the Lamar Valley where we saw a two year old Black bear. We saw several Pronghorns. We stopped at the Tower Roosevelt gift shop and got teeshirts for Ryan & Jacob. Plus we got ice cream. We saw a waterfall there too. Then we drove south where we saw Grizzly bear near the Chittanham parking area. We saw several Bison but none as close up as we told Mommy we had seen them. PopPop just missed hitting a coyote. MomMom thought saw a fox but it was an unconfirmed sighting. Then we showed Mommy the Bald Eagle Nest near the West Yellowstone exit. Then PopPop filled up with gas for the next day!

June 26 & 27 - Arrived at YELLOWSTONE!

June 26th – We got some breakfast from the McDonalds in WalMart before we left this morning although Ryan didn’t. PopPop also went back in to the store and got some donuts for us. Drove into West Yellowstone. Saw a moose on our drive in. Got set up and then went into the park. Saw an elk almost immediately. Saw Mule deer. Saw a gazillon bison. Picked up our Young Rangers packages at the Madison Station. We hiked down to the Brink of the Lower Falls in the Canyon area. We were impressed with the canyon. Took pictures of stuff. Saw Old Faithful erupt. Drove and Drove and Drove (actually MomMom & PopPop did and we slept). Got back to the motorhome at 10p.m. our time – midnight your time.

June 27th – We rode our bikes a lot around the campground. Drove into the park around the lower loop and took a hike called Elephant Back. It was 7/10 of a mile up and 1.57 miles down. The view of the beautiful Lake Yellowstone was amazingly beautifully awesomeriffic!! Stopped at the Madison Ranger station to talk with Ranger Jay Mengel a friend of PopPop’s from the Air Force who we had met two years ago at Tuckahoe State Park in Maryland.

It was early in the trip so the boys were still interested in looking at Bison. After a couple days, they didn't even take the time to look up at Bison.