Goodbye Jerome, Hello YELLOWSTONE! The drive to the park was lovely; the eastern section of Idaho, driving into southeastern Montana is beautiful. Rolling meadows and bright blue skies guide you nearly the entire way toward the west entrance which, always surprisingly, is a full-blown tourist attraction of a city. There's even a McDonald's!
The ranger at the entrance handed each of the girls a wild life scavenger hunt game which turned this leg of the journey into a challenge, playing quite perfectly to the interests of our eldest daughter.
Kier and I have both been to Yellowstone before. We found the park to be a magical, beautiful place, full of adventure and wonder as well as endless options for hiking and backpacking. This time we saw things a little differently. DANGER. PERIL. SCALDING DEATH. Oh, the life of parents of wreckless toddlers; we see risk and caution in every creaky boardwalk plank, unstable railing, overcrowded bridge, and unmaintained trail. Annie was determined to swim in the boiling waters of each and every geyser we "hiked" to - I use the term "hike" loosely since we never actually were out of site of a parking lot. We did very much enjoy seeing herds of bison (from the calm and safety of our car) as well as elk, geese, heron, mule deer, and pelicans; the kids loved the wild life! We also made sure to treat ourselves to ice cream from the Old Faithful Inn and to line up our stop there with the 6:11pm eruption of that timely geyser.
We will certainly be back to Yellowstone again - likely in 3-5 years, when the girls are a little more hardy and have a more clear understanding of mortality.
Devils Tower, we're on our way!
(Photos to come)
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