Going to a ranger talk at night; we must have been too dorky to sit with, right?
Bison on a smoky day--this guy ruled the road!
We hiked to see the petrified tree. There's a fence around it because people kept taking pieces of it.
Chromatic spring
Thermal features along the river.
Old Faithful
Grand Gyser, way more dramatic than old faithful, if you're patient enough to wait for it. The kids said this was the best sight of the day (other than the bison).
But it was moments like this that were my favorite part of the day.
Checking out the visitor center.
Taking an extended trip means that sometimes you have to be 'that guy' working whenever you can get an internet signal. At Yellowstone that place was at Old Faithful.
The fire made for dramatic sunsets.
There's sort of a Disneyland mentality though, as "Le Bus" pulls up and the masses rush out with their ipads in front of their faces to snap as many pics in the few minutes they have. Seriously, grab your kids out of the way if you see this group coming, as they won't look or think twice before pushing them off the boardwalk into the hot springs so they can get a good profile pic or hundred (hooray for quick reflexes, as we avoided disaster on that front).
At the end of the second day our daughter summed it up quite well after another pushy group shared the trail with us, "Ugh, I am sooo over European tourists! Except for British toddlers. They have the best accents."
After this loop of main sights though, we can happily say that it is possible to avoid the "Le Bus" crowd and find lots of beautiful park moments off of the beaten path.
This makes me want to go! How can we be tourists in Yellowstone without dealing with the tourists? And can we make it during good weather and when the kids are out of school and sport-commitment free? You probably have the best answer to the last parts... bring school with you and make the hiking the sport.
ReplyDeleteWe found that between 10am-5pm was packed, but once dinner time hit we practically had the place to ourselves. I think that if you hit the 'big' stuff early and late in the day you're good! Also, once you get one mile in on any trail, then you only see the tourists that are there to enjoy nature and are fun to share the trail with. We also found places that buses didn't go--I'm putting those in the next post--they are too good not to share! (Also, it's amazing how much time there is in the day without organized sports!)
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