Yellowstone (Part 1)

How to put the BEAUTY of Yellowstone in a post?? Not possible.  

Mark and I visited Yellowstone about seven years ago on our own.  We wanted to take the kids one day, but thought they may still be a little young.  When the Park City trip opportunity came available, we thought, "How could we be so close to Yellowstone and not go??".  Needless to say, it did not disappoint.  Breathtaking!!

We made the decision to go to Yellowstone only about a month and half before our actual trip, so it was pretty much a miracle that there was even lodging availability located in the park.  We were trying to avoid staying in one of the neighboring towns.  I swear I think we got the last two cabins they had. 

On our first day there, Mark had us wake up bright and early to hit the ground running (that's the photographer in him coming out).  Our first day was a little rocky.  The kids were really tired and weren't quite prepared for all the driving from destination to destination. They got bored in the car, and let's face it... the mountains and sights aren't as exciting to kids as they are to adults.  They did love the wildlife sightings, though. We pushed it a little too far past lunch time and then we couldn't find a picnic area.  When we finally did, the kids were starving, but Jack was terrified that we were going to get eaten by a bear.  So, he spent the majority of our picnic lunch time crying and running to the car, then getting out of the car crying because he didn't want to be alone in there. Haha!

 We didn't have dinner reservations that night, and a lot of the restaurants in the park were full, so dinner was a little tricky, too.  We found a counter service place and ate right before they closed.  Tired, hungry kids are no fun.  Everyone was happy when we got dinner! 

One thing about Yellowstone that I would not have known before we visited is that it is VERY spread out.  It's separated into different areas and those different areas each have their own restaurants, lodging, etc. It can take a LONG time to drive from one area to the other, and you don't want to get stuck driving after the sun goes down.  It's sooo dark and there is the possibility of hitting wildlife.  When Mark and I first came to Yellowstone years ago, we made the mistake of driving to one more destination in the park as it was getting dark.  Our hotel was outside the park, but on the complete opposite side of where we were.  It can take hours to drive through the park as it is, but it got dark on us and we were so scared we were going to run into bison or something (a very real possibility... you literally can only see right in front of you since there are no street lights).  It took us like three or four hours to drive across the park that night.  So, in conclusion, it takes good planning to figure out where you want to be when.  

Here's a photo recap of our first full day: 

 

Snuggled up after a long day...