Day 11 (More Yellowstone)

The day dawned cold (34!) but clear and sunny.  So we had breakfast and hit the road.  The goal was the lower loop.  It was lots of driving and lots of great scenery.  We did some short hikes and really enjoyed them.

 This is not zoomed in!!  "The buff-lettes are so cute!" was a phrase we heard often!

 The Grand Prismatic

 Old Faithful!

 How did Miles do on the really cold nights?  Well he stayed bundled up in a wool blanket!!

 Taking a little rest break and hoping to catch Old Faithful erupt again.

 The ranger came by and asked if Will would help him take a temperature reading.  But of course he did and asked only a few questions!!

We made it around the lower loop then headed back to the campground to get some laundry done, have dinner, and s'mores.

Day 10 (Yellowstone)

We woke our first morning in Yellowstone to temps in the mid-30's!  It was COLD!!  We had some hot oatmeal and eggs and hit the road.  We did the upper loop and were in and out of the car stopping whenever we or the weather allowed us to.  It was rainy and sometimes we had some hail. 

 We saw lots of wildlife.

 Silly kids posing!

 We also saw the usual Yellowstone sights of fumaroles (made lots of jokes about that all day!), gysers, hot springs, and mud pots.

 We all loved seeing the bears and kept hoping to see a moose but never saw one.

 This was the only moose we saw!  In a gift shop after stopping for lunch.

After getting back to camp late we had dinner and then s'mores with friends that  were also camping at the same camp ground as us!  They were stationed in Hawaii and now Fort Leavenworth with us!
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Day 9 (Travel to Yellowstone)

So we woke up thinking we were going to have an easy travel day down to Yellowstone and some hangout time in the camp area.  BUT, the Going-to-the-Sun- Road opened!!!  Yay!  So we packed up, left the trailer at the KOA (ask about that sometime), and drove the road.  It was incredible!  So beautiful.  The weather could not have been better.  

 There was still plenty of snow up there too.

 We made it to the top!  Used the bathrooms, saw some mountain goats, and then headed back down.

We then picked up the trailer and headed on to Yellowstone.  There were some pretty severe storms in the Yellowstone area and setting up a tent in a hail storm wasn't our idea of a good time.  So the road opening up and driving that got us to Yellowstone late, but after all the storms had gone through.
By dinner time we were getting to a small town and wanting to stop.  But every single place was closed!  So we backtracked and found a grocery store and picked up dinner there.  We got to the camp ground close to 9pm, it was wet from the earlier storms, and very cold!!  We left the kids in the car and set up camp and put them straight to bed that night.

Day 8 (Glacier)

Glacier was amazing!  The weather was cool in the morning and warmed up by the afternoon or if you were in the sun.  The Going-to-the-Sun-Road was not open yet for the season so we went for a hike.  6mile round trip to Avalanche Lake.

 Posing in a  hollowed out tree.

 We followed the creek most of the time.  The water was crystal clear and COLD.

 We had a picnic lunch right by the lake before we headed around to the other end to get closer to the waterfalls.

 So clear and beautiful.  The boys took their shoes off and crossed a stream to go explore.  Justin said it was so cold it made you sweat!

 Yes, the water was that blue!

 The lake with the waterfalls at the other end.