As we move north and higher in elevation, we keep adjusting our night warmth strategies. Last night Dave was excited to be back in our tent and only the two of us sharing one of the king size quilts. The girls would be sleeping together with Brayden's extra sleeping mat and bag and the other quilt. Last night I tried sleeping in pants, 2 shirts, a sweatshirt, and cocooning in my sleeping bag while being completely covered by the quilt. Laney and I both ended up cold in the middle of the night because our sleepmates decided revenge was a good idea by stealing the quilt! And when Laney wakes up in the middle of the night she must pee, but I was very proud that she bravely walked all by herself!
We were scheduled to meet Brayden and Grammie at 9am at their campground so we left by 8am to get there. No camp breakfast this morning! We made it quite early so we took a few minutes to browse the gift shop at the General Store for t-shirts. This year Ryan the saver hasn't spent a dime yet, Brayden has spent a little, and Laney has spent most of hers. She has a hard time passing by the stuffed animals, Native American gifts, and especially jewelry.Our 1975 Diesel bus rolled up shortly after we found Grammie and Brayden. Our tour guide greeted us with a few jokes and we found our seats. It's so nice to have 3 adults matched up to 3 kids so we don't have to split up much. After some explanations of the tour and picking up a few more people we were under way for our all-day Circle of Fire tour.
Back before Dave and I were married, we'd visited the South Rim of the Grand Canyon for a few days. One of the books he purchased then was a very morbid "Deaths in the Grand Canyon". He found the same version for Yellowstone while we were in the Grand Tetons so he and Brayden started reading this one. Our first stop was the West Thumb Geyser Basin and I was wondering why Brayden was being so protective of me and the girls all of a sudden until I remembered he'd been reading that book!
Yellowstone has more than 10,000 thermal features in the park and we were walking over about 50 of them in this area. They varied from boiling green springs to mini-geysers to steaming fumeroles.
On the way to our next stop we were thoroughly entertained with stories of the beginnings of the park and the people who were instrumental in moving it toward what it is today. We reached the Continental Divide shortly after a store about Lake Isa. All these years I'd told the kids about what happens with the waters at the Continental Divide and they all turned and looked at me when we found out this Lake actually does the opposite of what it is supposed to. Yet another exception to the rule!
Our next stop was Old Faithful! We arrived just as the last predicted eruption happened so we had about an hour before we needed to find our seats for the next one. We walked inside the Old Faithful Inn and were stunned by the design and wookwork in the 6-story entrance and foyer. It looked like a giant, beautiful treehouse inside! After browsing the gift shops we found a spot outside to enjoy our picnic and watch all the people.
Ryan was getting very nervous we would miss the big event so Dave found us a front row seat for the action. As we waited and we listened as all the jokes about "turning the water on" and "I guess that was it!" were passed around as the time ticked on and the geysers toyed with us by bubbling over and shooting a little burst of water. Thankfully the prediction was only a few minutes off and Old Faithful was spouting water high up into the sky.
Our next stop was the paint pots - an area featuring boiling mud and a few geysers. The kids took pictures of all the activity while we enjoyed walking around to see everything.
Next up was the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River. Still in August the falls were rushing with water as we talked about how much more intense it must be after snowmelt.
Our next stop was our tour guide's favorite spot in the park. He instructed us all to not peek to the left at the Artist Point until we were at the bottom of all the steps. I think everyone cheated except me and Grammie! The view of Upper Falls was just beautiful and one I'd seen painted many times of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The afternoon light was harsh for pictures, but these falls are almost 3 times as high as Niagra Falls!
It was afternoon as we stepped back on the bus and the tour guide talked about celebrations. He mentioned a grandmother having a birthday on the bus and made Grammie stand up. He talked about his days as a school bus driver and how the birthday girl would stand on the seat as everyone sang then they would bang on the roof, so in much the same excitement we did the same. Minus Grammie standing on the seat. I knew it wouldn't be right away. I knew it might night even be today. But I knew I would get in trouble for this.
On our way back to our drop off spot, we were treated to our first view of the 5,000 bison in the park in what is called a "bison jam". There were bison taking their sweet time walking across the road and watching all the cars. After we saw this guy trying to scratch his annoying itch, I noticed the majority of the trees in the area had their bark rubbed off in about the same spot.
Once we said our thank yous to our guide and goodbyes to Grammie, we headed back to our site for dinner and showers for two stinky girls. It's hard to believe the swing in temperatures each day here as we are dressing each day like we are flying from Alaska to Mexico! By 10am each morning most of our layers have been peeled off and we are guzzling water. See these hot faces from this afternoon!?
Showers weren't in the cards this night as there was a line out the door and I wasn't in the mood to wait so we went back for dinner and I crashed while Dave and the girls played games and read.
