It certainly was a cold night. The temperature dropped to 8 degrees overnight. Katie woke me up at one point complaining of being cold. I helped her get her sleeping bag zipped up and reminded her to keep her arms inside. Ryan and I both took turns covering Ben’s arms up with his blanket since he was also not fully inside his sleeping bag. It was a tricky night because it was still quite warm when we went to bed, but the temperature dropped significantly. In the morning Ryan and I awoke to the sound of thunder rumbling in the background, almost like another soothing meditation. We lay quietly, lazing in the tent, while the kids slumbered on. However, at one point the wind picked up and the thunder got closer, so our peaceful morning was cut short. Ryan and I read each others minds and immediately sat up. We woke the kids and gave the instructions to get dressed and pack up their sleeping bags and mats. We packed up like it was a competition and if it were a competition, we would have won! I can’t believe how quickly we accomplished what normally goes at a snail’s pace. The hardest part was unstringing the LED lights that were so intricately hung the night before. As the tent was being folded, the kids got distracted by a tiny creature that Ryan thought was a vole. It scampered away and found safety amongst our tent poles, which were underneath the tent bag. I would have got a picture of this cute thing, but the urgency was real as the thunder was getting louder.
We got in the car just as the rain started to fall. I jumped back out just before we pulled away to capture a picture of our campsite that I had forgotten to take the night before. We pulled up alongside the washrooms to brush our teeth and go pee. We returned back to the car to hail coming down hard. We found a tree to hide the car under in case the hail was damaging. Eventually the hail stopped and the winds died down. We drove a short distance towards West Yellowstone, a touristy town on the edge of the park, to stop for a delicious McDonald’s breakfast.
Fortunately the rain had stopped by the time we finished breakfast and we had sunny skies for the remainder of the day. In tune with yesterday's drive through the park, we encountered a large number of tourists pulled over shortly after we had reentered the park. We pulled over and got out to see what was going on. This time we were excited to hear from the crowd that it was a mama bear and two little cubs. We waited patiently for her to appear from within the bushes… it was so exciting! We can only imagine that they had probably started their morning in the river, bathing or hunting for fish and were likely disrupted by the first few humans that stopped to watch them. We kept watching as the bears effortlessly climbed over the giant rocks as they walked alongside the river, away from us. I'm pretty sure these were black bears, so we could check another new animal sighting off our list.
We loaded back into the car and, in true Yellowstone fashion, not too far down the road, we spotted more people pulled over up ahead. As we neared, we located another buffalo laying in the middle of a field. We pulled over safely to join and walked a bit back down the road to check it out. This time we kept a bit more distance. We watched and waited for the buffalo to do something. He must have been asleep since all of a sudden he put on the most spectacular display as he rolled over side to side, just like a dog itching its back, kicking up a huge cloud of dust. Then it rose to its feet and stared at the people who were closest to him. He stood still for what seemed like an eternity. He was just watching. His stance made him look like he was on high alert, waiting to see our next move too. We took a few pictures and Katie backed away to join up with Ryan who stayed back near the car. Ben wanted to stay longer, so I snapped a few more pictures of him before we set off.
The next landmark could be seen from a far distance. We noticed a large amount of steam up ahead as we approached the Lower Geyser Basin. An impressive collection of hot springs with a boardwalk surrounding them. Ben found the coolest tree that had fallen over and turned the dead root structure that was on its side into a climbing wall.
The next stop was the biggest landmark of the day - Old Faithful. As we pulled off the highway and made our way to the parking lot, Katie spotted yet ANOTHER buffalo. We decided to park and walk back to find it, hoping it would still be there. In front of us in the parking lot was a super fun camping alternative perched atop of a Toyota Forerunner. By this point it was very hot. We were moving like snails as we figured out where to go first. We wandered back towards the road we came in on in search of the buffalo. We were super thrilled to cross paths with it, still standing in the location we first spotted it. It was very busy eating breakfast, snacking on the grass between the trees. Ben and I approached cautiously, still marveling at this giant animal. It is hard to pull yourself away from the presence of these animals that we don’t normally encounter, but we had a timely geyser to go and see.
There was seating spanning the front side of Old Faithful. There was already a large crowd of people sitting on the benches waiting. We opted to hang back and take refuge in the shade of one of the limited trees in the area. We wondered how long we would wait. But enjoyed just sitting and talking. We started to discuss the science behind erupting geysers so Ryan found a youtube video online to show the kids. At one point I questioned out loud whether there might be a time tracker for Old Faithful eruptions, kind of like how scientists log seismic activity. Turns out they do. At the time of Ryan checking, there was approximately 30 mins left til the next eruption, plus or minus 10 mins. Fortunately for us, the geyser was faithful and erupted 11 mins earlier than the predicted time. It was pretty cool! What an impressive phenomenon. Our our way out of the park, Katie and I got dropped off at the souvenir store (it was huge and impressive!) to look around and find somewhere to fill our water bottles. She and I had secretly been seeking out stickers for Ben from each of the places we have visited to give him for his birthday since he really wants some stickers to put on his chromebook for school. Mission accomplished! We found Ryan and Ben hanging out in the car behind the centre beneath the shade of a tree.
By this point we were near the south end of the park and were soon going to be leaving. We found one last spot to pull over and stop for some lunch. We ended up stopping at Lewis Lake which we got some amazing views of from the highway before we pulled in. Ryan and Ben were keen to swim. Katie and I were happy to just relax on the shore. I carried the lunch supplies down to the lake while Ryan and Ben suited up. It took them forever to come and join us. It turns out that they were searching for our bag of goggles. Ryan had pulled the entire car apart looking for them with no success. As we prepared our peanut butter sandwiches, the whole family thought long and hard about when we last had the goggles. It turns out that the responsibility given to the kids to bring everything back from the pool in Great Falls did not work out as planned. We had a conversation about the kids buying their own goggles to replace the ones that were left behind. Ryan and Ben went into the water “goggle-less” and quickly felt the chill. It was tough to get in, but they bravely did it. After one dunk, they were done. I guess those goggles wouldn’t have gotten much use after all. Ben said “Ouch! This water hurts my head!”. We enjoyed our lunch on the shore and the kids made a game out of skipping stones in the water while we soaked up this memory.
A side note: we had driven past many of the campgrounds that I remembered trying to book online. I remember when I was looking, it seemed as if nothing was available. I guess they book up very quickly. There were some last minute, first come first serve sites that we could try to get the day of, but I didn’t feel safe relying on them. It turns out that every single campground we had driven past the past two days had a sign at the entrance stating “campground full” . So I was glad that Ryan had found the KOA for us to camp at instead.
We were sad to leave Yellowstone, but fortunately the beautiful views continued. We stopped for a quick photo op overlooking Jackson lake with the mountains behind. Ben was desperate to climb down the steep embankment to dip his toes in the water, but it looked dangerous enough for us to say no. As we continued driving along the Wyoming highway, we spotted the most unique colours in the sky up ahead. It almost looked as if there was a storm in the sky. We watched it for nearly an hour as we approached. It wasn’t until we saw signs warning of “Active Fire Ahead” that we realized it was actually smoke from a forest fire. I started to feel nervous as I had never been this close to a forest fire and had seen scary videos of people feeling forest fires on the news over the years. One of the signs actually warned “reduced visibility… keep headlights on at all times”. The kids did not notice, so we let them continue watching their movie that they had started after we left Yellowstone. Eventually we got close enough that the kids couldn’t help but notice the smoke in the sky. We downplayed the situation and reminded them that forest fires are a natural occurrence and important part of the earth's cycle. Fortunately, we never encountered any scary driving situations and the fire appeared to be on the other side of the mountain we were driving alongside. We noticed a couple of fire trucks stationed on the side of the road with firefighters standing beside them or siting inside. It took a long time for the smell of smoke to make it’s way into the car. Fortunately it was short lived and the fire was behind us.
Our next stop was a top up at a charger that Ryan had found on a site called PlugShare. It was attached to a place called Lava Mountain Lodge. We had hoped to stay for lunch, but unfortunately the restaurant was prepping for an inspection the next day, so it was closed to the public. We did get to have the most interesting conversation with the recently promoted new manager who was such a lovely woman. She told us all kinds of stories including how she has helped to revitalize the restaurant and bring customers back through a bit of facebook advertising, word of mouth, and getting to know her customers. The conversation also turned to forest fires where she taught us a few things including the fact that dead trees that have been burnt in a previous forest fire are typically not a danger since the thick layer of burnt bark is unlikely to catch fire again. She also taught us about the famous fire in Yellowstone in the 1980s. Apparently it burned so long and so hot that the ground beneath it was burnt 1 or 2 feet down which made it nearly impossible for regrowth to happen. Any trees that have regrown have been purely a result of the wind and animals carrying seeds over. We thanked this woman for all of the information and told her how much we liked the atmosphere of her restaurant and that we wished we could have shared a meal with her. She suggested a restaurant in the next town. We bought a pop for the kids to share that night along with some skittles that Ben really wanted as a way to say thanks since the EV charge was entirely free. Katie and I snuck another sticker for Ben into the order too. Before we left we walked around the back of the lodge to say hi to the horse that was nearby. It’s been neat to watch the kids' appreciation for horses grow on this trip. Katie seems especially enamoured.
We drove a short 20 min drive to the next town called Dubois in search of Nana’s Bakery. It turns out this place wasn’t just a bakery… it was a little bit of everything: bakery, restaurant, bowling alley and arcade. Ryan, naturally, had to try one of their cinnamon buns (it wasn’t the best) while Katie and Ben shared $10 tacos and I got a fresh turkey sandwich. Ryan had a hilarious experience when he was paying for his cinnamon bun. The young man at the counter asked him “Are you a first responder, military, senior or veteran?”. Ryan responded with “Nope.. I’m just a teacher.” The young man responds “Oh… that’s the worst of them all. I’ll give you the discount!”. LOL!! We hummed and hawed about which arcade games to play and which were the best value, but when we looked at the time, we decided to skip that and get going since we had an exciting accommodation booked that night in a fancy RV and we had some more diving to get there. On our way out, Ben spotted a minion sit-on-ride. I could see that he was tempted, but also felt the conflict of his 8-year-old “I might be too old for this” self-consciousness coming out. He hesitated, then skipped it. But hopped in the one beside it that looked slightly less childish just to sit for a moment before hopping out.
Along the next stretch, Katie noticed that our beloved bag of unopened chips was no longer like the balloon that it was when we were high up in the mountains. We had another conversation about the science behind it. We also made a very conclusive observation that Wyoming is VERY unpopulated.
As the sun was nearing the horizon, we pulled into the Jim Moss Arena Campground. A unique rural campground that offers a variety of accommodations. We had booked a luxury RV from this place that Ryan had found on Airbnb. As we got out of our car, Paulette, the owner, drove over to greet us on her 4 wheeler with her dog, Griz. She gave us a tour of the RV and taught us the important high tech details like how to turn on and off the lights using the touch screen control and how to slam the stiff door shut. We unpacked and the kids quickly made themselves comfortable in the deluxe reclining massage chairs in front of the big screen tv. This RV really was spectacular. It came with wifi, cable tv, Netflix and unlimited hot water for showers. After relaxing for a short while, Ryan realized the sun was about to set, so we snuck out for the tail end of the sunset and to go and say hi to the horse in the corner of the wide open property. The horse was shy and stayed near it’s feeding bowl, so the kids opted to play with Griz instead. Ben found a set of basketball nets and got very excited to play some ball with Katie only to find that the basketball was deflated and barely bounced when he tried to dribble. By this point the bugs had come out in full force so we retreated back to the RV. We watched a Netflix movie called “Inside the Mind of a Dog” while we sampled Uncle Cory’s chips. We settled into our super comfy beds for a quiet night’s sleep.
