Yellowstone!

The next morning, we packed up the cars and drove the five minutes to Yellowstone National Park.

Here's the two cute little travelers- Lydia and Afton!

Here's the two, um, not so cute travelers? Wendy and Cindy! Just kidding. They are ALWAYS cute. Makes it hard to hang out with them. (And, Yes, we make great use of our White Van Caravan and load them up with lots people and stuff!)

On our way to the first hot pot, we saw a BALD EAGLE just sitting in a tree. Cool. As we walked down to this hot pot, we saw a BALD EAGLE flying above our heads. Even cooler.

Hyrum was so excited to see the geysers and hot pots but BOY do they SMELL! They are very pretty, though, and it's fun to see them just boiling away. Weird.

Talk about weird, this hot pot is called the Paint Pot because it has no water. Just minerals and bacteria. It still boils and pops but it's the consistency of boiling Cream of Wheat or pea soup.

So the wind was blowing and I was moving my hair out of the way when Cindy took this gem- I tell you that because I do NOT pose for pictures... Anyway, this was the first real geyser and the parking was bizarre. There were SO many people coming to see it! I'm not sure how the National Parks are suffering when we pay $25 per car and there are thousands of cars there in one day...

And here's what you've all been waiting for: Old Faithful! This is the closest thing to a volcano I've seen so far- someday I'm going to Volcano National Park in Hawaii. Until then, this is pretty much the coolest natural phenomenon I've seen. We waited to see it blow with the other 300 people and then walked around the park to see some more geysers, hot pots, hot springs, etc...

Like this beauty- Heart Spring. Isn't that pretty? Oh, and Cindy is too... :) Anemone geyser was one of my favorites because it was just a tiny one but it the little pool would fill with water, start to bubble, blow it's top, and then all the water would drain down the hole until it was empty. AND, it did that whole cycle every seven minutes... I liked anything that boiled- great big pools or little tiny cracks with water boiling and boiling. So crazy.

At the end of our loop, we came upon some buffalo just lounging in the grass. We also saw some moose on the way home....this is why Yellowstone is so cool! Thanks for a great trip, Wendy and Pa!