Yellowstone.

Wyoming is beautiful.

I've been up and down the East Coast, up and down the West Coast, and through some of the Southwest, but I haven't been anywhere like Wyoming. It's the type of beautiful has you still staring out the windows 3 hours into a 5 hour car ride. Just rolling hills, mountains, green, and tons of space. We flew into Billings, MT, and drove five hours to the East Entrance of Yellowstone National Park. Even though we were admiring the beauty three hours into the ride, by hour five we were very much ready to get out of the car.

I'd heard about Yellowstone, seen pictures of Yellowstone, but actually setting foot in Yellowstone is something else entirely. It's millions of acres of (mostly) untouched land - something you don't get to see every day in our country. On top of all of the natural beauty, many of the buildings were built in the mid-19th century, and are a sight in their own right. We stayed at the Yellowstone Inn on Yellowstone lake for two days - spending our mornings sitting in rocking chairs overlooking the lake, our days exploring the park and our evenings drinking red wine while working on jigsaw puzzles. Yes, jigsaw puzzles :)

 

Even though we only had two short days to explore this huge piece of land, we managed to hit all of the highlights and even take some time to stop for animal watching. But more on that later... 

This patch of the earth is weird. Boiling mud puddles. Pools in every color of the rainbow. Old Faithful shooting scalding water from the ground every 90 minutes.

 

 

 

After pushing through hordes of tourists near Old Faithful in the morning, we spent the afternoon driving around some of the lesser visited areas of the park. We stopped at scenic overlooks, visited Mammoth Springs and watched a herd of buffalo feed at Lamar Valley.  

 

On the way back to the lodge, we drove up to the base of Mt. Washburn. The elevation was probably close to 11,000 feet at this point on steep roads and Mom was terrified. My dad parked the car and Cassie, CJ, Dad and I ran up to a higher viewpoint to get a view of the whole valley. According to the sign, snow has fallen every month of the year at Mt. Washburn. We were far from the top, but could definitely feel the wind!

 

We spent our last night in Yellowstone sipping old cold beers while working on a jigsaw puzzle and online coursework at the Yellowstone Lake lodge. The morning of Day 2 was spent walking through the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Breathtaking. We hiked to both the top and bottom of a large waterfall while trying to avoid the coming rainstorm before setting off for the Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole. Although we barely scratched the surface of the gem that is Yellowstone, I believe we got a good glimpse at the park highlights. Like Utah, I'd love the chance to go back and really explore the back country - the more you see, the more you want to see!