We went to visit our friends the Peers in Idaho at the end of July, and they took us to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons for a few days. The entire vacation was completely amazing, starting with the computer games on the back of airplane seats. Easiest flight ever!
On our way up to Idaho from the airport, we stopped in Logan to eat at the Bluebird Cafe. Unfortunately, it was closed for renovations, so we went to eat at the Chuck O Rama, which is significant to Mr. Brown. His grandfather (whose name was Chuck) took Mr. Brown and his siblings there to eat when Mr. Brown lived in Utah as a child.
The drive up to Idaho was wonderful. We arrived at our friends' house and spent a day resting up and preparing for departure to Yellowstone. Being in Idaho and being with our friends was really great. Mr. Brown and I were both very moved by the mountains (especially Mr. Brown) and also by how cozy the town felt. Very different from where we live now. We had potato doughnuts for breakfast. They were really good!
We began the national park trip by driving through Teton Pass, which was a little hair-raising for Mr. Brown. The rest of us enjoyed it. We had a really nice minivan with satellite radio, which made all the driving we did (maybe 500 miles?) a lot of fun. We stopped in Jackson, although Mr. Brown and I were not particularly impressed with it. We did buy some jackets and sleeping bags at a thrift store there because the nights were colder than we expected.
Our friends took us on a hike around Jenny Lake. We went three miles and then took a boat back across the lake. Very cool. Mr. Brown and I were very winded, which we attributed to the high altitude. We usually don't have any problems walking several miles.
Grand Prismatic Pool
We also went to Old Faithful, had lunch, saw Old Faithful erupt, and walked around the geyser trail by Old Faithful, which was really neat. We got ice cream and called it a day, and ate pizza by the lake by the Grand Tetons for dinner, and slept in our cabin boxes again. The stars were amazing for the second night as well.
On day two at Yellowstone, we road tripped through the park and stopped wherever we felt like it. Lewis Falls first. Then Mud Volcano, which had a bunch of fantastic bubbling hot springs, including:
Mud Cauldron (so stinky, my friend thought it was the nearby bathrooms but it was the geologic feature)
Mud Cauldron
Churning Cauldron
Black Dragon's Cauldron
Black Dragon's Cauldron again. It apparently erupted out of nowhere in 1948 and blew trees and mud everywhere. There was much discussion about how to get a time machine and come back in time to watch.
There was an injured buffalo resting near the trail to complete the hiking loop at Mud Cauldron, so it was closed to hikers. We walked back down the same trail we walked up and sang the "Snape... Snape... Severus Snape..." song together, which was silly and very fun!
Mr. Brown and Nut Brown and I dashed up to see the last feature, Dragon's Mouth Spring. It was incredible. There is sloshing water booming underground while steam comes out of the cave mouth. So cool!!
We drove through Hayden Valley and saw some bison and elk (neat) and so much beautiful scenery - rivers, mountains, meadows. Next was an emergency stop which turned into a sightseeing stop at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. I believe these are the Lower Falls. It was so high that it gave a bunch of us vertigo, looking down at the river.
When we first pulled in, the kids suddenly started screaming and it turned out that they had seen a Hawaii license plate, which meant that they'd found all fifty states in less than 24 hours in the park.
Next up was Artist Paintpots, which was a short hike to see some colorful mud.
One of my favorite views of the day.
There were also boiling mud pots here, which is the thing I have always wanted to see at Yellowstone. It was so funky and cool to watch the mud splatter as it boiled.
That night we stayed in a hotel in West Yellowstone, Montana. Although the air conditioning and the beds were nice, Mr. Brown and I both missed the stars.
Breakfast the next morning: bear pancakes.
The next day we went to a bear rescue center so that our friend Hannah could see some real wolves. It was pretty neat. We did see wolves moving around, and some bears too. Also otters and some rescued raptors, although our favorite was actually a colony of some kind of prairie rodent. They were very busy and cute.
There was a statue that was a lot of fun.
and a gift shop with a huge bear seat.
Then we went back to Idaho. On the way back, we stopped at a rest area for water and discovered it had a hiking trail to show off Hell's Half Acre - some awesome volcanic flows outside Blackfoot, Idaho. It was too hot to hike that day but Mr. Brown and I came back the next day and walked it. It was also incredible.
Being in Idaho, we had to do the Idaho thing and visited the Idaho Potato Museum. We ate potato ice cream (not to be repeated) and learned a lot about potato farming. Turns out that the volcanic soil is what makes Idaho potatoes so great.
We enjoyed the treats from the candy shop across the street a bit more than the potato ice cream.
The last place we went was Lava Hot Springs, which is a natural hot springs about 30 miles from Pocatello. It has four pools that go from hot to unbearable. We sat in all of them. That was also great, and we were disappointed to leave.
We hung around with the Peers for another couple of days, resting and even playing a role-playing game together. On our way back to Salt Lake to fly out, we stopped in Brigham City and had breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa, which was fun! We haven't seen them in quite awhile either. Then it was back on the airplane and home, ending one of the best vacations that we've ever had.
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