First day in Yellowstone

 Our first day, we drove in the West entrance and an hour through the park to our campsite.  It was early enough in the day that we stopped at the mud pots on the way.  My favorite one is called the Dragon's Breath.  It looks like a dragon in a cave.  Evelyn was scared to come to Yellowstone because I told the kids that the water is so hot that you would die if you got in so that they needed to stay on the path.  She didn't think that she could stay on the path after that.  We got to the mud pots and Evelyn figured out that she wasn't going to die and life was good again.  We also saw our first herd of buffalo.  I don't remember seeing more than one or two at a time when I was little.  We saw several herds of at least a hundred each.  This herd likes to stay next to the road apparently.  There were lots of babies and my favorite thing was watching them roll in the dirt.

Photo by Ada

First day in Yellowstone

 We wore masks on the overlooks where there were more people.  Not everyone always had masks on, but legally you are supposed to to be in the park.

I believe Seth took this picture.  Ada and Sam mostly wanted to take pictures of the view and Evelyn and Seth liked to take pictures of all the family.  

I love this!  My parents brought us to Yellowstone just after this huge wildfire.  EVERYTHING was black and burnt.  But now, 30 years later, you can see the old burnt trees but there is a full grown forest everywhere.

These two pictures are of our campsite just by Yellowstone lake.  There were lots of animals that weren't phased by people.  Lots of elk every morning.  One evening, two of them even were grazing right behind our tent.  Ada was so excited and wanted to go see them.  She tried taking pictures but didn't want to use the flash because she didn't want to scare them... She was so cute.

Tetons

 

On our drive, we stopped by a Mormon Pioneer ranch. It was gorgeous and Jer read that they didn't have any water so they dug ditches to get water to their property and the ditches still function.  I did find a ditch with skeeters and frogs in it, so it's definitely still a functioning ditch.  We also saw a million little prairie dogs that chirped the whole time we were there.  There was a tour that came through and I listened in a little bit.  During winter they would dig a line to their outhouse and their barn.... other than that, they didn't leave their home for the winter.  They also said that the area averages over 2000 earthquakes a year.  Evelyn was throwing a fit, so she and Jer stayed in the car.

This masterpiece was a product of Evelyn's photography.

This one was a product of Seth's photography.

These were all taken by Seth too.

 

Kids playing with the camera.  Ada started getting artsy with her photography.  She took a million pictures of the cups, flowers, cracks in the asphalt, etc... I included one she did here of people's legs.  I used to take pictures like that too.  It's fun to see her experiment.