Grand National Park Trip - Day 5

On the 5th day, we woke up to a wet morning and had breakfast in the tent.

Today, we are scheduled to visit the North loop of the park. We revisited the Lower and Upper falls on a different rim. The landscape on this part of the park seemed a little wetter and the mountains were in full bloom of wild flowers. I decided that this was the perfect place for a family picture but due to a grumpy husband, whiny kids and bad photography skills, my dream of getting the perfect picture did not come true!

We continued on to Tower Falls. As it was chucking down with rain, we had lunch in the van. The cool thing about camping is, you'll always have food in the car!! After lunch, we were going to attempt a short hike but that trail was closed. Hmm..

So, we drove on. The next stop was Petrified Tree which was cool. The kids didn't quite get it. To be fair, it just looked like a tree trunk, so, if they had a chance to touch it, it might have been different.

Next stop was Mammoth Springs. It looked a lot bigger than i remember. Tyler by now was very interested in taking pictures and was in charge of taking lots of the pictures at this site. After meandering around this massive spring, we stopped in the town area to grab some ice cream and let the tourist grandparents buy some souvenirs.

We headed back after that but was caught in a massive traffic jam. That night, we splurged and ate at one of the lodges at Old Faithful where Tyler learned what a hot lava cake is all about! :)

Cozy breakfast in the tent

Upper Falls

Lower Falls

Lower Falls

Popo and KongKong

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Lunch in the car

Sandwiches..

The scenery is very green

A meadow full of flowers

Whiny kids

sooooo much flowers

view of the beautiful meadow

the old love birds

Tyler chilling out

Cute little Cody!!

Walking back to the car..

Interesting rock cliff

Petrified Tree

At Mammoth Springs

As the name suggest.. this place is massive

gushing springs

popo

Tyler needs a little more practice!!

Family Pic

Funky Tree

More pics of funky tree

Ice cream stop

Yumm..

Grand National Park Trip - Day 4

Today was an exciting day at Yellowstone as we get to go visit the geysers! After a hearty breakfast, we drove to Old Faithful Visitor Center(Upper Geyser Basin) to see if we can catch some erupting geysers. Unfortunately, it started pouring but a little rain wasn't going to stop us!

We spent the day.. yes, like the whole day walking on the walkways around Old Faithful. There were literally hundreds of geysers along the way and they would randomly erupt. It was exciting for everybody, young and old. We also checked out a few colorful pools and the boys were rather intrigued by them.

One of the bigger geysers that we managed to catch that day was Daisy Geyser. I remember this geyser from our last visit. After that, we went to check out the Old Faithful Lodge to look for some late lunch and some respite from the rain.

Strangely enough I've never been to the lodge and it was the coolest building ever!! Old and quirky! And beautifully maintained. Unfortunately we were not able to get into the main restaurant, but managed to eat at the bar area.

After our super late lunch, we headed to Middle Geyser Basin to check out The Grand Prismatic Pool which is my favorite spot. However, because it was a cold day, the beauty of this place was covered in mist. :(

We headed home after that because everybody was feeling quite miserable from the rain!! However the rain didn't stop even when we got back to the campsite and so we had to eat in the tent!! That night we had noodles and spam and spinach! Yummy!!

Cody helping KongKong start the fire

We're at Old Faithful

My mom's rain coat for the day

Walking along the path ways

Gurgling hot water

That's Old Faithful!!

Colorful bacteria mats

That's Castle Geyser.. just smoking

Walking towards an erupting geyser

Tyler looking too cool for geyser

Doesn't it feel like a picture from prehistoric times?

Can't remember the name..

Morning Glory

I think everybody's sick of the rain..

Grand Prismatic Pool.. can barely see the colors thru the mist

One of my favorite place in the world!

Such vivid colors

Beautiful

Cody's getting beaten 

The kids exploring..

Here are some videos:

Here's a little geyser erupting

Daisy Geyser

The pool next to the Grand Prismatic Pool

Grand National Park Trip - Day 3

As we had a pretty late start the day before, we got up early today, packed up and left the hotel early. After a hearty breakfast at McDonalds, we headed to the grocery store to load up on groceries for the next few days before heading to Yellowstone.

The drive to Yellowstone was a beautiful one and thankfully, not as long. The kids who are a little traumatized by long drives have started asking how many hours before the journey begins. We got to Yellowstone around noon and headed straight to our campsite which was a nice camp site(Grant). I took the kids for lunch while Alan and my dad set up camp.

After we got back, everything was set up and since there's still a few hours of sunlight, we headed off for some quick sightseeing!

We checked out some Mud Volcanoes and saw some bisons. As it was our first bison sighting, everybody were super excited!! After that we drove North to go check out the famous Lower and Upper Falls. We headed back to campsite after that.

That night we made some Japanese Curry with couscous for dinner over campfire and stared at stars before calling it a night.

waiting for me to set up the shot

Another picture with the Grand Tetons on our way out of Jackson!

Our cool van..

Beautiful scenery on the way

Mt Moran in the background

Yellowstone!!

Grumpy kids

Our campsite

First bison sighting

They were crossing the road where we were

Stubborn bison.. you can see there's an ambulance in the background. They use it to get the bison off the road by flashing and honking!

First geothermal feature.. Dragon's Mouth

Mud Volcano

Interesting landscape.. check out the buffalo by the first lake

mom and dad

picture with the bison!

Going to check out the Falls

on top of the brink

Lower Falls

The herd of bison that was causing a huge traffic backup on our way back

Warming up by the fire after dinner!!

Oh, here's a video of the bisons we saw. Though i've seen bisons before, i don't remember ever hearing them grunt like this before.. quite cool.