Yellowstone Trip: Day 2 - Upper & Lower Falls

Our last stop on the trip was at the Upper & Lower Falls that are located on the Eastern side of the upper loop (just before you get onto the road to head out of the Eastern entrance). This, by far, was my favorite part of the trip! I thought that these falls were just spectacular!! We, originally, were only going to view the falls from up above, but even though I could hear the Lower Falls, I couldn't see it and that got to me. So, after very little convincing, Dad & I started a down-hill trek that took us right to the top of the Lower Falls. And it was phenomenol. Mom didn't go with us because she was nursing a sore foot from our trek the day before, but with her fear of heights, I'm not sure she would have enjoyed this, anyway. It was just an incredible sight and I wish that we would have had more time to explore around the falls and the canyon, but we didn't. Besides that, we were very tired by this point and just ready to be done sightseeing. :) Maybe someday I'll head back to this part of Yellowstone again. It was wonderful!

This is a far-away picture of the Upper Falls. This picture was taken at the beginning of our descent to see the Lower Falls.

This picture is the river that comes from the Upper Falls and feeds the Lower Falls. I just thought it looked so pretty amongst the trees! :)

And this is the Lower Falls. As I already said, it's absolutely phenomenol. We stood on a platform that was right next to the top of this falls!! It was great!

This picture is looking down over the railing of the platform to the bottom of the falls. Yeah...it was quite a drop. :)

I took this picture because I loved how the billowing water had a "puffy" look to it. It reminded me of clouds and it was kind of neat to see. Those puffy spots in the water just kept rolling and rolling...it was never-ending. (Yes, it's an awkward picture, but the top of the falls is to the right and the bottom is just a little to the top. These rolling water clouds were more off to the side of the falls, but I just thought it was so neat! :)

Another view of the top of the Lower Falls.

This view is the river that leaves from the Lower Falls and goes throughout the Canyon. It was just a spectacular view.

That's the platform that we stood on (where I took the pictures above) and Dad & I had walked up the hill just a little to look out over a higher platform. I wanted to remember just what it was that I was talking about when I said that we looked over the railing and down at the falls. :)

The bottom of the raging falls.

Of course, pictures do NOT do this thing justice, so here's a little movie for you to watch. :) There is sound, but be careful not to blow out your eardrums. :)

And that's that! After the falls, we headed back to Cody, WY, where we spent another night and then home the next morning. All-in-all, in that two-and-a-half day time period, we traveled 1,277 miles!! Needless to say, by the time we got home, we were exhausted and ready for a day of R&R! :) Hope you enjoyed this journey, too! It was a memorable one!

Yellowstone Trip: Day 2 - Mammoth Hot Springs

After our journey through Beartooth Pass, we entered Yellowstone Park through the North East entrance and followed it to the road that took us on the Northern road of the upper loop. We wanted to go see the Mammoth Hot Springs and that's the road that took us there! :)

Mammoth is a small little village that has, "Do NOT feed the elk!" signs everywhere, but we never did get to see any elk in the village. We just ate a really expensive meal there from the local mart (nachos and a soda cost me $9!!!) and then toured around the hot springs. What's interesting about the springs is that their formation give them a step-like appearance, so there are levels of these springs and hot waters just run down the steps. It's really unique!

Yellowstone Trip: Day 2 - Beartooth Pass

To start our second day on the trip, we decided to head a little bit north and then come in the North Eastern entrance of Yellowstone park. So, we left Cody, WY, in the early morning and we headed North up to Red Lodge, Montana. Red Lodge is this cute little homey town (from what we saw!) and we enjoyed stopping at their local coffee shop for a break. After that, we headed South on a road that took us over Beartooth Pass. It was quite the ride!! It was this small, curvy road that took us right UP the mountain and over the top and then took us into Yellowstone Park. It was an enjoyable ride...even if it was plagued by several construction stops along the way.

The view as we headed up...

Here's a nice picture of Mom & Dad that was taken toward the top of the pass. It was a pretty view! And don't worry...NO cars were coming around the corner at the time that we were taking this picture. Trust me...we were very cautious! :)

This is looking down from the top of the pass to where the road brought us in and took us up. It was a pretty drive!

See the curvy road on the left side of the picture, about three-quarters of the way down?

These were some beautiful flowers that peppered the hillside at the top of the pass. I just thought they were SO pretty! After this scene, there wasn't much else to see except construction and rolling hills. Mainly construction, though. Ugh. :)

Yellowstone Trip: Day 1 - Old Faithful

Continuing on from the Grand Tetons National Park, we entered Yellowstone Park through the South entrance and then drove half-way up the lower West loop in order to see Old Faithful and the surrounding hot springs.

Dad thought Old Faithful wasn't as great as he thought it should have been. He felt that it should have been bigger and longer. I, on the other hand, thought it was kind of fun! I mean, really, how often am I going to see that much water come out with such gigantic force?! Maybe if I was a fireman I'd see it regularly, but that's not really in my plans. :)

I had a ton of pictures of Old Faithful, but I decided to share only the two most important ones...Old Faithful in action!! :) From this point on are the hot springs around Old Faithful. Mom & I took a 3-mile hike around the park to see some 25 different hot springs/geysers and it was fun! I can't remember for sure, but I think that the information said that the more blue the water was in the hot springs, the more hot it was. I could easily have that mixed up, though. Mom knows, so maybe she can fill us in? :)

I think that this one was called Castle Rock geyser.

I have no idea what this hot spring was called, but I love how these holes in the middle of the spring just disappear into the ground. It's so neat! :)

This is the back of Castle Rock geyser, which had a much better view of the geyser spouting off.

Pretty scenery...

This particular hot spring was called Morning Glory pool. A co-worker mentioned it to me and we googled it one day and it was really neat to actually see it in real life. It has very pretty coloring!

After our hike, we decided to head out of the park (going out the East entrance) to spend the night in Cody. We really didn't see many animals during our trip. We saw elk but we didn't take pictures because everyone else was taking a picture and it was too congested. We saw some foxes (??? or maybe it was wolves? Or maybe a coyote? Dad, what was it? The silver one and the white one? Sheesh...I can't remember) and then we saw a TON of buffalo. How close? This close (see below). This guy almost became a "Creme Buff" (get it? creme puff! haha!) because we were thatclose to eliminating him out on the road. Not on purpose, either! We were driving and then there he was!! It was an exciting moment, that's for sure! This picture is compliments of my dad as we slowly drove through the herd that was roaming down the road. I don't think I would have wanted to be any closer!! :)

Yellowstone Trip: Day 1 - Tetons

Our trip to Yellowstone was short and sweet. We covered almost the entire park in two days. For those of you that don't know, Yellowstone has two main roads that cover the park...an upper circle (loop) and a lower circle (loop). Both loops create a figure-8 through the park. That being said, the only side of the park that we did not hit was the West side and that was mainly because one of the main roads on the West side of the lower loop was closed and it was too inconvenient to hit the West side on the upper loop. But we managed to get everywhere else! :)

We started off by entering the park through the South entrance because getting to that entrance takes you through the Grand Tetons National Park and we really wanted to see the Tetons!!! The Tetons are absolutely gorgeous and if you ever have a chance to go, you should definitely do it!! Welcome to the Tetons!! :)

That's me!! I took this picture all by myself by using the self-timer on the camera. Mom & Dad were off taking pictures, too, so no one was around to help me. I did pretty good, huh? ;o)

Yellowstone Trip

This is what I've decided to do...every day this week I will have a new post up of our trip to Yellowstone. There won't be too many pictures each day, but that's more fun (I think!) than a bazillion pictures all in one post!! :) So, check in every day to see the part of Yellowstone that I'll share with you that day! :) Hope you enjoy it!!

Bummer

Well, Mom & Dad left this morning and are on their way home. We had good days together and I'm so glad that they came! :)

We went out for breakfast this morning before they left and toward the end of the meal, I started NOT feeling well. Alas, I made the decision to stay home today and I'm glad that I did. The morning has not gone so great, but I am feeling much better now. Just not 100%. I think I'll be able to go back to work in the morning. So, that was kind of a bummer of an ending to their last morning here, but not much I could do about it! :)

I will post Yellowstone pictures this weekend because I won't have time before then. I have about 125 pictures from the trip, so once I sort through them, I'll put up the best ones (and I promise that it will not be PAGES long!! :). Enjoy the rest of YOUR week!