We dedicated a fair amount of time to Yellowstone and Grand Teton, with three separate camping locations planned ahead(!) of time. Firstly, we stayed in the town of West Yellowstone, in Montana. This is an extremely touristy town, where nary an item is sold without the word Yellowstone emblazened across it. Still, a nice place, with some very nice features: great proximity to Yellowstone, and a pretty cool Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center.
Our first stop in Yellowstone was predictable: Old Faithful. We got Tyler his Junior Ranger book, and then went off to see some water shoot into the sky. We weren’t disappointed; she blew, on schedule. I’m happy to say though, Old Faithful was probably one of the less interesting facets of the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone. We marched along the boardwalk, taking in the many amazing geothermic features, and testing out the Aidan carrier. He approved, and even enjoyed himself a little nap when he was done with it all. We didn’t quite make it all the way to the Morning Glory Pool, but turned off just before it.
We also enjoyed the many scenic drives through the park; we were ever on the lookout for wildlife, and got very excited after spotting our first buffalo far away at a squint. Once we got back in the car, not five minutes later, we got a bit of a closer view; the first of four such buffalo-crossing events we witnessed as the first vehicle in the lineup. It didn’t become any less majestic after so many times.
Our favorite site in the park however was the Grand Prismatic Spring. We hiked up to the Overlook, and despite some grumblings of protest, we found the view we were looking for.
Oh, and Tyler had his first movie-going experience! The campgrounds we stayed at, Buffalo Crossing RV Park, also happens to run an IMAX theater. They switched to the new Minions: Rise of Gru movie the day after we arrived, and Tyler was very excited to see it. Eric & Tyler went together for a father-son experience, and the little man was more than excited; it may also have been all of the sugar from the requisite movie candies.
The aforementioned Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center was also a great stop, as they had the most important thing that our RV park was missing: the playground. Though, I was more fond of the otters, wolves, and grizzlies! We didn’t spot any of these within the park, so it was nice to see them and learn. The Discovery Center is apparently also used to certify bear-proofness of various equipment: they place meat inside the item (cooler, wheelie-bin, or locker), and let the bears loose. It qualifies as “bear-proof” if it survives for at least 90 minutes.
We hitched up, and left West Yellowstone… by hauling our full rig through Yellowstone itself, to head down to Headwaters campground, in between Yellowstone and the Tetons, with a nice little stop along Lewis Lake for a quick splash and lunch along the way.