Yellowstone Whirlwind

We decided to drive through Yellowstone on our way home, even though it wasn't exactly 'on our way'. When you drive right up to the entrance, you might as well go through it, right?

As you approach Yellowstone from Red Lodge, you go up and over Beartooth Highway. We really wished we had more time to explore here; in fact, we could probably spend a solid week just in the Beartooth Wilderness. This time, we just drove right through, stopping only for a few pics. It is beautiful, wild, and empty (once off the highway).

On the way up Beartooth

At the summit of Beartooth (nearly 11,000 ft), there is a little ski area,

open only in the early summer. 

Here is the view from the top, where several runs 

go down about 3,000 ft of vertical.

Coming down from Beartooth Summit

It was a super quick visit of Yellowstone and it was actually great. We picked our top four sites/things to see and hit them all: bison, Yellowstone Falls, Grand Prismatic Spring, and Old Faithful.

Lots and lots of bison; this is taken from the truck window

as we stopped while they crossed the road

(we weren't the dumb tourists getting too close for a good photo)

Same thing here, we are only steps away from a parking lot and our truck.

Kye wanted to take his stuffed sheep, 'Baby', to see the buffalo.

Yellowstone Falls

One of the prismatic springs, 

from the boardwalk

I had heard you could take a hike to get you above the prismatic springs for an aerial view, but it was hard to find any info about this hike. After wandering around the boardwalk area, we could see people on a trail past the springs and could also see the road to access it. We hiked a short distance on the Fairy Falls trail (actually a road), then took one of many side trails up the hill for a fantastic view. 

If you do a Yellowstone visit, I highly recommend this. It isn't a super hard or long hike, but the view is amazing and there are much fewer people than on the boardwalk.

Grand Prismatic Spring

After our hike, we ate a great meal of Bison Meatloaf in the Old Faithful Lodge, then found a spot to watch the Old Faithful Geyser blow. Kye ran around in his pajamas as we waited, giggling and getting silly tired.

And when she blew, Kye said, "Kaboomy!"