We didn't attend traditional church service on Sunday morning, but we basked in God's glory at Arches National Park. The park had over 2,000 natural arches, and to say it was mind blowing would be an understatement. Charley's take away from Arches would probably be the toilet that went straight into a giant, smelly hole in the ground. She hated it...and hated having to use anything like it at other stops on our trip.
Day 5: Yellowstone National Park (North Loop)
When we entered the park the temperature was in the 70's. It was a beautiful day, and we were all well rested and super full after breakfast at The Three Bear Lodge. We sat in our first "animal jam" for what felt like forever. An animal jam is basically a traffic jam caused by tourists that stop in the middle of the road to take pictures of the animal instead of continuing to drive. Once we finally got moving, our first stop of the day was Mammoth Hot Springs. Not my favorite spot on the trip. Carter made me nervous, I was stung by a bee, and the temperature dropped about 30 degrees during our little tour. We were all laughing so hard by the time we made it back to the van...and shivering! We spent the rest of the day driving through Yellowstone, hopping out of the van to pose in front of mountains and the waterfall, and snacking on the best junk food we could find at the general stores along the way! We finished day 5 just the way we started it...eating at The Three Bear Lodge.
Day 6: The Grizzly Bear, Grand Prismatic Springs, and Old Faithful
After a day of seeing elk, deer, and bison, we were on a hunt to see a bear and a moose. A lifetime of scouting with dad paid off, because I immediately knew I had spotted something off in the woods that wasn't like we had been seeing. The color and shape of it was enough to convince Craig to hit the gas, turn the van around and find a spot for us to take a closer look...and sure enough it was a grizzly bear!!! I read somewhere that there are only 80 grizzly bears in the whole park and we saw one! He was so cute and fun to watch, especially across the river. We caused our first animal jam, too.
The rest of the day was fun, but the bear was definitely the highlight. Maybe it was because the day was rainy and hazy, but Old Faithful didn't make my top 10 list for our trip out west. And maybe the cold and rain had something to do with my feelings towards it, but after all the waiting, I really wanted to be impressed and I was actually just thrilled to get to go back to the van...which says a lot about Old Faithful!
After Old Faithful we had a lengthy drive back to The Three Bear Lodge, and the van was just about more than I could handle. I joked that sitting on the row with the kids, aka the hell seat, was like wearing the horcrux from Harry Potter. I'm either going to sound really dorky or really cool when the girls get older and read this, but you had to switch off from sitting there or you might lose your mind and let a kid or two have a piece of it. Fun Fact...it's legal to have an open container adult beverage in a moving vehicle in Wyoming as long as you aren't the driver. Another Fun Fact...I don't drink...I don't like the taste and not being in control of my mouth or actions, but the van on day 6 with all those kids even drove me to a drink! Cheers!
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