Yellowstone Trip - James' 8th Birthday

A dream of mine as a Father has always been to take my kids to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. James' love for camping made the trip to Yellowstone trip a no-brainer for his 8th birthday. I hope to take this trip again with Luke for his 8th birthday, so this will be a long one as I try to document our trip. I worked in Yellowstone for  a Summer when I was 18, so I thought there wasn't much more that I needed to see or that most of the exploring I would do with James would be me just showing him all that I like or did that Summer. I could not be more wrong. I saw more of the Park and the area than I did that whole Summer in one week and it made for a memorable trip for both James and I.

We flew in on August 5th and headed for Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Jackson Hole is a great small Wyoming town. It has a population of 10,000, but feels huge in the middle of all of the small Western towns of 100 - 1,000 populations.

We ate burgers, grabbed some camping equipment we rented from Teton Outdoors and went to the grocery store to stock up in Jackson Hole. After Burgers, we headed to our first night destination at Flagg Ranch just outside of the Yellowstone South Entrance in Grand Teton National Park. We hiked around Colter Bay and went home to cook on the open fire at our tiny cabin we had for the night. 

The next morning, we woke up early and headed for Yellowstone. The first thing we did was drive toward Old Faithful since it was on the way to Canyon, where we were staying. On the way, we stopped at numerous stops and climbed and explored. James is quite the climber.

When we arrived at Old Faithful, we had about a couple hours until the next eruption, so hiked up "Inspiration Point" and went exploring for geysers and thermal pools. James' fascination with the animals, both small and large started here. A Park Ranger let him hold some big horn sheep antleres and we saw otters, pikas and ground squirrels...... and we climbed and explored more.

After hiking and ice cream, Old Faithful went off. The eruption is truly amazing, but relative to everything else in the Park, it is probably on the bottom of my list. James thought it was very cool, but believe he is of the same mind as I am.

After Old Faithful, we went to see Grand Prismatic. For as much as I feel Old Faithful is at the bottom of the things to see, Grand Prismatic is at the top. We hiked 2 miles to see the site from an elevated spot from a mountainside and also walked up and saw it up close. The colors, odor (sulphur) and heat from the hot spring/lake makes it hard to not realize you are witnessing something truly remarkable.

After the hike and site-seeing at Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic, we drove to Canyon, where we were staying to set up camp and show James my old stomping grounds. I took James by my old dorm room and maybe my favorite touristy part of the park - the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, where James did some more climbing. We ate dinner early - Campfire Steak and Smores of course. 

Every night at 9 pm, there was a Ranger series. The Park Ranger would pick a topic ranging from Pika (small squirrel like animals) to the history of the Park and the first settlers and explorers that set foot in Yellowstone. James and I particularly enjoyed the stories of the early explorers in Yellowstone. I can only imagine how amazing they thought the land they stumbled upon was. These early settlers would go back to the masses after their travels and tell of "upside down waterfalls" (geysers), boiling ponds, and rainbow springs. Needless to say, people thought they had gone mad. We often would use these early explorers as the subjects of our scary stories at night - i.e. the Ghost of John Colter.

The next day we woke up very early - a combination of the cold weather (30 degrees) and the uncomfortable sleeping in the tent. This was a good thing because the best time to see wildlife is very early in the morning. We woke up and drove though Lamar and Hayden Valley each morning. We had the most amazing week of wildlife watching - we saw everything... literally. Wolves, Grizzly and Black Bear, Moose, Bighorn Sheep, Pronghorn, Bald Eagles, Osprey, Elk, Buffalo, Trumpeter Swans (one of James' favorites due to their rarity). James loved looking through his binoculars and there were several guys on the side of the road with huge telescopes that would let him look through to see animals at a distance

After wildlife watching, we decided to go for a big hike. Mount Washburn is one that I enjoyed while I worked at the Park and is a long uphill climb that peaks at above 10,000 feet. James loved the challenging hike and was very proud when we reached the summit.

The next day was maybe my favorite day. James' stated very firmly that he was tired of eating Pop Tarts and wanted a hot breakfast, so we drove through Hayden Valley looking for wildlife on our way to Lake Lodge for breakfast. James' and I both will remember this as one of the best breakfasts we have ever had. After wildlife watching again through Hayden Valley, we went to see more of the sites around the Park. One of James' favorites was Dragon's Mouth and Mud Volcano.

That afternoon, we headed to Mammoth to see the Travertine Terraces, Roosevelt Arch and to go swim/float in Boiling River. 

That night, we went to a "Cowboy Cookout" from Roosevelt Lodge. This consisted of a wagon ride through Lamar Valley to a cookout site with Steaks, Beans, Coffee and Cowboy stories. James made it known that he was sick of eating "meat", so I assured him this would be the last night we would have steak. 

The next morning, we woke up bright and early and headed to Grand Teton National Park. Both James and I had a great time in Yellowstone, but it was time for our next adventure.