Yellowstone Trip April 2023

Long weekend family trip to Yellowstone! The kids have Friday and Monday off school so off we go!

-Drove to Rexburg and stayed at Best Western.

-Drove to Yellowstone to the west entrance. A lot still closed but still PLENTY open!

-Day 1 We saw loads of bison some of which were super close, a bald eagle, 2 wolfs super close-one which ate a bison carcass that I took a picture of a minute before and one that ran across the road right in front of our car!, A bunch of prong horned sheep and a bunch of elk! We also went to many geysers and beautifully colored pools including old faithful where we went to the visitors center and all the kids got the junior ranger books to work on to earn a badge.

-Stayed at Super 8 hotel in Gardiner Montana (we've stayed here before but were disappointed that they no longer have a pool and hot tub!)

-Had a great time swimming at Yellowstone hot springs. They have a swimming pool at about 98 degrees, a hot pool 106 degrees and a cold plunge at 68 degrees.

-Upper falls and lower falls which were gorgeous!! The views were just incredible and the ice that has formed by them was so cool! The snow was so high that the hand rails were covered completely. The kids slid sledding on their bums down what used to be stairs 😁. They also LOVED throwing or rolling snowballs down mountain sides to see how far they'd roll or how much snow they'd accumulate. I absolutely loved the lower falls and felt such peace there. Could have stayed there all day.

-Day 2 only new animal we saw today was deer. Probably at least 100 of them which is funny because we didn't see any yesterday. Lots more bison and elk and prong horned deer today.

-Day 3 Lammar Valley area. We saw a Bear Den today with 2 tiny cubs and mama black bear!!! A river otter and bald eagle too (couldn't get good pics). All near Lammar Valley. Plus mammoth hot springs. A beautiful day here at Yellowstone.

Day 4-headed home. We got to see a bald eagle, 3 moose and go to the bear and wolf discovery center which was fun. We drove a total of 8 or so hours today which was a lot but we listened to "way of the warrior kid" audiobook which was really good and only 3 hours, and then watched home improvement. I'm so grateful for our new car and the great memories we made on this trip.