Having begun the trip with a petrified forest, we couldn't pass up Yellowstone's single petrified! tree. There is a fence around the petrified tree to keep it from running away. There used to be two of them, but visitors kept taking pieces home with them, so now there is only one.
We went to the north end of the park to the Albright Visitor's Center where there was a great animal exhibit. We watched all the educational movies that the park had to offer. At our first terrifying movie, we learned how the hot spot beneath Yellowstone could erupt at any minute. Belly was scared to death and wanted to leave the park IMMEDIATELY! It took all afternoon and a meeting with a very helpful park ranger to talk her into staying. I think we can scratch vulcanologist off her list of possible career choices.
We saw the Mammoth Restroom! It wasn't really all that big.
All of the thermal areas smell like farts. The children all thought it was great fun to say, "Did you hear that thermal feature?" every time they passed gas. We ate a lot of chili, so I heard that little gem a lot. Some of the thermal features are steam vents which smell particularly foul and Belly decided that stink vents was a more appropriate name. The picture above is at the Minerva Terrace. We walked up 2085 stairs to see a stinky hole in the ground. Everywhere you go in the thermal areas there are signs that tell you, "Don't go here, it stinks and you will die if you step off the boardwalk." They don't bother with hand rails. I kept the boo-boo box handy in case of death.
In Gardiner, MT we ate at Helen's Corral Drive-Inn, Home of the Hateful Hamburger. I don't know why they are hateful, but it might be because they are liars. We were tempted by the Buffalo Bacon Cheeseburgers that were HUGE! Then we were a little disappointed when it tasted exactly like a regular bacon cheeseburger, albeit a very large one. We decided that by adding the word "buffalo" you can charge another dollar for your hamburger. Connor thought that perhaps it wasn't the burger that was buffalo, perhaps is was "buffalo bacon" which also happened to taste exactly like regular bacon.
There were elk all over the place at the north end of the park. We learned that you can tell it is an elk by looking at the animal's rear end. Belly became an elk behind expert and can tell you the difference between a mule deer and an elk at 250 yards. The odd thing is that the elk look both ways before they cross the street. Of course, they also decide for no reason that they enjoy standing in the middle of the road for extended periods of time. We started calling this phenomenon an "animal jam." There was a sign about 5 feet away from me when I was taking this picture that said, "DANGER, do not approach the elk." I noticed this sign after I took the picture.
I made a whole lot of people angry taking the picture above. You see, my philosophy is that I'd rather have pictures with people in them rather than just a picture of the thing itself. This is the Roosevelt Arch and I wanted a picture of the kids standing in front of it. About 200 other people did not want to take pictures of my children, but I had stationed them there in front of it anyway. And then, because I was enjoying myself, I took a really long time taking the picture. I wonder how many other tourists have pictures of the kids in their vacation photos now?
There is a very American kind of tourism that happens at Yellowstone. The whole place is set up so that you never really have to get out of your car. You can just drive around, stop in the middle of the road and take pictures. There are a large number of people who do just that. What they don't know is that you have to get out of your car and walk to most of the really good stuff. I left my camera battery in the car the day that we walked to the Morning Glory Pool, so I don't have a picture. It's interesting to note that most of the people we met along the 2 mile or so hike were foreigners and wanted me to take their picture. Then they offered to take my picture, but my camera battery was in the car! Americans do not volunteer to take your picture.
We visited Old Faithful (or Old Fateful, if you're Belly) twice. What they don't tell you about Old Faithful is that there are several preliminary spurts before the big event. When the first couple of bursts only went up about 20 feet, Connor got irritated. "We drove 2800 miles to see this?!?! This is highly overrated!" When it finally did erupt, I was relieved. I would have hated to drive 2800 miles for 20 feet of spurting water. During the second trip to Old Fateful, Connor got separated from me and the girls. The girls freaked out, but Connor did exactly what he was supposed to do and went and found the Visitor's Center. We found him in less than 5 minutes thanks to Ranger Sam and Connor's level head. See, he is a smart kid!
Belly was afraid that she wouldn't get to see the eruption with all the tall people standing in her way. Connor was afraid he wouldn't get to see the eruption with the small person sitting on his head.
All three of the kids earned their Junior Ranger patch, but Willa was the first. Being a Junior Ranger apparently entails having to tell everyone at Yellowstone that you are a Junior Ranger. I didn't do the program myself, so I didn't pay attention to the details. Belly took her Junior Ranger duties quite seriously and told everyone not to get too close to the buffalo because, "Many visitors have been gourded by buffalo, don't use your flash or you will make them angry!" She never really did understand how someone becomes gourded (gored) but it scared her.
Belly made this face everywhere we went and said, "Oh my gosh!" She also used the word stupendous several times. She also had a good time looking for cantalopes and elfs (antelope and elk).
This was the second time was saw bears in the park. Unlike some of the other retards on vacation, we DID NOT get out of our car to try to take pictures of the grizzly bear mama and her cubs. I was terrified that Belly would open the door and let the bears in. She wanted to take the bears back to our tent and let them 'snuggle her' and she would tell them, "Just be careful of the air mattress!" and they would keep her warm at night. I kept my foot on the accelerator just in case.
I've just found out that Hastings, NE (where we are now) is the birthplace of Kool-Aid and there is a museum. So we are going to go do that and then we're off to Oklahoma again. I'll try to update again tonight!
1 comment:
Okay, I am ready and rested to read more.
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