The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone Day 4

Today was a relaxed day with only one objective in the park.  Due to not all of the roads being open, the only thing left to be seen was the Grand Canyon.  Growing up near a canyon, our hearts are drawn toward deep gashes in the earth's crust.  This is quite the canyon to behold.  It is so beautiful with all of it's many colors.  On our way in, however, we finally caught the eagles on their nest.

This nest can be found before you even get to Madison Junction.  All week I have been watching the nest as we drove in and out hoping to capture them on it.  This day I scored!  One of them were on the nest and the other was across the river in an old, toothpick, of a tree.  Once I had my fill of observation and photos we picked up and jetted on into the canyon.  One snag along the way is the new road construction I spoke of earlier.

This time we had to wait in line for what seemed to be an hour or so.  It felt like a long time!  It will be nice once they are all done with it.  Glad they are doing it early in the year and I hope that they get it done before the rush.  We arrived at the canyon and I took tons of photos.  It is so beautiful with all of it's colors!

We looked at the upper and lower falls.  Taking our time and having fun while out there.  The kids had fun playing in the snow, though they were advised not to play to long in it.  The one child that is allergic, yes allergic, to the cold was the one playing in it the most.  Her pants got so wet that we had to replace them with a sweater.  To priceless not to photograph.

This trip was a very healing trip for my family I feel.  It was a no stress trip that allowed us all to bond and get to know one another better.  It was well needed.  I hope that we can do it again in the future.

Hot Springs, Geysers, and Bears Day 3 in Yellowstone

Day 3 was probably my favorite of all days, we took off toward Mammoth Terraces.  The park is doing a major road overhaul just after Madison Junction along side the river, and well, we had to sit in line for quite a while.  While we were waiting though "Afro-man" decide to make an appearance.

Jentri only wishes that I could grow a goatee as good lookin as this guy had!  Talk about some major bed-head!  This buffalo gave us a good laugh and still is.  Well, once through the traffic jam at the road construction we were freewheeling on up to Mammoth Terraces.  If you have been to Yellowstone, but have never seen Mammoth, you are missing out.  They are just as much a "corner stone" to the park as Old Faithful and Morning Glory Pool are.  They are quite the sight to behold.  Your first time there you may think, "everything is so dead!"  Step back, look at the active area, and imagine the dead area just as active.  Mammoth Terraces change every time I go!  They are always transforming and moving around.  Such a beautiful place.

The whole gang..... minus me.

My beautiful wife and me...... dont look to close but I think I am carrying a spare tire.

So, as we were walking along we came across an area within the terraces that had just sprung up.  We found this very ironic sign posted just off the boardwalk.

If you dont get it, it reads "Danger, hot water will scald".  Yes that is snow in the background.  Yet another thing to laugh at and will probably carry on as an inside joke for quite some time.  I took this photo with the intentions of sending it to Jay Leno for his "Headlines" routine.  So, watch and tell me if it shows up, because we dont have TV.  Anyway, once we were all pooped out at Mammoth we made our way back to Norris Geyser Basin.  This is where my sister Jen made her swift exit and headed home.  We walked around Norris for a couple hours.  This is another place that keeps on changing each visit.

This was quite the sight to behold and it had us baffled when we first saw it.  There was this HUGE snow drift without any other snow around to be seen.  Then we walked by it and felt it.  The steam is coming from a couple large fumerols and freezing into snow.  Hence the fumerols were producing their own snow drift right around them and only them.  It was pretty unique!  In the same photo you can see Porcelain Basin, we proceeded to walk around there for a while and then called it a day.  By this time we were all so exhausted with all of the walking we had done.  On our drive back to the "hotel" we came across a couple cars pulled off of the road.  In Yellowstone this means there are animals to look at.  Well, as we crept up behind the car in front of us I could not believe my eyes!

It was a grizzly bear!!!!!  All of my childhood I have been told stories as to how the bears use to hang out next to the road begging for food from tourists.  Well, we feeding them ruined their natural instincts to forage on their own so rangers had to take measures to keep bears away for humans in the park.  So, I have always wanted to see a bear in Yellowstone and never had until this moment!  I was so excited, I jumped out of the car, ran to the back, got out my camera, and started to shoot away!  Now, this bear was only 20 or so feet away from me and I was very nervous.  Therefore, I was not able to get a very good angle and the one time I did........ it was out of focus.  Animals are hard to shoot, especially ones that might eat you for dinner.  This is why day 3 was my favorite!  Just a silly little grizzly bear.

Finally into Yellowstone Day 2

So, day 2 we are able to get into the park for FREE!  We get up, get breakfast, play some games, and leave the "hotel" by around noonish.  We were in a hurry, can't you tell?  Today's objective was to go into Old Faithful and back.  The entire east side of the park was still closed off due to snow because we were there so early in the season.  The only thing on the east side that we could get to is the Grand Canyon which is part of day 4.  As we drive along we kept encountering herds of bison meandering down the road.  Growing up in Idaho this was just like driving through a cattle or sheep drive that was being pushed down the highway.  Except there wasn't as much bison as there usually is in a cattle or sheep drive.

Bison along the Firehole River just off the road.

It was kind of a rainy day.  As you can see in the photo above in the river.  Our first stop of the day was at Fountain Paint Pot.  Just off the the parking lot is a really cool tree root base and we did some family photos.

My sister Missi and her family.

My mom and dad.

Yellowstone is full of fun thermal features such as geysers, hot pools, fumerols, boiling mud pits, and so much more.  The kids always have so much fun, and the adults are always left in wonder as to the amazing creation that we are given.  Yellowstone park service has done very well with board walks everywhere to preserve the natural feel and look of the terrain.  They as well have done a great deal of research into what it is the makes Yellowstone so special and the inner workings of each unique feature. The next stop of the day was Midway Geyser Basin with Grand Prismatic Spring.  I believe it is the largest spring in the park.  It always has beautiful bacterial matts.

A couple years ago when Jentri and I visited the park people had written in the beautiful bacterial mats, totally destroying the natural beauty the once existed.  It was amazing to come back to that devastated area to see that nature had gone through and repaired itself.  They were all grown over!  My other "soap box" is about litter.  People leave their trash out and it looks horrible mixed in with nature.  It is out of place and destroys the experience for the next person.  There are quite a few features in the park that were once more than what they are now, but due to past vandalism they are either no more or are a lot less.  We had 2 more stops until we finally made it to Old Faithful.  Once we arrived there it was time for a late lunch and my other sister, Jen, met up with us.  We watched Old Faithful errupt and proceeded to walk around the village.  Hoping to get into the Old Faithful Inn, THE COOLEST building in the west, we were bummed to find it closed.  Again, we were there too early in the season!  So we decide to head off toward Morning Glory Pool, a sight I have never seen!

This is a photo of our cool Phil&Teds Sport buggy with the double kit hauling all of the camera equipment.  We put this thing through the paces on this trip.  We ran it through one foot deep snow, mud, board walk with stairs, and gravel.  Through it all it performed better than my sister's nice Mac Laren stroller.  We are grateful for the purchase we made and think that it was very worth our money.  On our way to Morning Glory Pool we got side tracked by Castle Geyser.  

This was a definite hit!  Most everyone says that Castle Geyser was the hit of the trip.  This geyser erupted for over an hour straight, 20-30 minutes of water rocketing a near 200 feet then a steam cycle of 30-40 minutes!  This is definitely THE geyser to witness when in Yellowstone.  A lot better show than Old Faithful ever could be.  After sitting through Castle Geyser we all decided to head back to the cars and go back to the "hotel".  Morning Glory Pool will have to wait for another trip yet again.  On our way out of the park I ended my day by shooting the sunset we were driving into.

Yellowstone Day 1

The King family gathered in Yellowstone on April 15th.  My sister Missi got our family 2, 3 bedroom condos with their time-share points thing.  This place was massive.  So, imagine your Mariot hotel with rooms that are 2100 square feet!  These rooms were larger than any apartment that Jentri and I have ever rented making the entire complex HUGE!  The two rooms, to our amazement, were on opposite ends of the complex.

The hallway separating the two rooms.

On the 17th started National Parks Week.  During this particular week admission to all National parks were FREE, that is a good word.  On Friday the 16th before the park became FREE we decided to run around the great metropolis of West Yellowstone.  The majority of the shops were still closed due to the fact that we were ahead of the summer rush.  So, we being Kings took advantage of what was available.

Us kids playing in the park

Playing in the snow was a lot of fun and the weather was awesome!  We continued to roam around the town and headed back to the "hotel" for lunch.  After lunch we took advantage of being, practically, the only ones there and occupied the indoor pool and hot tub.  This was the first real big outing we took Kylan on, and it turned out great in my opinion.  In total we had 14 of my family members there all partying it up.

Grandpa King watching the kids play

This trip was a great introduction to having our little one on outdoor expeditions.  Along with all of the family stuff I was able to hone in on some of my photography skills and exercise the things I have learned in class.  My good friend Ken Ockler loaned me ALL, yes all, of his photography equipment! (minus his 10D MarkII body)  I had 3 lenses, a tripod, and a really spiffy device called an Expo Disc to play with.  The Expo Disk gives you PERFECT white balance easily, for those of you who know what I am talking about.  For those of you who dont know, it allows the camera to capture the colors as brilliant as you visually see them.  Anyway, I could go on forever about photography just like climbing.  We ended the night with games, laughter, and of course food.  Keep watching our blog as we will be posting on each of our 4 days in Yellowstone along with awesome photos.