 | Yellowstone Trip Provided Memories for a Lifetime! | | Kelsey Allen, Omaha NE |
When I was nine, my parents packed the family into the minivan, and we headed west for a tour of the natural beauty America has to offer. In between stops at Grand Teton National Park and Mount Rushmore, our family of five stopped for three days in Yellowstone National Park.
What I can remember is supplemented by a wonderful journal my parents kept of the entire vacation. But for some things, you don’t need help from a journal to remember.
For instance, I’ll never forget driving into the south entrance of the park only to be stopped by more than 200 buffalo that were moving across a meadow, over the road, through the Yellowstone River and into another meadow. My dad hoisted my 4-year-old sister, 6-year-old brother and me onto the roof of our car so we could safely watch the buffalo that were crossing directly in front of our car. After a thrilling entrance, we made our way to our campsite in Canyon Village.
We explored the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and saw some great views of the Lower Yellowstone Falls. After a nice first day in the park, we called it a night. (A warning to all campers: Always bring long underwear when you camp in the mountains. It gets chilly even in July.)
The next day, we went on a ranger-led tour of the south rim that led us 297 steps inside the canyon to see the Upper Yellowstone Falls (The ranger said it was 300 steps, but my brother kept track, and he only counted 297). That afternoon, we toured the major geyser basin and hot springs in the lake region. From there we went to the Grant Village Visitor Center to watch a film on fires in Yellowstone. My parents remember paying $10 for five single dip cones at Grant Village, which seemed like a lot of money back then. Now that would be a deal!
The following day we headed for the famous Old Faithful. The geyser went off on schedule, and we were all impressed. We stopped in at the Old Faithful Inn, the biggest log structure in the world. We ate our peanut butter and jelly lunches outside on the second floor deck of the inn. After lunch we decided to hike to Mystic Falls. The trailhead starts near the Upper Geyser Basin. The trail was lined with smaller geysers and hot springs and was a nice one-mile hike for our family. Before heading back to the campsite, we stopped at Artist Point, a famous spot for photographs and paintings. The view of the lower falls from this point is incredible.
Our last full day in the park was filled with blue skies. We took advantage of the weather and hiked up Mount Washburn, one of the highest mountains in the park. The three-mile hike took us up 11,000 feet to an observation room and ranger station. From the top of the mountain we could see the Teton Range, the Absaroka Range and the Gallatin Range as well as Yellowstone Lake and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. In the observation room we met a couple from Austria who rightfully described Yellowstone as the national park of the world, a group of high school students on a summer science field trip and many other campers and lovers of nature.
One of the more exciting moments of the trip came after the hike when we were near Tower Falls on our way to Mammoth Hot Springs. We spotted a black bear running down a hillside. It splashed around in a small pond for about 10 minutes before it bounded off. It was the first wild bear I had ever seen and was a moment to remember.
Over the course of our three-day stay in Yellowstone, we saw bubbling hot springs, bursting geysers, running buffalo and lounging elk. We saw fields of wildflowers, coyotes, white pelicans, geese and sand hill cranes. We saw mountains and lakes and tents and lodges.
But I think what was most special about our trip to Yellowstone was that now my family has a journal filled with stories about a vacation that we took together and memories that will last a lifetime.
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