Yellowstone in October

Siena with her "cheesy" make-up job (read story below)

The main Park in Jackson Hole

Grand Tetons

Cascades at Mammoth

An inactive volcano cone at Mammoth

Dragon's breath

Dragon's Cauldron

Upper Falls (the one the reminded me of Iguassu because of the sheer drop below)

Old Faithful. It goes off every 90 minutes (give or take 10 min). We missed the previous explosion by 2 minutes, and the next one was 16 minutes late, so we ended up waiting 114 minutes to see it.

The Painted Pots

Siena's "buffalope"

Firehole Falls

Elk rutting

Last week was Fall break, and we took full advantage. I took an extra day off work (Thad had the whole week off, but I only had Thursday off, since I don't work Fridays anyway). So Thad had this brilliant idea to go to Yellowstone. We had never been before. I wasn't sure how the girls would do on that long of a road trip, but as it turns out, it is only a 6 hour drive from our home! I can't believe we had never gone before.
Right as we drove into the park, we saw a bald eagle flying overhead, and a swan swimming. A few minutes latter, we found our first "buffalope," as Siena called the bison. We saw the coolest 'painted pots' of mud volcanoes. The basically looked like mini volcanoes, with boiling mud inside. Oh wait a minute, that's exactly what they are! And geysers galore! We took every little side road possible to get the most out of the experience.
Old Faithful was cool, but the tiered 'pools' at Mammoth and the dragon's cauldron and dragon's breath were probably my favorite, along with the painted pots. The dragon's breath was a geyser coming out of a crevice in a rock that looked like a cave where a dragon might live. Siena thought that was so cool, and decided to scare the dragon off. She Grrrr-ed her loudest GRRR! and ran away. After that, she kept looking for dragons (geysers) so she could scare them away. Too cute!
We also saw coyotes, a rabbit, and tons of Elk. (no bears, no moose... or 'meese' as Thad calls them)
As it turns out, October is the absolutely BEST time to go to Yellowstone, since there are no crowds or traffic. Sure it got a bit chilly that first morning- below freezing as 30 degrees, but it soon heated up a bit. The variety of the landscape just blew us away! From desert-y landscape, to geysers galore, and springs, waterfalls- one so huge that is was reminiscent of Iguassu- and grasslands, forests, jagged mountains. It's amazing that God could fit such a variety in such a small radius!
And the girls did so well! A couple of times, Siena got a little bored in the car, but she kept us all intertained, either by singing songs (actual ones, and ones she made up), and by getting creative with her dippy cheese and stick crackers, turning it into a makeup set, and applying the cheese on her face as eyeliner and lipstick. Look really close at the pic of her.
We finished our trip driving down through the Grand Tetons, and through Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Definitely our best road trip ever!