Yellowstone National Park

Satellites don't reach Yellowstone. We just spent several days in the national park without internet service. Readers beware: this will be a long post. As I sit in the hot laundromat of our Teton campsite, I will breeze through the last four days of our Yellowstone wanderings.

Waking up wasn't easy after playing around Rushmore all day. The kids had also stayed up late jumping on an inflatable pillow trampoline-like thingy.

I also had a difficult time waking, so William made me breakfast.

And brought me coffee. This is love, people.

Back on the road from South Dakota to Wyoming.

I love the west.

We took "scenic" 16.

The first picture I snapped in Yellowstone Park:

And it just got better.

We pulled into Canyon Village camp site.

Almost immediately, it started to rain. Now THIS reminds me of camping as a kid.

And wouldn't you know we had technical difficulties?  The camper top is raised mechanically. It went up 4 inches and stopped. In the rain. 

Trying to locate the problem and/or a way to hand crank it up in the rain while exhausted from driving all day nearly unraveled us. We tried driving around for miles to catch an internet signal to search for a solution on William's smart phone. No signal. We finally returned to camp and found a way to crank the top up just before it got too dark to see outside. It required approximately 9,852 turns for each inch. William and I took turns cranking until our arms wouldn't crank any more. Once we finally got it up, we crashed.

But then we had to hand crank it right back down in the morning to move to the Bridge Bay campsite. After moving the camper, we drove to a store. Waiting around a convenience store while William tried to find a fuse to replace the offending source of the camper malfunction, we got a little bored.

While work on the camper began, the kids and I hiked to see a natural bridge.

Since it was Sunday, we stopped and gave praise to God for the magnificence of His marvelous creation.

Mister Mopey likes to lag behind.

Back at camp, the work continued.

We had a late lunch of fried burritos. 

Then went for a drive.

We stopped to hike around a geothermal area.

For whatever reason, Dabney was ridiculously excited to see bubbling mud.

It smelled so bad, we felt a little sick to our stomachs.

 The hyperthermophile protein that I grew in a lab and William studied before we married came from these mud volcanoes. Romantic, isn't it?

More driving.

We stopped to hike Tom's Trail to see both the upper and lower falls.

It was a LONG hike down 350 stairs.

But so worth it!

Oh, yeah. I rock!

Ohhh, ugggg....going back up, I thought I was going to die. I don't rock.

Back at the top of the canyon, we saw an elk bull, and Dabney gashed his knee (I don't post pictures of gore). After cleaning and disinfecting, we patched his knee with liquid bandage and he's healing nicely.

Back at camp we had brats and a campfire.

Here's Henry's Journal entry:

"Yesterday I went on three hikes. I went on the natural bridge, mud volcano, and waterfall trail. The natural bridge was a 2 1/2 mile walk in the middle of the woods. There was a trail that went from the parking lot to the natural bridge in a circle.  Mud volcano was about 20 rank, putrid, indescribably stinky, searing hot mires with repulsive, boiling bubbles. There was one 'Dragon's Mouth' which was sooooo putrid, I almost vomited.  The waterfall hike was about 328 steps down. At the bottom it was an amazing view of a waterfall about as tall as the Empire State building. The way back was the most painful and long thing I've ever done in my life. I had to act like the Prince of Persia  to go through those three hikes."

Dabney's Journal entry:

"Finally we arrived at Yellowstone and drove to our campsite. The two days after that I went to the Natural Bridge, it was amazing and BEAUTIFUL! Then we went to a rank mire. It had amazing bubbling mud, and sulfur all over the place. The warm smoke smelled like rotten eggs and the repulsive bubbling mud is searing hot. It was so putrid that I almost vomited. Next we drove to a place where there are waterfalls. On the way to the waterfalls I saw an elk. Then we walked and saw one waterfall and then kept on walking then got to Tom's Trail. It took about 361 steps then we saw a waterfall that is about 5,000 feet tall. Then we started to come back but at the end I suddenly slipped on a log and scraped my knee open. But then I got bandaged up and we went home."

The next morning, William took the kids on a hike so I could reorient myself and my campsite.

When they returned, we went to see Old Faithful. He's awesome.

The rest of the hike around the geothermal features was exciting and unbelievable and stinky.

Then it started to rain and we booked it for the car. It was sunny back at camp,

where a buffalo visited us,

and took a nap.

Stir fry chicken, veggies, and rice for dinner.

I tried to bake a cherry pie, William's favorite.

I was a little too aggressive in my huffing and stoking. One side came out badly burnt. I tried to hide that side in the picture to make me look better. See? I'm so awesome at baking outdoors.

 On day 3, we drove to Mammoth Hot Springs

Incredible features of nature, but not as magnificent as they used to be. Apparently, after an earthquake 10 years ago, most of the springs dried up. The kids had a great time anyway, whining the ENTIRE walk.

This was a cute moment, though.

The kids suddenly  grew great attitudes when we stopped for ice cream. 

On the drive back to camp, we spotted a bald eagle. Henry was thrilled.

When asking boys to forage for firewood, one must be specific about what to touch, what not to touch, and how much touching should be involved. 

Violet made a friend (bottom right). The view from camp was unsurpassed (front and center).

I forced the kids to journal.

William surmised the dinner situation while writing. I don't think he managed to get many words on paper.

After dinner, I put the kids to bed while William drove miles away to catch a satellite signal to catch up on work. After the kids went to sleep, I had some fun next to a camp fire.

However, when one has been engaging in these activities and decides to sprint for the restroom because it's cold and forgets to take a flashlight, one MIGHT trip on some asphalt while running full tilt and stumble a few times only to bite the dust on an elbow and a thigh. But in that circumstance, one should probably pop right back up and sprint away even faster in case someone observed their folly.