Yellowstone and Grand Tetons

This weekend we headed to Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks.  Though they are literally right next to each, there is definitely a different feel to each of the parks. We saw some amazing wildlife and the scenery is just absolutely beautiful.  I couldn't stop taking pictures!  It will be tough to narrow down so I will try to just share my faves.  We planned 3 days at Yellowstone but only ended up needing two days.  Grand Teton we planned a day and a half but again, found we were able to do what our family wanted to in just one day.  It definitely all depends on how much hiking and stopping you want to do.  Here is a peek at our weekend adventure!. 

Best first day of school picture we have ever taken!

Seeing the bison was pretty cool.  Once we saw this big pack of them we 

started spotting in many places. 

I can't believe I have been to Yellowstone!

These guys are HUGE!

The geysers and hot springs were all over the park. 

 It was crazy how different they could all be. 

Standing by the Grand Prismatic Geyser.  It's a beautiful geyser that you can usually see a rainbow like ring around but not the day we were there.  But it was still a cool geyser to see.  It's amazing the heat you can feel just walking by them.

Old Faithful! 

Okay, forgive me if this is gruesome but it was still kind of cool.  There was a big stop in traffic and come to find out, a grizzly bear had killed an elk at 6:30 that morning (it was 3:30pm when we drove by) and the bear was sleeping beside the elk all day.  There were so many people with very large cameras just waiting for that bear to awake and dine.  I guess killing an elk can take a lot of a grizzly bear.  

Okay, we did see many that were very much alive! This one right by the road.

It was so crazy just seeing animals walking about in nature.  On our 2nd day at Yellowstone, as we rounded a corner, we startled an elk and we saw it running beside our car.  No, there is no picture of that one. It was nice to just enjoy the moment of God's creation. 

Mammoth Hot Springs.  Beautiful.  

Just chillin' in front of a bunch of bison on the hill. 

Love.

Just more beautiful scenery pics. 

Whenever there is a traffic slowdown at Yellowstone, pay attention because there is probably some wildlife nearby.  We just had no idea the wildlife was causing the traffic slowdown...quite literally!  These two were just meandering down the road with all the time in the world holding up all kinds of traffic!  

Can't get much closer than this.  They walked right by our van!  Four hours later as we headed out of the park, they were still walking down the street and causing a couple miles of traffic.  It was pretty amazing.  They are so big! 

After a couple days through Yellowstone, it was off to the Grand Tetons!

The guys who offered to take our picture did this really cool panoramic.  He took our picture on one side of the sign and then we scooted to the other side while he panned to over. 

Super cool new trick we learned!  

Absolutely beautiful.  There was definitely more haze than normal due to the wildfires out west but honestly, we still got an amazing view.  Thankfully, it rained pretty good a couple days before we went and the people in the area said that would clear a little bit of the haze.  The day was gorgeous and sunny so we could see quite clearly. 

Josiah and Jonas are becoming quite the photographers so this is 

Josiah's work with my camera.  

Little history lesson: 

This was a cool cabin at Grand Tetons which was built and owned by a fur trader named John Pierce Cunningham back in the 1800's.  Certainly lived a simple life I would say!  

PLUG: Gypsy Guide is a really cool app that you can use in the parks and other travel places.  It knows your location and is your personal tour guide as you travel the park.  We would have missed this awesome view without it! 

This is definitely one of my favorite pics.  It would have been quite the view 

each day for Cunningham from his cabin.

The famous Jenny Lake. 

So glad we met kind people who would take our picture.  

With Corona we weren't sure about this!  The man who took this picture also 

has 5 kids so he understood how hard it can be to get a picture of everyone! 

Pronghorn was an animal we saw often even before the parks.  But as we finished 

our lunch at Tetons yesterday, these guys decided to join us.  

And we certainly couldn't leave Wyoming without trying a 

bison burger!  It was good!

Today the L52 Bomber Libosine took us to Utah!  (Yes, two of you won for naming our van so we combined them!  Although in the back of my head I just might still be calling her Redemption, Auntie Donna)  I am literally updating this while I watch the kids take a swim in the hotel pool.  We have so far had a good balance of busy with parks and downtime in between.  We will drive some more tomorrow before we head to another national park later this week. 

Thanks for journeying along with us!