A couple weeks before the cousin adventure began. Ally calls me up and asks if I want to go to Yellowstone with her. Um no I said I hate that place. The last time I went there was in college when I went up to Idaho Falls for the weekend because my roommate Rachel was home from her mission. We drove the loop at a ridiculous crawling speed. Watched lunatics stop in the middle of the road and take a picture of something stupid like a squirrel. Rachel had invited some random exchange student whose family lives in one of her areas on her mission in Argentina. He was extremely quiet, didn't know the language but at every stop he took forever to take pictures with his fancy camera. We stopped at a picnic spot just to find out our ziploc bag didn't close properly in the cooler and all the sandwiches were soggy and gross and it's not like you can pull over and eat somewhere else.
We arrived to old faithful starving just to discover we had missed the eruption by minutes and had to wait forever for the next one.
I vowed to never go there again but Allyson convinced me to come with mom quilt that my kids had never been and also told me that usually you have to book the Old Faithful Lodge 2-3 years in advanced but randomly she looked at the Old Faithful Lodge had two rooms available in the old section for the Thursday night before the 4th.
Plus she had her adventure van so it would be a party the whole time.
A few days after booking the Lodge, media was blowing up about a massive flood that washed out the roads and pretty much shut down the park. I figured our trip would be cancelled and I didn't feel that bad about it. Days before the media announced part of the park was opened on an alternative license plate schedule except those with reservations. The night before I had a massive migraine was in a bad mood and didn't want to go. I went to bed thinking I would just suck up the money for the lodge and take it easy. Allyson like a little fairy moved through my house cleaning it all up so nicely and I woke up with my migraine mostly gone and renewed spirits and decided I could do it.
The girls were still at Girls Camp and Bart was picking up Matt at the Idaho Falls airport after work so the boys and I loaded up the adventure van with Ally's happy kids and we set off. We entered the west side of Yellowstone around dinner time. We passed a few cars leaving but for the most part we had the entire road to ourselves. It was unbelievable. They still had the North East side of the park closed but we headed to as far North as we could to see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It was so peaceful feeling like we were the only people in the park. I was in awe at the magnitude of the canyon and the rivers and waterfalls majesty. So many people post what animal they saw at Yellowstone and not a lot of comments about the beautiful waterfalls and canyon.
We stopped and hiked down to the brink of the lower falls. It was so spectacular to feel like you were on top of such power.
We also saw a large herd of buffalo grazing. It reminded me of the movie "Dances with Wolves".
We checked into the Lodge and enjoyed the last of the evening there. They have preserved it so well with all the craftmanship. The room we stayed in was small but it felt like we stepped back into time to frontier times. It had a nice deck where we sat feeling the cool Montana evening breeze and waiting for the Geyser to go off. It was late going off and it got dark and we couldn't see it but Spencer and Ally's kids were up early and walked out the door and saw it for the first time. The rest of us came out a little later.
This is where we split from the adventure van which made it's way to Idaho Falls for Matt's family reunion.
Bart wanted to come home via Jackson Hole to try and scout out Harrison Ford. So while he waited for a spotting the boys and I wondered around the town, looking for ice cream and fun cowboy hats. We even caught the town shoot out.
We stayed at the Preston's that night and enjoyed a day at Lava Hot Springs. The next week their new adventure SUV came down and stayed with us a few days so Joe could go to the Jazz Summer league. Sarah and Joe are the best host that always welcome us and feed us so good when we stay with them. It was so nice to return the favor.
We went on a hike up Rocky Mouth Water Fall hike.
The next day Jeff brought his boys and we hiked to the suspension bridge
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