Yellowstone National Park

Our journey to Yellowstone began early in the morning given that it was going to be a single day trip. We drove from Butte to the Gardiner park entrance. As we entered the park, there were some elk greeting us. After we wound through the first few parts, we decided to go to Lamar Valley early to catch some wildlife moving. Not even 5 minutes into the trip, we saw a moose feeding in the middle of a pond.

After that, we encountered one of the coolest things either of us have seen. The highway was lined with vehicles, with not a single spot to stop. As everyone looked in one place, we could see that there was a sow black bear with 2 little cubs. We drove up the road and we were able to find a parking spot. After we parked, we walked down the highway to see if we could spot them. We watched them for a bit, and then we got to see the little cubs climbing and playing in the tree.

After we got home from our trip, we found a video of the bears, and you can watch it here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DN1dbRtWmWy/

Since we had gotten into the park and taken a few stops, Quinn started grabbing some wildflowers for Reganne so she could have her own bouquet. After we were done looking at the sow and cubs, we got back in the vehicle with our flowers. When Reganne went to grab the flowers, she noticed that there was a spider crawling on them. She freaked out, and we had to stop asap. I made sure to get the spider off, and throw it out of the window. We were at a really nice stopping point, so I decided to take a look in my binos. Out of nowhere I had to grab my spotting scope to look at something near the top of a nearby mountain. There it was, a grizzly bear just feeding in a wide open park. We watched it for a bit and showed some of the people when they stopped by. After watching for a while there were actually 2 grizzlies, and we watched them for a while.

After that, we continued on through Lamar Valley seeing lots of antelope and bison. There was quite a bit of traffic, but we turned around and decided to head back towards Mammoth. Right as we left Lamar Valley, a black bear decided to walk right along the road and feed. It was a really cool thing to see.

We grabbed some lunch in Mammoth. After finding some parking, we had a bison brat, hot dog, and some huckleberry fudge ice cream for a sweet treat. We then headed towards Norris Geyser Basin. We walked around the basin for a while to see all of the different geysers and attractions. After taking our time walking around there, we decided that we would try to hit the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

Something that both of us were looking forward to the entire trip was going to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. We stopped at the North Rim to take a look at the canyon from the waterfall side. After we found some parking, we took the hike down to the bottom. Once we had gotten to the falls, all of a sudden some guy yelled 'Ring Alert! Ring Alert!.' All of a sudden his son got down on one knee to propose to his girlfriend. It was a super cute moment to witness, and they were both so excited. One thing that we remember him saying during the proposal was 'I know it feels like it has been 6 years, but now let's have forever together.' We had the Polaroid camera with us and Quinn had the great idea to take a picture of them. We think that is something they are going to cherish for a very long time. On our way back up, we ran into the parents and had a quick talk with them. We were curious how long they had been dating, so we asked them. It turns out they had only been dating for 9 months!!

After being on the North Rim of the canyon, we wanted to see it from the other side. We could tell that there were some people on the other side of the river, so we decided to take a little hike to see what the view would look like from over there. There was a trail that was a 2 mile round trip that we decided to take. Needless to say, it did not go to the other side, but we got to see the falls above the main one and were able to capture some amazing views (Reganne is always the best view). We had been sitting down in the car all day, so it was really nice to get up and stretch our legs for a while. We were also able to find some pretty wildflowers on our walk too :)

Since we were at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, we knew we wanted to go to Artist's Point. We didn't have any service at the moment, so we decided to follow some map directions of a professional (our one of a kind Reganne). We left the Canyon village and drove down the highway for a few miles and saw a sign to turn, so we did that. Next thing we know, we were back where we had gone on our hike. So we had to loop around for another 10 or so minutes. We tried to do it again and the same thing ended up happening, we just went in from another entrance. 3rd time is always a charm, and after about 1/2 hour, we had gotten to Artist's Point. Once we got up near the ledge to see what it was like, it was one of the best things either of us had seen. It was truly breathtaking. We sat there and just looked at the view for a handful of minutes, and then decided to get some pictures.

It was nearly 6pm, and it had been quite a long day, so we thought seeing Old Faithful would be a great way to end our day in the park. It was a little bit of a drive down to the geyser, and on the way we started to get a little tired. Old Faithful erupts every 90 minutes, hence the name, with 10 minutes to spare before or after. We came to the conclusion that we did not want to wait to see it if was going to be longer than a 30min wait. Once we got to the parking lot, it was completely packed. We drove up the closest available spot (illegally parked) and said 'Well, let's run back there and check when it is projected to erupt. It looks kind of full and it might be soon.' So Quinn decided to keep the vehicle in a non-parking spot and run back to see the geyser. As we walked around the building, we looked around and there were no places to even stand on the boardwalk. We were looking for some places to stand near the hotel, and as we were doing that, it started to erupt. We hadn't been back there for more than 10 minutes! We were in such shock that it was even happening, we didn't even know what to do. We had talked about getting some pictures, and then it all happened so fast. We managed to get some pictures, and enjoy the quick show. Somehow, we happened to be the last ones to show up and the first ones to leave. We would have spent more time walking inside to check when it was going to erupt than we did watching the geyser erupt!

It was about 8:30pm after the geyser erupted, and it had already been a long day. We wanted to grab some food before we went back home, so we planned on stopping in West Yellowstone to grab some dinner. We stopped and enjoyed some dinner. After that, we shopped for a little bit and then got some ice cream and walked around downtown for a little bit. It was a great way to finish the long day.

On our way home, we stopped in Ennis to get some gas. We were exhausted, and we just wanted to get home. As we were almost home, right after we passed Silver Star, we noticed that there was something in the middle of the highway. From a ways away, we thought it could have been plastic or garbage in the road. As we got closer, we thought an animal got hit. The closer we got, it went from thinking it was a moose to realizing it was a dead cow. As we slowed down, we noticed that there were 2 cars that were pulled off into a field entrance. We then talked to them and it was a young kid and his dad.