We left Bear Lake, Idaho, and continued up north toward Island Park, Idaho. Yellowstone is only 45 minutes from Island Park and renting a cabin is way more affordable then something closer to the national park. We found this cute cabin in the southern end of Island Park.
Once we arrived, we needed to stretch our legs. We went for a walk...but soon after starting out, it started to rain huge drops of water and we turned around and ran back. We found that rain will pop up now and then and not last very long. Raegan is showing how wet she got...
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Later Trent and I went to the local grocery store and gathered up all the food and items needed to make it through the next few days. We saw a little ice cream shop and wanted to explore the town with the kids and end the day with ice cream.
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Next day we got up and took off for the National Park.
The enthusiasm to take a picture was oozing out of their eyeballs. I had posted this picture on social media and one person asked if Ammon was a photo bomber... I said nope, that one is ours. The traffic to get into the park was very thick and they weren't to excited to jump out of the van to grab this in front of onlookers, but hey... I have evidence and maybe, just maybe they will thank me later or even laugh later, who knows.
Gibbon Falls
Artisan Paint Pots
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Norris Gyser Basin
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Hit some construction as we went north, so it was a little frustrating.
Mamoth Springs
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Pano at the top of Mamoth Springs
Driving down the other side of the north loop we drove a nature trail hoping to see some wildlife, but with all the rain we came upon it was useless. But it's still beautiful and luckily our van made it through the muddy trail.
Tower-Roosevelt
Sadly with all the rain and construction meant the kids were in the van a lot and really didn't want to see much more this day, sometime I'd love to go back and see this.
After getting back to the cabin, we settled into a great dinner and cozied up to a movie.
Something weird, once Trent and I got into bed and everyone was a sleep, I heard something like it hit the ceiling fan (it was on low). Then a few minutes later heard scratching close to my side of the bed. I knew I heard something, so I got up and... I found a little bat! It was so dang cute! Trent was freaked, as maybe I should have too, but I scooped it up in a hat and took it outside. I wanted to get a picture so bad, but I was afraid the flash would have scared it and then a whole new set of troubles. It was a great story to tell the kids the next morning, luckily they didn't freak out since we had one more night in the place :o)
Day 2
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GeoThermal Prism
This was really cool! We went down where the boardwalk was but unless you are up higher you can't really see the full effect of the colors. So we drove to the next stop which was a hike to some fairy falls (or something) and hiked to where you were next to this feature and then climbed off trail up the hillside to get the height to see this. So glad the sun decided to make a presence because the colors just pop out! Worth the extra hiking.
Old Faithful
Bear Museum
On our way out of the park back to the cabin, we hit this bear museum. Thought the kids would like to see it.
Raegan and Ammon were able to go out and "hide" food for the bears. Bears still needed to "hunt" for their food, so they let kids under 12 go out and plant the food for the bears. Ammon is wearing the brown shirt in the back standing up.
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Next day we got up, packed up and drove home. We stopped in Rexburg to show the kids were me and dad had gone to Ricks College (now BYUIdaho). We attended at different times and never knew each other there, but it was fun to see how it had changed and to see the temple there.
It was good to be home, but a fun family trip.
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