Author: Sarah

We chose to take it semi-easy on our last full day in Yellowstone as we were feeling like every morning we rushed out the door and every evening we were racing back to make dinner.  We were looking forward to putting some time into our dinner without feeling rushed.  

We were excited for our first day in the Old Faithful area. Up until this point the geysers we had seen were either just small bubblers or were venting only steam at the time .. On this day, however, we saw 4 eruptions (ok, 3 of them were the same geyser, but still awesome!)

We made it to Lamar Valley!!  Justin and I prepped and packed the night before and we arrived in the mob filled Lamer Valley (along with a hundred others) just as the sun was rising.  Just on time with no wrong turns!  Second time’s a charm. 😉

The girls both finally slept through the night!  The two previous nights our 4 year old was up for 3 hours in night for reasons unknown to us which, after hours of trying other options, again resulted in me cramming myself into her bed to sleep for the remainder of the night.  So, after her first good nights sleep in a while we chose to wake her up before dawn to attempt a peak at some wolves in Lamer Valley.  Not the best parenting choice but we were hopeful she would recover from lack of sleep.  

For our adventuring this day we decided to go to Tower Roosevelt and down into Canyon Valley.  We were originally thinking of checking out this area on our travel day from Mammoth campground to Grant but we rethought that and thought it was wiser to only bring Azul to fit in more places.  

The girls spent all morning happily working on their Jr Ranger books and Justin used the Internet while we still had some.  In Yellowstone our internet only worked in the early morning and late evening when less people were online, so we had to make the best of it when we had it.  Then we were off to the Norris Geyser Basin!

Our plan worked!!!  We woke the girls up before the sun came up, snuggled them into little blanket cocoons in Azul and headed into Yellowstone to try our luck snagging a Mammoth Hot Springs Campground site.  When we pulled into the campground there were already 3 or 4 rigs in front of us.  Not too bad.  Justin checked and the ranger at the desk said that at least a dozen people were checking out that day so we would definitely get a site.  Hurray!!  Bad news was it was 4 hours until check out so technically we could potentially be waiting for that long.  We were hopeful and excited to be promised a site!

We had a packed day what with the quick tour through Yellowstone and all so we were relieved to find a great camping spot about 25 minutes north of the north entrance to Yellowstone N.P.  The campground was lovely and super cheap ($7 per night)!  It was nestled at the foot of a picturesque butte mazed between large craggy lichen covered rocks.  The girls were thrilled to have such a great climbing gym in our own backyard!