Day 11

Monday began our journey into Yellowstone. Prior to this opportunity, Dan and I never thought we'd get to Yellowstone so we are very excited!

We started our day with all-you-can-eat pancakes at the KOA, one last jump on the jumping pillow and said goodbye to the most incredible cabin... for a KOA.

First stop was the Buffalo Bill Dam. Wow. We were able to walk over the dam and looking towards the 'lake' side was good, looking over the dam edge made me nauseous... still does just thinking of it. Blah! Nice visitors center, took pictures and hit the road.

There is a huge fire at this entrance to Yellowstone and traffic was down to one escorted lane, alternating with the opposing traffic. We were actually close enough to see huge flames and after the fire we had back home last year, this made Brenna nervous. They have made a huge effort in Yellowstone to talk about the fire that occurred in 1988 and how much stronger it makes the forest, naturally reseeding itself. There had also been a neat exhibit in the Bill Cody Museum, including the smell of smoke. Now Brenna is a bit obsessed with it, wanting to learn more and writing notes of thanks to the firefighters that she wants to deliver. This is much better than the fear she had for a while.

We hit Yellowstone Lake and were rightly impressed. And surprised to see seagulls... although I guess that would make them 'lakegulls'?

As we traveled we saw a bison here and there (and sometimes really close!), which was exciting and then a herd of a hundred or so bison. It's amazing to me how stupid people can be and how close they try to get to a HUGE wild animal. While the bison looks sleepy and slow, it can actually run 37 MPH, which is faster than I can run! But as we learned, you don't need to outrun the wild animal, just the guy next to you!

One of the most incredible spots we visited was Dragon's Mouth Spring. This is an area with mudpots and sulfur springs. Very awe-inspiring and VERY stinky! But this particular spring was amazing and it's name suits it very well. You can hear the boiling water churning and roaring within this cavern with steam pouring out of it.

We then ventured farther north and visited the Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It was so pretty! We are planning on hitting the rest of this area tomorrow.

We headed west towards West Yellowstone where we were staying. Along the way we saw Elk, Canadian Geese, more bison, etc. Beautiful hot springs from the roadside caused us to stop several times but we pushed on.

And into ANOTHER state ~ Montana. It was so crowded and a bit pricey but cute. We camped at... the KOA, which was a bit disappointing. They had messed up our reservation and it was really crowded but we weren't spending that much time there so it was all fine. The view from our site was spectacular and the stars at night... amazing. I understand why they call Montana 'Big Sky Country'.