Goodbye, Tetons! Hello, Yellowstone!

Both R and I woke up early this morning – he went to Oxbow Bend to catch the sunrise hitting the Tetons…


…and I went to the main lounge area of the lodge to use their wi-fi to upload pics and update the blog. Clearly, only one of us had any measure of success. For some reason, I couldn’t insert pictures into the body of the text, and it was taking forever to upload photos to Picasa. So frustrating!

After breakfast, the kids went to the ranger program on wildlife in Willow Flats out on the patio of the lodge to finish up their requirements for their Jr. Ranger badges. I think they learned quite a bit from the ranger! As we were getting ready to check out, a fox came by the cottages. Pretty cool!

On our way out of the park, we stopped by Oxbow Bend one last time for some more pics…

…and the Colter Bay Visitor Center, so that they could receive their badges…

…and then on to Yellowstone!

As we drove toward Grant Village, we stopped at Lewis Falls, where the boys were again thrilled with all the snow on the ground.

Lewis River

At Grant Village, we picked up their Jr. Ranger booklets - of all the ones the boys have worked on, Yellowstone's is one of the most involved. We arrived just in time to attend a ranger program on wildlife within the park. Afterwards, we picnicked for lunch and then headed on to the West Thumb Geyser Basin.

Seismograph Pool





Black Pool, though not black anymore because the water temp
shot up in 1991 and killed the thermophiles which gave the pool
its original dark green/brown color

Blue Funnel Spring

After crossing the continental divide, we finally reached our destination – Old Faithful Inn! We checked into our room in the historic part of the building, which is where my family stayed 30+ years ago. The boys asked:

M: Does this place have a swimming pool? 

Me: No. 

J: Is there free breakfast? 

Me: No. 

Boys: Do they have wi-fi? Or TV? 

Me: A big no and no.

Boys (after looking around the room): Hey, why is there no bathroom in here?

Me: It's a shared bathroom, down the hall. But at least there's a sink in the room.

Boys: Why are we staying here?! 

Me: Location, location, location!  

1978

Our room is the right hand set of 2 windows under the rightmost
visible dormer on the top floor

They had already gone to see Old Faithful erupt with our friends just after we arrived (R and I were bringing our things up to the room), so reminding them of that spectacular show put an end to their questions!

We had dinner at the dining room in the Inn, but unfortunately this was the first meal that we (both families) were really disappointed in. Our server was inattentive, and the entrees arrived nearly an hour after we ordered and weren’t even hot when served. Those of you with kids know all too well that slow service + hungry kids = unhappy parents! Thankfully the 4 of them were keeping each other occupied and weren’t whining at all. Needless to say, we complained to the manager, who comped us part of the check.

Off to bed for another day of adventure!