We did a lot of driving the day before in order to be close to Yellowstone and drive through the Lamar Valley in the morning to see wildlife. No one wanted the hotel breakfast so we thought we could pick up something like bagels at a coffee shop and eat on our way into Yellowstone. It turns out that the bakery had sweet pastries but not bagels and DH wasn’t willing to drive the mile back through town to the coffee shop that might have had bagels. We filled up on gas and were out by 8am. The kids shockingly did not eat much of their chocolate croissants. We thought we’d make it to the northeast entrance of Yellowstone by 8:30am. Umm…no. And it wasn’t because we were stuck behind some motorcycles for a few miles. (When tween and DH were freaking out that all of the wildlife would be scared away by the loud noise of a motorcycle.)
The drive from the hotel to the Lamar Valley was very windy and steep. Although DH took lots of pictures while driving, he was usually fast enough to put the camera or his phone down before I caught a picture of him doing it. This time, I got one. The conversation in the car went something like this: “Dad, at least stop the car if you’re going to take pictures. You’re going to drive right off a cliff. Maybe Mom should drive.”
We kept thinking we couldn’t drive up any higher but we could.
Although the car told us that we could drive 70 mph and that the drive would take us 30 minutes, between driving rather slower than that (thankfully!) and stopping every five minutes for a picture, the drive took more like 3 hours. We eventually got to the Lamar Valley and did get to see animals – mostly buffalo but also a coyote, some big horn sheep very far away and some smaller animals.
Because it took us so long to get to the Lamar Valley and then it took us a while to drive through the Lamar Valley with stopping every five minutes for a picture, everyone was over hungry by the time we got to the first place that was supposed to have food. Unfortunately, the restaurant had four bagged lunches (one of which was vegetarian) and the general store was closed. So, off we went again to try to make it to the main restaurant for something other than a pre-made sandwich on an everything bagel with all the fixin’s.
We did finally make it – along with everyone else searching for food. Between the “restaurant” and general store at the main entrance, we cobbled together some food for some very hangry kids around 1:30/2pm. Who said fries and a jelly sandwich isn’t a healthy lunch?!
After lunch, we drove to Old Faithful. It took us a little while to figure out where to park and then where to find the geyser but we made it there with some time to spare and got a great front row view. (Or at least the kids did and DH squeezed next to them. I acted like an adult and stood in the back.)
After seeing Old Faithful, the kids wandered around a small gift shop until they managed to find something they wanted to buy. Because why leave a gift shop without managing to find some souvenir?
Then, we drove back towards the north entrance and stopped at the Midway Geyser Basin to see the Grand Prismatic hot springs.
On our way out of the park, we also elk.
Since our eating habits were so poor, I was really looking forward to having some type of vegetable at dinner. But my plans were foiled once again by iceberg lettuce. (The day before, my salad roll was full of iceberg lettuce so I ended up having trail mix and M&Ms for lunch.) This time, I made sure to ask what lettuce was in the salad. The waiter said it was leaf lettuce and I was really excited. But, it ended up being a mix of iceberg and arugula (rocket). Who would eat a salad with that mix?! A very sharp lettuce with a non-existent flavored lettuce! Yuck. Shockingly, the younger kid picked at the salad and ate some of the iceberg lettuce and carrots. Woo hoo. Their bodies might actually crave fruits and vegetables if they haven’t eaten any in days.