Wyoming to Rocky Mountain National Park

We finally turned east. After seeing the Grand Tetons, we headed out in snow toward Laramie, WY. We were in snow for several hours. Somewhere in WY, these really cool windmills caught our attention. They were just so cool.

After a night in Laramie, we headed toward Rocky Mountain National Park. It was about 60 miles northeast of Denver. We stayed in a quaint little town, Estes Park. It reminded us of Gatlinburg.

There was even more snow here in these mountains. One of the "must see" things that we heard about was the Trail Ridge Road. The man at the visitor center told us that the road had just been cleared and opened for 2 days.

Here is the snow wall on Trail Ridge Road.

Snow graffiti

This snowman was here waiting for us to take a picture with him. It was so warm when we walked out of the camper earlier that morning. The elevation here was about 10,000 feet.

SMILE!!! This elk made his way through our campground munching on the bushes.

After 2 nights in Estes Park, we hit the interstate hard. Kansas was boring. My goodness, there was nothing to see. We made it most of the way across the state and the next morning headed to Schlitterbahn in Kansas City. We had a ball. The park is just building the attractions but there was still plenty to keep us busy. Here is Karis completely enjoying her BBQ wings. She loves her food.

Riding the Rapids!!!

After the water park, we headed as far across Missouri as we could. We pulled into a Walmart around midnight. We were all pretty tired, headed straight to the camper and crashed. The next morning we realized that we had parked directly in front of this sign. OOPS.

It was Tuesday morning. We were about 60 miles from St. Louis. We were homeward bound, the last leg. Bittersweet. It's always good to get home.

We had the trip of a lifetime. It was the best trip I have ever taken.

I am thankful that we were able to go and experience parts of the western United States.

Grand Tetons

We were very sad to leave Yellowstone. Very sad. But we had other things to see. South of Yellowstone was the Grand Tetons National Park. These mountains were so magnificent that it made leaving Yellowstone a tad bit easier. They were so massive and straight up!!!!

There were buffalo there too.

This was one of the visitor centers.

This elk was right up by the road, just grazing on that green grass.

This was Jenny Lake. The mountains went straight up from the lake.

My firstborn doing his favorite thing, taking pictures.

Going on a bear hunt

Seeing wildlife in their natural habitat was one of the things I enjoyed most during our trip. We have seen a snake, chipmunks, ground squirrels, a marmot, geese,

praire dogs,

big horned sheep,

pronghorns/antelope

osprey,

a moose and her baby

elk

buffalo

female elk lounging in the median

but the best thing I saw was the grizzly bear. We had been in Yellowstone for 3 days and I had only seen a bear from a great distance for only a second. It was so far away and moving that I only got a glimpse of him. It was Tuesday night when we overheard a family talking about seeing 11 bears. Chris and I got serious and went to the wildlife viewing area to sit and wait.

When we arrived, the cars were stacked up and we knew that there was something very interesting there. By the time Chris got the beast pulled over on the side of the road, I saw a head pop up from the sagebrush. It was a grizzly. The longer we watched, we saw it was a mama bear and her two cubs. She would dig and dig, then a few moments later, the little cubs would come running to her. They would munch on something for a few minutes then move on to another area and she would dig again.

On our way back to the campsite, in the meadow beside our campground, this grizzly was hanging out, digging around too. So our bear hunt yielded 4 bears!!!

Fishing Bridge

We camped at the Fishing Bridge campground. This was the only RV campground with electric, water and sewer. There was no picnic table or fire ring. As we checked in, the ranger explained all the safety precautions, like, check outside the door for bears before exiting the camper and keep grills and coolers inside the camper unit. They let us know that they were very strict on the rules because the campground was a bear migration path. No wonder there were no fire pits. The second morning a woman was excitedly telling Chris and our next camper neighbor about the bear that just sauntered through the area. We didn't see any bears in our camp area even though I looked constantly.

As you can see from the picture, the campers were really stacked on top of each other. One set of campers had only inches between them. A little too close for comfort but there was no place to sit or cook outside anyway. We looked at the campground as just a place to sleep. It was in a great location in the park as it was in the middle of the park and just a few miles from a wildlife viewing area.

Well, look a there. I did get a picture of one bear at our campsite, but he is all growl and very sweet.

Lane and Karis had a great time in these snow piles, or "forts" as they called them. This one was right across from our campsite.

We enjoyed two full days of perfect weather...blue skies, low 70's. Tuesday morning we woke up to snow. Yes, I said SNOW. It was going to be a cold, rainy, snowy day, but that did not stop us, we had wildlife to see!!! I wanted to see a grizzly bear!!!

This was one of the most beautiful sites in the park, The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The falls were over 300 feet tall.

Destination: Yellowstone National Park

WE MADE IT!!! Yes, we made it to Yellowstone and it was worth the drive!!!!

We got up early Sunday morning to try to make it to the East Entrance before it closed. Because of avalanches, the east gate was only open from 8pm to 10am. As the sun melts the snow during the day, it causes avalanches especially along that particular road. We had heard that the park service closes the gate at 10am sharp and even if you are next in line to enter,you will be turned away at 10am. We had also heard to plan on a 1 1/2 hour drive from Cody, which was 50 miles away. We made it in plenty of time. As you can see from the pictures, Karis is still in her pj's but she has on her cowboy boots!! Cowboy boots go with everything!!!

As we drove down the East Entrance road, we saw the Yellowstone Lake. It was still frozen and beautiful with the mountains behind it.

Our campground was on the East Entrance Road, so we were able to get our camper set up and got out to see some of the sites as soon as we could. It was a beautiful day and we couldn't wait to see the park and some wildlife. One of the first animals we saw was this moose, grazing beside the road. Here is Jordan trying to get as close as possible to get a great shot.

Here is Mr. Buffalo walking down the road.

We went toward the geyser and Old Faithful area, otherwise known as the Lower Loop. This is where, of course, the geysers were and also these really beautiful pools. They were so colorful and steaming hot.
Old Faithful Inn was built in 1901. The structure was huge. It is the largest log structure in the US. I would love to go back one day and stay a night there, or many nights.

We enjoyed checking out the architecture. Chris just kicked back to take it all in, in the great rocking chairs.

This is one of the Old Yellow Tour buses. I think they are from the 1960's. Cute.

Old Faithful, faithfully spewing.

Karis had to get a closer look of the geyser too.