Yellowstone National Park

Prior to even thinking about this trip, Zach and I had been wanting to travel down to Florida to visit his family and see friends. However, I had been covering a maternity leave in a dental office that was supposed to last until December 2018, so it wasn't realistic for us to go on a month long vacation anytime soon. Come April, my in-laws were in need of staff for their seasonal business and there just didn't seem to be people looking for work, so Zach and I discussed what we should do. We love working at the restaurant, but I didn't want to flake on the maternity leave position either. After lots of thought and discussion, we decided that it was actually in our best interest to go to Waterton to work for my in-laws. Their season is from May-end of September, but we were able to score the month of May off before we had to start working!! We decided that this would be the perfect time to travel down to Florida. So, after helping get things set up in the restaurant, we started our trek down south.

We decided to take our time travelling down considering we had a whole month off. We left Waterton around noon and planned to make it to Bozeman, MT. Up until we crossed the border we didn't feel like we were actually lucky enough to go on a month long vacation across the states, until the border patrol man joked with us about how lucky "us Canadians" are with being able to take so much time off work! It was seriously the easiest border crossings of our lives. After that we hit the big sky, Montana highways. We stopped for lunch in Helena and got some good old Panda Express! Sooo good!

After eating our lunch, we took the dogs out to use the washroom, Koni got out of the car, did his business, so Zach walked around with him for a few more minutes before settling back in the car, while I waited for Zoey to do her thing. As I was walking around with Zoey, mama's boy Koni, jumped out the car window and made a run for me and Zoey!! It's a good thing he generally sticks pretty close to us, because the highway was right next to where we were walking.

Later that night we got settled in to our cozy Holiday Inn Express, which was located right beside a Costco and a TARGET! For me, this was when it really set in that it was time to relax...and shop!!

The next day we headed to Yellowstone National Park. We entered via Gardiner and headed straight to Mammoth Hot Springs while on the Grand Loop tour.

It was so cool to have bison just chilling downtown, with no cares in the world!

This rock is supposedly called "The Devil's Thumb"

It's so cool to see such unique geological formations so close to home. Mammoth Hot Springs formed   over thousands of years as hot water dissolved limestone, then cooled and deposited calcium carbonate/reformed limestone. 

Continuing on the Grand Loop, we made our way to Roaring Mountain. 

Roaring Mountain is formed from volcanic rock and is one of the hottest parts of Yellowstone. Steaming fumaroles formed over the years that created a distinct roar, that has now mellowed to a slight hissing sound! 

Our next stop was the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and where we saw Artist Point! 

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone was formed by the Yellowstone River via years of erosion. We had a beautiful view of the Lower Falls from Artist Point. 

Our next stop was one that we hadn't planned to make, but we saw a sign for the Black Dragon Cauldron and had to take a look. Unfortunately we weren't able to hike all the way up to the Black Dragon because dogs aren't allowed on the trails. However, we were able to get some really cool pictures of some bison near Mud Cauldron. 

I think buffalo is one of my favourite animals! They look prehistoric, but have evolved to live in the now. The Mud Volcano area is really acidic and has the classic rotten egg smell that is caused by hydrogen sulfide. 

My absolute favourite part of Yellowstone is all of the hot springs! You can see steam vent from the roads and driving the Grand Loop provides so many opportunities to pull off and see all of the springs! 

Zach hiked along the Fountain Paint Pot Trail and was able to see some really cool hot springs and mudpots, both of which are great reminders that we were in an area with active volcanic activity.

Silex Spring

My favourite part of the trip to Yellowstone was wandering along the Midway Geyser Basin pathway. It is so crazy to me that all the vibrant colours are a result of bacteria. The thermopiles change colour according to the temperature of water they reside in. 

Starting on the trail you see all the run off from the hydrothermal pools into the Firehole River. 

Runoff from the Excelsior Geysor

Continue up the path, I took a right and headed toward the Opal and Turquoise Pools. This was a good way to start the path, as it slowly led up to the mesmerizing Grand Prismatic Spring. 

As you walk along the board walk, it looks as though you would be able to walk along the ground between each pool, but there are signs strictly telling people to stay on the path as the ground temperature is just way too hot. 

Pictures just don't do this spring justice! 

The final pool was the deep blue Excelsior Pool. 

After exploring the Midway Geysor Basin, we decided that we would quickly drive over to Old Faithful, because what's a trip to Yellowstone without seeing one of its most famous landmarks. 

Unfortunately we just missed the eruption. We decided we didn't want to wait another hour or so for the next eruption as the dogs had been patient all day while we took turns exploring different areas of the park that they weren't allowed to go near. We grabbed a bite to eat in West Yellowstone and continued on to Jackson Hole!

All in all we had a blast at Yellowstone and would definitely visit again! 

-S

Next up: Jackson Hole, Garden of the Gods, and Royal Gorge.