Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks + Jackson, Wyoming

Our school district has a week off in the fall every year, usually in early October, and we've always tried to take advantage of it.  It's a good time to travel, less expensive and less crowds as well so we've gone to Disneyland, Universal Studios, Zion / Bryce and Yosemite / Sequoia during that time.  This year, since Sora is a 4th grader and eligible for free National Park access, we decided to go to Yellowstone.  It helped that there was a conference in Jackson that same week so I was able to go for that as well.  Win, win!  It was a bit dicey with booking in Oct as the park shuts down fully by Nov.  Some years the snow can come early and the roads shut down and you can't do anything, but we were very lucky with the weather.  It was about 70 during the day and 30's at night and generally perfect.  Thank you, climate change?!?

If you remember karaoke night from my last post, that was the night before we left.  Our friends said we were crazy to host an event til 10pm and then wake up at 4am the next morning to go the airport, but we said, no it'll be fine.  Actually, that was a bit crazy, now that I look back on it :p  But we had prepped and packed the night before and were still able to wake up in time for the Uber to the airport.  The Uber driver wasn't the best, driving across lanes all over the place, so he got no tip.

Layover in Salt Lake City as there were no direct flights from SJC

When I first saw these antler arches in Jackson, I was 
terrified that they were killing elk and deer for them but it 
turns out that antlers are shed every year (whereas horns are not)

We landed in Jackson at about 1pm and quickly got on our way.  We were staying at Mammoth Springs, which is the northern end of Yellowstone and a 3 hr drive away, and we didn't want to lose the sunlight and drive in the dark, especially with all the large animals about.  We stopped for a quick bite at Liberty Burger and then got some groceries (everyone says to bring food and snacks as the food in the park isn't great and is expensive) and hit the road.  We drove through Grand Teton while the kids took a nap and made it to Yellowstone's South Entrance pretty quickly.  It's such a big park though that we took at least 2 hours to drive across it.  

We did stop at the West Thumb Geyser basin though
which was our first look at the geysers and pools

It's hard to describe the landscape there and how interesting it was.  There are geysers and boiling pools all over the place.  Apparently, there are about 1000 known geysers in the world and half of them are in Yellowstone.  Some of them are right next to lake or rivers, which is really interesting. Some are geysers which go off every few hours to days to months and some are just constantly boiling pools which have been going for decades.  Some are super clear and blue/black due to the dissolved minerals and some are rainbow colors because of the thermophilic bacteria living in them.  Driving there, especially in the cool mornings, is almost other worldly with the steam everywhere.  I have seen various steam vents and lava tubes (also super neat) but nothing quite on this scale.  Hard to imagine what the early explorers thought when they first came across this place.

First family pic in the park

Dragon's mouth spring

It was dark before we got there but we made it to the Mammoth
Spring Cabins and had two nice rooms, no bathrooms though
(shared bathroom hut nearby)

The next morning, Amy went out for a walk while I woke up with the kids and got them breakfast.  We had rented some bear spray ($28 vs $50 for buying it, apparently many hotels will just loan it to you too) and she made sure to bring it with her. Since bears are prevalent in the park, Amy read that running was not recommended so she ended up walking for some miles.  She was very good though because it was cold in the mornings!  We did not end up seeing a bear during our trip but that's ok as we're not going to beat our bear sighting that we had in Yosemite a couple years back.

morning walk w/ bear spray

After Amy got back, we went out to Mammoth Springs and walked around the boardwalks.  The nice thing about Yellowstone is that all the major sights have these boardwalks around them.  Mostly it's to protect the formations but also to keep people from going too near the heated water and unstable ground.  It makes it super easy to wander around without worry.  Mammoth Springs have formed around these rocks to form these terraced step-like shapes and pools.  

Such interesting natural formations

A bit higher up the hill.  The water in these pools were so clear but I guess that makes sense
considering they were boiled underground by magma before coming up to the surface

A quick 15 min detour into Montana to get some
supplies and see the gate at the North Entrance 

We ended up hiking at the Artist's Paintpots, which had some really cool colors and the a boiling mud pit.  The mud would slosh around throw globs of steamy mud into the air, which the kids really enjoyed.  Then we went to Norris Back Basin and walked around there to see several geysers.  Steamboat Geysers, which is one of the biggest geysers in the world, and goes off every 6 months or so, was steaming and bubbling when we went by.  The next day, we heard that it went off!  I guess it's sad that we missed it, but these things are essentially unpredictable so cest la vie.

Norris Back Basin walk

Artists Paintpots was a very pretty area

Jad and the steaming mud pot

The next morning, we woke up and had some breakfast then drove through the northeastern side of the park.  This area is known as the "sarengeti" of Yellowstone as many animals and herds wander through the area.  The park has bears, wolves, bison, moose, elk, cayotes and more.  The bison were the coolest because they aren't really elsewhere in the wild but we also saw a moose (from far away) and maybe a bear (it was lying down in the shade :)  

Bison eating on the median

Elk traffic jam!

Silly poses in the Wyoming Serengeti

By midday, we had gotten to the Canyon Village area of the park.  The canyons were really cool with basalt cliffsides, which Amy found very striking.  We hiked down to the lower falls, down 600ft in about a half a mile with nine switchbacks .  It ended at the top of a huge waterfall and gave a grand view of the canyon.  We also walked to the top of the upper falls but didn't go as far because we were tired by then and had to get to dinner at the Old Faithful Lodge.

Right above the falls

That canyon view is pretty amazing during golden hour

We passed a bison on the drive back.. gotta admit
the iPhone took a great shot while driving by

We just made it to the Old Faithful Inn for our dinner reservation at 715pm.  It was buffet night so the food wasn't the greatest but we did get to try bison chili (nothing spectacular) and it was a good change from the burgers, hot dogs, fries and fast food that we had been eating elsewhere in the part.  The Inn is the largest log structure in the world and is generally hard to get a reservation at but I think because we were coming at the end of the season, it was pretty cheap.  Our room as small with two beds and a shared hall bathroom/shower but we could literally see Old Faithful from the window in the hall.  That's the plus, of course, of staying in the park as it's just a few minutes (Old Faithful Geyser itself is 1/8th of a mile away, the shortest distance allowable by law) to get to the geyser area, 

Our "fancy" dinner for the week

We had to say we only had 4 total to get a room here
as they had no rooms for 5

Now, for what is possibly the coolest thing of the already super cool things on this trip.  We had heard that there was a solar storm earlier in the week and that the aurora may be visible in the Northern states.  We even went out at night when we were at Mammoth Springs but didn't see anything.  I was checking in at reception and Amy took the kids to get the luggage when Jad comes running in yelling, "there's the Aurora Borealis outside!"  I didn't quite understand what he was saying but finished quickly and went outside to see and yep, we could see the aurora.  It was pink and green and mostly faint but definitely visible.  The phone camera with long exposure definitely helps to make it more visible too so it wasn't quite as dramatic as the pics make it out to be but still it was super neat.  It was the first time Amy and I have seen the aurora.  And then Old Faithful erupted at the same time too.  Amazing!

With the Big Dipper / Ursa Major 

Eruption starting!

You can see the aurora faintly reflected in the geyser :)

The next morning, we got up and went for a walk and saw Old Faithful erupt again.  It seems almost mundane that Old Faithful erupts every 90-120 minutes but considering that most other geysers are very unpredictable, that's what makes it so special.  After grabbing some breakfast burritos, we went by the visitor center so Amy could see when the geysers were predicted to erupt and get trail updates (a couple of months prior one of the geysers at Biscuit Basin had exploded .. there's a quite a video on Youtube here Visitor records Biscuit Basin explosion in Yellowstone National Park) I had just dropped Amy off real quick and was waiting in the car when she ran out, very excitedly, telling us we had to come inside.  I parked the car and went in and turns out that our friends from school, the Tals, were there!  Sora and Barak are in the same class and I don't know how they didn't tell each other what the plan was for fall break.  We've also been riding the bikes to and from school so we haven't had as much of chance to chat with other parents at drop off or pickup.  They had driven but basically their itinerary was similar to ours.  Still, it was an incredible coincidence that we even saw each other in such a vast place so far from home.  

Old Faithful out the hallway window.. our room
was just to the right wall behind Kai

7 Tal and Udom kids

The Tals had already done the hike we had planned so we split up and promised to meet them the next day.  We headed over to the Fairy Falls hike and the overlook for the Grand Prismatic Spring.  It was not a hard walk but we had been walking so much the last few days that I was pretty tired so we didn't go all the way to Fairy Falls but the overlook was amazing!

The Grand Prismatic Spring looks just like it does in pictures.. the colors were really spectacular

The mineral water in these pools is so clear but I
guess that makes sense since it bubbles from underground

We wandered around for a bit after that and spent a good two hours waiting for the Great Fountain geyser to erupt.  Turns out someone had misread the sign and we were a good 6-8 hours off.  Still, the nice thing about waiting for these geysers is that everyone is sitting around and you can strike up a conversation.  We met people from Georgia, Florida, Minnesota and more.  One guy was sleeping in his station wagon and traveling around and there were lots of people in vans and RV's.  Someday, I hope to drive around the US in an RV :)  Later in the day, we came back to the actual trail for the Grand Prismatic Spring.  From ground level, the Grand Prismatic Spring is not as striking, as you really have to be above it to appreciate the size (largest hot spring in the US) and colors.  

It's cool how these hot springs just
run right into the river

Grand Prismatic Spring from ground level

The next day was our last in Yellowstone and Amy wanted to go back to the Great Fountain geyser as it was erupting early.  We waited two hours yesterday, dammit!  So we went back and did see it erupt after waiting about another hour.  It was cold in the morning so there was a lot of steam which blocked the view but it still looked pretty cool.  Then we went back and checked out but stayed to walk around the Upper Geyser Basin, where Old Faithful is located.

The way the Great Fountain is terraced is really neat.. you wouldn't think
things would form in such a steep angle, huh?

Another mineral pool near Old Faithful.  A young bison
fell into this one but I couldn't get the bones very well.  That's
why they tell you not to walk on the ground near the geysers!

Riverside Geyser gave us a false start and a large portion of the crowd left after the initial
steam but we waited 20 minutes more and it was much a bigger eruption

After that, we headed out of Yellowstone.  It had been a great four days but it was nice to head into Jackson where there were different things to see and a greater variety of food.  The Tals were staying a ways away but they drove to Jackson to meet us and we went to a pizzeria together before they started their drive back the next day.

Pizza was a nice change after the national park food

Thanks for meeting us, Tals!

Our Airbnb was a converted motel block of 2 bdrm apartments, nothing special.  Jackson is a relatively small town, definitely resort-y and catering to tourists though there is a larger, probably more working class area nearby as well.  There is a good variety of food and we had Thai, Tapas and assorted tasty baked goods.  Usually, I went to the conference in the morning, returned to have breakfast with everyone and then we set off for the day.

Breakfast at The Bunnery, recommended
by my nurse friend, David S.

The National Elk Refuge, a huge area designated for elk 
coming to the lowlands once the mountain snows come..
They lend out binoculars that you can take with you!

Kids got junior ranger badges here too

Grand Teton is right next to Jackson so we drove up there each day.  There was a forest fire burning nearby while we were there so the air was a big smoky but we made the best of it.  It would be more hazy in the morning but mostly clear by the afternoon.

On top of Signal road

Jump jump!

The yellowing aspen and fall colors were beautiful

Taggart Lake Trail

What a good looking couple :p  Tetons in the background

We were just saying that we were disappointed that we didn't see too much wildlife on the hike (except a quail and squirrels) when we saw two people taking some pictures.  Haha, I feel like you don't really have to look for wildlife in the parks, just look for people taking pictures of something :) We quietly snuck up and there were these two moose sitting nearby!  

That moose was quite close

Improvised pic through the binoculars

The next day, we went to the Jackson National Fish Hatchery where we learned about the Snake River Trout and how they are trying to breed and keep them from going extinct. The docent told us some interesting facts but there wasn't enough actual fish to see so the kids got bored.  Turns out the docent used to be a doctor but he quit when his wife passed away and is now living in a trailer nearby and volunteering at the hatchery and as a park ranger.  Crazy, the places life takes you.

Kids getting a lesson on how the
hatchery operates

We then went on to hike Jenny Lake which took a good 3 hours, mostly because I was the slowest.  

More fall colors on the Jenny Lake hike.. The Quaking Aspen 
reminded me of my friend from med school,
Otter Quaking Aspen.. nice to learn the origin of his name

Sunset at the famous Mormon Row, a bunch of old farmhouses on the edge of the park

Our rental was right across the street from this tapas bar Bin 22 so Amy and I decided to take an evening off from the kids.  We left them in the apt with the ipad to watch a movie and went for a nice dinner and some drinks.  It was odd to leave the kids on their own but they are getting older, they could always send us a text from the iPad and we were just across the street.  We had a nice dinner at the bar and some fun drinks.  The tapas were nothing to write home about, especially as we had just recently been in Spain and Portugal, but the Patatas Bravas with added pork belly was quite good.  The bar had an attached liquor store as well.  On this trip, we had picked up a huckleberry Whiskey when we ventured briefly into Montana and were looking around this store when the sommelier came up and asked if he could help.  Well, he sold things pretty well and even gave us a tasting right there so we ended up with a $100 bottle of Wyoming Whiskey Independence Rock.  Brought back to share with the neighbors :)

Parents' night out

Tasty Tapas

Also tasty whiskey

Our last day was pretty low key and we spent it wandering around Jackson.  We had lunch at the Persephone Bakey then went to get some souvenirs for friends and family.  We ate ice cream at Moo's, where they only use natural ingredients. 

Outdoor lunch was nice but there were gnats everywhere

Moo's had some interesting flavors, like roasted coconut 
and huckleberry, of course

The next day we got up super early at 4am, returned the car and went back to the airport.  Our kids are so good about traveling and getting up early (since we've been forcing them to do it :)  They did great on the trip back and our neighbor David was kind enough to pick us up from SJC.  Overall, a great trip and a chance to see a part of the country that neither Amy or I have been to.

Time to head home

That's it!  Almost caught up now though there are always new things going on.  Next week, I'm mostly off but I think I have to catch up on some of my job certification stuff.  I'll leave you with this great fortune that Jad got.  It matches very well with his confidence :)  lately, we've seen that drop a bit as he realizes that maybe he's not the fastest in his class or the best on his soccer team.  It's a bit sad because he was more sure of himself but now he is questioning more.  Sure, it was largely unearned and not exactly true but it was still very endearing.  I guess it's another part of growing up.  We've tried our hardest to encourage our kids, to help them be strong confident people but I'll also admit that we probably didn't do everything right either even with our good intentions.  It's probably something that all parents learn.  

Love you, Jad.
You ARE destined for greatness!