Ashton, Idaho - Part 4

This is the fourth post on my family reunion in Ashton, Idaho.  If you want to see the third post, click here.

This day at the reunion was simply a-m-a-z-i-n-g.  We spent the day visiting Yellowstone National Park - the very first national park of the U.S..  Anyone who has been to this national treasure, knows how strikingly beautiful the geography is. The bonus is any wildlife that you might catch while passing through the park.  Trust me, we scored big in this category...but more about that later.

We entered the park and I was taken back by the beauty of the Lord's creation.  It was tough, as I was one of the drivers, to take everything in and not drive off the side of the road ; )  Our watch for wildlife was quickly rewarded as we caught a mother bison and her calf in a field by the road.

Our first major stop was Gibbon Falls.  You could still see some of the damage from the big fire almost twenty-five years ago and devastated the park.  So much has grown back and the falls were beautiful.

G-Man and his cousins

My brother-in-law, nephew and my sister

We had lunch and made our way over to Canyon Village.  The highlight here were the Upper and Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River.

Here's where you can understand why they call it Yellowstone...the canyon was filled with yellowstone on both sides...

We decided to get a closer look at the Lower Falls by hiking down a very steep trail.  As you went down, all you could think of - was the trip back up.  But when we arrived at the falls, the view was astounding.

I think it's so great to have breath-taking natural beauty to enjoy side-by-side with your loved ones.  Such a great experience.

We left Canyon Village and quickly became stuck in the famous traffic jams in Yellowstone.  This can be caused by too many people visiting the park...or, more likely, folks are stopping to see some animal in the distance.  This was very different.  As we quickly discovered, a herd of bison had decided to travel across the road.  They came RIGHT UP TO OUR CAR:

I could have reached out and touched one of the bulls.  How cool was that?!?! I'll never, ever forget that experience...and the goes for the entire family in our caravan of vehicles.

We talked about the bison all the way to Old Faithful.  Most people associate this location with Yellowstone, and it's turned into quite the tourist destination. The kids had spent a good deal of time in the car, so we stopped for a little ice cream, as we waiting for the next scheduled eruption of the Old Faithful geyser.

Surrounding Old Faithful are several other geysers in this area.  In fact, Yellowstone is home to sixty percent of the world's geysers.  There are almost 150 in this basin alone.  You can walk through the area and see some amazing colors and formations:

Old Faithful is one of only a handful of geysers that are "predictable".  Based on input from my father, Old Faithful isn't quite as faithful as she used to be.  We waited patiently for the eruption, and even though it was late...it was amazing to watch.

It was a great end to the day.  However, we had NO idea that something special would happen next. We were on the road to exit the park, when the traffic came to an absolute stand-still.  Through communication with other family members that were further ahead, we discovered that a grizzly bear had been spotted far off from the road.  As we slowly crept along the road, and approached the spot, the bear had moved even closer to the road, across a field near the river.  We also discovered that she had to bear cubs with her.  My daughter is a big fan of animals...especially baby animals.  She and her husband jumped out of the car and went to take pictures.  These are amazing:

Things became a little concerning as the mother grizzly crossed the river and was within a hundred yards of all the tourists.  A park ranger was yelling at people to get back into their vehicles.  I don't think you want to make a mother grizzly bear nervous when her cubs are around.  My son-in-law took these amazing pictures and captured this video before heading for the car:

We had lots to talk about all the way back to the cabin ; )  We ate dinner and then divided into two teams and raced to complete jigsaw puzzles.  These were difficult and it was fun to try and do this as a team.  If you don't know me very well...this is a pretty clear indication of my vacations. We pack a LOT of things into a short amount of time.  It's fun and it never, ever gets boring!

This team kicked my team's butt...I think my wife and daughter enjoyed that... ; )

That's it for part 4.  What a day!!! There's only one more part....before we all departed for various parts of the U.S. Thanks for reading.