Yellowstone...part 2

Not ready....

Totally driving since last night, 239 km..

Day 7.... Yellowstone..part 1

Well, we woke up around 6 got ready for Yellowstone National park..the first majestic park to lead all the others! Yellowstone is truly amazing, so diverse, unexpected and extreme, located right on the largest thermoactive grounds in the world! (If the vulcano erupts it will almost be a global killer....davastating for life close by and possibly affect nature all over the planet..) so here we can talk about powerful nature..

The weather was not so good today either, so we decided to drive the two left loopes around the park. While driving here you want to stop all the time to take pictures..almost around every corner you see something spectacular! There's hot springs, geysers, waterfalls, beautiful creeks, boiling mud ponds, mountains, stunning views and if you are lucky bears, moose, deer, elk bison and more.. we saw 6 or 7 bison during our trip..plus several elk ( we dont have them in Sweden. ) They are in between a "kronhjort" and a moose in size.

Our first longer stop was at the West Thumb, here you walk around and look at several small fumaroles ( its like steaming hot springs) and smaller geysers. Many of them varies in colors because of different bacterias that inhabits them. These microorganisms are diverse species that are called extremofiles and they are adapted to live in extreme environments for example high temperatures or survive in different ranges of acidic environments. The color in each pond in short terms depends on which chemical ( inorganic) compounds the bacterias 'digest'...( I will skip more detailed explanations here...but its very interesting...)

We continued up to Old Faithful..the largest geyser in the park, and a huge tourist attraction...it erupts every 88 min ( +- 10 min..) In this area there are two different lodges..(they are usually fullbooked very long time in advance.. )visitor center, gas station, grocery store, yellowstone general store, giftshops.. so all in all very busy. It was alot of people here today, and I can only imagine a day in mid july- august... Anyway the big visitor center also have classrooms and educational areas about thermoactivity,  geysers, vulcanoes etc. If we had older kids that would have been well spent time during the rain, but Natalie wanted to see the big old faithful... When we came we had a little over an hour to next predicted eruption so we ate lunch at Old faithful Inn, an amazing building with alot of history! Lunch buffe was good and healthy for around 11 usd.

In time for Old Faithful to get started we walked out and got the camera ready! ( Last time in Yellowstone 2008, me and Carolina were about to take pics the battery died...)  It was kinda misty and a little windy today so between the white sky and the steaming water it was hard to get good pictures of the eruption, but its pretty cool anyway then few seconds it lasts! Personally I think Yellowstone has so much to offer so Old Faithful isn't the most spectacular....

To be continued.. and soon pictures...So many good places to take pictures
! No need for filters here..but the beauty and colors still can't be captured...

One picture of me..06 am...like a ranger hehe..

Day 5 Wyoming..

From the 14th..

In the morning we tried to get ready pretty quick heading west, but before we start driving every day both girls need activity time...to run of some energy.. This morning all 4 girls went for a walk in this little town, Saratoga. Like I wrote yesterday it wasn't so much to do or look at here, and a rainy morning to.. One interesting thing was the Hobo hot springs. A natural hotspring you could swim in for free. We didnt take the time this morning, but we talked with a man who always sat in the water early morning..he was sure this mineral filled, 106 degrees F ( 41 degrees C) warm water had healing effects on him. I believe heat helps...

Well in our car, we drove north to Rawling and then I - 80 to Rock Springs in western Wyoming.  We ate a really fresh lunch at Applebees. It seems like we always take long lunches..but I guess that's needed..no stress or hurry when we have the two girls...

We took an exciting detour this afternoon. A little south of Rock Springs there's a National recreation area named Flaming Gorge. We drove down through the Firehole region and once again we were thrilled by the weather....we had sunshine and blue most of the day until we reached the canyon...all alone in the middle of nowhere and the sky turned black! And I mean black..It rained so heavily and the lightnings..oh my..I'm glad we were in the car and both girls were sleeping.. It's impressive how powerful the nature can be..no need for rollercoaster adrenaline kicks when your way out west...Well one sure thing is that bad weather rolls in as quick as it will go away.. As soon as we turned back we got blue sky again, and we could see all amazing rockformations and all the colors! Well worth the extra time for stunning views and the excitement!

Later we took highway 191 north all the way up to Pinedale. On the way we stopped at a very nice playground right outside the little ( kinda nasty and dirtylooking) town of Eden.. So surprising with this playground..it was perfect almost in the middle of nowhere. Well planned climbingtoys for both girls, clean and it had one regular portapotti  and one good for wheelchairs (bajjamajor) and they even smelled good..couldn't believe it... we stayed for quite a while before we hit the road to Pinedale.

We arrived pretty late to our hotel after driving exactly 300 miles
( 480 km)...

Day 6...

Wrote the 13th...

Our hotel in Pinedale was perfect! We stayed at Hampton Inn, very nice and good value for the money. ( 130 USD)... During our roadtrip we've had double rooms..usually you can pick between two queensize (ca 160 cm) or 2 kingsize (ca180 cm), which is enough for 3 adults and a child. Jamie has her own travelbed. We try to put both kids to sleep around 7.30...then we have a couple of hours to relax a little... I guess thats the biggest difference to travel with two small kids, no late bar nights here
...

Anyway last night we ate one of the best pizzas I' ve ever had! It was a stonebaked oven pizza made with a bbq sauce over the crust instead of tomato based. And then all fresh cut chicken file, pineapple, bacon, red bell peppers, and good mozzarella cheese..mmm..and a good local brewery "5 barrel pale Ale" to that... Mom and me also tried a good Merlot from Bogle winery...really good wine!

In the morning we walked around downtown Pinedale. A gorgeous little town! Small shops with local products, outdoorgear, Western and mountain style shops..We could visited here for hours but we were eager to go to Jackson Hole and Teton National Park! The weather looked more promising today..litte scattered clouds but no rain..

We had a short very beautiful and scenic road up to Jackson. That road 191 must be one of my favourites...amazing nature and surrounded by mountains most of the way...Jackson Hole is a very hip skiresort and you could feel the atmosphere even in the summertime.. we stopped for ribs at Bubba's place..not the best ribs but they had a big salladsbar. In Jackson Mom wanted to go river rafting but I guess she has to do that another time...This whole area is an outdoors paradise you'll find it all! We drove north up to Grand Teton national park. Sunshine and warm outside, we have been a little spoiled with not having so much other cars and people around us in northern Colorado and Wyoming but here it felt crowded... I know me and Carolina felt the same after been to many "empty" np when we came to Yosemite.. Teton is a park you need to hike or bike in to really see...  We walked to Jenny Lake and slowly cruised besides the mountain range. Highest peak here is the Grand Teton with 13770 ft..and again breathtaking views...

This night we had a little trouble to find somewhere to sleep without paying a fortune.. almost all accomodation around the tetons were fullbooked and what was left at least 280 usd per room.. we didnt expect so much people here in early september but on a friday...The thing is that in this area it takes long time to drive to the parks..so even if its not so many miles on the map it takes.several hours to nearby cities cause you have to drive in the Tetons or Yellowstone to get anywhere ( like to West Yellowstone, a town with plenty of hotels..) Well we decided not to take a big risk of possibly end up with no food ( almost out in our cooler) ..or beds. So we stopped right before the southern entrance of Yellowstone and stayed at Flaggranch in one nice cabin for 159 usd. ( they only had two left..) Kinda expensive for that but charming and better than other options..and we had a nice cabin with showers and so. In the restaurant they offered locally produced food from the region..like trout, burgers made of bison, buffalo chilli... I had the chilli, delicious..
After the girls feel a sleep me,mama and Jared sat outside in three rocking chairs, looked for wildlife and finished the wine, a perfect way to end the day!

Today we didn't drive so many miles but from Pinedale to Southern entrance of Yellowstone it was still 190 km..

Yellowstone tomorrow!