yellowstone

austin's sister and brother in law (jenna and ty) made a trip out west and we planned a little weekend trip to yellowstone national park. austin had never been there and it had been a while for laura, so we were excited to enjoy the outdoors and time with family (austin's parents and breanna and braden came too).


the first day it was overcast with some light rain off and on.


austin apparently wasn't expecting some of the scents at yellowstone.


why do people put fountains in their yards when they could probably rig one of these?


that is a moose. with a great set of antlers. we were not as close as the photo might lead you to believe. thank you digital zoom.


you might think this is a buffalo. according to a ranger who gave a little speech about them to a captive audience at old faithful the next day, you'd be wrong. but we still called them buffaloes. we were probably closer than this photo might have you believe.


yellowstone? more like smello-stone! (don't ask how austin was able to contort his face that way. laura at least looks cute.)


speaking of cute...


some of the hot springs had the most brilliant colors.


one of our favorite stops was the midway geyser basin/grand prismatic spring. lots of geysers and hot springs and one really cool spring that had the most brilliant colors we had ever seen. this is one of the geysers.


ty and braden on one of the walkways -- they have the walkways at many of the spring locations because the ground is unsafe because of all the thermal activity. don't worry, there were scary warning signs everywhere.


this location provided austin with some good photos.


side view of the prismatic spring. notice the rainbow colors.


a little closer view. if you want to open another tab/window in your browser and google this place, you'll find some stunning aerial views.


cool photo with the steam from the spring rolling over the walkways like fog in san francisco.


the majestic all-american classic -- old faithful.


but... other places it just looked -- and smelled -- like the earth was barfing.


this beautiful waterfall is located in "the grand canyon of yellowstone" where the yellow stone that gives the park its name can be found. it was a great way to end our two-day adventure.

- - - - -

anyway, we had a great time with family. thanks to jenna and ty for planning our itinerary and to mom and dad for making all the arrangements (and driving a lot). we stayed for a couple nights in a really cozy little cabin house about 30 minutes outside the park in montana in a really pretty area. we were thinking it would be fun to go back sometime and spend some time in that area riding horses and maybe renting a boat for the nearby lake(s). we enjoyed seeing jenna and ty... and their little guy on the way! we're excited to become aunt laura and uncle austin again in a couple months!