YELLOWSTONE: AUG. 11-13

When we drove into Yellowstone, we went immediately to see the geysers. They were all cool, but I got bored after the first couple of hours, but we stayed around Old Faithful for a few more hours anyway. Well, at least I can say that I've seen them even if I didn't appreciate seeing Old Faithful do its thing three times. The next day we went fishing by a campsite called Slough Creek. We went up a little tributary of the creek. We caught lots of small Rainbow Trout. Of course, now that I'm obsessed with fly fishing, I caught them all on a fly rod. We also found a full-on elk rack, skull and all. It was so cool. - Jackson

Fishing and wildfires

Yellowstone traffic jam

Skipping rocks

Finally, we let the kids build a campfire and roast some marshmallows.

We drove right into Yellowstone and to the geyser area. I loved Old Faithful, but my true favorite is Sponge Geyser. Every minute or so Sponge Geyser bubbled over the top. Then all bubbles went back in like it is being absorbed by a sponge. The next day we went fishing.  - Hannah

We woke up early in Grand Teton National Park and drove straight up to Yellowstone hoping to get in a campground before it filled. We got a spot at Grant Village Campground and headed for Old Faithful. So far our national park tours, while a bit crazy at the visitor centers and along the roadsides where there were wildlife sightings, had otherwise seemed peaceful.  We had remarked that all of our fishing hikes had involved catching more fish than seeing people. I'm sure the sense of being out in nature is possible in Yellowstone, at Slough Creek for example, but mostly we felt like things were a little too crowded.  Old Faithful was not a fun scene for John.  It felt more like a trip to the mall at Christmas time than a walk through nature. I think we did it right though. We used our bikes to get to some of the further out geysers, ate lunch at the car and then did a 1.5 mile hike to see some of the closer geysers.  We saw Old Faithful do its thing three times.  One too many times for the boys in the family, but Hannah was fine.  That evening we went on a six mile hike searching for fishing, found nothing and returned to camp that night tired and hungry. Also we were ready for a shower (it had been about three days) and to do some laundry while we had the chance. The next morning showered and recharged we headed to Slough Creek hoping to find a campsite for the night, but it was full. We stayed to fish anyway. At the suggestion of the camp host, we went up a small tributary instead of the main creek and had a great day wading and rock hopping up this creek catching fish and sloshing around. There was a fire nearby and we chatted with the fire crew that was keeping an eye on it, but no one seemed too concerned or thought that they would have to close down the campground. Another odd thing about fishing in Yellowstone was that we were supposed to kill (or keep and eat) any non-native fish that we caught.  Basically Cutthroat were the only native species, so in theory we were supposed to keep or kill all the Rainbow that we caught that day.  Hannah refused to comply and insisted that we release them. We all agreed. We left that afternoon and headed toward Livingston hoping to find a campground once we got cell service.

Biking and geysers go together.

Look what we found near Slough Creek