Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent in the office or mowing your lawn.

~Jack Kerouac

Two years ago we started planning a summer vacation trip to Yellowstone with Melissa’s brother’s family. Melissa made reservations over a year ago and we planned on dong a trip itinerary similar to what we have done with educators for so many years. Then something changed…we bought a house in Gardiner and moved! The trip was still on but we decided to stay the first couple of nights in our home and then travel the park with them and stay in park lodging to get the full experience. So, a couple of weeks ago the family arrived, shopped for food on the way to Gardiner and we began the adventure. Here are some of the highlights of our family vacation.

We started at the park headquarters in Mammoth where the nephews could pick up their junior ranger booklets and get a quick overview of the park at the visitor center. As has been the case for as long as I can remember, a pair of great horned owls was nesting in a tree next to one of the houses in historic Fort Yellowstone. A small crowd of onlookers cued us to the presence of one of the birds. It turned out to be one of two fledglings from the nest.

Melissa had planned a number of outings and the first couple of days were spent in the northern range looking for wildlife and doing a couple of hikes.

One of our favorite hikes (and apparently everyone else’s since it is now very tough to get a parking space at the trailhead) is Trout Lake. The short hike stars steep but then you reach the top and look out over an absolutely gorgeous scene of a lake surrounded by beautiful mountains. The cutthroat trout are beginning to spawn at the creek feeding the lake and several ducks were gracing the still waters with their beauty.

We stayed two nights at the aptly named Rough Rider cabins at Roosevelt (always an interesting experience). We had to run back to the house after our first night to get something and along the way we encountered several bear jams including a courting pair of black bears feeding along the roadside.

We saw another, smaller black bear start digging into a rotten log and it quickly was swarmed by angry ants. After swiping many of the ants off its face, the bear hurried off.

The next day we hiked a wonderful 4-mile trail at Canyon. The trail passes through varied habitats and gives you a much less crowded view of some of the spectacular scenery of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

After our hike we headed toward Old Faithful, passing through Hayden Valley. I always like stopping at some of the creeks feeding into the river to look for waterfowl. Plus, this year, the Wapiti wolf pack has a den a couple of miles out from the road near Alum Creek. We had seen them a few days before the family arrived, but it is a long view and heat wave interference makes the viewing less than ideal,. But this trip proved much different as the wolves had made a kill just across the river from the road. None were visible when we first stopped, but one soon came out and thrilled the many onlookers. Though the lighting was harsh, it was a great opportunity for observing the wolves. As we watched, one wolf came down to the river for a drink, then walked back into the trees, then back out. It laid down for several minutes as a couple of other wolves appeared. One was a large collared wolf, perhaps one of the alphas. We stayed quite a while watching and enjoying this somewhat rare opportunity for close views.

After the excellent wolf watching, we continued on to Old Faithful. As has happened so often in the past, Old Faithful erupted shortly after we arrived. I’ve been spoiled over the years by getting to view this iconic geyser early in the morning with relatively few other people around. That was not the case on this afternoon as the seats surrounding Old Faithful were full of hundreds of happy tourists. Melissa had managed to get our group a couple of rooms in the historic portion of the Inn (perhaps my all-time favorite building) and we were pleasantly surprised when we got our room assignments on the third floor. It turns out our room was a corner room with an extra special perk…we could sit in the room and view Old Faithful erupting! This may be the only room in the old portion of the Inn with this excellent view.

I am not a fan of the huge crowds you typically encounter in the thermal basins, but that room added a really nice touch to this trip. One of my favorite thermal areas is Fountain Paint Pots. The short trail passes by all four types of thermal features – geysers, fumaroles (steam vents), hot springs, and mud pots. I have a weakness for the mud pots and cannot walk by them without stopping and trying to capture some of their interesting and often bizarre shapes with my camera.

Melissa wanted to check out the Fairy Falls trail on this trip to see if it was worth taking her teacher group on the following week. It is about a 3 mile round trip to the 200 foot tall falls. You start on an old freight road that goes by the overlook for Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest hot spring in the park and third largest in the world. The overlook is worth the hike as it gives you a great perspective on the size (~370 feet in diameter and 121 feet deep) and colors of this incredible thermal feature. Our neighbor works for the park and he told us this week that recently a bison was walking along the edge of Grand Prismatic and broke through the crust and fell into the spring and died in the 160 degree water. This is a rare example of a misstep by an animal in a thermal area and a cautionary tale for everyone visiting the park.

After the overlook, much of the trail is through a young lodgepole pine forest without much to see and we had one particularly challenging issue in the forest – the mosquitoes were the worst I have ever encountered in Yellowstone. Once we reached the falls, the breeze kept the pesky biters at bay for the most part.

After a couple of nights at the Inn, we headed to our last stop, Colter Bay in Grand Teton National Park. The highlight for me was a 10-mile raft trip through the park on the Snake River. I had arranged a morning trip in hopes of seeing some moose but we missed out on the big ungulates. However, we did enjoy spotting some bald eagles and waterfowl, and plenty of incredible scenery.

Her brother’s family stayed two nights at Colter Bay but we headed home after one night so Melissa could get ready for her teacher group arriving in two days. These photos are just a small sampling of what we experienced on our trip and I think everyone left loving this special place. When asked about their highlights, most thought the time spent with the wolves in Hayden was something extra special. The trip was a good reminder of the power and magic of Yellowstone and why we love sharing this place we are lucky enough to now call home.