When Dad finally got some time off from work in September, we jumped in the car and headed for Yellowstone National Park. Mom told me to make this blog entry extra-long so she’ll remember all of the details whenever she gets around to making my scrapbook.

It took us about two and a half days to drive to the west gate of the Park. I was a pretty good passenger, though I’d already played with all of the toys that Mom brought for me within 15 minutes of leaving home.

I had fun stretching my legs at rest stops by playing soccer with Dad.

The first night we stayed in Hayden, ID at a hotel that had a waterpark inside of it. Mom thought that I’d love the toddler pool, but it turned out that I was pretty scared of the water sprays and a gigantic bucket that dumped water over the play structure. Dad and I watched Mom go down the grown-up waterslides a few times and then we all played in the arcade together instead – no scary water buckets there!

Our next stop was Bozeman, MT. We had to drive all day and it was nighttime when we finally arrived. Along the way we saw a beautiful sunset and got to watch the moon rise in front of us…I think the moon is bigger and brighter in Montana!

At one of the hotels, I noticed that the elevator made a cool “ding ding” noise…the rest of the trip I liked to make elevator noises and talk about what they say!

This fish photo was taken at a rest stop in St. Regis, Montana. There was a really neat doughnut-shaped tank in the gift shop. I stood in the middle and it made me feel like I was swimming with the trout!

It took us a good two and a half days of driving to get to West Yellowstone, Montana. We stayed at the Gray Wolf Inn, right across the street from the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. The weather was beautiful, but it was very dry in Montana – everytime we touched the elevator button or the key reader on our door, we’d get a huge static shock!

I liked seeing the wolves and bears up close, but my favorite part was the playground with the mini teepee and bear traps to climb in.

Our hotel had a very warm swimming pool and I LOVED IT! I had so much fun that Dad even came swimming with us.

Yellowstone Park

The next morning we were planning to get up early to get a head start into the Park, but I was a GRUMP! Mom thinks that I probably wasn’t feeling very well most of the trip since I seemed to have a runny nose and congestion the whole time. It took us awhile to get through breakfast, but once we finally got on the road, it didn’t take us long to find animals!

It wasn’t hard to see where the animals were…just look for the huge line of cars pulled off the road.

Can you spot the elk in the background? I liked getting out of the car to see the animals, but didn’t have much patience for riding in the car the rest of the day. We saw a few small groups of buffalo on our way up to Mammoth Hot Springs where we ate lunch. I was still feeling pretty crummy (can you see how sad I was in the photo?), so we decided not to walk around the hot springs. On our way back down around the loop, we saw a black bear and stopped at a waterfall that I really enjoyed watching.

Here’s one of the highlights of Yellowstone for me…watching cars drive by while I sat on my potty in the back of the car!

We drove by a few more groups of buffalos that day (or as I like to call them, “buffawoes”)…at one point we were following a buffalo parade in the road.

The elk that we saw in the morning had crossed over the river by the time we were heading home in the evening. Mom told Dad that we didn’t need to stop since we’d already seen them, but I’m glad that he did anyway! We got to see a buck with big antlers talking to his herd and moving them around. I loved hearing the elk talk! Mom took photos from the sun roof of our car…good thing, since the ranger was yelling at people to get back into their cars when the three buffalo that we’d passed earlier came stampeding down the road!

After watching the elk for awhile, we headed back to the hotel and made it just in time to be able to stop by the Grizzly and Wolf Center to say goodnight to the animals. Earlier in the day, I’d talked Dad into buying me a small stuffed wolf at the Mammoth Hot Springs gift shop. I’d told him that she was a “great baby” and wouldn’t put her down, so he’d had no choice but to get her for me! I showed her to the wolves at the Center and there was one female who was fascinated with me – she stood right next to the glass and stared at me and my baby wolf. We decided to name my wolf after her…”Akela”. Baby Akela stayed under my arm the rest of the trip!

Yellowstone Park Day 2

The next morning we said goodbye to West Yellowstone and headed south through the Park. We saw our elk friends again by the river, plus a beautiful trumpter swan. We stopped for ice cream and I liked to talk about what a geyser said (“ssshhhhh”, of course). It wasn’t as big as Mom and Dad thought it would be, but we still had fun watching it go off.

On our way to Jackson, we passed another big herd of buffalo. Since a few were playing in the road, we got to sit and watch them for awhile. There was a coyote pouncing and leaping right next to a buffalo!

Jackson Hole

Our dinner in Jackson Hole was what Mom had been looking forward to all trip! We got to ride on a covered wagon, pulled by two percherons named “Jack” and “Jill”. I even got to hold the reins! Along the way to the dinner site, a mountain man raced by on his horse and yelled that we were in indian country. A few minutes later, the indians came galloping out of the woods, chasing our wagon! Jack and Jill didn’t seem to mind and just kept plodding along, but I had to hold my ears since the indians were screaming “woo woo woo” very loudly. The driver told us not to worry since the indians were only after our brownies. At the dinner site, I saw the indians standing up on the hill – they even waved to me! The dinner was yummy and the show was fun. Cowboys sang songs (the same ones that had ridden along to protect us from the indians) and I got to be in the show by singing “She’ll be Coming ‘Round the Mountain” with a bunch of other guests. It was dark when we finally rode home, and although I was still worried that the indians might be back, I loved watching the stars overhead! Even though we’ve been home for awhile now, I still think I see the mountain man and indians out my front window sometimes.

Before we left town the next morning, we walked around to some of the stores. Mom said that visiting the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar brought back lots of fun memories from her college summer days!

Bear World!

It was time to start heading back towards home so Mom looked at a map and decided to head over through Idaho so that we could stop at Bear World. Bear World is one of those roadside zoo safari places that you can drive through with your own car and see bears, mountain goats, elk, deer, wolves and moose. It was neat to see so many bears together, but the best part was the petting zoo at the end. It was full of friendly deer, plus goats, chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks and a random potbellied pig. The moose (named Stiltz) was penned right next to the petting zoo behind a rickety fence…he tried to poke me with his big antlers!

There were amusement rides at Bear World too, but they looked more fun than they actually were and the nice attendants had to stop the roller coaster and the bouncy cars to let me off. I did love the train though, and rode that a few times!