Sunday, December 28, 2008

Wow, what a day!

Just a quick post to let you know that we had a wonderful, cold and tiring day. The weather was snowy with occasional breakthroughs of sunshine. The scenery was as we expected, incredible. I have been to Yellowstone many times in the summer and loved it. Today's visit was nothing short of awesome. At first the kids were a little unsure about the snowcoach, an old 1950's Bombardier, and what to expect. I'll admit, so was I. But as it turned out we had a wonderful tour guide, Molly, who immediately made us all at ease and provided us with all kinds of information about the park as well as the animals.


We were able to see Old Faithful erupt two times, although that is one thing that was not as impressive as I had hoped. With the cloudy skies and snowfall the geyser did not look as majestic as in times past. The kids had puzzled looks on their faces of "we came all the way for this?". Luckily, right after the eruption and our lunch Molly took us on a hike around the geyser basin and explained all kinds of interesting things to the kids.

The highlights of the day were the animals and they were everywhere. We saw bald eagles, ravens, elk, swans, signets and a few herds of bison. The snowcoach had two "sunroofs" and when the wildlife came into view we either got out on the road or just stood up in the coach and looked out of the sunroof. The three older ones took lots of photos while Little enjoyed the binoculars.
The day ended with a traffic jam caused by a herd of bison crossing the road out of the park. Man, those things are big! And they think they own the road! We got up close and personal with them, something none of us will forget.

The kids and Zeus are now tucked into bed for the night. I think I'll head there myself.

(Muriel, no, we didn't feel any earthquakes but we heard about them. Darn, that would have really impressed the kids!)

3 comments:

athena said...

Can't wait to see all the pictures!

Unknown said...

I LOVE those Buffalo!!!

Karen said...

WOW - It's so beautiful up there!! It sounds like you're all having an incredible time!! YAY!

My brother and his two girls decided to go to West Yellowstone for a couple of days and were on a waiting list for one of those bobcats.

Enjoy your trip and drive home safely!