Second Trip to Yellowstone National Park

We wanted to see a little bit more of the park while we had the chance. We decided that Thursday 24 August was a great day to do it, but we had quite a few things to do that day and were not able to depart until almost noon; however it was well worth the trip.Before going to Yellowstone, we decided to stop at Mesa Falls. Scott and I had not been there since our honeymoon over 3 years ago. We started out at the lower falls. The lower falls are only visible from a distance and the park is not as kept up as the upper falls.The kids were still thoroughly thrilled by the waterfall, the scenery, and the people who were visiting the water fall as well. 

 We only stayed here a brief time before continuing on up to the upper falls. Before we left, we had to take the same picture we took on our honeymoon. We've changed a little, but the love is ever as strong. It was really fun retracing our footsteps from our honeymoon with our kids.
We went on to the upper falls and proceeded to have a picnic lunch before taking the hike down to the falls. There was no way I was going to be going any further without some sort of sustenance. We found a picnic table in the shade and enjoyed our Subway sandwiches and chips.
Once finished we proceeded down the steps. And man there were a lot of steps. It was worth it though. The waterfall was even more beautiful than I had remembered it. The river was really cool, too.  There were quite a lot of people visiting the area and Mr. Independent Daniel insisted on going up the steps on his own. It finally got to the point that Scott scooped him up and carried him. It only took a few moments before Daniel realized he got a better end of the deal.
Once we finished taking all of our pictures and hiking back up the steps, we all used the outhouses and continued on our way to Yellowstone.When we got there, we went in through the west entrance. Ironically, Yellowstone is only 1 1/2 hours from our house but we rarely ever go. Continuing on, once we made it into the park, we soon saw this lone bison. We then proceeded on and made it to Gibbon Falls. While we were touring around the area, we read about it and the wall that kept all of us tourist from falling off into the falls was the wall that had been originally used for the roadway back in the 1800's.
Also at that site was a board that had been updated with the latest wildfire information. On that day, there were about 5 fires being monitored. Throughout the park were road signs, similar to construction signs, that said "Monitored Fire in the Area." I'm assuming they were to cut down on the 911 calls reporting fires.
Continuing on, we hurried over to Norris Basin, right near the Yellowstone Volcano. Norris Basin had many different trails to take, but due to our lack of time, we took the ones that went right down onto the basin. Most of the trail we took was a boardwalk. The picture on the right is overlooking most of the basin.
All over the place were signs warning against going off the boardwalk. The ground may look solid, but it could just be a thin crust that could give way to a hot pool or worse, fall into a deep, empty vault.
I was really nervous keeping a 2 year old on the boardwalk. Whenever I tried to hold his hand, he would pull away even more and get even closer, even one teetering, on the edge. We couldn't get out of there soon enough. We saw absolutely gorgeous pools though. The colloidal pool was favorite.

 Not only did we hurry through Norris Basin because it was getting dark and we were trying to make sure our two year old didn't disappear off the face of the earth, we hurried because a huge tour bus full of an Oriental tour group was quickly gaining on us. They were being lead by a guy holding a flag pole with a neon flag. I hope they were unable to understand what we were saying because Scott and I kept telling the kids, "We've got to hurry! They are coming after us!" They did look a little bit like a disorganized army...

Once we left Norris Basin, the firefighter/curiosity in Scott got the best of all of us and we ended up hunting down one of the fires in the Park. This was as close as we were able to get. As best as we could tell, the fire was about 2 miles away from this location. As we were headed out of the area where the fire was, we could see the line of smoke. I thought this picture was cool with the moon in the background. The smoke showed up much better in person.
 That pretty much concluded our second adventure into the park. We still have not taken the kids to see all of the park yet. The park is so massive. I want to go back just after the park opens in the spring. Scott and I went in mid-May when we were on our honeymoon. I want the kids to experience the herds of buffalo right by the car or the grizzlies coming out looking for food or all of the baby bison. But that will have to be next year. Thankfully we have an annual pass at out disposal now...  :)