On the 6th day of our Wyoming adventure, we slept in, watched Old Faithful go off one last time and started heading north, pausing in-between Madison and Norris, at Artist Paint Pots to see acidic boiling mud. The sounds and small were quite memorable!
The random Hoodoo rocks stop on the way to Mammoth were one of the kid's favorites. Although the trip was well planned, each day, we had time for impromptu stops and down times. This was one of the benefits of those moments.
We checked into our Mammoth Inn "cabins." This again was an example of the flexibility we had to have when staying inside the national park was our priority. For some reason, I felt strongly that I wanted us to stay 2 nights at the far north part of Yellowstone in Mammoth. I had read so much about it yet getting rooms in the famous Mammoth Hotel seemed to be extra hard to do. They only had cabins available as we found out on arrival, the main huge hotel was closed entirely for renovations. So I booked a small cabin with out a bathroom for the boys and a "fancy" cabin for us ladies. Our girl's cabin even had a hot tub. It couldn't have been a better experience and I am certain NONE of us will ever forget our 2 nights in Mammoth for so many amazing reasons! Most of the them, being large 4 legged elk everywhere we looked and heard, even hearing some elk bugles.
After checking in, we quickly headed about 5 miles north to the Boiling River to swim. This was a non-negotiable on my list. It was so awesome and we were so sad we could literally only stay 15 minutes since we had to get back to change to head to Roosevelt Lodge for our horseback and stagecoach ride to dinner in the middle of Yellowstone! The Boiling River was a definite highlight and the kids want to go back the next day.
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| One foot in Montana and one foot in Wyoming. |
Before dinner, we drove the 35 minute drive to the Roosevelt Stables for a horseback ride to dinner and a stagecoach ride. Unfortunately, National Parks are much stricter on age of kids riding on horses and Delaney wasn't 8 years old, so she and I got got a special front row spot in the stagecoach that took us to the dinner spot, where we would meet the rest of the family. Fun stories were told. So many fun stories! We saw a badger and bison. Hearing the wranglers tell their stories is so fun! Carter and Addison loved getting to talk to Cole and he told really good stories about yellow belly marmots. They hibernate for 8 months and they are so asleep that they wouldn’t even know if you picked it up and threw it like a football. Cole also told them they can jump 6-9 feet. They told bison jokes. Blake just loved watching everything and said it was so relaxing.
On this day, the kids loved rock climbing Hoodoo Rocks, horse back riding and swimming in the Boiling River. But at 8:47PM, all this changed when we saw 2 black bears in 7 minutes!
It was unbelievable and a yet again a relatively short block of time we won't soon forget. The first bear sighting was simple and magical simply because it was our first bear in Yellowstone. It was later in the evening at sunset, as we were driving back West to Mammoth. This is another reason you must be in the park in the evenings and early mornings. The first bear was just walking a short distance from the road, rooting around digging for things in the dirt. We kept watching and watching trying to figure out what he was doing. The sunset was breathtaking because you could actually see the white "Mammoth Hot Springs" with the sunset and it's gorgeous colors behind the mountain.
After a little while, we started driving again and we were on a stretch all alone, with no one coming towards us on the 2 way road and no one coming up from behind us. Out of no where, we were in the perfect place where a black bear walked out from the forest, just a hundred feet in front of us. Blake slammed on the breaks and we watched as it walked up to some kind of road kill in the middle if the road, 25 feet form our car and pick it up. He took it to the other side of the road and used a stump as a table and began eating it. We caught the entire exciting experience on video. Like so many already the trip, it was a memory we won't ever forget and we will talk about for decades to come.
The cutest memory of the day was when we were getting ready to get in hot tub after we had gotten home. I asked girls if they wanted to skinny dip and Delaney said, "nah" and Addison said, "Do you know what that is, Delaney?" Delaney quickly said, "Yes, putting your toes in the water."
At this point in the trip, we didn't think it could get much better!
There were lots of inside jokes this far into the trip, Carter's, "Mom, let’s go look for hats." Our family water chugging contest at the Old Faithful Inn. The videoing of us all catching the whoa, the kids learning where the saying, "roll up a window," came from.
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