Despite wanting nothing more than to go crawl back into a bed and get some more sleep I pushed through to get our day going! We started off with a yummy breakfast at the Old Faithful Inn and then walked over to the Visitor Center for a Ranger Guided walk through a lot of the geysers surrounding Old Faithful.
It was beautiful and it was just all right around the hotel. I was continuously amazed at how different the landscape was all in one area. You have beautiful streams and trees one minute and then the next you have bubbling mud pots and geysers. So amazing!
Meg took this picture of our sweet Park Ranger!
It was neat watching Old Faithful from far away!
No matter how many of these I saw they never got old!
After our walk we ate some snacks up on the 2nd floor balcony and watched the geysers. That was our favorite place to hang out and people/geyser watch!
Then we headed out to a nearby area that had more neat things!
The Grand Prismatic! This is the one I was really looking forward to seeing and it certainly was worth seeing!
Amazing and beautiful!
Then I had the grand idea that we should go on a back trail hike to the Mystic Falls. It was about 1.5 miles which was totally doable for the kiddos but I did't take into account how steep it might be or for the 1.5 miles it would take to get back. I had to carry Meg a few times and do a lot of encouraging to get through it but it was so beautiful once we made it!
That is the only downside about going to Yellowstone when your kids are little younger. Most of the hikes are a minimum of 3-6 miles. Brody could've handled that but Meg not so much! Thankfully there were still lots of paths and boardwalks that we got to see, but I really enjoy some of the "off the path" stuff more!
Meg and I during one of our hiking breaks! The funniest thing on this walk was when Meg yelled "Bear" really loudly and Brody and I thought she had spotted a real bear. I was just about to grab my bear spray when we realized she meant she had dropped her stuff bear down on some rocks. Whew....what a relief!
When we got back to the hotel these two Bison were right outside our window! We grabbed a late lunch/snack and then I went to the front desk to get a little pushy with the manager since it was 3:00 p.m. and we still didn't have a room. I told them they had 30 minutes to get us a room with two beds and our own bathroom. Thankfully they worked it all out and we ended up with a wonderful room with a great view that almost made having a poopy room worth it!
After some resting in our room we had dinner at the dining room! It was delicious!
Then we sat outside on the balcony and admired the beautiful sunset!
And were amazed when Mimi looked at how many steps we had walked on her fitbit and we had over 22,000 steps and over 8.5 miles!
Enjoying the beautiful sunset!
The cell service was horrible but the kids got the biggest kick out of calling Bryson on the pay phone! Such a fun first day of exploring!
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