Yellowstone Trip

As we were headed up to Yellowstone, we stopped and ate lunch at the Relay Station. This is one of my favorite places to eat. It is north of St. Anthony, so when I lived in Rexburg, I would eat there a lot. It has been over two years since I have eaten here, so I had to take Ted.

The hotel we stayed in. We really liked it! Very clean, and lots of storage space.
Ted at Three Bears. Ted was on a photo shoot at Three Bears Restaurant, so the next couple are of the booth we sat in.

The lantern hanging over our table at Three Bears

Another Three Bears Restaurant

These are the sleds we rented up at West Yellowstone. I am ready to ride!!!

Ted on his mighty Arctic Cat F570!

I love the scenery of this picture. Oh, and the sleds are nice too.

Me, posing with the pine trees

Cute little ducks on the river

Ted eating lunch as we take a break at Big Springs

Big Springs, the beginning of the Snake River. It looks quite calm, but the springs make a loud rumbling noise.

Just as we were entering Yellowstone National Park on the snow coach tour, we noticed the temperature. This is actually a warmer day up there!

Isn't it breathtaking? This is the first mountain range you see inside the park from West Yellowstone.

A bald eagle up in a tree.

A little elk down by the river eating.

I can't remember what the real name of these birds are, but they look like swans, and they are really big! Their wing span is over nine feet!

Bison crossing the Gibbon River onto a little island in the middle.

Fire Hole Water Fall

Fire Hole River

Here is a Bald Eagle we saw in the park. Isn't it beautiful? I couldn't believe how big the birds were.

Lots of Bison on a hill. We learned that Bison is the correct name for these animals. Buffalo don't even exist in the US. Buffalo are like water buffalo. In fact, the bison in the US are more closely related to Yak than Buffalo. Crazy huh?

We got really close to some bison. They look tame enough from inside the snow coach, but outside, they are huge!!!

Bison with the hot pots. The animals actually like the warm ground, and when it is cold in the winter, they will go to where it is the warmest. On some chilly mornings, they go and stand in the hot steam. It is like their own personal hot steam bath!

This is Ted and me at Old Faithful right before she exploded.

Geyser steam rising into the air. Look at how many different ones there are.

I think Ted looks absolutely adorable on this bridge. I had to take a picture! Yellowstone would be one of the best places to take engagement pictures! I wonder if anyone has done it before.

We walked around over 140 geysers and hot pools on this walkway at Old Faithful. It was amazing!

Isn't the rock in this picture so amazing! I haven't seen anything like it in my life. The picture doesn't even do it justice.

This geyser is the Beehive Geyser. It went off for over three minutes, and it got us all soaked in spray and steam that smells like rotten eggs from the sulfur. Yuck!!!

This stream's water is over 150 degrees, and that is why the color of the rock is orange. The lodge in the background is one of Old Faithful's and the park's oldest lodges. It is one of the two original hotels built in Yellowstone. It is beautiful!!!

A hot pot. The water is over 150 degrees, and there is sulfuric acid that is dissolving the rock and minerals. The rock was different colors, depending on the minerals it contained. Some was yellow, red, brown, and black. I can't remember all the minerals that go with the colors, but it was amazing!

Ted with one of the lower basin geysers.

This is our snow coach we rode on. Very nice!!!

Ted and me at the entry into the park from West Yellowstone.

So, as some of you know, we won a trip to Yellowstone! So, we decided to take our trip this last weekend. It was a lot of fun! We saw lots of wildlife, and the snowmobiling was awesome! On the first day, Friday, we drove up to Montana and kicked back for the night. We ate at Three Bears Restaurant (it is a famous place to eat in West Yellowstone), then we went back to the hotel and stayed in for the night. We stayed at the Brandin' Iron Inn, and it was really nice! We had the last room, closest to the road, so we got a great view down one of the main roads in town.

Then, on Saturday, we got up early and rented two snowmobiles. It was great fun! It has been three years since I had ridden, and it took me about an hour to get used to riding again. Ted hasn't ridden for longer than that, but he is a natural and drove like a pro the whole time. Most of the trails were well-groomed, but Two-Top Loop was terrible. I had to stand up the whole time, the ruts being too bouncy for me. I almost got bounced right off the sled a couple times!!! We rode all day, up to Big Springs (the beginning of the Snake River), and Lion's Head. We wanted to go up to Two-Top, but it was too foggy. It was so amazing to see how the beginning of the Snake River comes from a spring that comes up from the ground. Nature is amazing!

On Sunday, we took a snowcoach tour through Yellowstone National Park. Everytime I have went to Yellowstone in the winter, I have always ridden snowmobiles with my family, so this was a new experience. I was a little skeptical of how it was going to be, but now, I think it was one of the best ways to go, unless you love snowmobiling. They have new rules in the park that you have to ride "approved snowmobiles" and have a guide, which has really cut back on the snowmobilers going through the park. When I was younger, there would be over a thousand snowmobilers in the park in one day, but the tour guide said the most snowmobiles they have had this year in one day was 280. I was shocked at the difference! Most of the tourists prefer the snowcoaches over the snowmobiles now, because of the regulations, and because of comfort. The snowcoach was a lot of fun, you have a guide (your driver), and he tells you all these amazing facts about the park. I learned more on this trip about Yellowstone than I ever have. If you haven't been up to Yellowstone, I would suggest going! The town, West Yellowstone, is small and cozy, and the park is magnificent. Going inside a huge park that is the center of a volcano is the most inspiring and unique experience. You will see and experience things you never thought possible. And, the wildlife is a bonus to all you will see from the land.