Weekend Getaway - Part I

I've been trying to figure out how I want to blog our recent weekend getaway, and I think the best way is just to dive right into it. I don't know if this will turn out to be a single monster post or several smaller ones, but I ought to share the adventure before it is too long past. We took around 1,000 pictures in 2 days, so a large part of the struggle is simply how MUCH of our adventure to share! But bear with me and you'll get a glimpse of what goes on when the Wicklands go on a little road trip...

Our adventure started on Saturday morning when we awoke to the radio alarm clock. As I opened my sleepy eyes I heard the radio man saying something about high gas prices and how people just weren't going to be going on road trips this summer with prices like these. And I laughed to myself because that is just what we were about to do. Take that, radio man!

We got on the road and headed to Yellowstone. We decided to be tourists for the day and entered the park via West Yellowstone, making our way toward Old Faithful. We took a lot of the windy side roads (largely to avoid being stuck behind the non-locals who had to stop and photograph every single bison) and thoroughly enjoyed our drive through the park. We even stopped somewhere along the way and took a little hike down to the Firehole river, where Eliana diligently looked for fish, though she saw none.

We enjoyed seeing some new things and just taking in all of the colors and textures of the park this time through. We also counted back and figured out that we've been to the park about a dozen times since we moved here 5 years ago. So it was nice to get to see some new things and approach our YNP experience a little differently this time around.

We eventually made it to the Old Faithful loop and spent some time walking around. After a bit we split up and I walked with Eliana in the stroller to get some food while Leif kept walking the loop taking pictures. It was an absolutely gorgeous day out and we didn't even feel too crowded, especially for being in the park at Old Faithful during tourist season.

Thanks to the cell phone service at Old Faithful (the only place in the park you can actually get reception) we were able to meet up relatively easily after we went our separate ways. The biggest obstacle to our meet up was the large herd of bison that decided to wander between me and Leif! He had to walk around the herd, getting off the trail to do so. But he made it safe, sound, and intact, and we got to watch Old Faithful as a family for the second time that day. It was Eliana's first trip to ever see Old Faithful and she was so very cute pointing to it and telling everyone around her, "That's Old Faithful, over there!" Very cute. Even cuter because she can actually articulate "Old Faithful" very well and she was very excited about it. My only regret is that my camera batteries died before I could get video of her saying that, because it was too precious. Maybe we'll have to have a reenactment with a postcard or something...

Not only did we have the pleasure of seeing Old Faithful erupt twice, but we also saw three other geysers erupt, which was very cool! We were just walking or driving by and there they went! This first picture is the Lion Geyser and I don't know what the second is...

After we saw Old Faithful we drove along through the park admiring this strange and beautiful world God created. Yellowstone always amazes me that way, and we were blessed this trip with storm clouds looming in the distance behind a beautiful rainbow. The rainbow is pretty faint in these pictures, but it stretched all the way across the sky and was just stunning over the river.

Our final stop before we left the park was at Artist Point, which has the best views of the lower falls of the Yellowstone. It was getting dark, but the sunset was beautiful over the falls.

As the sun set we continued on our drive to Cook City where we had reservations for the night. The wildlife really came out as the sun went down and these were our last views before dark: