Part 6: Yellowstone National Park Up Close

We once again returned to Yellowstone National Park this year.  This park is massive and you could visit every day for a week, stay all day and still not see the entire park.  We revisited the Grand Prismatic, which is one of the most colorful attractions.  Luckily we went last year and hiked up the mountain parallel to the Grand Prismatic to see its circles of color from above.  I had read about hiking this mountain on social media.  I’m so glad we did because this year, Yellowstone marked off access to the mountain.  They are building an official lookout point on the mountainside in lieu of the “social” path that many have been hiking for years.  I have to say, the view from eye level this year was amazing.  The wind was blowing just right and we could see the colors so vividly.

Of course we stopped by to watch Old Faithful erupt and it is still super exciting. 

We hiked the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone this year for the fist time.  Last year we hiked to the viewpoint up top.  This year, we hiked all the way down the lowest access point and boy was it worth it!!!!!!  It was really something to see.  I won’t lie or make light of how hard I gasped for breath on the hike back up that thing but it was totally worth all the huffing and puffing.   

On our way into Yellowstone, we love stopping at the Running Bear Cafe for some delicious pancakes.

Lily Grace took this really cool panoramic of the Grand Prismatic.

Below the Grand Prismatic

After lunch at a cute general store in the park, these two tackled a milkshake each.

On our way to watch Old Faithful erupt.  Of course those two are lugging those shakes and Gracie has that walking stick in tow.

LG took our eruption picture this year. 

Here we are near the top of the Yellowstone Canyon.

One of Gracie's cool panoramic on the way down.

Making our way down

It got steep in places as we would wind down the mountainside.

Stopping for a break

I loved how interesting the bottom of this old fallen tree looked on our way down the canyon.

Here we are after making the hike all the way down.  Look how beautiful the waterfall is in the background.

We made it!  This is your reward for hiking down and back up, the most amazing view!

This shot shows how far down the mountain we came.  The trail starts up in the tops of those trees.

Here is how far we had to climb back up and this is just the stair portion at the very bottom.