Vacation Day 3: Yellowstone

Day 3

We left Idaho Falls at 6:45am.  Wanted to leave earlier but...we have kids.  Threw everyone in the car still in jammies, filled the tank, bought some donuts and hit the road.  Michael programmed Yellowstone into the GPS and we were cruising.  We hit the crossroads and turned where the GPS said to turn even if it didn't look quite right.  The road was slow and winding.  Sam threw up the donuts, then threw up some more.  Michael realized the GPS was taking us to the wrong Yellowstone entrance.  Thankfully we were able to get back to where we needed to be without too much additional delay.  Sam threw up more.

We arrived at the Park.  We wanted to be there by 9:30am and rolled in at 11:00am and realized we needed to find a camp spot right away or we wouldn't get one at all.  We weren't stopping for bison or elk or anything.  Unfortunately everyone else on the road had different plans.  We got to the campground we wanted at noon and found the last available site in quite possibly the whole Park.  It was small and uneven and people kept tipping out of their chairs but it was ours.

On the way to Yellowstone.  Sam is naked because of all the puke.

The bison at our campground (after we found a site).

Sam was having a rough time.  He didn't care there was a bison behind him.  He wanted food and a nap.

We went exploring.

Then we headed back to camp for a campfire presentation about wolves and ravens.  The seats all faced the fire pit and there was a trail and forest behind us.  During the presentation we kept hearing a couple of snorting, pawing, grunting bison behind us.  We sat there in happy oblivion, engaged with the Ranger and her story.  Michael took Grace to the bathroom.  Sam and I were sitting on the back row (closest to the road) and everyone else was on the front row.

 When we got back to camp we told Grandma what she missed.

A bison came charging out of the trees.

It was running with it's horn pointed down.

 It was headed straight for us. 

We started running.

 Sam and I were actually the only ones who saw it.

 We saw two of them.

 One starting charging down the hill right towards us.

 I'm still scared, can we go home?

 I was in shock.

 I grabbed Sam and ran.  It was this close!  (okay maybe 10 feet away but still)

 The Ranger told everyone to stop running and the bison turned and ran up the road.

 Then we all walked slowly back to camp.

Story photos courtesy of Heidi