Ella Goes West: Canyons, Mountains, and Bears, oh my!

For our last morning in Yellowstone, we resolved to see the features we missed before heading out the southern route to Grand Teton. Jason had gone on a run to view the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (a big canyon carved by the Yellowstone River) and insisted Kate see it as it was near our campsite. It was indeed a very beautiful place.

Jason commented that he finally understood why they call it Yellowstone.

Now THAT's a waterfall!

After taking photos at the canyon, we moved on to Midway Geyser Basin which we had skipped during the busiest hours due to crowding and parking constraints. It consists of one of the smaller, but most popular stops in the park- and for good reason! It's truly spectacular.

Even the mud is beautiful!

Grand Prismatic Spring, what we agreed was the most beautiful feature in the park. The colors were just amazing.

Normally when we do parks, we take more time visiting and hiking the less-travelled paths. This trip has been different for us in that it's been more about the drive, easy hikes and paths, and seeing the larger attractions. From our experience, we've started making a list for longer visits and backpacking adventures when Ella gets a little older. Yellowstone is high on that list. We can't wait to come back!

We continued down the road south out of Yellowstone and into the mountain and lake country that makes up Grand Teton National Park. The Tetons is a very young mountain range that rises abruptly above the adjacent valley, and it's still getting taller by a few millimeters each year. We arrived at our campsite at the park's Colter Bay Village in the afternoon, and decided to walk the path to the lake and check out the Ranch House for dinner.

A minor bucket list item of Jason's was to see a bear, so we were a little disappointed not to encounter any at Yellowstone. Luckily, Grand Teton obliged. We watched this little black bear forage for berries.

Looking for bear-ies... hahaha.

Dinner at the Ranch House was excellent and exactly what you would expect from a ranch house... good quality meats and bbq, plain but good quality food. The corn bread skillet with a side of local honey- yummm.