Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks

Yellowstone National Park is simply amazing!! It has been on our bucket list of places to visit for years.  Click here to read more about the History of Yellowstone National Park.

We had planned on spending two days in Yellowstone and a day at Grand Teton National Park. However, this plan was changed due to snowstorms in September and road closures so spent 2.5 days in Yellowstone instead. Unfortunately, we could only see a small portion of Yellowstone because most of the roads were closed.

Bison at the side of the road, elk, geysers, hot springs, snow covered trees, mountains and rivers were pretty impressive! Our Hawaiian born boys were in awe of the wildlife. A stop to the Old Faithful Visitor Center was a must for #allthetrinkets (patches, postcards, hiking stick medallions, an ornament and stuffed animals for the boys). Old Faithful did NOT disappoint... such an incredible sight to see!! We did a short hike to Kepler Cascade falls. The boys enjoyed playing in the snow because this was a new experience for them. We didn't have enough warm clothes for them so at one point I put plastic baggies on their hands to keep them dry. The geysers and painted pots were impressive. Instead of heading to Grand Teton on the 3rd day, we saw the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone National Park. It was pretty incredible but the boys were cold so the sightseeing was cut short. If you ask the boys, I think their favorite part of the park was the wildlife. The bison are so massive. We saw several herds of bison and some were at the side of the road.

         
         
 
 
   
        

   

   
 The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

 Yellowstone Falls


We stopped in the town of West Yellowstone for a visit at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, click here to learn more about it... pretty amazing!! Grizzly Discovery Center  All of the animals here have been saved and are unable to live in the wild. The boys learned so much from the movie about wolves shown and the bear exhibits. The grizzly bears and wolves were pretty impressive to see.

    

We packed up the following morning and headed to Fireside Buffalo RV Park in Moran, WY near Grand Teton National Park. It was a bit of a snowy drive. We have been cursed with bad weather this whole trip (fog, smoke, rain, haze, snow) and it is a little discouraging :(  The next morning it was raining. So we hung out in the RV until it cleared. Mid afternoon we headed to the park and were able to see some of the mountains. It was too cold to hike so we learned what we could at the Visitor Center and called it a day. At least we were able to see the leaves starting to change color... something we haven't see in 8 years on Oahu.