Old Faithful Inn

We had a pretty good night at OF Inn. We woke up around 7:00 and looked out the window to see HUGE snowflakes! We decided to have breakfast at the restaurant since they have a buffet. Although the dinner buffet was not that good, the breakfast buffet was much better. Evan enjoyed pancakes and bacon with gravy (which Evan said is breakfast nachos). 

We found this clump of bison hair...

We continued our trek North around 8:30. Evan was hungry again around 9:30 and polished off the leftover potatoes and gravy. We had several stops along the way to see the thermal features. Evan loved it! I love that all three of my boys love YNP as much as we do :).  

We stopped for a picnic lunch, but our provisions are getting pretty low. Thanks goodness for microwave Mac and cheese for Evan. Plus he discovered Crackers with mayo and cheese. On a scale of 1-5 he gave them a 4...a pretty good rating from Evan. I don't think any of my home cooked meals have ever rated higher. 

We stopped at the Rangers station at Madison (where Jayden and Kyler were sworn in as Junior Rangers) and they are still closed for the season. On to Mammoth Hot Springs which also has a ranger's station so he can be sworn in there. This part of the drive has lots of steep drop offs on the passenger side. Evan said "I'm a little freaked out by these heights." He was gasping as we went around curves with huge canyons falling off on his side - remember we are in the motorhome and it looks scarier from the front passenger's seat. Even though it made him nervous, he was able to appreciate the beauty. He likes the fast running rivers and waterfalls.

We spotted some Bison and a herd of Elk along the way. 

We arrived in Mammoth to a Bison traffic jam. Pictures do not do the scene justice. There were probably 40 Bison! Including several babies. The Rangers were trying to direct traffic around them and were successful in herding part of them off into a bigger field. They were right next door to the hotel and across from the post office. There was also one elk in the area. We parked the motor home right on the road beside them. We were able to do a little shopping, enjoy an afternoon snack at the cafe, and mail our postcards at the post office. We picked up Evan's Jr. Ranger kit at the Rangers station and went back to the motorhome to work on completing his workbook - with the Bison right next to us for our view.  

 There were no spots at the RV park in Mammoth, so we headed to the Yellowstone RV park which is right on the Yellowstone River in Gardiner, MT.

Today is a great day and this is a great place!

Evan said as we were walking along the boardwalk at Old Faithful "Cici, I really like this place." 

It was cold again last night - down to 30 degrees. We let Evan sleep late...about 7 am :) We had biscuits and eggs this morning, then dressed and headed to YNP. 

The drive to Old Faithful was pretty and Evan really enjoyed the scenery....canyons, waterfalls, roaring rivers and lakes. We stopped several times along the way to take pictures and enjoy the beauty up close. We just missed a bear according to a park ranger we talked to along the road. Maybe we will see another one later. 

Evan was really excited as we arrived at Old Faithful to see the thermal features. The geyser was just beginning to erupt as we arrived so Phillip dropped off me and Evan and we ran up to see it . 

We were able to get a room in the Old Faithful Inn so we set off to explore and shop while waiting for our room to be ready. Evan is at the Souvenir Store in the picture below - he was busy shopping for a stuffed animal:

Then we saw the geyser erupt for the second time! 

After grabbing a snack and eating, we set off to hike around the thermal features.  It is hard to keep this kid fed...

We decided to take a hiking trail off of the paths around the thermal features - which Evan LOVED!

And then we saw Old Faithful erupt for the third time! 

My pictures stop here, but we had a great evening.  Notice the clouds in the picture above - we got a shower from those clouds and on the way back from our hike we saw Old Faithful erupt for the 4th time. It was nice to spend the evening in the lodge - sitting by the fireplace, and enjoying our dinner at the lodge restaurant.  After dinner we found a table on the second floor balcony and enjoyed an exciting game of UNO before bedtime.