Summer 2009 - Day 6

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Yellowstone National Park

Woke up, showered got dressed, packed the suit cases, checked out of the hotel. We stopped by the General Store in Canyon Village to grab some breakfast, they didn’t have much, we got some muffins and we had some cereal for the boys. We started our drive south towards Grant Campground in the Lake Region of YNP. As soon as we started driving we saw a Mule Deer on the side of the road and of course we saw a ton of Buffalo on our ride, while Ethan also spotted a herd of Elk. We got to the campground around 9:30am, we checked in and they found us a campsite that was vacant so we could setup camp now, and not have to worry about it later in the day; which was very helpful since our tent was wet from when we broke down camp a couple of days back in the Tetons. After setting up camp, we decided to take a ride out to West Yellowstone, MT to stock up on some groceries for dinner and breakfast for the next night or 2. Of course on the way back, I realized we only bought meat for 1 dinner, so tomorrow night we may have to break down and go to a restaurant.
Anyway, West Yellowstone was a really cute little western town with a beautiful mountain backdrop right on the edge of YNP.
After our shopping we stopped in at the visitors center and made a couple of other stops, we finally found a video tape for the camera! Unfortunately when we tried to use the camera, it wouldn’t work....grrrrr.
We started our drive back into YNP, past the entrance gate and about 30 minutes later we stopped along a stream and had a nice picnic lunch. There were only a few people there when we arrived, by the time we left the people and cars had doubled! When we continued our drive we spotted a Bald Eagles Nest, with an Eagle in it. (actually this happened just before lunch, but I forgot to put it in. Anyway we made numerous stops along the way; we stopped at __ Geyser, __ Cascades, __ and __. When we arrived back at the Grant area we stopped in at the ranger station and learned a lot about the 1988 fires, Ethan and Noah turned in the workbooks they (and Amy) had completed and received there Junior Ranger Patches (pretty cool if you ask me!). We then saw a 25 minute movie about the 1988 fires. We tried to stop at the post office to mail some postcards but they were closed, we will try again tomorrow. On to our campsite we go, once there, I started the fire....with 1 match of course! It may be many, many years since I was last camping, but I still know what I am doing. Of course Amy thinks I’m nuts! Was we had a roaring fire, I cooked burgers and hot dogs. We ate, seemingly very fast. Once dinner was completed it was the moment we were all waiting for.....SMORES! The kids (Amy included) loved it! Once all cleaned up we all went for a short walk, the boys and Amy got ready for bed and here I am typing away, while there is a little bit of mobile phone service, it is more of a tease than anything.

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