By: Erin
What a wonderful trip! We so enjoyed being in God's amazing creation and soaking up the beautiful views! Seeing so many different animals was a highlight, too. We are so thankful that God blessed us with safety, health, provision, and a lot of time to do plenty of activities.
Tuesday:
Heading off!
Benjamin and Joseph got to tour the cockpit a few times!
We took a nice, long tour of the Atlanta Airport! As you can see, it is very empty due to the virus.
We had about a two hour layover in Salt Lake City, so we enjoyed visiting the gift shops and relaxing near the windows.
Off to Jackson Hole, WY!
At Jackson Hole Airport, you walk straight off of the plane onto the tarmac.
The first antler arch!
Our first drive through the Grand Tetons.
After shopping, we went to a hotel to spend the night.
Wednesday:
The next morning, we drove an hour to Yellowstone's South Entrance. The drive was beautiful, all through the Tetons! We stopped at Glacier Overlook along the way. Glacier Mountain is right below Grand Teton Mountain, which was directly in front of where we stopped.
When we were almost to Yellowstone, we stopped at Lewis Lake.
Exploring the Snake River, right inside of the South Entrance! At this point we were about 1 1/2 hours from our campsite.
The first hot spring we saw on the bank of Yellowstone Lake.
Yellowstone Lake
The very first Bison! It was peacefully grazing in front of a big hotel!
This is the view going into our camp loop.
Thursday:
This wasn't our campsite, but this is common all over Yellowstone.
Our first smelly spring! :)
When we entered Hayden Valley there were lots of Bison!
Mammoth Hot Springs
This stream came flowing from near the hot springs, so it was actually warm.
Lower Terrace
The Virginia Cascades
When we came back from Mammoth Hot Springs, the Bison were crossing the road.
Back at our campsite, five Bull Elk had wandered through. Two young ones were disturbing items at people's campsites!
Luke was our amazing cook!
Friday:
Another beautiful waterfall!
We hiked to Trout Lake where the trout were spawning.
Trout Lake
Spawning Trout
In Lamar Valley, we went, trying to spot wolves. We didn't see any, but we had a lot of fun climbing to the tops of hills!
The wildflowers are beautiful!
Our next hike was Beaver Lake, one of the most popular areas to see bear. In fact, last year a grizzly bear had two cubs and a black bear had two cubs, so this year there were six bears living in that area! We stayed on the alert, but, unfortunately, we didn't see any.
We always love the scaly friends, too!
Aspen trees.
Beaver Ponds Trail
At the end of the hike! Although five miles long, it took much longer than we expected. This picture was taken at almost 8:00 pm (and we were almost two hours from our campsite). One unique aspect about the west is that the day begins to get light at 4:00 am and the sun sets at about 9:00 pm (meaning it is totally dark around 11:00 pm)!
"The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory."
(Psalm 97:6)
