Yellowstone

I think it's time to share a few photos from our Yellowstone trip we took in September. We left the kids at home with family and took a quick trip with Jordan's parents to Yellowstone. We decided to hit some less visited spots and are really glad we did.

 The buffalo were migrating so we saw plenty while we made our way through the park.

We spent the better part of the first day on a hike around Specimen Ridge. Our goal was to find petrified wood, and boy did we find a lot.  The hike was nearly straight up the mountain! There weren't very many switchbacks which made it a bit tough, but my excitement had the best of me. I couldn't slow down! I was too excited to get to the top and find the petrified wood.

The picture below shows the first piece of petrified wood that we found. Once we knew what to look for we were seeing it everywhere!

This stump I am sitting on is an actual petrified tree! It was so neat! This one actually had rings! We could count the rings and everything. (I think I lost count around 80...)

Here is another stump. There were quite a few that were similar. Some were larger than others, but all were as hard as stone. It was awesome to make it to the top of the mountain to see these wonders.

See how steep the mountain was? It looks like Jordan's parents are standing on a cliff. It was such a rush to see the view and take it all in.

The "rock" that Jordan's sitting on in the above picture is actually a petrified tree laying down. Its crazy how big these things are!

Jordan's mom thought this tree was a fun little photo-op so here we are. Jordan and me up above, and Jordan's parents below.

We got pretty darn close to some elk. We even heard one of them make the famous "Looonely....lone-ly.....lonely..." call. I had never heard it before so that was fun to hear.

I have a little tradition that had to be carried on. On nearly every road trip we've been on I've taken a picture in the rearview. Silly, but I think it's fun.

We stayed in a condo in West Yellowstone. I liked that it was close to the entrance and that it was more than just a bed. We had a kitchen so we made most of our meals there. And we were able to hook up my computer to the TV and watch Fringe in the evening.

We spent the second day in the park hitting up some areas that we didn't see 2 years ago when we were there.

When we came in 2009, we made the hike down to the waterfall. This year we went to the other side to see it from a different view.

We took advantage of the beautiful landscape for one more photo op. And of course, Jordan and his silly faces. There is no training that man.   ;)

We decided to make a quick trip home so we only spent two days in the park. I am of the mind that you have to go to Yellowstone more than a handful of times because there is just so much to see. Its a neat little piece of the world.