Category Archives: Project Life 2017
And Away We Go…
Today we are headed home from an amazing trip. It’s going to be a long day… but so worth it.
Cody – Buffalo Bill Museum and the Rodeo
Day 7! Today, we head out of Yellowstone and off to Cody, Wyoming.
Woo Hoo! On our way out, going toward the east entrance of the park, we FINALLY see a bear. And not just one bear, but TWO! Those were some pretty brown grizzlies next to the road.
Once we reached Cody, we stopped for some lunch at Millstone Pizza Company and Brewery. Andy and I tasted their flight, while the boys played in the arcade downstairs. Afterward we headed to the Buffalo Bill Museum. This museum was amazing. Whereas Matty liked it for about 30 minutes, Davy and I wandered through for about two hours.
We checked into the Best Western, let the boys swim, and then we headed off to Wyoming’s Rib and Chop house for a few steaks before making our way to the rodeo. Nothing says 4th of July weekend like a good old western rodeo with fireworks LOL. We stayed for about half of the show, the boys were exhausted. We missed the bulls, but we got to watch the bucking broncos.
Yellowstone Lake, Lake Village Day Hikes, Mud Volcanoes
Day 6! And boy did it start off cold! 37 degrees.
It’s boating and hiking day.
Our first stop is to Tower Fall. We had planned on hiking around this waterfall, but the trail was closed. So, we took a few pictures and then headed on down to Lake Village/Bay Bridge where we decided to take the chartered boat around the lake. The lake has 120 miles of shoreline and is the largest body of water in the park. We learned all kinds of interesting facts, one being there used to be a zoo on Stevenson Island. For lunch we stopped at the Lake Village Lodge and there we picked our two hikes: Elephant Back and Storm Pass.
Elephant Back – this is a 3.5 mile round trip hike that is considered moderately strenuous. It climbs over 800 feet and we felt like we were going straight up. We were thankful for our BoyScout who packed us all a water, and we were even more thankful for the view. It was beautiful.
Storm Point – this is a 2.3 mile round trip hike and is considered easy. Here you pass through open meadow, Indian Pond, Lake Yellowstone shoreline, and Storm Point forest. I think all these photos speak for themselves.
Our last stop of the day was the mud volcanoes. A .6 mile loop trail that passes by some of the smelliest gas filled sulphur springs.
Mammoth Hot Springs, Bozeman Montana, and West Yellowstone
Day 5!
Today, we decided to head north. For our morning hike we went to Tower Fall. There’s a tenth of a mile overlook to the falls, or a 1-mile round trip hike to the base of the falls and back up. Of course we hiked to the bottom.
Next, we drove up to Mammoth Hot Springs. There is a hiking observation deck around them, but the parking lot was full, so we drove through the driving path to see the springs.
For the rest of the day, we decided to drive through southern Montana, over to Bozeman for lunch. We stopped at a pizza place, and White Dog Brewery. As we have a no electronic rule when driving through National Parks, the kids were pumped for screen time. We picked up a few six packs and then drove south ninety miles through Gallatin National Forest to get to West Yellowstone.
In West Yellowstone, we stopped at a ropes course for the kids to stretch their legs and play, we drove to Idaho to check another state off their list, and we ate bison burgers at the Slippery Otter Pub.
Mountains! Beach! or Both!... 