Category Archives: Vacations

Today we are headed home from an amazing trip. It’s going to be a long day… but so worth it.

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.

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.

Day 3! Today we headed over to Teton Village, also known as Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. One of the must things to do in JH is to ride the tram to the top of the mountain – 10,400 feet, to get a 360 degree view. At the top of the mountain there is a shack, and there you can grab waffles and a beer. We decide to do this first. Quickly we get onto the tram, up we go and it just gets colder and colder. Right about the time we reach the top, a cloud moves in from the west and with it comes incredibly strong winds, hail, and a lightning storm. The tram won’t run in the weather so everyone is forced into the shack. This cloud was so thick, we could barely see from one end of the deck to the other.  Everyone packs into the shack, and we are shoulder to shoulder. We finally get our waffles and since there’s no where to move to, we sit down on the floor. The lightning is CRAZY! After about an hour the cloud lifts a little and we make a mad dash to the tram. You can see in the photo on our way down the cloud hovering at the top.

After this, we explored the property and rode the open ski lift up and down the mountain. Not just once, but over and over. Also, the boys bungee trampolined, and we took another lift to the top of Rendezvous Mountain. At the drop off there is a restaurant with outdoor seating for the stunning view. We grabbed some snacks, while the boys ran up and down finding snowballs to pelt at Andy.

We rode the open ski lift a few more times and then decided to call it a day. Back in town, we ate some amazing barbecue at Hole BBQ and crashed for the night.