Days 4 & 5: Yellowstone Wild

School started this past week and we'll get to that, but first let's go back to Montana! And welcome Wyoming and Fike Family National Park #18 to the chat!

On Day 4 we slept in at least an hour later than intended, but we weren't mad about it. We ate some breakfast, packed up our things, loaded up our minivan and headed 400 miles Southeast to Gardiner, MT.

We stopped at Wheat Montana for some gigantic cinnamon rolls and a loaf of delicious wheat bread that turned into hiking PBJs later in the week. We listened to our GuideAlong app when possible, listened to a few other podcasts, and stopped in tiny Wolf Creek, MT for an incredibly good meal at Lazy I Beerworks.

We made it to cute little Gardiner, Montana in the late afternoon. We checked into our cabin, which was lovely, right on the river, and had window units for a/c in the bedrooms which was a relief since it was 100 degrees outside. It did involve driving several miles down a bumpy gravel road that James was not at all convinced our minivan could handle. But handle it did! And look, so pretty.

Once settled and with the a/c units cranked all the way down so we could sleep on our return, we headed into town!

We stopped at the famous Roosevelt Arch for some pictures, did a little shopping at the national park store, and grabbed pizza for dinner. In continuing the trip tradition of consuming something with huckleberry at every meal, I had a huckleberry wheat beer. Delicious. #HuckleberryForever

On our drive back to our little cabin some elk decided they had the right of way and so, they did.

We went to bed pretty quickly after our return (our cabin had 2 bathrooms and 2 bedrooms, each with two queen beds, so everyone got their own bed. Except James and I who shared, which is exactly our layout at home: 4 queen beds, and James and I share one. Feels normal at home, was funny in the little cabin where you could see all the kids with way more space than us). For the 3rd time on this trip we set early alarms, this one for the truly horrifying time of 4:15 for our Wildlife Tour with Yellowstone Wild.

"This better be worth it," I thought silently to myself as I assured everyone in the cabin it would absolutely be worth it.

And it was!!

Our guide, Kyle, met us in the pitch dark Yellowstone entrance at precisely 5 a.m. with a van, snacks, drinks, and our next two meals and off we went! Kyle Moon is also a biologist, conservationist, and photographer and we were so lucky to have him. You can follow his Instagram here, it's worth it!

We told him how lucky we'd been in Glacier to see bear and moose, so we were really hoping to see wolves and anything else. He noted that August is a tough time to see animals because of the heat, but we would try! We headed to a spot he thought wolves might be, knowing they are only active right at sunrise and that time was fast approaching.

After about an hour of driving he stopped at a deserted spot, set up his very powerful scope, and boom- wolfpack!! A couple adults and PUPS from the Junction Peak Yellowstone pack! There were so many pups! Kyle connected his phone video screen to the scope so we could all see. They were on a mountainside pretty far away but we got to see them run around and play- just like their doggy cousins. It was awesome.

We continued on, finding a fox, some osprey, and multiple kinds of eagle.

And bison. MANY bison.

So handsome! So many babies. So many randy gentlemen trying to corner their ladies.

I loved them.

Our guide was awesome about pointing out things we should see. I'm not exaggerating when I say the only animal we would have seen without him was the bison.

They were hard to miss.

He also took us on a hike. "A SHORT hike," I promised our kids who both loved but had not quite forgiven me for our trek to Grinnell Glacier.

And it was a short hike (less than a mile!) to the most beautiful lake.

Trout Lake in the Lamar Valley. I mean.

How is this real? You just keep taking pictures because you want to capture it and then the pictures aren't good enough so you stop for a while, only to see something new that's so beautiful you have to try again.

We enjoyed a picnic lunch and then the kids went scampering over some rocks with Kyle, who helpfully pointed out all the grizzly bear poop on their trail.

It was a really great day. We learned so much from Kyle- stories about the history of the park, stories of his own adventures and photography, detailed information about conservation, the animals we saw, and the ones we didn't but could have. I am so thankful my friend Nicki recommended Yellowstone Wild to us- it absolutely made our time in Yellowstone.

We got back to the cabin about 3 pm, feeling like it was at least midnight. We rested for a bit, which meant James and Landon went swimming in the river behind the cabin, the girls played, and I fell fast asleep.

We ventured back out for a really fantastic dinner at Wonderland Cafe in downtown Gardiner. We waved to the elk roaming about and headed back to our little home. Obviously after an incredibly long day in which I am the only one who napped, everyone decided to go swimming in the cold river with a strong current behind us.

Landon swam around the rapids like a happy little river otter while the girls mostly stuck to the calmer side, but everyone had fun in the freezing crytal clear water.

My kids are nuts, but there's no denying how beautiful it was.

Oh, Montana, we loved you. (Fun fact: my Grandma Jo and Grandpa Jim were borned and raised in/around Billings, MT!)

The next day was a long ride to Idaho, through the rest of Yellowstone, stopping at the various geothermal features, stopping again in Jackson Hole, WY, which we LOVED, and finally pulling up to our third and final home for the trip in Swan Valley. But that's for the next post!