friday, sept 3 - mon, sept 6 - labor day weekend

travis and krystin flew up for a quick visit over labor day weekend.

they came in too late on friday night to do anything

we got up early saturday, ate breakfast in town and headed up to yellowstone.

we made the first stop at the snake river overlook

saw some bison

our first stop was old faithful

it was crowded becuz of the holiday.

the old faithful inn towers over the area.

it was too dark to get pictures inside

if you ever get up to the hotel,

you must visit the lobby.

it as absolutely beautiful.

it's made out of old logs with a huge 4 sided fireplace.

words can not describe it.

we were on a whirlwind tour trying to do the whole grand loop in one day

not something i recommend if at all possible

too much driving and not enough time to really get to see everything.

we went to...

firehole canyon

ate lunch by a river

had ice cream at mammoth hot springs
but did not get over to the actual hot springs
due to the large holiday crowd and gazillion tour buses.

can't remember the name of this place
but the rock formation looks like railroad ties standing side by side

passed lots of areas still recovering from forest fires

saw the lower yellowstone falls

a geyser on the side of the road

by this time, we were all pretty tired & the weather was getting windy and cold
we did not feel like walking the boardwalk to the back geysers
so this was taken of the first geyser by the side of the parking lot

we saw two bull elk with huge antlers
walking along the edge of the water
at yellowstone lake at dusk

and saw a so/so sunset on the way home.

had an awful pizza & salad
at the only place we could go to.
it was 9:00 at night
and there was no choice
we were still over an hour away from town.

sunday, after a totally horrible rotten breakfast
we took a back road from town to the park.

we were lucky enough to see a moose in one of the moose ponds on the side of the road.

notice that she is blowing bubbles while her nose is under water

from the moose ponds we went into the park
there was no where to park at most of the places we wanted to see
due to the holiday hordes.

we managed to get a place at jenny lake overlook

from the park we went home and had a relaxing rest of the day
and bbq'd dinner.

after a much better breakfast on monday
and some souvenier shopping,
we dropped trav & krys at the airport
where they unfortunately were told their flight was delayed
causing them to miss their connecting flight home.

they eventually did get home about 2 hours later than expected.

other than a couple of bad meals
and the weekend being much too short

we had a great visit and enjoyed having them up.