Wilson Family Campout in Yellowstone

It was our turn to plan the family camp out this year and since it's been many years since we've been to Yellowstone and none of our kids have been we chose to go there. Joey's uncle Mike has a lot in Island Park where we camped. Island Park is about 40 minutes from West Yellowstone so we were able to spend two days in the park plus see a bunch of other things around the area that were fun two. We got up there on Wednesday July 21st. We carpooled up with the Horsley's. They have a couple of trailers up there that they leave all year long that we got to use. It turned out great because we put Leo in the back bedroom to sleep and the rest of us had a giant sleepover in the front of the trailer. We all slept much better that way. I don't know about you but camping is much happier for me when I have a well rested baby.
We set up camp on Wednesday and the Both's arrived a few hours after us. Ben and Joey took Max and Noah out to shoot the .22 rifles while the rest of us got dinner. We did the fun campfire stuff like roasting hot dogs and marshmallows for Sm ore's. We sang songs and did skits too.






Then on Thursday we had an outing day! We had breakfast and packed up the vans and started off to our first destination: Big Springs. Usually there are a ton of huge fish at Big Springs but we only saw about four. There were a bunch of seagulls there that were bothering everyone. But, we did see a family of ducks and a muskrat came out to work the crowd. We hiked up to the Jonny Sack cabin and toured around. Jonny Sack is the one who settled there at the mouth of the spring and built a water mill there and used the hydro power for electricity. He apparently was ahead of his time and a real smarty pants.Then we drove to the Quack Lake site where the mountain side slid across the road and riverbed and right up the mountainside on the opposite side of the ravine. the history of the place is sad as it is basically a big memorial for all the people in the town who died, but the large boulders that didn't roll and the side of the mountain that never grew back any vegetation is impressive. We then found a picnic table and had lunch. For some reason I didn't take any pictures there!?!





Then we split up for the rest of the afternoon. Carina took her kids to the Fire Hole inside Yellowstone to swim and the Horsley's and us went to the Lewis and Clarke caverns.They were awesome! There are spots inside the caves where you have to sit on your bum and slide, and lots of steps and cool formations. Very impressive. If you are ever out that way I highly recommend going to see them. It's totally worth the drive.















Then we spent most of Friday and Saturday in Yellowstone park and around West Yellowstone. We saw lots of elk, deer, and bison. We saw an eagles nest and an eagle flying around it. We went to the paint pots, the pools, Old Faithful, the lodge, the upper Yellowstone falls, and we hiked out the outlook where you can stand at the top of the falls and look over! That was way cool. I've never seen that before. Joey found bear claw marks on a tree near where we were having a picnic for lunch. The kids thought that was awesome! We saw several bison in the road and watched them walk past our windows too. I always love to see the wildlife. The prismatic pools are still one of my favorite spots!




















The Both's and the Horsley's went home on Saturday and we spent one more night in Island Park. On Sunday we stopped at Mesa Falls on our way home as it is on the way back to Idaho falls. We've never stopped there either and it was beautiful. there were the upper and lower falls with lookouts. You could look over the top of the falls there too. They also had a visitors center to learn more about the falls and the area plus they had an exibit there of animal pelts for all the animals native to the area. There were also insect and butterfly displays, animal skulls, claws, and hooves. It was cool and the kids could touch a lot of it so that made it even better! Then we went to Idaho Falls and returned the keys and headed for home! All in all it was a great vacation and the little people did surprisingly well considering all the driving we did. Hopefully we have created some good memories for them and for me!