Old Faithful and Horse Back Riding

It was a calm, lazy morning. We were sleeping in, and those of us who were awake were doing nothing. Then, all of the sudden, "MOOOOO!" There was an entire herd of cattle behind our camper. Lucky us. So much for sleeping in. After we were all awake, dad made pancakes (huge, fluffy pancakes) for breakfast. We ate (very slowly), got ready to go, then headed up to the visitors center to find something to do. It was Sunday, so all of the horse back riding places were closed. We ended up going to the Bear and Wolf Rescue Center. They take injured animals, human dependent animals, and nuisance animals. There were birds of prey (eagles, vultures, horned owls, peregrine falcons, etc.), grizzly bears (seven), and several packs of wolves. We stayed there for a couple of hours then drove into Yellowstone to see Old Faithful. When we got there we found out we had just missed it, so we made sandwiches. There's a lodge at Old Faithful (with ice cream). We went in the lodge and got ice cream cones. I got strawberry dipped in chocolate, and it was delicious. We waited for a few more minutes, then Old Faithful blew its top. We then drove to Firehole Falls. After the falls, there's a swimming area. The water is slightly less freezing than the rest of the water in Yellowstone. We went swimming and jumped off a small cliff several times. Then a teenager jumped off of a thirty foot cliff, so of course, Morgan and I jumped off of it too. Multiple times. Then our brother even jumped! It was so fun. We swam upstream and rode down the rapids from the waterfall on our backs. After swimming for a few hours, we headed back to the Bear and Wolf Rescue Center. They were bringing out three bears that we had heard would sometimes play together. At first they just munched on grass and climbed some trees. Then one of them started swimming, splashing, and cleaning his ears. He got out and attacked his brother. They started wrestling and rolling around. They played for a while then went back to munching grass and napping. We stayed and watched the bears and wolves for a while longer, then headed back to our campsite. On our way back we spotted a fox. We made a campfire and cooked soup for dinner. My dad, Morgan, and I went to the hot tub while Mom and Joshua stayed by the fire. We only got to stay for a half-an-hour, then the pool closed, so we had to leave. When we came back, we went to bed because we had to get up early the next morning. We were going to Lamar Valley in Yellowstone in hope of seeing some animals. When we woke up this morning (6:45 a.m), we headed down to Lamar Valley. It was only 31°!! We saw at least one thousand (not kidding) bison, a pack of wolves, a few deer, and a few mountain goats. We always check the license plates when we drive through the park. We only needed one more (Vermont) and we found it. This is the first time we've ever completed the license plate game. We went back to our campsite then made reservations to go horse back riding at a place called Eagle Ridge Ranch in Idaho. We went early. They said there was a lake that we could swim in. We went swimming and swung off of a trapeze. There were also kayaks, SUP boards, canoes, and paddle boats. We swam for about an hour then went horse back riding. The trail lasted about two hours, then we drove back into town. We went back to the Bear and Wolf center to see Sam, a 950 pound grizzly bear. He was HUGE! While looking at Sam, we heard the wolves howling. We only stayed for about 30 minutes, then the employees put Sam back in his den. After we left the Bear and Wolf center, we went into town to have dinner and shop. Tomorrow we are getting up early, packing up our camper, then heading down to the Grand Tetons (that's the plan as of now). Stay tuned to experience our adventure! Sorry I didn't post for yesterday. I never got service. This post is for yesterday and today (8/6-7/17). Thanks for understanding.