After a fitful night of sleep and Josie kicking me all night, it was hard waking up. Caroline felt like a new person though which convinced us she had just been dehydrated. We were going to be more deliberate about drinking water. We forget the elevation and dry atmosphere.  Since we were slow getting going, we decided to explore the area. Grant Village is on Yellowstone Lake. Truthfully, the lakes in Yellowstone look like SC lakes, which is the only thing in the park similar to SC. 

Since it was Sunday, Caroline felt like we should have our own church service. We went and sat by the lake and Caroline led us in a service. Sitting on a log looking at the mountains and beautiful lake was immensely spiritual. Caroline read a devotion from her daily book and led us in a few songs and a prayer. It was so sweet. Caroline has a deep spiritual side and I love to see how she develops it. Being in this beautiful location for two weeks has certainly brought us all closer to God. 

After the service, we walked around the lake looking at all the animal prints and trying to figure out what animals had been around the lake recently. We found tons of tracks – it was cool. After cleaning up camp, we went to the Grant Village ranger station. The girls wanted to sign up for the Yellowstone Junior Ranger Program which is a program for ages 4-15 to learn about the park. It has different activities and is age appropriate for each age group. They have to complete a ranger led program, a hike and a certain number of pages in the book according to the patch they are trying to earn. They signed up and then went to a ranger program that had just begun on the teeth/mouth structure of different animals in the park. They had to inspect different skulls and classify according to carnivore/omnivore/herbivore and then name the animals. The girls really enjoyed it. 

After that, they were off with trying to complete their respective patches. Caroline loves things like this and is very serious about it. Of course, Josie loved it too and was especially interested since Caroline was so into it! The Junior Ranger program was a major part of our day. They were both working diligently on the book and learning lots. It reminded me and Hubert of the time we took Caroline to Disney when she was 4. In the Animal Kingdom, there was an activity “passport” which children could complete. We walked all over that park so she could go to each activity booth and complete the activity to get the stamp. There were rides all over but she was more focused on completing her activity passport! It is so fun to watch your children develop and see their interests grow. 

We drove to the Midway Geyser Basin to tour those geysers. It was the one place that we did not see last week that I really wanted to see. It contains the Grand Prismatic Hot Spring which is the most photographed hot spring in the park. It was gorgeous and huge. The colors from the heat and the bacteria was unbelievable; so vivid and other worldly. We all enjoyed walking the boardwalks and looking at the hot springs. We then walked a ways up the Firehole River and enjoyed the short walk. 

We drove a short ways to Fountain Flat Drive and went to the picnic area. We lit the oven and made pizza, while the girls picked out a picnic table overlooking the river and worked diligently on their range books. We normally had sandwiches for our picnics but there was something cool about pulling into a parking lot and cooking a pizza. It was awesome and shows how much we have come to love the RV life. We ate a great lunch and the girls explored. Hubert got his fishing gear together and spent some time fly fishing in the Firehole River. It was gorgeous and I enjoyed being relaxed. That has been the benefit of such a long trip. I don’t feel guilty if we just stop and relax and play. It has been such a great family vacation and the moments like this relaxed lunch have been some of the best – just being in nature and being together. I may not remember all the sights and highlights, but I will remember the feeling of being a family in God’s beautiful country. 

A storm began to approach, so we gathered up our stuff and headed up the west side towards Mammoth. We had been on all the roads of Yellowstone except the Northern road along the Blacktail Deer Plateau, so that was our goal today. Driving in Yellowstone is fun, you just look out and find animals and soak it all in. We drove through a huge, but quick storm, with hail and lightening. Then the sun shone back through. As we were approaching the cliffs near Mammoth, Caroline was sitting on the ground between the driver and passenger seat searching for big horn sheep and Josie was resting in the back. As Hubert drove around a bend, he encountered an 18 wheeler part way in our lane. His choices were to hit the guard rail going over a cliff, hit the truck, or slam on the brakes and swerve. So, he yelled “hold on” and slammed on the brakes. When he did this, the kitchen doors all opened and food and pots and pans came tumbling down. Caroline was kneeling and had bare feet; she screamed that she had been hit. I looked back and there was glass covering her and the whole floor around her. A pot top had flown out of the cabinet and shattered. There were millions of pieces everywhere. It covered her feet and was between her toes; it went in her hoodie; glass went down her pant cuffs; and it covered the floor of the entire RV. I held her and told her not to move until we could pull over at a turnout. Hubert was very calm and drove forward. Caroline was extremely brave, but crying as well in fear and some pain. As soon as we pulled over, we assessed the damage. She was not cut, just tiny slivers got her. Thank goodness it was the pot top as it was tempered glass so the shards were not too sharp. We began sweeping and I had to actually get my makeup brush to dust off the glass from Caroline’s feet. It was unbelievable, it was everywhere! Josie was so sweet and was helping Caroline get new clothes and socks. We were all shaken and trying to make the best of it. I feel lucky that it was not worse. Why there was an 18 wheeler on that stretch of road, I don’t know. But, I do know that Hubert did great driving and Caroline was very brave in the midst of it all. 

After that episode, we drove to Mammoth and actually out to Gardiner, the North Entrance to the park, so we could see the Roosevelt Arch. It was cool but once again, such different terrain. It was desert like and rocky. So odd compared to other parts of the park. We then drove along the Blacktail Deer Plateau. It was gorgeous and well named as it looked like a deer haven and had gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains. As we were driving, we saw a few cars pulled over. That usually means animals! So, we pulled up and right on the side of the road was a huge black bear. We stayed in the car and it walked next to us – he was huge! It was so fun to see a bear so close up. 

We drove on to the Canyon Campground and had 30 minutes before the “no generator” rule went into effect. We had tortellini for dinner, then we made a fire for s’mores. It doesn’t get dark until about 9:30 so the girls had time to explore the whole area. We were on the edge of the campground and behind our site, the woods went on forever. We played a few games of Uno (I am still winning) and called it a day!