McRaes in Montana

After a very long day of traveling to Nashville, through Minneapolis, we finally arrived in Bozeman, Montana on Wednesday. The airport was exactly what you would think a Montana airport should be; all log cabin, animal heads on the walls, etc.

As I'm a pretty quick study, I found that there is a reason that log cabins evoke thoughts of northern, frontierish places. It's pretty much the standard design up here, and the airport was no different!

We got into our cabin around 11:30 local time, so obviously, I took no photos, but take my word for it, it is very cute and comfortable. Rustic, log cabin style, if you can believe we would pick something like that. It's on the banks of the Gallatin River.

Thursday morning, we ate at the Cateye Cafe in downtown Bozeman. There is a reason that many of the web pages we looked at regarding Bozeman mentioned it. It was GREAT!

After a trip to a very nice grocery store to load up on picnic supplies and food, it was on to Yellowstone, which was about 90 miles away... time enough for a nap.

So, of course, the kids were ready to eat as soon as we could find a picnic spot.

The main requirement was to be near water...

So we found a place on the banks of the Madison River - we didn't make it far into the park.

Difficult as this may be to believe, Emma hit the water as soon as possible.

And Anns gathered flowers. We had to do this at every stop, no matter they all died soon after we hit the road again...

Not many pics of my boy, as he took the peanut butter sandwich I forced on him, and ran up and down the banks of the river exploring. But here he is, go figure, in the water with the girls.

And, you can take the girl away from the cheerleaders, but apparently you can't take the cheerleading out of the girl...

Stopping at every possibly interesting place along the way, we made our way to the Old Faithful geyser area, with about 10,000 other people, which was interesting, but very crowded. This pictured geyser is actually Beehive, and it shoots higher than Old Faithful, which we saw as we made our way to the souvenir shop, which is always my baby's ultimate goal on vacation. Or actually, every time the car stops. If she could eat, buy cheap stuff, and play in the water at the same time, it would be her ultimate vacation.

I didn't know, and you might not either, that Yellowstone National Park actually is one of the oldest active volcanoes! These geysers are what you hear about, but hot stuff is actually coming out through the earth's surface all over the Park.

It's because much of the land there is just a thin crust over water pockets that lie atop hot magma. The water, and all the minerals and stuff in it, get so hot that they bubble up to the surface, and even shoot out in the form of geysers. All over the park, there will be a nice grassy place, with a meandering stream, and then, all of sudden, it's all steamy, and it looks like a moonscape, and stuff is burbling out of the earth.

It's like Hell is trying to break up through to the surface all over the place! And it smells like sulfur - which is called brimstone in the Bible.

It's pretty amazing.

And if you get on the thin stuff, you can actually fall into some, well, hellish conditions, and your skin will peel off in sheets before they can drag you out.

My dear husband had all kinds of scary stories to tell the kids, like of dogs falling in, and their owners trying to rescue them ... everyone being boiled to death.

The children did not even think about getting off the boardwalks provided at each thermal area.

This little blue pool is near Old Faithful. The minerals in the water make it blue, but some places its yellow or white. I don't know if you can tell, but this water is steaming hot. Right near it is a place where the water is literally boiling out of the ground.

This last one is from Mammoth Hot Springs, where so much stuff has burbled up and left mineral deposits that it has taken over the whole area, and made a mountain that is building up over time.

It was clear that nature is in control here. These trees did not grow up through the boiling water... water falls. It moved to where the trees were, and had killed several in the last few years, obviously. It was moving toward the boardwalk, as it built itself up, and was looking for the lowest place to flow!

Back from the geology/religion lesson:

There are a ton of gorgeous waterfalls. All of which I obediently jumped out of the car and photographed. I'm pretty sure my Yellowstone photos will look completely different from all the several dozen or so other people with cameras like mine were taking at the same time... not. But how are you not going to take pictures of waterfalls?

After a long day of jumping out of the car to see all the steamy stuff, and waterfalls, we headed back to our cozy cabin, which has a hot tub. See the Gallatin River flowing through the back yard...

Next installment, "Dear Husband" helps us all attain "our" goals of climbing up Mt. Washburn - the "if you make one short hike in the Park, you should do Mt. Washburn" hike.

Only three miles one way! Best chance to see bighorn sheep!