It was time for the truck to get another oil change. It also needed a tire rotation. Yesterday Adam spent some time calling around and was able to get an appointment for 8 this morning. Since the truck was being serviced in West Yellowstone we decided to spend that time going out to breakfast. Adam dropped the girls and I off at a restaurant down the street from the garage. As soon as we got out of the truck the girls ran to a painted buffalo statue in front of the entrance.
From outside The Branch Restaurant it seemed like we would be eating inside of an old train. While this was not the case there was one in the lobby to walk through and take a self-guided tour.
This restaurant was attached to a Best Western and hotel guests got a complimentary breakfast entree or buffet. The kids eyes lit up when they saw the buffet. My eyes lit up when I saw it would cost us $3.50 for each of them. Lily of course gravitated toward the cereal, one of her favorite things to eat. She was very excited to try apple jacks and could not believe I was letting her have it. I am not one for sugary cereals containing artificial coloring and almost always try to have them avoid it at all costs. This also worked out great because Lily is a slow eater and she could get started right away while we were waiting for Adam to walk over.
Adam and I decided to order from the menu. We waited what felt like a reasonable amount of time but the waitress thought it took much longer than it should have. She kept apologizing profusely and ended up taking each of our meals off of the bill. We could not believe she did that and kept telling her that was not necessary but she insisted. It was very nice for all four of us to eat breakfast and get a total bill of $7! After breakfast we went through the train. The girls had a good time pretending to be guests. Just as we were finishing Adam got a call saying the truck was ready.
Now that our truck was all set and our bellies were full we headed back into Yellowstone National Park. We went over to the Madison area, home of the park's Junior Ranger headquarters.
We got there in time to attend a jr. ranger program about the many types of rangers and their important jobs. Ella was picked to help and she got to wear the uniform and “try” to do the work of a fire ranger. She walked the perimeters of our chairs and pretended to use hand tools to help control the path of a fire.
When that talk was done the girls wanted to stay to listen to the next one too. This one was about what to bring on a hike to be the most prepared. Once this one was over we sat on the grounds here and helped the girls to complete their jr. ranger work.
Ella finished before Lily and Adam took her for a walk in the meadow.
When they returned Lily was finished and we took them into the Jr. Ranger Station to get sworn in. Inside here there were some items for the kids to explore, including a magnet wall with magnets of animals, birds, plants and trees and a wide selection of animal pelts. When it was our turn with the ranger she was extremely engaging. She thoroughly went over their work with them. Then when it was time to be sworn in she had them each pick their favorite pelt and put it on. As part of their jr. ranger oath she had them promise to always keep their room clean when they got home and to teach others how to make incredible brownies. When it was all done Lily told us she needed to learn how to make brownies as soon as we got home since she doesn’t know how and really wanted to be able to fulfill her duties.
We got back into the truck and headed over to Firehole Canyon Drive which is a short distance past Madison on the park's lower loop. This was a 2 mile scenic roadway that passes Firehole River, Firehole Falls and a natural swimming hole. Almost immediately upon turning onto this road there was a pullout. We decided to park to look at Firehole River and take some pictures.
We drove slowly down the rest of this curvy, uphill road. There was another place to park by the top of Firehole Falls. It was a pretty tight area and I got out of the truck to assist Adam while he parked. We walked over to get a better view of the waterfall.
It was now the middle of the day and we were ready to have lunch. While we were on our way to find a picnic area similar to the one we used yesterday we spotted several people parked and standing in a meadow. We quickly pulled over to see what they were doing. A few minutes before there had been a coyote sighting. We ended up being able to see the coyote in the very far distance. It looked like a tiny little spec and we were grateful we had gotten such a good view of one yesterday.
We were able to find another beautiful picnic area, again, with tables in the middle of the woods. This one sat atop a cliff with a very steep drop-off and a river below. We made sure the girls stayed with us at the table.
While we ate lunch I helped the kids to put together their hike selector. During the second jr. ranger talk the ranger discussed how there are so many incredible trails to take in Yellowstone. She demonstrated her apparatus and then gave one out to each child. I was super excited and feeling extremely nostalgic about this. When I was in elementary school we made the same thing out of our loose-leaf paper but called them fortune tellers. We used them to figure out who we would marry, how many kids we would have, where we would live, what kind of house (our choices were usually shack, mansion, apartment, house). My days at J. Hampton Moore Elementary School were brought to the forefront of my mind and put a huge smile on my face. After they were put together they took turns asking us to select our hike. Before we left the picnic area we walked over together to look at the water below, keeping a safe distance from the edge.
We decided we wanted to try and see the Norris Geyser Basin on the upper loop next. Along the way we saw several people in another meadow with lots of elk grazing. We parked and got out to see them while staying back. It was disheartening for us to see some of these people were getting a little too close to these wild animals.
We got back in the truck to continue on. As we drove the skies started to turn dark and the storm clouds began rolling in. We decided to press forward because we were so close. Unfortunately as we pulled up the skies opened up along with thunder and lightening. We made it to the parking lot and weren’t sure how far we would have to walk. Adam got out to see and sadly reported back it was a decent walk to get there. Since it was also thundering loudly and lightening often we decided it was not worth it to chance our safety. Sadly, we had to turn around without getting to see this or anything else in the Park. We decided to call it a day and went back to the RV.
When we arrived back we were happy to see the storm had ended and we had a new neighbor. She had an adorable little boy and the girls gravitated to him and vice versa. They played ball and ran around together.
We ate dinner, made a campfire, roasted marshmallows and made s’mores for dessert. The wood at this campsite was very quick burning. The girls kept going into the brush along the fence close to our spot trying to find more twigs and such. It proved pretty difficult to keep the fire going so we put it out and went back inside. Watching a family movie would end our night.
