Family Vacation - Day 0 & 1: Missoula and Yellowstone

 (Saturday, Aug. 16) Day 1, Yellowstone: After driving to Missoula on Friday, we woke up and took a quick drive through the University of Montana campus. Then we hit the road and did the same thing a few hours later in Bozeman on the Montana State University campus - which also happened to be their move in day which was interesting to see. 

Our next stop was the Roosevelt Arch and northern gateway to Yellowstone National Park. This was the first time I'd gotten out at Mammoth Hot Springs and explored what was Fort Yellowstone back in the late 1800s and early 1900s when the US Army managed Yellowstone. We also walked the hot spring terraces which was really interesting to see how those bubbled up and built up the levels over time. Being a lover of National Park Lodges, we popped into the Mammoth Hot Springs Lodge which had a really cool "map room" with a giant wooden inlaid map of the United States. 

We saw Undine Falls and then checked out Roosevelt Lodge which was a large log cabin surrounded by primitive cabins and a horse corral. We peaked at the impressive Tower Falls and drove up Mt. Washburn which didn't have much of a view despite being at almost 9000'. We drove to Artist Point to see the best view of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, I wish we'd spent more time just soaking up the magical spot but the kids were back in the car before I could blink. By this point it had started to rain and we heard thunder in the distance. 

We kept driving south through Hayden Valley, seeing a few bison and elk, and doing one last stop at the Mud Volcano feature which was pretty impressive and smelly. Then we pulled into the large, historical, Yellowstone Lake Lodge and got checked into our cabin on the hill behind it, happy to be able to rest after a long day on the road. We found spotty wifi and a couple fires burning in the Lake Lodge and it was nice to have a cozy spot to decompress for the evening.