Tuesday, August 25 Christmas in Yellowstone in August

We slept in today – we needed it! We woke up at 8:15, packed up and ate free breakfast at the hotel. Jack rode his scooter over to breakfast and then rode like crazy while the rest of us were packing/loading. He needed to burn off that energy!


We left Powell and drove to Cody, where we made stops for gas and groceries. Jack talked non-stop for 20 minutes telling us about his dream involving dad being “buff”, aliens, and his friends Hayden and Ben being involved.  It was extremely complicated but made perfect sense to him.  He has quite a vivid imagination.

The drive from Cody to the East entrance of YNP is beautiful –

 it was much prettier than I remembered – I haven’t been on it for probably 16 years. I love Wyoming!

Sylvan Lake, at Sylvan Pass near the East Entrance to Yellowstone

Yellowstone Lake looking SW

Steam Vents at Yellowstone Lake

We stopped at the visitor center at Fishing Bridge and then made several stops in the Hayden Valley. No Canyon Pack today. No bears either. Just bison....and of course bison jams.  We drove over Dunraven and stopped because we thought people were watching a griz but it was just bighorns, so we went on and scoped at ski slope. Nothing there either! Not a good wildlife day so far.  We stopped for coffee and ice cream at Tower. No bears at Roosevelt. We checked into our cabin and unloaded  our stuff very quickly, and then we were off to the Lamar Valley...one of my favorite places on earth. There were no wolf-watchers anywhere and no sign of anything except pronghorn and bison. We headed way out past Pebble Creek and stopped at the picnic area by the Thunderer to make a yummy pasta and sausage and garlic bread dinner.

The kids gobbled up their salads…we’ve been lacking in veggies! They played soccer and skipped rocks and rode the scooter while I cooked.

Then it was back through Lamar. I finally saw something moving that was a little weird and when we went to get the scope we discovered that the tripod wasn’t there…Logan had carried it into the cabin. Not good! W went back for it and drove west of there to the Blacktail Plateau to the pullout where people scope the Blacktail pack’s rendezvous site. There were no people, and no wolves. No bears either although Rosie and I saw a red fox on the way back, but it was too dark to take a picture.

We decided to take books and go sit by the fire in the lodge (it’s dark early these days).  I have always wanted to spend Christmas in Yellowstone and unbeknownst to me, today was "Christmas in August" all over Yellowstone!  How weird that we would happen to be at the lodge on that night! 

There was eggnog and cookies and hot chocolate, and Santa was there, and kids could make ornaments.

Then a wrangler led us in carols, including the “redneck/wrangler 12 Days of Christmas”.  (My pictures with the wrangler were really dark...these were our song leaders before he got there). 

The bug on my beer

It was actually really fun!  There was a very festive, community atmosphere.  It was a little surreal to be singing carols with  people I've never met, in the middle of a Yellowstone night...but it was wonderful and we loved it!