The Alexanders: Trip to Yellowstone

Our first trip of the 2013 summer was to Yellowstone National Park. We had a BLAST! We recently bought a fifth wheel camper and this was the maiden voyage of the new camper. The kids did great traveling (took us about 6 hours to get there towing on the backroads and a few stops along the way). They slept in the camper great. The back of the camper has a loft bed where they can sleep. The first night Nathan was a little difficult, but after that it was smooth sailing and they slept great together. Shane and I had a wonderful time with the kids and know that we will have lots of memories in our new trailer! I never thought we would be a camping family, but when you live out here, its the most efficient way to travel and gives us so much more access to all the amazing places that are close to us.

We traveled with some friends of ours and their kids. Theirs are a little older than our kids, but they have a girl and a boy also, and Natalie and Paula get along really well, and Hayden and Nathan play awesome together! They all four played awesome at the campground, and entertained each other during the day on the many stops we took in Yellowstone.

We did the south loop on day 1 in the park. It was amazing! The south loop is mostly in the caldera, which is the super volcano of Yellowstone, so it has the geysers, paint pots, mud volcanoes, fireholes, etc. It was really incredible. I was worried about Nathan on some of the walks due to the fact that below the boardwalks there is boiling water and other hazards, but he held someone's hand and followed directions really well. The kids enjoyed every stop and thought it was all pretty awesome.

The north loop was our day 2 agenda. That was mainly gorgeous scenery of mountains, waterfalls, and wildlife. We saw a black bear, two grizzly bears, a few elk, some mountain sheep, tons of buffalo, and a bald eagle. We surprisingly saw not a single deer! We stopped for a couple short hikes to waterfalls, but most of day 2 was spent in the car.

Overall we had a fantastic trip, and even stopped in Virginia City on the way home for lunch and some candy at the candy shop and a little history lesson. We can't wait to take the camper out again! We are definitely going to go to Glacier again this summer, and also want to spend a few days on Flathead Lake.