Mon, September 1

We woke to a glorious morning with crisp, mountain air!

Come to find out, the owner of our cabins had grown up at the beautiful farm right next to where our lodging was nestled in the mountains.  Today, he lives in Vacaville, CA, only an hour's drive from our home.  Bunny enjoyed watching the cows grazing on the rich, green grass.

Per the owners' suggestion, we ended up taking the mountain route after all as that would be the most direct to where we were going and was supposed to be quite spectacular.  The beautiful snow-capped mountains on the way moved us to snap lots of pictures.

The gang posed in front of the new state sign--Wyoming welcomed us!

The mountains of the Grand Teton National Park and the landscape along the way were spectacular!

Evidence lay scattered throughout the land of past forest fires.

God answered yet another prayer in that we didn't have much time to spend in Yellowstone National Park, but we really wanted to see Old Faithful.  As we approached the famous geyser, it was due to blow within minutes of our arrival.  We had only a 10-minute wait before the geyser sputtered and burst upon the scene.  Since it only lets off its steam every 90 minutes (give or take 10 minutes), this was excellent timing!

Bunny couldn't believe what she had seen and hung out even after all the tourists meandered over to the lodge for the gift shops and hot coffee.  The temperature was dropping, and it was starting to drizzle.

David and the kids hiked the short distance to the walkway overlooking the Grand Prismatic Spring and mud pots.  Smells of sulfur wafted through the air.  Joshua liked the bacterial mats, which are lots of archaebacteria living together in colonies on a hot spot in such a way as to look like a colorful flow of lava.  Most of it, however, was just brown, creating interesting designs.

We hiked the short distance up to the falls in the freezing cold.  Yes, we mean freezing.  Hail started falling as we scrambled back into our car and headed out.

The wildlife made an appearance for us.  We saw elk and bison along the Yellowstone drive.

As we headed out of Yellowstone, we had another mountain road to cross.  We discovered that the same rain that had sent us into our little cabin the night before had also dropped snow on the mountain tops--snow we had to drive through!

Once we were out of the treacherous road and lower in altitude, the stunning beauty of the Wyoming countryside greeted us.

Once again we were trying to get as far as possible before stopping for the night.  We ended up in Worland, WY, for the night.