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So day 2 we wanted to go back to the Old Faithful Inn and tour around a bit more and actually see Old Faithful (we just missed it after our Twilight Fire on the Hole tour and everyone was too tired to wait another hour or more). But first stop... to our camp store to buy bear spray for $49. Yes, this is a real thing and yes, we spent the money on this. Holy moly. There are signs about it everywhere. So it's either Wyoming's version of a snipe hunt with tourists, or it's a thing. (if you don't know what a snipe hunt is, I'll take you sometime....) And I have never hoped and prayed to not use something I spent $49 on in my life.
Now armed with our bear spray, we headed back into Yellowstone for another day of exploring! Old Faithful drew a big crowd! We got stuck in a bison jam for about 45 minutes and were worried we were going to miss the one we were planning for and have to wait another 1.5 hours. But we made it! For those wondering what a bison jam is... it's bison crossing the road and/or the backlog of cars that are stopping everyone else because there are bison near the road and they are taking pictures. We were likely one of those day one... but by day two, we were literally like, "it's only bison people, they are everywhere!!" That was SOOOOO yesterday.. :) These are words actually said by our children. To which we all laughed at how quickly we are jaded after seeing so many bison!
Old Faithful goes off every 45 minutes to hour and a half. They have a predictor in the Old Faithful Inn and it's typically within 10 minutes of when Old Faithful goes. Pretty cool! Jake's favorite thing about Yellowstone was Old Faithful. We laughed because at one point later in the day he did say, "I'm pretty geyser-ed out, let's not stop at any more today." So I was glad that even though he was 'geyser-ed out', Old Faithful was still his favorite thing to see in Yellowstone!
Since we came through the eastern, central, and western part of Yellowstone on day one, we decided to make the south loop for day two. This took us through the western side of Yellowstone Lake but first in a good area to do a little hiking. For those that know Jake, you know he can be a bit intimidated in new territory. He was SO NERVOUS on our entire hike up to the overlook over Yellowstone Lake because of the bear warning signs. I will fully admit, I was a bit nervous too and we all had our head on a swivel AND the bear spray out and ready! Thankfully we didn't have to use it. Jake said no shy of 70 times, "we should probably head back now!" It's funny now, but at the time Jeremy and I were about to throw him to a bear..... We did see a mother elk hiding in some trees with her baby. We did not go close (I was texted by a few people about the woman attacked by the elk a day before....) but were able to see two of the mothers hiding in the brush.
Elk on our hike and view from the outlook of the lake and mountains.
More of the hot springs, an elk by the hot spring area and the boys relaxing by the lake after a hike around the hot springs.
After we finished that up, we headed up to the Canyon Village area and went to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It is really something to see. The boys were a little over it on touring for the day at this point but both were in awe of the water fall and huge canyon. (with promises of pool time back at the campground.... this mother is not above bribery....)
On our way out of the park back to our campsite there were a number of cars pulled off to the side looking at something. It was a bear!! The bear was running through a little wooded area right off of the road. We all caught a glimpse of him except for Bryce.... This was his sad, 'I didn't get to see a bear' face. LOL!
We finished up another successful day at Yellowstone and then relaxed at the campground that evening with a swim in the indoor pool (thank goodness, it was chilly!!) and then a fire. So far so good on us all being in close quarters.... a few squabbles between the boys but that's about it. And the only tears we have had were subsided relatively quickly once we got Jeremy a beer.... ;)