July 25, 2025
Our last full day at Yellowstone and it’s been an action packed day – starting with the traditional coffee and oatmeal at the site. There was some uncertainty about whether Leah would be able to join us. We knew that Emily had to work. But we sent Aaron up to check on Leah and she was not feeling well. So she stayed home and the three of us went to Hayden Valley again.
Such a pretty destination that we discovered yesterday. We drove along the road and found a lovely little spot from which Aaron found a hill that got us a little bit away from where a lot of people were congregating. A really peaceful vantage spot.
From that point we went and found picnic areas for a peanut butter jelly sandwich lunch, after which we headed to some geo-thermal place I believe was called the mud volcano. There were multiple mud pots and sulfur holes and it was very smelly. We did a half mile walk around to see those. And then we headed back to the campground where we gathered Leah and did laundry, and started to reckon with packing some things to ship back to Georgia. That involved me begging cardboard off about 5 different people in Canyon Lodge.
Everyone but Tina has T-Mobile cell service which absolutely does not work at Yellowstone. Tina was feeling pretty special because her Verizon service did work. So she could WhatsApp the girls who had wifi at their dorm. It was all rather unpredictable the communication all summer with these two here.
But we were able to coordinate with Emily to the extent that she was going to come after work and sure enough round about five o’clock – She walked up to the campsite.
We had a gourmet dinner of bean burritos and rice with vegetables, did the dishes and then piled into the car for Lamar Valley. This being a memorable place from the first time that we’ve come to this park. The drive there brought us right beside Mount Washburn – impressive achievement these 3 did hiking that mountain.
Nice to experience Lamar Valley at dusk. Aaron has mentally left the park already – thinking about what’s in store for him in Arizona perhaps. But the 3 kids end up star-gazing til all hours of the night while their geriatric parents sleep soundly.
