Mobile Cocoon, Destination: Yellowstone

Little Man enjoyed his first trip to Jellystone this weekend– our cocoon is mobile, you recall.

Don’t be too impressed, it’s literally in our backyard– a scenic one hour drive around the mountain perimeter of the park, or twenty minutes as a crow flies.

Since it’s the same expense as visiting just two times, our family elects to purchase a year-round pass, annually. We pack a pic-in-ic basket and our hiking boots, and zip down about once a month. It’s never the same, and it never gets old.

Yellowstone is one of my favorite places on earth, a geothermal wonderland. There’s something about knowing that you’re standing on an active super-volcano, with liquids and gasses pulsating from the depths of the earth, that just makes you marvel in awe of God’s spectacular creation.

When we took our girls to Hawaii in 2009,  selecting which island to visit was a no-brainer… an actively erupting volcano? Um, yes please. The Big Island was the obvious choice, there’s just something amazing about molten magma. Other destinations at the top of my list yet to visit are equally geothermally active New Zealand and Iceland.

handsome hubs, sweet baby girls & molten magma; big island, c. 2009

I admit I geek out over the geysers and hot springs– the plentiful wildlife’s just a bonus. While we like to visit the park year-round, spring is an especially exiting time to visit, as many of the critters are birthing their young. Little Man shrieked with delight at the sight of each of the colossal “puppies” he spied from his carseat. We spotted droves of elk, bison, moutain goats, pronghorn antelope, and big-horned sheep during yesterday’s expedition.

 

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just one of the hundreds of “big puppies” right outside Little Man’s window
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any way you slice it, it’s a long day in the car as you drive to different points in the park

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hot springs form natural terraces and pools as they erode the rocky landscape with grating persistence

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